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timinbc's review against another edition
3.0
Three and a half. My memory will be of a solid end to the trilogy.
And let's not forget how rare that is.
BUT:
In Grade 7, I had a classmate named Bob. We called him "F**** Bob" because every third f*** word out of Bob's f**** mouth was "F****". He'd put "f****" into the middle of long words, like dictio-f***-nary. But John, that was Grade 7, and Bob was weird. I am not afraid to say fuck, and I often do, but this went beyond character-defining, past satire, and into the same bucket as characters who say "mesay" and don't make me mention THAT character. Anyway, Kiva's great but this overwriting spoiled her for me.
That ending was really slick, but not so fast. "I'm breaking up the houses." Sure, but they are the foundation of your politics and your economy. You can't just DO that. We need another book now. Suppose you DID get everyone to END reasonably quickly. WHAT HAPPENED?" Civil war? A new paradigm?
Also, did we agree that End would remain connected to other places ( I forget), because if not, why is it a better place to be?
Anyway, I do applaud the idea that not all the main characters have to make it to the end of the book.
Was I the only one who, whenever Nadashe was mentioned, wondered where Boris was? She is SO much the Natasha from Boris and ....
Finally, there really was a lot of recap and telling-not-showing. Scalzi admitted he wrote under deadline pressure and it shows, even before knowing that.
If only Patrick Rothfuss had some deadline pressure ....
And let's not forget how rare that is.
BUT:
In Grade 7, I had a classmate named Bob. We called him "F**** Bob" because every third f*** word out of Bob's f**** mouth was "F****". He'd put "f****" into the middle of long words, like dictio-f***-nary. But John, that was Grade 7, and Bob was weird. I am not afraid to say fuck, and I often do, but this went beyond character-defining, past satire, and into the same bucket as characters who say "mesay" and don't make me mention THAT character. Anyway, Kiva's great but this overwriting spoiled her for me.
That ending was really slick, but not so fast. "I'm breaking up the houses." Sure, but they are the foundation of your politics and your economy. You can't just DO that. We need another book now. Suppose you DID get everyone to END reasonably quickly. WHAT HAPPENED?" Civil war? A new paradigm?
Also, did we agree that End would remain connected to other places ( I forget), because if not, why is it a better place to be?
Anyway, I do applaud the idea that not all the main characters have to make it to the end of the book.
Was I the only one who, whenever Nadashe was mentioned, wondered where Boris was? She is SO much the Natasha from Boris and ....
Finally, there really was a lot of recap and telling-not-showing. Scalzi admitted he wrote under deadline pressure and it shows, even before knowing that.
If only Patrick Rothfuss had some deadline pressure ....
niktaylor's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
testaroscia's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this series, and I hope it will spawn spin offs (or a Douglas Adams' like "five book" trilogy.) Full of thoughtful ideas and snappy dialog I can safely say that Kiva Lagos is now one of my top five fictional characters of all time.
dliebl's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
eesh25's review against another edition
4.0
4.25 Stars
he conclusion to the Interdependency series, and I liked the way it wrapped things up. I had some issues with events in the book, but I really liked the end. And that matters a lot when it comes to series conclusions. Because if a series ends badly, it ruins the whole experience for me. But this was great, and I wouldn't even mind a spin-off. Though it's not necessary. Anyway...
We kicked things off right after the events of The Consuming Fire but, before we got to the main characters, we got a prologue about how Ghreni is still a jackass. Yeah, after an entire book of wondering what was happening on End, we finally got something, which was good. Unfortunately, it didn't go beyond the prologue, which was disappointing.
Back on Hub, Cardenia was still trying to figure out a way to save the people of the Interdependency, and so was Marce. Their romance was, unfortunately, still a thing. And I still wanted Cardenia to die. So badly. And, again, it's not that I don't like her, I just felt that her death would be better because she was so uninteresting to me as a character. The only time I didn't want her to die was when Nadashe was trying to kill her. And that was only because I fuking loathe Nadashe.
But moving on from all the negative feelings, there's Kiva Lagos. I've loved her since the first book, and she's the best fucking part of the series. Though Marce isn't bad either.
But mainly, the story of the book was good. I'm usually more of a character-development-arc person, but the lack of it didn't bother me. I liked that we were still discovering new things about the Flow. And all the political maneuverings were fun and kept you on your toes. Though really, the entire series has been very engaging with a great pace. Plus, I always appreciate humour in books.
That's why, even though this will likely not be a favourite series, it's one I'll remember fondly because it was fun, consistently good, and it ended well. So I'm definitely going to be reading more by the author.
he conclusion to the Interdependency series, and I liked the way it wrapped things up. I had some issues with events in the book, but I really liked the end. And that matters a lot when it comes to series conclusions. Because if a series ends badly, it ruins the whole experience for me. But this was great, and I wouldn't even mind a spin-off. Though it's not necessary. Anyway...
We kicked things off right after the events of The Consuming Fire but, before we got to the main characters, we got a prologue about how Ghreni is still a jackass. Yeah, after an entire book of wondering what was happening on End, we finally got something, which was good. Unfortunately, it didn't go beyond the prologue, which was disappointing.
Back on Hub, Cardenia was still trying to figure out a way to save the people of the Interdependency, and so was Marce. Their romance was, unfortunately, still a thing. And I still wanted Cardenia to die. So badly. And, again, it's not that I don't like her, I just felt that her death would be better because she was so uninteresting to me as a character. The only time I didn't want her to die was when Nadashe was trying to kill her. And that was only because I fuking loathe Nadashe.
But moving on from all the negative feelings, there's Kiva Lagos. I've loved her since the first book, and she's the best fucking part of the series. Though Marce isn't bad either.
But mainly, the story of the book was good. I'm usually more of a character-development-arc person, but the lack of it didn't bother me. I liked that we were still discovering new things about the Flow. And all the political maneuverings were fun and kept you on your toes. Though really, the entire series has been very engaging with a great pace. Plus, I always appreciate humour in books.
That's why, even though this will likely not be a favourite series, it's one I'll remember fondly because it was fun, consistently good, and it ended well. So I'm definitely going to be reading more by the author.
majabwds's review against another edition
5.0
A great conclusion to the trilogy. I enjoyed the whole series. Kiva Lagos is still awesome!
sam_vimes_75's review against another edition
3.0
The final book is a disappointing end to an otherwise great series. Scalzi writes characters and dialogue with brilliance, but he uses the same tricks too many times. Foiling the antagonists with last minute reveals gets old when it comes up again and again. This might have worked better as two tighter books or even one long one instead. Regardless, the characters are enough to make it interesting to the end.
sannosmo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
frozencusser's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0