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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What I like best about this book is that it seems like a legit exploration of what would really happen if such chaos descended on our world. There is panic and violence, but there is also coming together and dedicated hard work. Some facets of society crumble, while many people keep doing what needs to be done. I really like that he provides a deep exploration of the scientific side of the story. Throughout the story, I feel like I understand the mechanics of what's going--an incredibly important, yet surprisingly often overlooked aspect of sci-fi writing.
Unfortunately, this is yet another story told from multiple and diverse perspectives, though all the main characters are men. All of them. It's tiring. If an author can be so imaginative to construct the destruction of an entire world and follow several different characters from different backgrounds in their struggles to find answers, why couldn't he include women?
Unfortunately, this is yet another story told from multiple and diverse perspectives, though all the main characters are men. All of them. It's tiring. If an author can be so imaginative to construct the destruction of an entire world and follow several different characters from different backgrounds in their struggles to find answers, why couldn't he include women?
Hmmm... Looking at the various reviews it seems people liked it or hated it. I can understand why. The book starts with what appears to be a mystery, and I thought the book would focus on this. Rather it takes a dark turn, and becomes more of a sketch on human psychology, how we deal with terrible events. The writing is decent, and the premise was interesting. The last part of the book did drag on, but the ending was reasonable satisfactory.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I will try to make this as vague and spoiler-free as possible.
A decent book that kept me interested until the end. From the opening the premise has some enticing mysteries and a good pace. But by the halfway mark, the pace slows down and the plot becomes much less interesting as our characters have very little to do any more. The characters themselves are well written but generally uninteresting, and there are too many of them as the story jumps around each chapter for no apparent purpose. Most characters end up not mattering at all despite being followed through the whole book, and some that matter a lot in the end are only introduced in the second half or later. The way women are written is very dated. I also found the characters lacking initiative or agency, just observing things, receiving phone calls, or hearing about others' discoveries. People don't really take action. The tone is one of passivity, of feeling useless waiting for big events to unfold. I kept waiting for someone to have some hope and take some action. In the end, the story is driven by outside forces, and our characters are there along for the ride. And the exciting mysteries the book opens with barely matter, with unsatisfying explanations, with maybe 1 exception.
Still, it keeps throwing interesting ideas at the reader, and includes some impressive scientifically-detailed descriptions later in the book with a sense of massive scale. While disappointing in some aspects, it was not a bad book and I am moving on to read the sequel with some interest.
A decent book that kept me interested until the end. From the opening the premise has some enticing mysteries and a good pace. But by the halfway mark, the pace slows down and the plot becomes much less interesting as our characters have very little to do any more. The characters themselves are well written but generally uninteresting, and there are too many of them as the story jumps around each chapter for no apparent purpose. Most characters end up not mattering at all despite being followed through the whole book, and some that matter a lot in the end are only introduced in the second half or later. The way women are written is very dated. I also found the characters lacking initiative or agency, just observing things, receiving phone calls, or hearing about others' discoveries. People don't really take action. The tone is one of passivity, of feeling useless waiting for big events to unfold. I kept waiting for someone to have some hope and take some action. In the end, the story is driven by outside forces, and our characters are there along for the ride. And the exciting mysteries the book opens with barely matter, with unsatisfying explanations, with maybe 1 exception.
Still, it keeps throwing interesting ideas at the reader, and includes some impressive scientifically-detailed descriptions later in the book with a sense of massive scale. While disappointing in some aspects, it was not a bad book and I am moving on to read the sequel with some interest.
Competent but didn’t work for me
Europa disappears, and soon after two new giant rocks just appear on opposite sides of the planet, each with a different alien. One of the aliens is lying, but which one? Well... we soon find out the Earth is doomed. And at that point there’s really not much mystery left, and the book isn’t even half over. The narrative (can’t really call it action because there is none) shifts between various groups of scientists and their families, and the White House, where the president turns into a blithering useless mess, and everyone just waits to die. A lot happens “off-screen” and much of what happens is never explained. The giant rocks and the associated alien creature/robots actually don’t have anything to do with what happens later; the characters call them a distraction. And the whole book feels very dated. I enjoyed other Greg Bear books much more than this one. Can’t win ‘em all.
Europa disappears, and soon after two new giant rocks just appear on opposite sides of the planet, each with a different alien. One of the aliens is lying, but which one? Well... we soon find out the Earth is doomed. And at that point there’s really not much mystery left, and the book isn’t even half over. The narrative (can’t really call it action because there is none) shifts between various groups of scientists and their families, and the White House, where the president turns into a blithering useless mess, and everyone just waits to die. A lot happens “off-screen” and much of what happens is never explained. The giant rocks and the associated alien creature/robots actually don’t have anything to do with what happens later; the characters call them a distraction. And the whole book feels very dated. I enjoyed other Greg Bear books much more than this one. Can’t win ‘em all.
This is the second book by Greg Bear that I've read. The first was Blood Music which I loved. This book did not live up to my expectations unfortunately. It's just kind of boring. The characters have no personality. I couldn't even name them or tell you which character did which thing. Except for the religious US President. The ending is very exciting and by far the best part of the book. But then just a few pages later the ending is more or less undone. The Earth is destroyed, a select few are saved. They get put in cryogenic sleep and wake up to a brand new Earth built for them. I'll probably read book 2 at some point as I hear that its better, but I don't feel any urge to do so anytime soon.
The premise for the book is pretty interesting, but this book suffers from poor pacing (the book plods on for the first 85%, with a lot of superfluous scenes and sentimentality) and boring characters (and really Mr. Bear, you couldn't have ONE remotely important female character in the ENTIRE book?! The portrayal of the female characters that are included is positively insulting...). The motivations and actions of the characters don't seem realistic. I only kept going because of a strong recommendation and because I loved the author's other books (Eon and Eternity especially), but I don't think I'll continue with this series.
dark
sad
slow-paced