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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
Not a bad read. Like a lot of science fiction my tiny child mind had some problems coming to grips with the time travel mechanics in the novel; I mean, not to the point where it impacted on my enjoyment of the story or anything, but I like to have all the science nailed down in a book like this, and I just couldn't parse it. But whatever, book was pretty neat, I like the idea of STARTING with the apocalypse rather than culminating with it, will be interested to read the next one.
It did take me a long time to get into, though.
It did take me a long time to get into, though.
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Interesting core idea and it is compelling enough to hold you until the end, but it's one of those near future SF books, where all the military are full-blown hard-asses, all the corporate suits are 100% ruthless demons, threatening everyone and everything with death for "knowing too much". Everyone gets captured and then escapes least twice. There's no particular standout character in this book and you never really care about any of their motives or wants.
And it's 2235 AD and cars still run on ethanol? Nah...you have man-sized fusion generators but cars run on ethanol they generate themselves from eating grass?
Apart from the core concept, the other ideas aren't fully developed and there's a lot of dead ends and undeveloped plotlines.
An interesting mess all up.
And it's 2235 AD and cars still run on ethanol? Nah...you have man-sized fusion generators but cars run on ethanol they generate themselves from eating grass?
Apart from the core concept, the other ideas aren't fully developed and there's a lot of dead ends and undeveloped plotlines.
An interesting mess all up.
I <3 Gary Gibson and I want to live in his vision(s) of the future.
Too action-oriented and focused on cool visuals for me, especially as the physics feels wrong, and various highly advanced technologies seem to have had minimal impact on Gibson's future society as compared with the present day. (Essentially, it's West vs East with cooler toys.)
Apart from not even handwaving the construction, care and maintenance of exotic matter bridges, and casually tossing off transporting wormhole ends at near-C velocities (the energy budget of that seems about as far advanced from Gibson's portable tokamaks as they would be from coal fires), I got really annoyed with his reversal of which wormhole end permits future directed time travel, and didn't much care for single world determinism as a consequence of closed timelike curves.
But if you're looking for action and don't care too much about the motivations of characters or the internal consistency of the world building, the book might work for you.
Apart from not even handwaving the construction, care and maintenance of exotic matter bridges, and casually tossing off transporting wormhole ends at near-C velocities (the energy budget of that seems about as far advanced from Gibson's portable tokamaks as they would be from coal fires), I got really annoyed with his reversal of which wormhole end permits future directed time travel, and didn't much care for single world determinism as a consequence of closed timelike curves.
But if you're looking for action and don't care too much about the motivations of characters or the internal consistency of the world building, the book might work for you.
This book had a lot of exciting things about it. Quite a few of the characters were fully formed and I enjoyed the multiple perspectives. I really enjoyed some of the ambiguity of the ending, however I believe the book could have easily added five pages earlier.
Gibson takes his readers to the brink in this hard-hitting science fiction novel about government intrigue and conspiracy at the end of the world, but while it hits all the right buttons with its action, dialogue, and mind-bending themes, it remains curiously lacking in charm.
Reviewed this for work, so if you want to read the whole review, then visit http://www.cheshire-today.co.uk/culture/review-final-days-gary-gibson
Reviewed this for work, so if you want to read the whole review, then visit http://www.cheshire-today.co.uk/culture/review-final-days-gary-gibson