A few very good moments, and none horrible. This book has a huge introduction to each story (with a secret storyFour stars, but maybe not quite. 3.75?
A few very good moments, and none horrible. This book has a huge introduction to each story (with a secret story in the midst of it), so if you like that it's a real treat....more
I read this because I liked Grimwood's Replay so much.
This is more pedestrian-- doesn't really transcend Your basic dolphin/human communication novel.
I read this because I liked Grimwood's Replay so much.
This is more pedestrian-- doesn't really transcend the too much like regular fiction melodrama of his writing style, takes too long too develop, and then everything ends in a really hasty fashion.
An OK read if you have nothing better to do....more
Greg Egan continues to write about the far far future in an intelligent thoughtful creative manner.
On the**spoiler alert** Maybe 3 and a half stars...
Greg Egan continues to write about the far far future in an intelligent thoughtful creative manner.
On the other hand, you have to be ready to deal with things like a large portion of the narrative of this book focusing on the discovery of newton/einsteinian laws of motion and relativity by an alien race. What made it more annoying to me was that all the terms were made up. So you have to remember that template mathematics means... algebra? and memorize (if you are really interested, I wasn't) the 4 or was it 8 directional terms which apply to the strange world they live in, so you can follow their discovery of the laws of motion...
Another odd thing about this book-- chapters alternate between points of view of 2 very different parties. It seems for the whole book that they will eventually meet up, as one would expect from this sort of narrative convention, but guess what? They never do!!! We don't know if one occurs in the past or future of the other, or even if they end up in the same place, since some small mention is made of the fact that the setting they both end up in may have been duplicated by the original makers. WTF, Greg?
Or did I just miss something while my eyes were glazing over during the discovery of the laws of motion?...more
I have a sort of proprietary narcissistic interest in stross, given that I found out about him early in his career, boWell, three and a half stars ;-)
I have a sort of proprietary narcissistic interest in stross, given that I found out about him early in his career, bought Toast when it was his only published book. Or maybe it's just that I like his writing.
But for some reason the guy just puts out stuff that has a high amount of mediocrity to it. Maybe it's the crazy amount of books he's writing-- I mean, you don't make any money as a sci fi author, so I understand, or maybe that's just how he writes, mostly.
Anyway, huge amounts of really cool ideas. Quite an original idea for the set up of the whole story, well done. Lots of other cool ideas along the way.
But I do not like the voice of the main character. And Stross does not write great sex scenes, and since the main character is a sex robot, problem.
Wording is clumsy or awkward in places. Takes too much time to get going, and then all the onion layers of mystery get thrown on and resolved at the very end at a breakneck pace.
interesting note-- the copy of the book here in NZ (british published) has a spaceship on the front cover, not a (badly drawn) sexy robot.
and, wee SPOILER...
For all of his really cool and original ideas, why does he have to trot out the oh so oh so overused tired SF trope of the main characters going off to colonize another star at the end. Utter lack of invention, creative bankruptcy in fact, sorry. ...more
Probably more like 3.5 stars. Quite a change from the LONG and HEAVY books by authors I arguably like better that I have been slogging through lately Probably more like 3.5 stars. Quite a change from the LONG and HEAVY books by authors I arguably like better that I have been slogging through lately that just don't live up to their promise.
This was a bit light, but a pleasure to read as it skips from event to event, things keep happening...
3rd book in a series but stands on it's own....more
To sum up my feelings, the events (and to some extent the writing) in this book seI didn't finish this one.
My first and probably last Neal Asher book.
To sum up my feelings, the events (and to some extent the writing) in this book seemed rather juvenile. Everything is exaggerated, a bit of a gross out, and really stretches suspension of disbelief....more
4 stars mean this is a really good author, but I wasn't super wowed by the book. Really, I would give it 3 and a half.
Swanwick is one of the very best4 stars mean this is a really good author, but I wasn't super wowed by the book. Really, I would give it 3 and a half.
Swanwick is one of the very best writers SF writers out there. By best I do not mean my favorite, I mean a gifted and skilled stringer together of words. You know, a writer.
Some of his stuff I love, some not as much. This book is not a sequel but in the same universe as Iron Dragon's Daughter, which was clever but dismally depressing.
This book is less depressing. The beginning is great, really enjoyable. It gets a bit more surreal later on, meaning, less linear, less understandable from a plot/action/narrative point of view, but then we are dealing with fairie, but then, that's not an excuse for writing which starts to lose the reader. ...more
This hefty 600 page book has =maybe= 200 pages of story in it. I would avoid this unless you are 1) a die-hard Banks fan 2) A fast reader 3) Have lots of time to kill...more
As you may know, three stars means that this is usually a 4 star author (though williams has his 5 star moments) but that I think it is worse than hisAs you may know, three stars means that this is usually a 4 star author (though williams has his 5 star moments) but that I think it is worse than his usual.
This book is an oddly solipsistic bit of fun. It's hard to imagine that the main character finds himself in the situations he does, and the author actually addresses this point with the surprise super villian. But the explanation to me raises more questions, calling attention to a weakness of the book IMHO. The gee whiz solution to the conflict at the end of the book is a bit internally unself-consistent/unbelievable as well.
It's weird to call a book laconic, since it's all words and nothing else, but this book really had nothing to say, and felt like that throughout, producing not nonsense, but sort of nothing. ================================ I am beginning to develop this theory that Charles Stross and Walter Jon Williams are working together behind the scenes.
The description of this book looks like a different take on the same or eerily familiar universe as Stross's Halting State.
Likewise, Implied Spaces grappled with the same ideas behind Stross's Glasshouse. Both of the Williams books appeared well after the Stross books, so maybe it's just that Williams is using heavily Stross's ideas.
But Implied Spaces had a glowing review by Stross on the back. Not a coinicidence, I say. Somebody for some reason decided that Stross should be tapped for a review on the back of that book. There is complicity here. There is something going on....more
3 stars means I finished it, OK, but the author has done better in the past, and when he did it wasn't no 5 star eHere is how the rating scheme works.
3 stars means I finished it, OK, but the author has done better in the past, and when he did it wasn't no 5 star effort.
On the other hand Morgan is contemporary and reasonably good. Who knows when he will produce that perfect magnum opus? So wee keep reading.
Expect from this book the Morgon usual. Characters getting angry with each other. Notice the amazing parallels to background setup despite the fact that this appears in a universe independent from the Takeshi Kovacs books.
Could use some thinning out. Ending is weak as. But it kept me reading....more
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