Reviews

The Killing of Worlds by Scott Westerfeld

crowsandprose's review

3.0

They did this book a disservice by splitting it into two volumes. Dry, often in love with its own ambition, of disjointed, but it weaves an amazing tale all the same. Could have used a stronger editor, though.

rossbm's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A great followup to the first book in the duology, "The risen empire", though the books are tightly couple and short, so feels more like a second volume, rather than the second in a series. Here we get the space battle, very hard sci-fi, with relative velocities and communication delays being big factors. The revelation of the empire's secret and the political machinations back on Home feel a bit simple, not a good as the space battle and action sequences. Still, a very fun book.

rheren's review against another edition

4.0

Great sci-fi, loved the world, the complex storyline, and the intricacy of the technology. The story kind of petered out at the end: I liked the story overall, but it feels like it ended with only half of a conclusion, and with a lot of loose ends that felt unsatisfying. Also, trying to shoehorn in the "love overcomes all" theme through the H_rd and Laurent Zai stories felt somewhat forced, I felt like it was a weakness of the book. It never explained several of the things that had me scratching my head.

Spoiler

why did Rana Harter act so differently from every other elevated dead in history? Just because it was mildly convenient for the plot, apparently. And why was the secret so devastating... I mean, 500 years is still a long time, is it really that big of a deal? Also, why couldn't the Rix have "incubated" Alexander on one of the more compliant worlds, since it was said at one point that every other civilization around them are somehow fine with Rix compound minds (which strikes me as laughable)? Why did they have to forcibly do it here, except to further the technophiliac terrorist cult aspect to their society, something that the whole rest of the story seems to downplay. And why did Alexander and H_rd care about other humans: seems like their theology and sociology should've trained them out of that? I felt like Rix society was not well-thought-out or internally consistent, unlike almost everything else about the book.

So there were a few things I was unhappy with, but I did enjoy the overall story a lot.

surfmonkey01's review against another edition

4.0

Pretty darned awesome. Having read the first book and this one in rapid succession, I agree that it was definitely written as one novel. As such, it is best to read them together to get the proper effect. And what an effect it is! I don't know where to start gushing without spoiling things left and right, so suffice it to say: read this duology! Now!

And Mr. Westerfeld -- write another one! That ending was waaaaay too open to not do so....

aiight's review against another edition

3.0

Very consistent with the first book. I enjoyed it despite the plot holes and the hand waving and the exposition, mostly because I was in the mood for a military sci-fi adventure. The book ends on a larger precipice, content to explore 'the beginning' of the story. It is just as disjointed as the first book, if not more so, because of the perspective changes that often do not contribute to the narrative. The book succeeds at doing what it sets out to do which, in the end, is rather modest.

spriggana's review against another edition

4.0

OK, for me the Great Secret was not a world shattering information. But the Risen culture reminded me of Earthsea's afterlife (the one from first books), which I hate…

skylar2's review against another edition

4.0

This book had a great plot, but I think it ended too soon. There were plenty of unanswered questions at the end.

caryndi's review

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

I found the writing in this book stronger than its predecessor, and there was still plenty of drama and politics to go around! The ending read as if he planned to write a sequel, and while it wrapped up the book in a satisfactory way, I do wish he'd been able to continue the series.

mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition

4.0

Book 2 of a two parter. Scott Westerfeld is certainly more well-known for his YA than his hard sf. It's too bad he hasn't written more in this space. This book dragged a bit compared to the firs book. And I didn't completely buy his society ending secret. But his ideas were good ones. The Rix commando was believable and different. The use of hyper-sleep as artificial fast sleep, the destruction of the Lynx bit by bit, the Plague people as a reservoir of genetic strength all added much. And I liked the characters as well.

braidans_books's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.5