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fieldofhats's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book is both grand and personal with its scale, and both goals are achieved. We get the origin of the Didact, the history of the Flood, the building of the Halo rings, and the sweeping political journeys of the various species of the galaxy, specifically the humans, forerunners, and San’Shyuum. But we also witness these events from a young forerunner who’s learning to come into his own and discover himself. These two goals complement each other relatively well, although there is much more of an emphasis on the grand, world-building side of things, especially toward the end. But the fact that this is only the first in a trilogy allows for room for growth in both areas.
This is a coming-of-age story in which our main character learns to overcome his biases and pretension in order to aid in a journey greater than him. The Forerunner culture is extremely elitist, and Bornstellar grew up thinking he was better than every other species. After befriending a couple of humans, his attitude throughout the book changes. He becomes wiser, and less arrogant.
This is also mirrored in the Didact’s character. Because he’s in exile and completely cut off from the power he used to have, he must work with Bornstellar and the humans to fulfill his journey. He has to overcome a lifetime of superior feelings in order to achieve his goals.This becomes especially important when the original Didact dies and his essence lives on within Bornstellar; their journeys became one, and the lessons they learned combined.
Bear does a really fine job at making the forerunners feel godlike as well as sentient. There’s an amazing quote about slipspace travel where he writes, “The secrets that lay between the streaking particles and waves that make up atoms are said to be vast. From those inner secrets, Forerunners have prodded sufficient power to change the shape of worlds, move stars, and even to contemplate shifting the axes of entire galaxies. We have explored other realities, other spaces … but the vastness between suns is great, and mysterious in a very different way. Our familiarities with these distances has, I think, almost been lost because we cross them so blithely …. We fly over and above, but just barely through all of that.” Here is just a glimpse at the wonder of the forerunners, not even to mention the Halo rings or Shield Worlds.
There are some things I’m confused about, though. What exactly is mutation? Can a forerunner go through a mutation without anyone sharing their essence with them? And why is a forerunner called a “first-form” after their first mutation? Wouldn’t their first form be their form before their first mutation?
Secondly, why are they called forerunners in this book? That was very clearly a name given to them by the Covenant because they were a species who lived and died long before modern times. Bear gives a half-hearted explanation for it, but it doesn’t work; he says that the forerunners anticipated that more species would come after them, so they called themselves forerunners. That’s stupid. How hard would it have been to give them an alien name and preface that in the historian’s note at the beginning? It seems like a 343 decision, though, so I don’t hold it against Bear. But still, it makes no sense.
This is a coming-of-age story in which our main character learns to overcome his biases and pretension in order to aid in a journey greater than him. The Forerunner culture is extremely elitist, and Bornstellar grew up thinking he was better than every other species. After befriending a couple of humans, his attitude throughout the book changes. He becomes wiser, and less arrogant.
This is also mirrored in the Didact’s character. Because he’s in exile and completely cut off from the power he used to have, he must work with Bornstellar and the humans to fulfill his journey. He has to overcome a lifetime of superior feelings in order to achieve his goals.
Bear does a really fine job at making the forerunners feel godlike as well as sentient. There’s an amazing quote about slipspace travel where he writes, “The secrets that lay between the streaking particles and waves that make up atoms are said to be vast. From those inner secrets, Forerunners have prodded sufficient power to change the shape of worlds, move stars, and even to contemplate shifting the axes of entire galaxies. We have explored other realities, other spaces … but the vastness between suns is great, and mysterious in a very different way. Our familiarities with these distances has, I think, almost been lost because we cross them so blithely …. We fly over and above, but just barely through all of that.” Here is just a glimpse at the wonder of the forerunners, not even to mention the Halo rings or Shield Worlds.
There are some things I’m confused about, though. What exactly is mutation? Can a forerunner go through a mutation without anyone sharing their essence with them? And why is a forerunner called a “first-form” after their first mutation? Wouldn’t their first form be their form before their first mutation?
Secondly, why are they called forerunners in this book? That was very clearly a name given to them by the Covenant because they were a species who lived and died long before modern times. Bear gives a half-hearted explanation for it, but it doesn’t work; he says that the forerunners anticipated that more species would come after them, so they called themselves forerunners. That’s stupid. How hard would it have been to give them an alien name and preface that in the historian’s note at the beginning? It seems like a 343 decision, though, so I don’t hold it against Bear. But still, it makes no sense.
Overall, it was a solid sci-fi novel and a very good Halo story! I’m interested to see where the rest of the trilogy goes, but this was a fine start.
whdesigns's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
haydol18's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
reverievagabond's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
joehart's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.0
Greg Bear did not need to make this as interesting as this actually is, but I really liked it.
coopercodes's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
The writing is very competent, but the story is just shit.
If I wasn’t reading the whole series I probably wouldn’t have finished it, but it’s a bit depressing I’ve got to read two more of his precursor novels
If I wasn’t reading the whole series I probably wouldn’t have finished it, but it’s a bit depressing I’ve got to read two more of his precursor novels
theshaggyshepherd's review against another edition
3.0
I picked this one up to meet a prompt for a bingo readathon (based on a video game). I’ve been leaning towards more sci-fi lately so I thought this would be fun to try out. Sadly, while having some intriguing parts to the story, overall it didn’t quite work for me. If you are a fan of the games though, this could potentially work much better for you. I myself am not a gamer so I didn’t have that investment beforehand. I do have to say though that I did enjoy the narrator.
panger97's review against another edition
3.0
As a fan of the games already, I thought it was enjoyable. Not amazing by any means but still had some interesting bits. The book is part of I guess what started the new Halo lore, helping contribute to a new perspective on the Forerunners, as the main character himself is one. It is a bit dry at times, and definitely you can tell its the first book in what's to be a trilog. I did find myself missing the overall plot in some parts as a lot was quite expository.
f41c0n1337's review
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
As a Halo fan, particularly of Halo 4, I was excited to dive into the Forerunner lore. However, I found the prose dry, slow, and generally unengaging. While it’s arguable more of a soft sci-fi narrative with a hard sci-fi shell, I suspect if you are into more technical approaches to storytelling you might find more enjoyment in it.
jmoses's review against another edition
5.0
An excellent book by Bear. Fantastic look at the Forerunner story.