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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Audiobook.
Cool concept, but it hasn't aged very well. A lot of the sci-fi science rings very nonsensical, and the subplot of a science-denying evangelical president may ring vaguely true, but the response of everyone else is a bit dodgy. The rogue military operation headed up by a congressman transporting a nuke in the back of his limo is particularly incredulous.
Still, I enjoyed it for what it was.
Cool concept, but it hasn't aged very well. A lot of the sci-fi science rings very nonsensical, and the subplot of a science-denying evangelical president may ring vaguely true, but the response of everyone else is a bit dodgy. The rogue military operation headed up by a congressman transporting a nuke in the back of his limo is particularly incredulous.
Still, I enjoyed it for what it was.
Holy cow was this book boring. There were some genuinely good ideas here, but the execution! I did not care at all about any of the characters. Mid and late book I started even just scanning the paragraphs for relevant info to the overall story.
There is WAAAAY too much of both men and women "sobbing, crying, wailing" etc. Everyone seems to need to cry all the time. It was ridiculous.
No real payoff either.
*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*
You never do figure out just WHO the "planet-killer" aliens are, what their motivations are, or why they feel the need to distract everyone. There is literally NOTHING that any of the characters could have done to prevent the earth from being wiped out, so why all the subterfuge? It was pointless. Why have the "guest" alien tell the humans that he believes in punishment... if you were NEVER GOING TO CONTINUE THAT THREAD!?
Man, I tell ya. It was a slog to get through this one. I rate it 2 stars instead of 1 because like I said, there WERE some clever ideas here, but overall it was boring and I wished multiple times that I was reading something else.
There is WAAAAY too much of both men and women "sobbing, crying, wailing" etc. Everyone seems to need to cry all the time. It was ridiculous.
No real payoff either.
*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*
You never do figure out just WHO the "planet-killer" aliens are, what their motivations are, or why they feel the need to distract everyone. There is literally NOTHING that any of the characters could have done to prevent the earth from being wiped out, so why all the subterfuge? It was pointless. Why have the "guest" alien tell the humans that he believes in punishment... if you were NEVER GOING TO CONTINUE THAT THREAD!?
Man, I tell ya. It was a slog to get through this one. I rate it 2 stars instead of 1 because like I said, there WERE some clever ideas here, but overall it was boring and I wished multiple times that I was reading something else.
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Rating may change, I just finished the book and here's my thoughts.
I didn't expect the story to go where it did. And what I didn't expect is how it's very human-centered and tragic, at times. Apart from a heavy plot about first contact and apocalypse, at the heart of this book, I think, is humanity's reaction towards it and the emotions involved.
I didn't expect the story to go where it did. And what I didn't expect is how it's very human-centered and tragic, at times. Apart from a heavy plot about first contact and apocalypse, at the heart of this book, I think, is humanity's reaction towards it and the emotions involved.
Hated or bored by all main characters, bored by how story was told, disliked vague sense of misogyny/racism (nothing malicious, it just felt like every character, even the women or young men, were middle aged white men and all of the actual middle aged white men were described in a way that somehow made me really uncomfortable.)
If you want to read this book, read the first 3/4s of Seveneves (for the apocalypse) instead. Or if you dig lots of talking and really slow strange alien stuff, read An Absolutely Remarkable Thing instead. Those are both written by middle aged-ish white men, but so much more inclusive in their cast and imagination of who people are.
If you want to read this book, read the first 3/4s of Seveneves (for the apocalypse) instead. Or if you dig lots of talking and really slow strange alien stuff, read An Absolutely Remarkable Thing instead. Those are both written by middle aged-ish white men, but so much more inclusive in their cast and imagination of who people are.
I had this book sitting on my tablet for ages...and, for some reason, never got around to starting it. Once I started it yesterday, I could barely put it down. An engrossing story with pacing similar to a Michael Crichton novel (seemed to be relatively short chapters that kept the action moving).
Given how this ended, it'll be interesting to see where the sequel takes things.
Given how this ended, it'll be interesting to see where the sequel takes things.
If all hard sci fi was like this book, I'd read more hard sci fi. It gave a great "what if" scenario and then used science to answer the questions posed. What if aliens seemed intent on destroying the Earth? The result is so realistic in the details that it created a sense of dread, as if the events were really happening.
The book was published in 1987, and has an old-school sci fi feel - the protagonists are mostly scientists or former scientists, reminiscent of Asimov. It also shows how little power scientists have - they may be able to uncover the truth, but they can't always get people to listen.
There were some aspects of the aliens that were never fully explained, which was a bit frustrating. But I suppose that's realistic, too - if aliens came to destroy the Earth, they wouldn't bother to explain themselves to us.
I'm glad I read this in between global catastrophes (finished just before the 2020 pandemic hit home). This story left me unsettled when things were going relatively well, although it did inadvertently bring home the message of global warming. It captured how difficult a global event is to accept. Because you look around and everything seems fine...until it isn't.
The book was published in 1987, and has an old-school sci fi feel - the protagonists are mostly scientists or former scientists, reminiscent of Asimov. It also shows how little power scientists have - they may be able to uncover the truth, but they can't always get people to listen.
There were some aspects of the aliens that were never fully explained, which was a bit frustrating. But I suppose that's realistic, too - if aliens came to destroy the Earth, they wouldn't bother to explain themselves to us.
I'm glad I read this in between global catastrophes (finished just before the 2020 pandemic hit home). This story left me unsettled when things were going relatively well, although it did inadvertently bring home the message of global warming. It captured how difficult a global event is to accept. Because you look around and everything seems fine...until it isn't.
In the middle of the Australian desert, a mountain has appeared where there was no mountain before. Silvery robotic aliens emerge, promising to usher humanity into a new era of technological development, of peace and prosperity. Meanwhile, in Death Valley in California, a similar mountain has appeared – but emerging from this one (and quickly kept under wraps by the US government) is a frail, dying, biological alien, which informs its captives in perfect English that “there is bad news.”
The first third of The Forge of God is probably the most gripping sci-fi mystery I’ve read since Christopher Priest’s Inverted World. The government’s interrogation of the Death Valley alien, termed “the Guest,” is wonderfully ominous and provides tantalising glimpses at what is to come; the alien’s own limitations in the English language are both believable and serve to obscure precisely what it is that’s about to happen to the Earth. Without giving too much away, the Guest is an effectively powerless agent which is merely here to warn us, setting the scene for some kind of alien invasion or destruction.
The title is more than just a metaphor; religion plays a significant part in The Forge of God. The fictional US President, Crockerman, is a devout Christian who is visibly shaken by what the Guest has to say, and interprets it theologically. He eventually comes to believe that he has encountered an angel proclaiming Judgement Day, and that all that is left for the people of Earth to do is pray. Other sci-fi writers might have made Crockerman a scornful caricature, but Bear presents him reasonably and realistically – he is neither stupid nor crazy, and faced with the information he has, and the genuine faith he has, I found his reaction to be eminently believable. (Bear himself is apparently a deist, which goes some way to explaining this.)
It’s a shame, therefore, that Crockerman’s action or lack thereof ultimately has little value, along with most of the rest of the characters in the book. The second two thirds fail to capture the cracking pace of the first, and towards the end the book begins to drag as the characters are faced with their apparent inevitable doom.
This is largely a problem of character. A hard sci-fi writer like Bear is fantastic at coming up with intriguing concepts and putting them inside an enjoyable pot-boiler – the kind of book you can happily burn through on an airplane or beach holiday – but not so great at the slower, more introspective stuff demanded of somebody who has chosen to write about humans living out their last days. He has, for example, that annoying belief common in many sci-fi and thriller writers that characterisation involves giving a physical description of somebody. Every time a character is introduced, no matter how irrelevant, you can bet Bear’s going to tell us how old they are, what colour their hair is and what they’re wearing. The entire first page is actually a rundown of the main character’s physical description. And, typical of writers who do this, all his characters are cardboard cut-outs; mostly white, middle-aged scientists or political advisors with names like Arthur or Edward or Harry. I wish Bear had stuck to his strengths, ignored all the attempted end-of-days sadness, and kept us on the roller-coaster ride the first third of the book is.
One more minor complaint: given that the only scene in the book set outside the US takes place in Australia (and a fairly important scene at that), it wouldn’t have killed Bear to do some light research. I realise Google didn’t exist in the 1980s, but a cursory glance at an encyclopaedia could have told him that Melbourne is not the capital, the Australian Army does not use the “royal” prefix, there are in fact real TV networks and scientific organisations you can use rather than made-up ones, etc. It’s a small thing, and one that non-Australian readers wouldn’t notice, but it annoyed me a lot given that Bear is obviously not averse to a bit of factual reading.
Overall, the The Forge of God begins extremely well – reminiscent of Michael Crichton at his best – but unfortunately loses paces halfway through and ends in mediocrity. It’s nevertheless worth reading for hard sci-fi fans for the first third alone, and despite being less interesting towards the end, it’s still a quick and easy read. There is a sequel, Anvil of the Stars, which I may check out.
The first third of The Forge of God is probably the most gripping sci-fi mystery I’ve read since Christopher Priest’s Inverted World. The government’s interrogation of the Death Valley alien, termed “the Guest,” is wonderfully ominous and provides tantalising glimpses at what is to come; the alien’s own limitations in the English language are both believable and serve to obscure precisely what it is that’s about to happen to the Earth. Without giving too much away, the Guest is an effectively powerless agent which is merely here to warn us, setting the scene for some kind of alien invasion or destruction.
The title is more than just a metaphor; religion plays a significant part in The Forge of God. The fictional US President, Crockerman, is a devout Christian who is visibly shaken by what the Guest has to say, and interprets it theologically. He eventually comes to believe that he has encountered an angel proclaiming Judgement Day, and that all that is left for the people of Earth to do is pray. Other sci-fi writers might have made Crockerman a scornful caricature, but Bear presents him reasonably and realistically – he is neither stupid nor crazy, and faced with the information he has, and the genuine faith he has, I found his reaction to be eminently believable. (Bear himself is apparently a deist, which goes some way to explaining this.)
It’s a shame, therefore, that Crockerman’s action or lack thereof ultimately has little value, along with most of the rest of the characters in the book. The second two thirds fail to capture the cracking pace of the first, and towards the end the book begins to drag as the characters are faced with their apparent inevitable doom.
This is largely a problem of character. A hard sci-fi writer like Bear is fantastic at coming up with intriguing concepts and putting them inside an enjoyable pot-boiler – the kind of book you can happily burn through on an airplane or beach holiday – but not so great at the slower, more introspective stuff demanded of somebody who has chosen to write about humans living out their last days. He has, for example, that annoying belief common in many sci-fi and thriller writers that characterisation involves giving a physical description of somebody. Every time a character is introduced, no matter how irrelevant, you can bet Bear’s going to tell us how old they are, what colour their hair is and what they’re wearing. The entire first page is actually a rundown of the main character’s physical description. And, typical of writers who do this, all his characters are cardboard cut-outs; mostly white, middle-aged scientists or political advisors with names like Arthur or Edward or Harry. I wish Bear had stuck to his strengths, ignored all the attempted end-of-days sadness, and kept us on the roller-coaster ride the first third of the book is.
One more minor complaint: given that the only scene in the book set outside the US takes place in Australia (and a fairly important scene at that), it wouldn’t have killed Bear to do some light research. I realise Google didn’t exist in the 1980s, but a cursory glance at an encyclopaedia could have told him that Melbourne is not the capital, the Australian Army does not use the “royal” prefix, there are in fact real TV networks and scientific organisations you can use rather than made-up ones, etc. It’s a small thing, and one that non-Australian readers wouldn’t notice, but it annoyed me a lot given that Bear is obviously not averse to a bit of factual reading.
Overall, the The Forge of God begins extremely well – reminiscent of Michael Crichton at his best – but unfortunately loses paces halfway through and ends in mediocrity. It’s nevertheless worth reading for hard sci-fi fans for the first third alone, and despite being less interesting towards the end, it’s still a quick and easy read. There is a sequel, Anvil of the Stars, which I may check out.
If you've been reading my reviews for any real length of time, you know I love me a good first contact story. The Forge of God is an older one by modern standards, and is a different take on things for sure. When a few unknown crafts crash land onto the planet, humanity scrambles to figure out what's next, only to realize that the aliens have come to effectively destroy the planet. The story quickly becomes the race to try and understand as well as stop it, as well as the machinations along the way from the political and social standpoints.
This book felt like it took forever to get rolling, which was a problem for me. By the time it got there, it was a pretty solid read although many of the characters felt pretty wooden. It's a pretty dispassionate look at a situation, especially toward the end, which is a decidedly different take than, say, the Peter F Hamiltons or the James SA Coreys that are up front and center now.
Overall, though, I'm not upset I read this, and I have the sequel on my shelf and I'll read that sooner rather than later, but it's definitely imperfect. Closer to a 3.5.
This book felt like it took forever to get rolling, which was a problem for me. By the time it got there, it was a pretty solid read although many of the characters felt pretty wooden. It's a pretty dispassionate look at a situation, especially toward the end, which is a decidedly different take than, say, the Peter F Hamiltons or the James SA Coreys that are up front and center now.
Overall, though, I'm not upset I read this, and I have the sequel on my shelf and I'll read that sooner rather than later, but it's definitely imperfect. Closer to a 3.5.
This has one of the best opening scenes in all of science fiction: an object falls from outer space. The people go to investigate. Something pops up out of the desert and announces: "Bad news."
The rest of the book explains about this bad news and how it plays out. Great end of the world tale.
The rest of the book explains about this bad news and how it plays out. Great end of the world tale.
Ty pushed back his sandy brown hair and adjusted his glasses as he stared at the Goodreads review box, his six-foot frame hunched over the laptop in front of him. He had already decided that the book had been overly reliant on exposition, and he wished that it had answered the dozens of questions it had posed rather than focusing almost entirely on the misery of humanity, but how could he possibly put that into words for this review? He did admire the grandiose thought experiment that the book entailed though, even if it was a major bummer.