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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Good book overall, pretty crazy, solid for Seth Dickinson. Deserves a reread or two to fully appreciate everything the author's putting on the table.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An absolutely bonkers and absolutely brilliant science fiction novel that reads like a mix of Venom and The Southern Reach trilogy. Darkly funny, profoundly thought-provoking, and full of existential questions about the nature of good and evil, the value of human life, and the importance of the stories we tell as well as the decisions we make in life.
4 stars.
okay, first of all, i can see why some push that DNF button. this is not, necessarily, an easy read. the first (fairly short) act is wildly different in tone from the rest of book, which sets us up in a militaristic, philosophical and intensely scientific world that is very much reflected in the writing style. there's jargon and then there's the last 90% of exordia. there were definitely things i didn't understand, details that eluded me because i haven't studied black holes or theoretical math or nuclear fallouts, but to me, those were just the details that, whether i understood them or not, didn't really take away anything from the story as a whole.
i loved the beginning, so the whiplash in tone was wild, especially once i realised that this is what much of the book will be like. but i also love that the change in tone brought us all those annihilation vibes and the horror, the deep and sometimes unanswerable philosophical and moral questions. (what would you do if, by killing six people, you could save a hundred others? now imagine you know, with horrible familiarity, the people you'd kill. would that change your decision? and what would you do if the choice was the entire population of earth for the galaxy as a whole?)
point the second: i can see why some wouldn't enjoy all the POV characters. not all of them are likeable let alone good, and rarely do they make choices that don't fuck someone else over. there were times when all i felt was intense relief when the POV switched from erik or clayton to someone else – not because they're not well-written characters who feel real, but because it gets exhausting to be in the heads of people whose flaws you can clearly pick out but who cannot do it themselves, even when someone else is trying to make them see it. but i'm also glad we had all those POVs, because i feel like that's dickinson's forte, to create such fully human characters with so much depth inside them that it can't help but spill out.
the truth is, i enjoyed this book a little less than i did the baru cormorant series, and i think it's because there was a point when the focus was too much on the science to the detriment of the characters. we know there's a lot of depth to them all, but there were times we just couldn't see it. and so the betrayals didn't hit as hard, nor the wins, the interpersonal connections. or were they all just stuck in their narratives, their stories, without recourse, stuck in the choices they were always going to make because the aliens had press-ganged them all into the narratives they needed, or the narratives their own souls had created? (i can guess what some of the characters would say to that.)
(also: this is not necessarily a standalone novel, it very much ends on a cliffhanger of sorts. but i don't know, i think it could work as is. some things can be left to the imagination.)
okay, first of all, i can see why some push that DNF button. this is not, necessarily, an easy read. the first (fairly short) act is wildly different in tone from the rest of book, which sets us up in a militaristic, philosophical and intensely scientific world that is very much reflected in the writing style. there's jargon and then there's the last 90% of exordia. there were definitely things i didn't understand, details that eluded me because i haven't studied black holes or theoretical math or nuclear fallouts, but to me, those were just the details that, whether i understood them or not, didn't really take away anything from the story as a whole.
i loved the beginning, so the whiplash in tone was wild, especially once i realised that this is what much of the book will be like. but i also love that the change in tone brought us all those annihilation vibes and the horror, the deep and sometimes unanswerable philosophical and moral questions. (what would you do if, by killing six people, you could save a hundred others? now imagine you know, with horrible familiarity, the people you'd kill. would that change your decision? and what would you do if the choice was the entire population of earth for the galaxy as a whole?)
point the second: i can see why some wouldn't enjoy all the POV characters. not all of them are likeable let alone good, and rarely do they make choices that don't fuck someone else over. there were times when all i felt was intense relief when the POV switched from erik or clayton to someone else – not because they're not well-written characters who feel real, but because it gets exhausting to be in the heads of people whose flaws you can clearly pick out but who cannot do it themselves, even when someone else is trying to make them see it. but i'm also glad we had all those POVs, because i feel like that's dickinson's forte, to create such fully human characters with so much depth inside them that it can't help but spill out.
the truth is, i enjoyed this book a little less than i did the baru cormorant series, and i think it's because there was a point when the focus was too much on the science to the detriment of the characters. we know there's a lot of depth to them all, but there were times we just couldn't see it. and so the betrayals didn't hit as hard, nor the wins, the interpersonal connections. or were they all just stuck in their narratives, their stories, without recourse, stuck in the choices they were always going to make because the aliens had press-ganged them all into the narratives they needed, or the narratives their own souls had created? (i can guess what some of the characters would say to that.)
(also: this is not necessarily a standalone novel, it very much ends on a cliffhanger of sorts. but i don't know, i think it could work as is. some things can be left to the imagination.)
Look around you. See the people worrying over what they mean to one another. See the people drunk with joy over what's just been confessed. See the people wishing they could unsay what they said.
Take all that way.
Imagine your life without the best person you've ever known. Savor for a moment the fear that you are already living that life: that you have missed the people who were supposed to be your everything, and now you are walking forward into gray wastelands, far off the map you were born to follow.
That is the end of the world. Everyone will fail to meet their people. Forever.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Beautifully narrated.
Amazingly interesting premise and a slow build of intensity and stakes.
I'm really glad I read the audiobook as it is pretty dense on the math and physics sometimes.
Unsatisfying ending, but the ride was enough to not make that too bad a bummer.
Amazingly interesting premise and a slow build of intensity and stakes.
I'm really glad I read the audiobook as it is pretty dense on the math and physics sometimes.
Unsatisfying ending, but the ride was enough to not make that too bad a bummer.
An alien threat to Earth prompts a desperate attempt to save the planet, and a small few have to figure out how to stop annihilation, and which millions of humans get to die to save billions.
It’s a dense, brutally violent, dark, philosophical novel that part dissection of foreign and military policy, and part trolley problem (i.e., who gets to decide who dies to save others?)
This is also a very, very long book with an alien alien, with long conversations/debates between characters that I sometimes got lost in, and that wore me down the longer I read. So:
Interesting stuff: Aliens were refreshing not bipedal. And lots of assumptions, practices and policy were dissected. Though this paled next to the other concerns. 3 stars
Action: Lots of it, though after a while I got tired of all the brutality. 3 stars.
Pacing: Started out ok, but I found it really dragged after awhile. Too much time in long and convoluted debates that left me bored. 3 stars.
Character motivations: I could not parse what the characters wanted or felt after a while of them shooting, yelling, etc. Not complex enough for the alien baddie. 2 stars.
My enjoyment: 2 stars.
Overall rating: 2 stars.
It’s a dense, brutally violent, dark, philosophical novel that part dissection of foreign and military policy, and part trolley problem (i.e., who gets to decide who dies to save others?)
This is also a very, very long book with an alien alien, with long conversations/debates between characters that I sometimes got lost in, and that wore me down the longer I read. So:
Interesting stuff: Aliens were refreshing not bipedal. And lots of assumptions, practices and policy were dissected. Though this paled next to the other concerns. 3 stars
Action: Lots of it, though after a while I got tired of all the brutality. 3 stars.
Pacing: Started out ok, but I found it really dragged after awhile. Too much time in long and convoluted debates that left me bored. 3 stars.
Character motivations: I could not parse what the characters wanted or felt after a while of them shooting, yelling, etc. Not complex enough for the alien baddie. 2 stars.
My enjoyment: 2 stars.
Overall rating: 2 stars.
Respectfully: what the hell did I just read?
I found the sections of military jargon to be tedious, but as a lover of hard sf I think the rest of the book more than makes up for them; when this book is good, it's SO good. There are some fascinating and unique concepts introduced here that I can't stop thinking about. I was interested in all of the main cast once their souls were bared, and I genuinely liked how messy they all are. Maybe I'm a weirdo.
Anyway, 4.5/5 because I almost put this book down in Act 2, but rated up to 5 because I did love most of it and we can't give half stars (and I'm feeling generous). I really want more, please!!
I found the sections of military jargon to be tedious, but as a lover of hard sf I think the rest of the book more than makes up for them; when this book is good, it's SO good. There are some fascinating and unique concepts introduced here that I can't stop thinking about. I was interested in all of the main cast once their souls were bared, and I genuinely liked how messy they all are. Maybe I'm a weirdo.
Anyway, 4.5/5 because I almost put this book down in Act 2, but rated up to 5 because I did love most of it and we can't give half stars (and I'm feeling generous). I really want more, please!!
I really liked this book for most of it. There was a thing with souls about 75% of the way through that lost me for a bit, but it brought it back around.
However, this has that Neal Stephenson problem that you'll understand if you've read more than one Neal Stephenson book, in that it feels like the author probably should just started another book. The ending is...well, it certainly exists. I don't consider this a real problem (i.e. Neal Stephenson is still one of my favourite authors even though most of his books end by dribbling like the last bit of ketchup in a glass bottle).
I really enjoyed it even if it went on a little bit too long.
However, this has that Neal Stephenson problem that you'll understand if you've read more than one Neal Stephenson book, in that it feels like the author probably should just started another book. The ending is...well, it certainly exists. I don't consider this a real problem (i.e. Neal Stephenson is still one of my favourite authors even though most of his books end by dribbling like the last bit of ketchup in a glass bottle).
I really enjoyed it even if it went on a little bit too long.