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A review by twitchyredpen
Assemblers of Infinity by Doug Beason, Kevin J. Anderson
2.0
Could certainly be better. Parts of it seemed very long. Some parts were page-turners while holding it, but if I put it down, I didn't feel an urgency to pick it back up. It didn't become can't-put-it-down interesting until the end.
Perspective moves between different locations on Earth, on moon, or in space. I feel the whole Antarctic storyline could have been written out -- What does it provide other than more pages and another half a dozen characters? Someone for Erika to talk to, who could have been anywhere. Evidence that the nanocritters can evolve, which was seen in Erika's experimentation. Additional depth to the nanocritters in terms of repair/destroy, but since a) he never tells Erika anything he finds [including the evolution], b) the nanocritters are already a death threat, and c) the contaminated crew has been cleaned already by then anyway, it really doesn't move/affect the plot at all.
Based on the title and the cover art, my guess as the book got deeper was that it was going to end in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey/"It's full of stars" but it didn't. The ending wasn't particularly satisfying either; could have used a second epilogue 34-40 years after the first.
Perspective moves between different locations on Earth, on moon, or in space. I feel the whole Antarctic storyline could have been written out -- What does it provide other than more pages and another half a dozen characters? Someone for Erika to talk to, who could have been anywhere. Evidence that the nanocritters can evolve, which was seen in Erika's experimentation. Additional depth to the nanocritters in terms of repair/destroy, but since a) he never tells Erika anything he finds [including the evolution], b) the nanocritters are already a death threat, and c) the contaminated crew has been cleaned already by then anyway, it really doesn't move/affect the plot at all.
Spoiler
His records are incomprehensible anyway so they don't even help in the epilogue.Based on the title and the cover art, my guess as the book got deeper was that it was going to end in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey/"It's full of stars" but it didn't. The ending wasn't particularly satisfying either; could have used a second epilogue 34-40 years after the first.