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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It took me a while to get into this one. The book has 6 different points of view covering the disappearance and then reappearance of Mal several years later. It also has interludes of a book discussing other potential earths and what life would be like on them. It's those chapters that lost me a bit. I'm not so hot on hard sci-fi and I haven't read this author before although I've heard lots of good things. It#s quite pacy and builds well and there's some good world building but ultimately a little too heavy for me.
This starts out cute and Fortean and ends up vast and cosmic without losing hold on the humour or the adventure. Tchaikovsky’s imagination is vast and his craftsmanship sure, and if the politics are a bit too obvious at times, the premise familiar from many a recent film and his preoccupation with arthropods ever-present, that doesn’t stop it being a fun ride.
The narration is intelligent, and juggles the many characters and situations well, with the exception of the sections in an “American accent” that slips smoothly from parody to error to abscence, sometimes in the same sentence. Those bits grated, though perhaps if you’re from somewhere else you won’t notice or care.
The narration is intelligent, and juggles the many characters and situations well, with the exception of the sections in an “American accent” that slips smoothly from parody to error to abscence, sometimes in the same sentence. Those bits grated, though perhaps if you’re from somewhere else you won’t notice or care.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
For me, the book overstayed it's welcome by roughly 400 pages. Admittingly I'm bias as a physicist, but I don't appreciate reading lengthy debates over technobabble. I'm fine excepting a fantastical notion and moving on. Frequently lost track of who was where and eventually just grew tired the characters.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
The first part of this book is more like an espionage thriller, but the sci-fi elements build throughout until it reaches some really imaginative plot points. My favorite part was the interludes, which each speculate on a parallel Earth where different species evolved sentience at different times in Earth’s history. An extra quarter star for the interlude about cats.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚒𝚝 𝚎𝚗𝚍?” 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦, 𝘻𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘱𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘸𝘢𝘳…“𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚜.” 𝙺𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚝 𝚍𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚕𝚢, “𝙸 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚝’𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎, 𝚒𝚝’𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚙𝚞𝚜𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚊 𝚋𝚞𝚜 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎.”
There are cracks between our world and parallel places. In these cracks dwell monsters, destruction, another earth? What’s coming through? What will happen if the walls collapse completely? After all, we are just a infinitesimal probability, and pretty late to the show that is life.
This book is effectively a doomsday action movie, but with the theatrical explosions toned down and the logic turned up. Speculative biology and the universe structure abound, but given his evolution threads are all anchored in fact I assume the physics is too. Tchaikovsky balances the more complex science aspects with more light hearted characters and dialogue. This does mean the social commentary is very on the nose, but it’s paced well so as not to be tedious (it is however incredibly inclusive as a result 👍). Most of the characters are relatable, if a bit stock tropey. But Julian and Lucas do offer some subtlety.
Overall I really enjoyed it (to be fair, it had me at space trilobites) and can see it appealing to a broad demographic of readers.
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I enjoyed every intermezzo about the different evolutions of the parallel edens, the reference to cryptics-hunting from Youtube videos and all the cousins (the ice computer was cool too)!
The rest of the book was some kind of agent thriller meets the X-Files. It started off nicely, especially with all the references to Narnia, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and Jurassic Park.
But there were endless chases. I wish Tchaikovsky would have used that space for more character depth or the aliens - there can never be too much about aliens! -, instead he let the characters run from A to B to C again and again.
And let's not get started about that villain. Such a poor, exaggerated, caricatural version of everything that's so modern to hate today: white, male, rich, extremist, fascist... Really, I had expected something better than that.
The rest of the book was some kind of agent thriller meets the X-Files. It started off nicely, especially with all the references to Narnia, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and Jurassic Park.
But there were endless chases. I wish Tchaikovsky would have used that space for more character depth or the aliens - there can never be too much about aliens! -, instead he let the characters run from A to B to C again and again.
And let's not get started about that villain. Such a poor, exaggerated, caricatural version of everything that's so modern to hate today: white, male, rich, extremist, fascist... Really, I had expected something better than that.