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bobreturns's review against another edition
2.0
This is a hard book to review. So I'm going to go with the "good, bad and the ugly" system.
The Good:
Cracking science fiction elements. Interesting aliens (especially the "brothers"), awesome technology, cool big space object stuff. All great.
The Bad:
Religious bollocks. We have a hand picked crew going out on a mission into space. So why does someone always go mental and try to start an insane religion? Another science fiction trope which needs to die a fiery death.
And why, oh why, do Science Fiction authors insist on having their characters be children? It makes for melodramatic, incompetent, naive interpersonal nonsense. It's lazy, implausible, and crap to read. It would only have made sense in context if the book had followed up on the possibility that they were being manipulated by the benefactors to use as a destructive catspaw (sadly this is not the case, the book is not that clever). Now on the one hand, Greg Bear seems to indicate that they're technically young adults (~20?) but he continually has them act childlike, emphasising their innocence and naivety. They call themselves children, refer to the boys as "lost boys" and girls as "wendys", which makes it all the more creepy when...
The Ugly:
The sex scenes. Dire sex scenes are a science fiction trope. And it's a bad one. But it's a lot worse when the author describes all the characters as children and has them refer to it as "slicking". That's gross Greg Bear, and it's unecessary. The first third of the book is almost unreadable as a result. I don't care that they're "technically adults", I'm on to you Bear, you creep.
Oh also, a tonne of casual misogyny and implied sexual coercion. Yuck.
The Good:
Cracking science fiction elements. Interesting aliens (especially the "brothers"), awesome technology, cool big space object stuff. All great.
The Bad:
Religious bollocks. We have a hand picked crew going out on a mission into space. So why does someone always go mental and try to start an insane religion? Another science fiction trope which needs to die a fiery death.
And why, oh why, do Science Fiction authors insist on having their characters be children? It makes for melodramatic, incompetent, naive interpersonal nonsense. It's lazy, implausible, and crap to read. It would only have made sense in context if the book had followed up on the possibility that they were being manipulated by the benefactors to use as a destructive catspaw (sadly this is not the case, the book is not that clever). Now on the one hand, Greg Bear seems to indicate that they're technically young adults (~20?) but he continually has them act childlike, emphasising their innocence and naivety. They call themselves children, refer to the boys as "lost boys" and girls as "wendys", which makes it all the more creepy when...
The Ugly:
The sex scenes. Dire sex scenes are a science fiction trope. And it's a bad one. But it's a lot worse when the author describes all the characters as children and has them refer to it as "slicking". That's gross Greg Bear, and it's unecessary. The first third of the book is almost unreadable as a result. I don't care that they're "technically adults", I'm on to you Bear, you creep.
Oh also, a tonne of casual misogyny and implied sexual coercion. Yuck.
genetsbastard's review against another edition
5.0
Perhaps less tight in terms of structure than Forge of God, this sequel has at its center a deeply moral conundrum: How far do we take the Law? What does vengeance do to our souls? Vibrant, detailed and believable psycho-sexual social milieu and of course, dizzying hard sci-fi exposition, plus a moving, powerful theme, maybe even more relevant now post-9/11 than it was in 1991. Highly recommended.
mattsteinpreis's review
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
geeklet's review
4.0
This book felt so different than the first one. I’m having problems believing they were written by the same author! I really enjoyed this story of seeking revenge. It reminded me of Enders Game in some ways.
lordofthemoon's review
3.0
After the destruction of Earth, only a tiny proportion of her population was saved by the mysterious Benefactors. They equip a number of her children with a ship and training and send them to enact the Law: that any civilisation that creates self-replicating killer robots to destroy another must be killed by those it sought to destroy. This is the story of the Dawn Treader and her voyage to seek and destroy the Killers of Earth.
Although this book is a sequel to Bear's earlier [b:The Forge of God|64732|The Forge of God|Greg Bear|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316131538s/64732.jpg|2235106], you don't need to have read the earlier volume to follow this (and, indeed, I haven't). The premise is fairly simple and the story is one of revenge and redemption. Apart from one brief segment, the entire story is set aboard the Dawn Treader, giving the book a somewhat claustrophobic feel, which is interesting and did help to set the scene. None of the characters other than our protagonist and PoV character, Martin, made much of an emotional impact, and even though you're never entirely sure who's going to live and die, it didn't make as much of an impact as it should have done when some did die.
I picked this up because I remember reading it many years ago, probably picked up from the local library and I wanted to see how it fared on a re-read, without remembering many of the details. In the event, it was okay but I don't think I'll be reading it again.
Although this book is a sequel to Bear's earlier [b:The Forge of God|64732|The Forge of God|Greg Bear|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316131538s/64732.jpg|2235106], you don't need to have read the earlier volume to follow this (and, indeed, I haven't). The premise is fairly simple and the story is one of revenge and redemption. Apart from one brief segment, the entire story is set aboard the Dawn Treader, giving the book a somewhat claustrophobic feel, which is interesting and did help to set the scene. None of the characters other than our protagonist and PoV character, Martin, made much of an emotional impact, and even though you're never entirely sure who's going to live and die, it didn't make as much of an impact as it should have done when some did die.
I picked this up because I remember reading it many years ago, probably picked up from the local library and I wanted to see how it fared on a re-read, without remembering many of the details. In the event, it was okay but I don't think I'll be reading it again.
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