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cindyc's review
4.0
On to the second book of the featured series of this month: Be My Enemy. I was curious how Ian McDonald would continue to keep his story fast paced and interesting, because the novelty of the parallel dimensions and all the different worlds had worn off a bit after the first book. But I shouldn’t have worried, because the second book was just as entertaining as the first was. Weird technology, new worlds, exhilarating fights and wonderfully written characters: it’s all here, in the exact right doses in the second book of the Everness series.
The book starts off with a scene that got me a bit confused at first, but when I caught up with what was actually happening I immediately knew that this would be an awesome addition to the story.
After this first initial ‘wow’ scene, we go right back where we left Everett, Sen and the Everness and its crew in book I. They are now stuck on one of the worlds in the Plenoply, no idea which one only that they are currently on a big ice sheet. It’s up to Everett to get them out of there before the thing that’s under the ice shows itself and tries to destroy them and before their pursuers find them.
Everett is still in the possession of the Infundibulum and Charlotte Villiers will stop at nothing to get her hands on it. The next step in her plan is to create an enemy Everett never would have imagined he could ever had encountered. Besides that, Everett is still determined to find a way to get his dad back, who was sent to a random world in the Plenoply by Charlotte Villiers who used her jumpgun on him. To achieve this goal he has to return to the place where the jumpgun was made, E1 or Earth 1, the world that has been in quarantine due to some sort of horrible happening that nobody wants to talk about. Captain Sixsmyths and her crew join Everett once again to E1 where they find a deserted London. Or maybe it isn’t as deserted as they think it is.
What may not attract the direct attention of many readers but what was for me an important part of the story en what I really loved to read about, was the relationship between Everett and Sharkney. Everett is never really sure about Sharkney, doubts his intentions and the fact if he would hand over Everett to the enemy or not. Throughout the book we see different interactions between these two characters and how they form their perception of each other.
The use of the Tarot comes to the forefront again in this installment of the story. On different occasions in the book the Tarot is referred to and just as in Planesrunner the Tarot is consulted just before any major event. I’ve always been fascinated by Tarot and this version was really well done and appealed to me in many different ways. Also the fact that Sen makes the cards and adds new ones to the deck when new events occur of new person become important in her life gave it that something extra.
Be My Enemy is again chock full of action and adventure, tension and edge-of-your-seat moments. Definitely just as good as the first book and a good follow-up.
The book starts off with a scene that got me a bit confused at first, but when I caught up with what was actually happening I immediately knew that this would be an awesome addition to the story.
After this first initial ‘wow’ scene, we go right back where we left Everett, Sen and the Everness and its crew in book I. They are now stuck on one of the worlds in the Plenoply, no idea which one only that they are currently on a big ice sheet. It’s up to Everett to get them out of there before the thing that’s under the ice shows itself and tries to destroy them and before their pursuers find them.
Everett is still in the possession of the Infundibulum and Charlotte Villiers will stop at nothing to get her hands on it. The next step in her plan is to create an enemy Everett never would have imagined he could ever had encountered. Besides that, Everett is still determined to find a way to get his dad back, who was sent to a random world in the Plenoply by Charlotte Villiers who used her jumpgun on him. To achieve this goal he has to return to the place where the jumpgun was made, E1 or Earth 1, the world that has been in quarantine due to some sort of horrible happening that nobody wants to talk about. Captain Sixsmyths and her crew join Everett once again to E1 where they find a deserted London. Or maybe it isn’t as deserted as they think it is.
What may not attract the direct attention of many readers but what was for me an important part of the story en what I really loved to read about, was the relationship between Everett and Sharkney. Everett is never really sure about Sharkney, doubts his intentions and the fact if he would hand over Everett to the enemy or not. Throughout the book we see different interactions between these two characters and how they form their perception of each other.
The use of the Tarot comes to the forefront again in this installment of the story. On different occasions in the book the Tarot is referred to and just as in Planesrunner the Tarot is consulted just before any major event. I’ve always been fascinated by Tarot and this version was really well done and appealed to me in many different ways. Also the fact that Sen makes the cards and adds new ones to the deck when new events occur of new person become important in her life gave it that something extra.
Be My Enemy is again chock full of action and adventure, tension and edge-of-your-seat moments. Definitely just as good as the first book and a good follow-up.
meags1's review
3.0
For a book about incredibly, fantastically advanced alternate universes and jailbroken iPads that can navigate between any, undocumented parallel universe, this book was really boring. I think, fundamentally, my problem is I am more interested in an alternate world with different theoretical software & circuitry than hardware history--so what if Babbage builds his engine or not, what happens if we have something other than Boolean logic guarding our logic gates? How does that effect computation time, design, and whatnot. The existence of a Babbage engine or not is a coin toss of alternate history, whereas Boolean logic is a fracture, each splinter throwing things into wild disarray. Which brings me to my point--all of the differences in this book are like coin tosses, with alters replicating throughout them. You can't really have one without the other, really.
And this is what you get from a bored, sick ex-historian who loves computers. Still bored by your book.
And this is what you get from a bored, sick ex-historian who loves computers. Still bored by your book.
bitterindigo's review
3.0
Bit of a fail grab from the library shelves, since it's a little hard sci-fi for my tastes and also the second in a series. Still kind of different and interesting. Still not sure why I chose it, since when I cracked it open for the first time and read the jacket copy, I said "WHAT?" out loud.
kimonobooks's review
3.0
Endlich bin ich fertig geworden! Der zweite Teil der Everness Reihe hat mich aber leider nicht so überzeugt wie der erste; alles war irgendwie langatmig und ab 25% habe ich erst einmal verstanden, dass die Handlung "gesplittet" wurde und nun von Everetts und der Sicht seines Alters aus erzählt wird. Die Handlung braucht auch eine Weile, bis sie in Fahrt kommt, ist dann aber spannend und hat stellenweise Page-Turner-Qualitäten. Das Ende ist natürlich offen und es bleibt noch genug aufzulösen für den dritten und letzten Band.
EDIT: Las eben in einem Interview, dass die Reihe so lange fortgeführt wird, "wie es sich kommerziell lohnt". Das heißt, wir müssen wohl noch eine Weile warten bis Everetts Vater gefunden wird...
EDIT: Las eben in einem Interview, dass die Reihe so lange fortgeführt wird, "wie es sich kommerziell lohnt". Das heißt, wir müssen wohl noch eine Weile warten bis Everetts Vater gefunden wird...
rodoh22's review
4.0
Everness Book 2, is an excellent follow up to Planesrunner. A complex Y/A novel set in the Multiverse. Great Baddies, as weell as great narrator and crew of the Everness ( an Airship) which is a fine location for the base from which the story springs. Good humoured, tense at times, some nice horror moments all in all a cracking good read.
Finishes in a way which leaves you waiting for what I presume is the final instalment, hopefully out this year.
Finishes in a way which leaves you waiting for what I presume is the final instalment, hopefully out this year.
pauliree's review
5.0
What do you do when you have a ridiculously clever young man who can solve almost any mathematical problem, play really good football, has the talent to travel interdimensionally and is just a really good guy? Have his enemy be himself, from another dimension, with lasers. :)
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