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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
I fear I am simply not the intended audience for this book. While I recognize the author's intelligence, curiosity, and impressive research, I found it oddly slow moving and emotionally distanced. Perhaps if I had more of a scientific mind I would have been more engaged. I do recommend it for sci-fi fans, and particularly those interested in Fermi's Paradox - the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations - for which this novel offers a possibly solution.
Some interesting ideas in this book, but more threads left hanging than anything. Not particularly well-written - awkward, unbelievable dialogue, ham-handed attempts to create characters, uninteresting and unsympathetic characters ... Just not very well done.
The concepts that we are introduced to at the beginning are never developed. We never learn why the planet-eaters pick earth to destroy when there are lots of unoccupied planets around, why they create beings that interact with humans and then just drop the interaction or why they oppose humans being saved. There's a lot of talk about a war between the planet-eaters and the aliens that are trying to save humanity, but it all takes place out of sight of the story. Instead, we spend lots of time listening to hand-wringing about how the President's not going to do anything, and listening to Bear display his knowledge of Yosemite by name-checking ever feature of the park. A waste of time.
Bear would have been better off having his characters at least try to fight the invaders or find ways to resist them instead of blithely going about their visit. Instead, we follow a bunch of uninteresting characters around for almost 500 pages, doing very little. Badly written, poorly plotted with weak characters, this is a bad book.
I just noticed after I read this review that the book was nominated for several major scifi awards. All I can say is that it must have been a bad year.
The concepts that we are introduced to at the beginning are never developed. We never learn why the planet-eaters pick earth to destroy when there are lots of unoccupied planets around, why they create beings that interact with humans and then just drop the interaction or why they oppose humans being saved. There's a lot of talk about a war between the planet-eaters and the aliens that are trying to save humanity, but it all takes place out of sight of the story. Instead, we spend lots of time listening to hand-wringing about how the President's not going to do anything, and listening to Bear display his knowledge of Yosemite by name-checking ever feature of the park. A waste of time.
Bear would have been better off having his characters at least try to fight the invaders or find ways to resist them instead of blithely going about their visit. Instead, we follow a bunch of uninteresting characters around for almost 500 pages, doing very little. Badly written, poorly plotted with weak characters, this is a bad book.
I just noticed after I read this review that the book was nominated for several major scifi awards. All I can say is that it must have been a bad year.
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This didn't age very well for me. I'd forgotten that the exciting bits make up only a very small percentage, and almost entirely at the end. Character and politics are not the book's strength, but they make up the bulk of it.
More about people's helpless reactions to world-threatening events than about understanding or doing anything.
More about people's helpless reactions to world-threatening events than about understanding or doing anything.
A bit less than 3 stars, a bit more than 2.
I really struggled with the first half. It felt really bitty and choppy. I just found it hard to get into. Combine that with a complete disinterest in aliens and spaceships and really, why did I ever start this book?
It feels quite dated, technology wise, but it was written in the 1980s, so I cannot really blame it for that. I mean, same goes for Back To The Future and I bloody love those movies! I just thought I would make that note. :)
About half way, stuff started happening that was a bit more interesting and I suddenly found myself actually wanting to know what would happen. That was a nice surprise! Low and behold, the feeling did not last and it started dragging again. At the end it picked up again as ends must and when I finally closed the book I was reasonably satisfied.
CONCLUSION:
This is a decent book in a genre that does not quite agree with me. The plot is interesting enough and there were a couple of characters in this book I did feel invested in, especially Arthur Golden and his family, but overall this book dragged on too much, especially in the first half.
I really struggled with the first half. It felt really bitty and choppy. I just found it hard to get into. Combine that with a complete disinterest in aliens and spaceships and really, why did I ever start this book?
It feels quite dated, technology wise, but it was written in the 1980s, so I cannot really blame it for that. I mean, same goes for Back To The Future and I bloody love those movies! I just thought I would make that note. :)
About half way, stuff started happening that was a bit more interesting and I suddenly found myself actually wanting to know what would happen. That was a nice surprise! Low and behold, the feeling did not last and it started dragging again. At the end it picked up again as ends must and when I finally closed the book I was reasonably satisfied.
CONCLUSION:
This is a decent book in a genre that does not quite agree with me. The plot is interesting enough and there were a couple of characters in this book I did feel invested in, especially Arthur Golden and his family, but overall this book dragged on too much, especially in the first half.
I motored through this in a day or two -- not something I do when reading off screens rather than paper pages -- on edge and interested in pretty much every word and every character. Sobering and perspective-altering hard, moral sci-fi.
I first read this in hardcover when it was published in 1987, Audible just released the audio version so I listened to it. The book has held up pretty well in the last 25 years. I will listen to the Anvil of Stars next, I always thought that was the better book.
2,5 stars
This book was recommended to me as space opera which it definitely isn't.
I would call it dystopian first contact.
Mildly entertaining, not a book I would recommend to anybody.
This book was recommended to me as space opera which it definitely isn't.
I would call it dystopian first contact.
Mildly entertaining, not a book I would recommend to anybody.
