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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
What a wild ride
I almost let a small quibble with character development cause me to only give this a 4 star rating. This book deserves 5 stars! Read it!
I almost let a small quibble with character development cause me to only give this a 4 star rating. This book deserves 5 stars! Read it!
Mostly skimmed this except for the interludes. They were far and away the best parts of this book and if it was an actual book I probably would have liked it more than what this actually was lol. Still great writing by Tchaikovsky but the actual story just didn’t do much for me. He definitely has done better with his Children of Time series
Every Tchaikovsky novel except Children of Time would have benefitted from ruthless editing and a careful rewrite.
Infinite earth's, infinite dimensions and infinite ways for things to evolve. A good read however its so crammed full of these metaphysical what-ifs that it reaches the point of silly very quickly. I'm usually rooting for novels like this but I think some poor choices were made which cast a shadow on what could have been a real classic of the genre. For all of that though, it is very well presented, good characters and for the most part it holds together well. You'll either love it or sit aghast thinking "ohhh no, why'd you go and put that in there"
The Short Answer
A supremely fascinating idea backed by some excellent world building. While the final half doesn't quite live up to the intro, it's still a solid sci-fi entry. If you've never read Adrian Tchaikovsky before start with [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] first, but if you liked his previous work this is a good, but non-essential book to read.
The Long Answer
This is my third book by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I previously read [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] and [b:Children of Ruin|40376072|Children of Ruin (Children of Time, #2)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548701599l/40376072._SX50_.jpg|62663185] and enjoyed them immensely. He has in incredible ability to create alternate evolutionary paths that are both alien, fascinating, and believable. That tradition continued to good effect in this book as he gets the opportunity to flex his muscles and make as many alternate evolutionary paths as he wants, all of which are fascinating.
The ideas behind this book are fascinating which makes figuring them out a lot of fun. The whole first half of the book is a mystery told from multiple perspectives. Watching different people figure out different parts is excellent, and it really helps flesh out the characters and make them engaging. To make it better, the mystery elements all resolve in unexpected ways that are both earned and interesting.
However once the mystery is solved and the final crisis revealed, the book slows down to a crawl and never fully recovers. characters that were once engaging become flat and uninteresting, the main crisis, once it's revealed, is dragged out long enough to lose most of it's tension. There is a very cool narrative device employed at one part near the end that helps shake things up, but it also ends up going on a bit too long. Thankfully the reader won't figure out the solution long before the characters, that helps justify the length, but I struggled to stay engaged for the last couple hundred pages.
There is also a main villain. He suffered from the same problem of being fascinating and convoluted at the start, but much less interesting in the end. That makes sense given what we learn of the character, and with a stronger ending probably would have been a powerful point. In the end Tchaikovsky makes a welcome statement against bigotry and xenophobia, but it never truly feels earned.
I liked this book, which is a shame because I started out loving it, but it was still a worthwhile read. Worth checking out if you've read some of Tchaikovsky's other work and need more, but a terrible starting point for anyone new to the author.
A supremely fascinating idea backed by some excellent world building. While the final half doesn't quite live up to the intro, it's still a solid sci-fi entry. If you've never read Adrian Tchaikovsky before start with [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] first, but if you liked his previous work this is a good, but non-essential book to read.
The Long Answer
This is my third book by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I previously read [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] and [b:Children of Ruin|40376072|Children of Ruin (Children of Time, #2)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548701599l/40376072._SX50_.jpg|62663185] and enjoyed them immensely. He has in incredible ability to create alternate evolutionary paths that are both alien, fascinating, and believable. That tradition continued to good effect in this book as he gets the opportunity to flex his muscles and make as many alternate evolutionary paths as he wants, all of which are fascinating.
The ideas behind this book are fascinating which makes figuring them out a lot of fun. The whole first half of the book is a mystery told from multiple perspectives. Watching different people figure out different parts is excellent, and it really helps flesh out the characters and make them engaging. To make it better, the mystery elements all resolve in unexpected ways that are both earned and interesting.
However once the mystery is solved and the final crisis revealed, the book slows down to a crawl and never fully recovers. characters that were once engaging become flat and uninteresting, the main crisis, once it's revealed, is dragged out long enough to lose most of it's tension. There is a very cool narrative device employed at one part near the end that helps shake things up, but it also ends up going on a bit too long. Thankfully the reader won't figure out the solution long before the characters, that helps justify the length, but I struggled to stay engaged for the last couple hundred pages.
There is also a main villain. He suffered from the same problem of being fascinating and convoluted at the start, but much less interesting in the end. That makes sense given what we learn of the character, and with a stronger ending probably would have been a powerful point. In the end Tchaikovsky makes a welcome statement against bigotry and xenophobia, but it never truly feels earned.
I liked this book, which is a shame because I started out loving it, but it was still a worthwhile read. Worth checking out if you've read some of Tchaikovsky's other work and need more, but a terrible starting point for anyone new to the author.
My favorite parts of this are the interludes describing the histories of alternate Earths. Tchaikovsky does what he did so well in Children of Time (and I'm guessing in other works too) - imagine a different course of evolution and what unique implications it might have - but many times over.
The story itself took some time for me to get invested in. It kills my suspension of disbelief when stories imply that things which are nonsense at a conceptual level (eg this book's "Cryptic Informational Transformation Space") are taken as serious science in-universe. And there's just a lot of handwavey science to get past in general here. But ultimately it's fun and very imaginative.
The story itself took some time for me to get invested in. It kills my suspension of disbelief when stories imply that things which are nonsense at a conceptual level (eg this book's "Cryptic Informational Transformation Space") are taken as serious science in-universe. And there's just a lot of handwavey science to get past in general here. But ultimately it's fun and very imaginative.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The science was a bit too complex for me but enjoyed the fiction well enough. There was a sizeable group of main characters that have robust personalities and motivations.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
huh. that was fine. perfectly acceptable book. i was hooked all the way through and couldn't quite put it down but like despite the high concepts and sweeping vistas it will not be living in my head rent free.
"i ship you two in my headcanon" was pretty damn cringe tho
"i ship you two in my headcanon" was pretty damn cringe tho