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4.49 AVERAGE
4.49 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The final conclusion of the series did not leave us hanging, it was a nail-biter till the end. Really enjoyed the series, now I am depressed that it's ended.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The book was… interesting. I had a sneaking suspicion that the reason the “killers” of the “ancient ones” had been depicted so vaguely in the series was because the Corey team just didn’t know how to tell that story in an interesting way. For all of the technobabble that fills the pages of previous books (some of which I found very satisfying), it felt like they just couldn’t come up with a way to outline who or what they were.
Though Elvi spends most of the book doing research, the ending came down to what felt like a cliche for the series. Holden saves the day, benevolently sacrificing himself to save humanity (I hate saying this but when he died I remembered having the thought… ‘Jesus, finally’). In a strange way, the characters that began this series as the most interesting ones became the least interesting for me. Naomi’s rise to head of the underground is never fully realized, Holden — who stopped growing as a character after book 4 or so — spends the book worrying, Proto-Amos continues his bemused but stoic protector of the orphans thing now having lost all of his complexity as a character, and Alex devolves into the most insecure person in the universe. Meanwhile everyone but Amos spends the book meditating on ageing without having anything to say about it. In terms of newer characters I liked Teresa & Elvi most but feel they were under explored for the sake of giving the Tanaka — easily my least favorite character, and not in the fun way — more time to run around like a sociopath that they couldn’t be bothered to make three dimensional. It seemed like she only existed to give the antagonists an Amos or Bobby to play with.
Really the big critique I have of the book, and the series at large is that it started off feeling very grounded in people who felt like people. Eventually that just gives way to caricatures of people who spend more time being metaphors than actual characters. There are great set pieces and fun moments, but I found myself frustrated with the choices made by the author because it felt like it — at the end of the day — he didn’t really have anything to say. Another reviewer noted that they were afraid to take risks and I think that captures it well. It’s a little disappointing.
I do bear some responsibility for this disappointment though. I expected them to integrate the bigger science fiction mystery into the plot. To use a weird metaphor, the larger alien conflict is reduced to a struggle between the people who build submarines and the deep ocean. Occasionally, in the story you’d find yourself in a ship somewhere and then like a boat springing a pressure leak, the characters would be beset upon by tendrils and suddenly find themselves drowning in matter or sensation. Ask me before reading the book and I would’ve said that the big reveal would be that what had been characterized as “dark gods” would turn out to be a banal but overwhelming force of nature like water flowing downhill, carving out canyons in the earth. That something about how the “maker(s)” created their pocket dimension was the equivalent of building a dam up a river. That some part of the protomolecule’s functioning was drawing from a poorly understood reservoir that was bound to burst. In the end we get less than even that much outlining. At some point the bullet analogy from Miller becomes the basis upon which the entire plot turns into a doomed conflict. I remember the point at which a Laconian asserts that the thing that ended the makers was an enemy they were at war with and I rolled my eyes… until no one in the universe (including the scientists) questions that characterization and the whole plot centers on it. If the point was to write about how humans will gleefully find any reason to stay at war — even if it means being at war with a rushing river — then well played, but even then it was the least interesting possible outcome in my opinion.
Sometimes in a book or game or movie you hear the characters refer to something cool that happens “off-screen” in the past tense and you as the viewer/reader/player thinks… “hey! I would love to actually see that go down.” That basically sums up this book and this third arc for me. Would have loved to see the complexity of Laconian society play a role instead of once again filling in as the Evil Empire™. Their violence just felt arbitrary and juvenile, which undermined the more interesting paternalistic and deceptively benevolent post-Martian obedience that the earlier books explored. There’s nothing interesting about enemies too powerful to lose dominating the universe (looking at you ‘dark gods’), it just left me waiting for the loophole that saved everyone. Would have loved to see what the hell happened to Duarte between murdering Dr Frankenstein and fusing with the Ring Station. Would’ve loved to see wtf happened to Philip, Kit, Houston (senior), or any of a handful of other minor characters that seemed to vanish into thin air or never amount to much plot-wise after getting sidelined — despite them seemingly being important to the core cast. Would have loved to learn what actually happened in the time before. Would have loved to see more of Naomi in leadership. Etc etc.
That said, if what I’m left with is wanting more it means that at some level the book delivered on creating a compelling set of circumstances. Do I feel satisfied either way about how it all turned out? Eh. Sure, I’ll live. For all the repetition and ways that the authors didn’t seem to respect your intelligence as a reader, the worst thing you can say about the series is that it’s predictable/cliche and occasionally boring writing that somehow fails to commit to its best ideas. All in all I’m glad a finished the series and it felt nice to be so deep in a universe that moments like the return of a character like Miller felt like meeting an old friend.
Though Elvi spends most of the book doing research, the ending came down to what felt like a cliche for the series. Holden saves the day, benevolently sacrificing himself to save humanity (I hate saying this but when he died I remembered having the thought… ‘Jesus, finally’). In a strange way, the characters that began this series as the most interesting ones became the least interesting for me. Naomi’s rise to head of the underground is never fully realized, Holden — who stopped growing as a character after book 4 or so — spends the book worrying, Proto-Amos continues his bemused but stoic protector of the orphans thing now having lost all of his complexity as a character, and Alex devolves into the most insecure person in the universe. Meanwhile everyone but Amos spends the book meditating on ageing without having anything to say about it. In terms of newer characters I liked Teresa & Elvi most but feel they were under explored for the sake of giving the Tanaka — easily my least favorite character, and not in the fun way — more time to run around like a sociopath that they couldn’t be bothered to make three dimensional. It seemed like she only existed to give the antagonists an Amos or Bobby to play with.
Really the big critique I have of the book, and the series at large is that it started off feeling very grounded in people who felt like people. Eventually that just gives way to caricatures of people who spend more time being metaphors than actual characters. There are great set pieces and fun moments, but I found myself frustrated with the choices made by the author because it felt like it — at the end of the day — he didn’t really have anything to say. Another reviewer noted that they were afraid to take risks and I think that captures it well. It’s a little disappointing.
I do bear some responsibility for this disappointment though. I expected them to integrate the bigger science fiction mystery into the plot. To use a weird metaphor, the larger alien conflict is reduced to a struggle between the people who build submarines and the deep ocean. Occasionally, in the story you’d find yourself in a ship somewhere and then like a boat springing a pressure leak, the characters would be beset upon by tendrils and suddenly find themselves drowning in matter or sensation. Ask me before reading the book and I would’ve said that the big reveal would be that what had been characterized as “dark gods” would turn out to be a banal but overwhelming force of nature like water flowing downhill, carving out canyons in the earth. That something about how the “maker(s)” created their pocket dimension was the equivalent of building a dam up a river. That some part of the protomolecule’s functioning was drawing from a poorly understood reservoir that was bound to burst. In the end we get less than even that much outlining. At some point the bullet analogy from Miller becomes the basis upon which the entire plot turns into a doomed conflict. I remember the point at which a Laconian asserts that the thing that ended the makers was an enemy they were at war with and I rolled my eyes… until no one in the universe (including the scientists) questions that characterization and the whole plot centers on it. If the point was to write about how humans will gleefully find any reason to stay at war — even if it means being at war with a rushing river — then well played, but even then it was the least interesting possible outcome in my opinion.
Sometimes in a book or game or movie you hear the characters refer to something cool that happens “off-screen” in the past tense and you as the viewer/reader/player thinks… “hey! I would love to actually see that go down.” That basically sums up this book and this third arc for me. Would have loved to see the complexity of Laconian society play a role instead of once again filling in as the Evil Empire™. Their violence just felt arbitrary and juvenile, which undermined the more interesting paternalistic and deceptively benevolent post-Martian obedience that the earlier books explored. There’s nothing interesting about enemies too powerful to lose dominating the universe (looking at you ‘dark gods’), it just left me waiting for the loophole that saved everyone. Would have loved to see what the hell happened to Duarte between murdering Dr Frankenstein and fusing with the Ring Station. Would’ve loved to see wtf happened to Philip, Kit, Houston (senior), or any of a handful of other minor characters that seemed to vanish into thin air or never amount to much plot-wise after getting sidelined — despite them seemingly being important to the core cast. Would have loved to learn what actually happened in the time before. Would have loved to see more of Naomi in leadership. Etc etc.
That said, if what I’m left with is wanting more it means that at some level the book delivered on creating a compelling set of circumstances. Do I feel satisfied either way about how it all turned out? Eh. Sure, I’ll live. For all the repetition and ways that the authors didn’t seem to respect your intelligence as a reader, the worst thing you can say about the series is that it’s predictable/cliche and occasionally boring writing that somehow fails to commit to its best ideas. All in all I’m glad a finished the series and it felt nice to be so deep in a universe that moments like the return of a character like Miller felt like meeting an old friend.
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I will come back to this once I've had some time to process what the fuck just happened...
I found this book to be a fairly mixed bag, with some really fantastic bits and some parts (mostly involving either a lot of pointless violence or navel-gazing) that left me cold. Averaging out to 3.5 stars. I did very much like the ending, for itself and in the context of the series as a whole.