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timinbc's review against another edition
2.0
Two stars strictly for ambition. But this series has degenerated into a wankfest.
You may wish to see my review of The Fractal Prince, in which I started to wonder if the series might be getting a bit top-heavy with concepts.
Note: you might do better if you plan to read this right after The Fractal Prince while that book is relatively fresh in your mind.
You know the recent craze to create the Best! Ever! Cocktail!!. where bartenders - sorry, mixologists -- toss in five ounces of liquor, most of them kinds you've never heard of, and serve it in a glass slipper, topping it with a froth made of mosquito wings? This is that in a book.
OK, Rajaniemi is a genius. But he doesn't need to try so hard to prove it. He has dumped into this series everything he has ever learned in his advanced degrees in math and physics. But what we've ended up with is not a culinary masterpiece, but a stew. Master chefs don't use all their ingredients in one dish.
I am a little bit familiar with most of the concepts he starts out with in this series. I have read a LOT of SF, I have a math degree, and I am quite OK with hard SF, right up to maybe half of Greg Egan's work. But the concepts are perhaps a tad overdeveloped and overused here.
Imagine, for example, that the entity writing this review is not actually me at all, but rather a simulation running in a cloud of plasm inside a copy of a copy of an upload of my original brain. And that the simulation is running as a sub-instance of a function inside a 30th-century version of a quantum-powered multiplayer Playstation. And of course when I say "me" I refer not to my actual self, but to my hobby role of playing a really skilled actor, who is pretending to pretend to be three other people at once (remember, I can copy myself). One of me is running through time twice as fast as the others, and a second one is in a spacetime bubble where time runs backwards, so he is going to have been younger next month. It's OK, because all the other clubs and gangs are doing it too.
Still with me? If so, you did better with that paragraph than I did with this book. I bailed at page 164.
I'll never know what happened to that lovable rogue Jean, and I don't care because by now he is not lovable, not a rogue, not charismatic, not even interesting. I even know that he's going to steal one of Saturn's rings later in the book and I Still Don't Care.
The musical group Red Priest does quite weird things with Vivaldi's music, and when accused of being over the top they replied, "If no one goes over the top, we'll never know what's on the other side." Rajaniemi has probably done SF a great service by being the first one over the top in this area, but I reckon I'll wait till someone comes back and writes a simpler version of the story.
There's probably a bloody good story hidden in here, but I can't be bothered digging it out. This book is for all practical purposes written in a foreign language.
You may wish to see my review of The Fractal Prince, in which I started to wonder if the series might be getting a bit top-heavy with concepts.
Note: you might do better if you plan to read this right after The Fractal Prince while that book is relatively fresh in your mind.
You know the recent craze to create the Best! Ever! Cocktail!!. where bartenders - sorry, mixologists -- toss in five ounces of liquor, most of them kinds you've never heard of, and serve it in a glass slipper, topping it with a froth made of mosquito wings? This is that in a book.
OK, Rajaniemi is a genius. But he doesn't need to try so hard to prove it. He has dumped into this series everything he has ever learned in his advanced degrees in math and physics. But what we've ended up with is not a culinary masterpiece, but a stew. Master chefs don't use all their ingredients in one dish.
I am a little bit familiar with most of the concepts he starts out with in this series. I have read a LOT of SF, I have a math degree, and I am quite OK with hard SF, right up to maybe half of Greg Egan's work. But the concepts are perhaps a tad overdeveloped and overused here.
Imagine, for example, that the entity writing this review is not actually me at all, but rather a simulation running in a cloud of plasm inside a copy of a copy of an upload of my original brain. And that the simulation is running as a sub-instance of a function inside a 30th-century version of a quantum-powered multiplayer Playstation. And of course when I say "me" I refer not to my actual self, but to my hobby role of playing a really skilled actor, who is pretending to pretend to be three other people at once (remember, I can copy myself). One of me is running through time twice as fast as the others, and a second one is in a spacetime bubble where time runs backwards, so he is going to have been younger next month. It's OK, because all the other clubs and gangs are doing it too.
Still with me? If so, you did better with that paragraph than I did with this book. I bailed at page 164.
I'll never know what happened to that lovable rogue Jean, and I don't care because by now he is not lovable, not a rogue, not charismatic, not even interesting. I even know that he's going to steal one of Saturn's rings later in the book and I Still Don't Care.
The musical group Red Priest does quite weird things with Vivaldi's music, and when accused of being over the top they replied, "If no one goes over the top, we'll never know what's on the other side." Rajaniemi has probably done SF a great service by being the first one over the top in this area, but I reckon I'll wait till someone comes back and writes a simpler version of the story.
There's probably a bloody good story hidden in here, but I can't be bothered digging it out. This book is for all practical purposes written in a foreign language.
jabberwock's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
roytoo's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
aceinit's review against another edition
5.0
An absolutely beautiful ending to one of my favorite series that I have ever read.
frithnanth's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
librarian_of_trantor's review against another edition
4.0
Why only four stars for the last book when the other two were five stars? Wonder fatigue? Lost of mystery as the true nature of things became clearer? I'm not really sure. I definitely missed Perhonen. But I thought it brought the story to a satisfying end.
theaurochs's review against another edition
5.0
Relentlessly inventive, with a narrative pace to match. The Causal Angel ramps up and rounds off the Jean Le Flambeur trilogy in exquisite style. A fantastic heist caper that sets the stakes as the literal fabric of reality. In the beginning of the book Earth is eaten by dragons, and it only gets wilder from there. It’s really difficult for me to understate my appreciation for this incredible series; but I do have to acknowledge that this third and final book is a little weaker than those that came before. In wrapping everything up, we somehow get more exposition that previous books, but fewer new concepts; a weird sort of mix. There also needs to be a strong warning on the whole series that Rajaniemi is throwing an extremely dense tome at you, that often aims for style and technique, and is deeply rooted in its post-singularity weirdness. It can be overwhelming at times, and even obfuscates the plot or the consequences. It feels a way that this book is not written for us, but for the residents of this bizarre and intricate future; so deeply is everything rooted in that world. For me, this kind of immersive storytelling is intoxicating but I can absolutely see why it turns people off. Honestly, my advice would be to sink yourself into it. Let it wash over you and become part of it, and enjoy the wild ride.
I love every aspect of this book, and the trilogy it caps. Intricately woven plot, where every thread has its exact place. The intrigue and machinations of clever and extremely powerful characters, watching them interplay and interact. The various future societies and how they attempt to coexist with their vastly different philosophies and societies. The amazing visions of technology. How all of this comes together to create a deeply believable world, despite the madness of it all. The well-realised characters with emotional stakes. The sheer thrill of the action, and the pure sensawunda of it all. The incredible talent of the writing, to craft something so multifaceted and have all of it work together. What a revelation.
I love every aspect of this book, and the trilogy it caps. Intricately woven plot, where every thread has its exact place. The intrigue and machinations of clever and extremely powerful characters, watching them interplay and interact. The various future societies and how they attempt to coexist with their vastly different philosophies and societies. The amazing visions of technology. How all of this comes together to create a deeply believable world, despite the madness of it all. The well-realised characters with emotional stakes. The sheer thrill of the action, and the pure sensawunda of it all. The incredible talent of the writing, to craft something so multifaceted and have all of it work together. What a revelation.
ninj's review against another edition
5.0
Picked up a few things on this reread, some of which were references to Karl Schroeder concepts, as I'd only just read some of his work after my initial reading of the Causal Angel.
bagelman's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75