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loudkiwa's review against another edition
4.0
The Ouroboros Wave didn't catch my eye at first. It was not what I would typically read, but I had enough money in my pocket, and the store owner said it was a great book, so I gave it a chance. Not even ten pages into it and I was fascinated by everything going on.
When I first began the book, I had no idea it was a series of related short stories. I was so gripped with the first story, I was rather disappointed when it came to an end, and actually rejected the second story as I read. But, as I continued reading, I felt the sense of connectedness. Even as I went about my day, my mind continued to think about the stories, the characters, and the whole world Jyouji was creating. Each story was a slice of time, each story created another piece of the giant network which was the very book itself.
The world Jyouji created is something I would most definitely like to live in, and his book is something I would love to reread time and time again. I first read this book a year ago, and I can still remember the set of stories as if I had just finished them. Each are vibrant and colorful in their own way as they carry on a set of feelings. I liken it to riding waves.
Overall, I think this book was very enjoyable, and led me to think deeply about many things. It is because of this book I've grown an interest in science fiction novels.
When I first began the book, I had no idea it was a series of related short stories. I was so gripped with the first story, I was rather disappointed when it came to an end, and actually rejected the second story as I read. But, as I continued reading, I felt the sense of connectedness. Even as I went about my day, my mind continued to think about the stories, the characters, and the whole world Jyouji was creating. Each story was a slice of time, each story created another piece of the giant network which was the very book itself.
The world Jyouji created is something I would most definitely like to live in, and his book is something I would love to reread time and time again. I first read this book a year ago, and I can still remember the set of stories as if I had just finished them. Each are vibrant and colorful in their own way as they carry on a set of feelings. I liken it to riding waves.
Overall, I think this book was very enjoyable, and led me to think deeply about many things. It is because of this book I've grown an interest in science fiction novels.
ultranurd's review against another edition
3.0
First, this edition is actually only 267 pages long, but as I am not a Goodreads Librarian, I couldn't correct it. That said, it does feel a bit like there are 83 pages missing from the end. This is because while it seems like a novel, it's actually a collection of short stories with a connecting arc and some shared characters who evolve over the course the timeline (which spans roughly 100 years). The author himself acknowledges in the afterword that he's working on some longer-form fiction continuing in this setting, but that the basis for these stories has been floating around in his head since the late '80s when he first heard about the idea of using a small black hole's accretion disk for energy production.
The different short stories had pretty varying levels of quality; the last two in particular were disappointing in terms of length, character development, and the sense that they were unfinished. I would definitely like to see what happens in this world after the end of the book. A couple of the stories had very interesting concepts, especially to me as a sort of AI researcher, but also as political allegory. One of the main organizations in the book, AADD, is fairly close to a futuristic version of what I typically define as Nicktopia, a form of science-oriented meritocracy that I acknowledge would probably never actually work.
As for the hard sci-fi aspect, I don't read a huge amount of it, but I liked that the technologies of this setting were based largely on what we know is possible. For example, they have matter/antimatter drives using antimatter extracted from the plot-motivating MacGuffin black hole, but they just give you a really powerful ion drive, not FTL. They regularly deal with non-instantaneous communication across the solar system, just like present-day robotic probes do. The scientist characters are often involved in active research, including debugging AIs' non-human models of the world, large-scale space construction (enabled simply by the assumption that cheap energy + asteroids = large amounts of carbon nanotube production), gravity wave interferometers, networked computer implants (but no uploading or anything Singularitarian), and the like. This made it harder to tell allegorical stories a la Star Trek, but it also made it seem like a much more realistic and possible future. There were a few diagrams that I felt were unnecessary, but at the same time, once the author used them, there were other places where it would have been helpful to have a descriptive map or similar.
As I mentioned previously in one of my comments while reading the book, the translation is literal in a way that results in some odd English dialog. I confirmed with a Japanese-speaking friend that a lot of the seemingly excess "acknowledgement" words would have been present in the original Japanese text, and seem totally normal in Japanese (indicating various things like deference to authority, agreement, and the like), so it's odd to me that Hubbert decided to include them when they just feel like odd filler in English spoken sentences. I guess the original author wanted them maintained? This was my secondary complaint after the varying quality in the stories (it's possible that the translation can be blamed for some of that), which is why I could only give it 3 stars overall even though some of the individual stories are 4 or 5.
The different short stories had pretty varying levels of quality; the last two in particular were disappointing in terms of length, character development, and the sense that they were unfinished. I would definitely like to see what happens in this world after the end of the book. A couple of the stories had very interesting concepts, especially to me as a sort of AI researcher, but also as political allegory. One of the main organizations in the book, AADD, is fairly close to a futuristic version of what I typically define as Nicktopia, a form of science-oriented meritocracy that I acknowledge would probably never actually work.
As for the hard sci-fi aspect, I don't read a huge amount of it, but I liked that the technologies of this setting were based largely on what we know is possible. For example, they have matter/antimatter drives using antimatter extracted from the plot-motivating MacGuffin black hole, but they just give you a really powerful ion drive, not FTL. They regularly deal with non-instantaneous communication across the solar system, just like present-day robotic probes do. The scientist characters are often involved in active research, including debugging AIs' non-human models of the world, large-scale space construction (enabled simply by the assumption that cheap energy + asteroids = large amounts of carbon nanotube production), gravity wave interferometers, networked computer implants (but no uploading or anything Singularitarian), and the like. This made it harder to tell allegorical stories a la Star Trek, but it also made it seem like a much more realistic and possible future. There were a few diagrams that I felt were unnecessary, but at the same time, once the author used them, there were other places where it would have been helpful to have a descriptive map or similar.
As I mentioned previously in one of my comments while reading the book, the translation is literal in a way that results in some odd English dialog. I confirmed with a Japanese-speaking friend that a lot of the seemingly excess "acknowledgement" words would have been present in the original Japanese text, and seem totally normal in Japanese (indicating various things like deference to authority, agreement, and the like), so it's odd to me that Hubbert decided to include them when they just feel like odd filler in English spoken sentences. I guess the original author wanted them maintained? This was my secondary complaint after the varying quality in the stories (it's possible that the translation can be blamed for some of that), which is why I could only give it 3 stars overall even though some of the individual stories are 4 or 5.
anidharker's review against another edition
3.0
Story wise this'd get a 4 star, but execution wise it's a 3. The links between the short stories took me a while to get, and the balance between story and tech-talk wasn't quite right either, so it was sometimes hard to follow.
yonnyan's review
2.0
Do you ever anticipate a book so much that when you finally get around to reading it, it ends up being such a humongous disappointment and your heart breaks?
Welcome to my reading adventure with [b:The Ouroboros Wave|7326882|The Ouroboros Wave|Jyouji Hayashi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348536549s/7326882.jpg|8940795] by Jyōji Hayashi.
Sometime in the distant future, scientists discover the presence of a small black hole that is on a collision course with the sun of our solar system. While trying to concoct a means of diverting its current course, scientists create a plan to harness the power of this black hole as an energy source. This book is an #OwnVoices Japanese, hard science-fiction novel that's published by Haikasoru, a subsidiary of Viz Media, LLC.
Doesn't that sound like one bitchin' premise?
That basic plot outline is what drew my attention towards this novel in the first place. I absolutely love black holes. The physics and science behind them fascinate me to no avail. I'm one of those people who believe that black holes are quite possibly one of the greatest and most mind-blowing things in existence. However, when I finally picked the book up to learn more about this narrative, I learned very quickly that this was one story in a short story collection. I was so royally disappointed, to put it lightly.
Now, when I am interested in a book, I rarely look at reviews for the title because I don’t want to know anything about it. I tend to have the most positive and interactive reading responses from titles that I am ignorant of, regarding plot elements specifically, not harmful representation or content. I always keep an eye out for that much at the very least. Upon finishing the book, I did look up reviews (there really aren’t that many at all!). Only a couple of them mentioned that this was a short story collection. This boggled my mind because it’s not advertised as an anthology…anywhere. I looked it up on Amazon, GoodReads, Barnes & Noble, and Litsy. As someone who doesn’t typically read short stories—when I do read them, I try to prepare myself mentally for them—I must confess that it was a terrible way to begin my journey with this book.
The element that further cemented my disappointment was that upon reaching the end of the story, “The Ouroboros Wave,” it ended up revolving around something wholeheartedly different than what I was expecting. The narrative was an intellectual examination of how artificial intelligence views human beings regarding their programming, and how human “processes” differ from an AI. To be honest, it was intriguing and raised some marvellous questions about the evolutionary process of said AI… but I wanted a tale about a black hole, goddammit. Unfortunately, this wasn’t even the biggest issue with [b:The Ouroboros Wave.|7326882|The Ouroboros Wave|Jyouji Hayashi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348536549s/7326882.jpg|8940795]
The introduction in the first story gives us a basic outline about the black hole that was discovered and how humanity’s main goal was to alter its course, so it doesn’t destroy our solar system. We also learn about a space station where scientists were working hard on this task and a bit about what life is like for them. Then the story begins with some characters chit-chatting. Yet, when it came time to learn more information about the settings and technicalities of their work, the dialogue would halt midway and we’d be presented with walls and walls of data. Nothing was interwoven into the storytelling at all. It literally felt like the book hit “pause” in the middle of the narrative to explain some shit, and then it hit “play” when it was finished.
It was extremely disjointed and created a horribly uncomfortable pace as we moved forwards. There were times when I felt like I was blowing through it, page-by-page, but then I would slam into these textual walls, moving at snail’s speed. It made it very challenging for me to retain my focus, regardless of how much I enjoyed all the information that was pouring into my brain through my eyeballs. Due to their inherent detachment from everything else, it just wouldn’t connect in my brain, which led to boredom.
I hate being bored whilst reading science-fiction. I mean, it’s my favourite fucking genre!
I will say, however, that this issue does improve a little bit with the other stories. You still encounter it, but it’s not nearly as frustrating as it is in the first short story. What you encounter instead are time jumps that cover anywhere from twenty to a couple of hundred years in between. This is an issue because each individual instalment is supposed to be one cog in an overall structure, yet due to poor execution, it’s difficult to tell that it’s all interconnected, or supposed to be at the very least. Story A will not be fleshed out, or even reach a comfortable finale at all, and suddenly we are on Story B that has similar problems. We do get some recurring characters, which helps with that unified feeling, but only to a tiny extent.
In addition to the insufficient fluffing of the tales, another thing that I noticed is that as we get closer and closer to the end of the entire book, each instalment becomes increasingly rushed and incomplete, bordering on incoherent with certain situations. More frustration filled my brain, clouding my patience.
Even with these facets, there is still one more aspect that surpasses all of them as the worse thing about [b:The Ouroboros Wave...|7326882|The Ouroboros Wave|Jyouji Hayashi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348536549s/7326882.jpg|8940795] *drum roll*… the translation. It’s horrendous.
I’ve lost count as to how many times I have encountered English-translated-Japanese books that have suffered horribly at the hands of inconsistent and incorrect translations. There is a huge difference between literal and contextual translations! If you confuse them, you risk changing the entire fucking dynamics of a book! They are very different and it’s so fucking important to be able to differentiate between them!
My cousin, who speaks, reads, writes, and flirts (‘tis a joke, haha) in fluent Japanese (he grew up and lives in Osaka, Japan) is someone with whom I conferred with on this matter, as he had read the title in its native tongue. I expressed to him some of my suspicions in very specific parts of [b:The Ouroboros Wave,|7326882|The Ouroboros Wave|Jyouji Hayashi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348536549s/7326882.jpg|8940795] and he helped me to understand what it was supposed to say, or read as. If translated correctly, I feel that a lot of those cohesive and disjointed feelings that I received would have been resolved, which would have created a completely different reading experience for me.
Look, I know that translating shit is no easy slice of pie. Trust me, as someone who speaks multiple languages and spends some of her time translating stuff, it can be really fucking hard. But poor translations can result in stereotyping an entire language or region for “bad writing” when that really isn’t the case at all. It can mar a very talented writer’s credibility. Not to mention that it can inadvertently change something wonderful into something offensive (oh yes, I’ve encountered this before as well). It’s so important to make sure that you can get someone who knows the difference between literal and contextual, as well as someone who can understand idioms.
Aside from all these cons, there was one good thing to [b:The Ouroboros Wave,|7326882|The Ouroboros Wave|Jyouji Hayashi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348536549s/7326882.jpg|8940795] and that was the science. While being presented in an awkward means, it’s still fucking brilliant! The physics, engineering, programming, astronomy—all of it was exceptional and did a fantastic job of complementing the dilemmas that the scientists faced. I will say that it’s all SUPER technical, so if you are not a fan of comprehensively detailed scientific prattling, you will more than likely not enjoy it. But I adored it! It made my brain think in ways that I don’t normally do. When a book can get me to contemplate extensively complex and intelligent concepts, I swoon.
Overall, the book was a hot mess for multiple reasons. With good faith, I feel I would not be able to recommend it to anyone, nonetheless, I am going to recommend it to anyone who enjoys complexly mind-blowing science and questions involving sentient AI. Just go into it with a big ass bag of salt.
2 collisions outta 5!
Welcome to my reading adventure with [b:The Ouroboros Wave|7326882|The Ouroboros Wave|Jyouji Hayashi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348536549s/7326882.jpg|8940795] by Jyōji Hayashi.
Sometime in the distant future, scientists discover the presence of a small black hole that is on a collision course with the sun of our solar system. While trying to concoct a means of diverting its current course, scientists create a plan to harness the power of this black hole as an energy source. This book is an #OwnVoices Japanese, hard science-fiction novel that's published by Haikasoru, a subsidiary of Viz Media, LLC.
Doesn't that sound like one bitchin' premise?
That basic plot outline is what drew my attention towards this novel in the first place. I absolutely love black holes. The physics and science behind them fascinate me to no avail. I'm one of those people who believe that black holes are quite possibly one of the greatest and most mind-blowing things in existence. However, when I finally picked the book up to learn more about this narrative, I learned very quickly that this was one story in a short story collection. I was so royally disappointed, to put it lightly.
Now, when I am interested in a book, I rarely look at reviews for the title because I don’t want to know anything about it. I tend to have the most positive and interactive reading responses from titles that I am ignorant of, regarding plot elements specifically, not harmful representation or content. I always keep an eye out for that much at the very least. Upon finishing the book, I did look up reviews (there really aren’t that many at all!). Only a couple of them mentioned that this was a short story collection. This boggled my mind because it’s not advertised as an anthology…anywhere. I looked it up on Amazon, GoodReads, Barnes & Noble, and Litsy. As someone who doesn’t typically read short stories—when I do read them, I try to prepare myself mentally for them—I must confess that it was a terrible way to begin my journey with this book.
The element that further cemented my disappointment was that upon reaching the end of the story, “The Ouroboros Wave,” it ended up revolving around something wholeheartedly different than what I was expecting. The narrative was an intellectual examination of how artificial intelligence views human beings regarding their programming, and how human “processes” differ from an AI. To be honest, it was intriguing and raised some marvellous questions about the evolutionary process of said AI… but I wanted a tale about a black hole, goddammit. Unfortunately, this wasn’t even the biggest issue with [b:The Ouroboros Wave.|7326882|The Ouroboros Wave|Jyouji Hayashi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348536549s/7326882.jpg|8940795]
The introduction in the first story gives us a basic outline about the black hole that was discovered and how humanity’s main goal was to alter its course, so it doesn’t destroy our solar system. We also learn about a space station where scientists were working hard on this task and a bit about what life is like for them. Then the story begins with some characters chit-chatting. Yet, when it came time to learn more information about the settings and technicalities of their work, the dialogue would halt midway and we’d be presented with walls and walls of data. Nothing was interwoven into the storytelling at all. It literally felt like the book hit “pause” in the middle of the narrative to explain some shit, and then it hit “play” when it was finished.
It was extremely disjointed and created a horribly uncomfortable pace as we moved forwards. There were times when I felt like I was blowing through it, page-by-page, but then I would slam into these textual walls, moving at snail’s speed. It made it very challenging for me to retain my focus, regardless of how much I enjoyed all the information that was pouring into my brain through my eyeballs. Due to their inherent detachment from everything else, it just wouldn’t connect in my brain, which led to boredom.
I hate being bored whilst reading science-fiction. I mean, it’s my favourite fucking genre!
I will say, however, that this issue does improve a little bit with the other stories. You still encounter it, but it’s not nearly as frustrating as it is in the first short story. What you encounter instead are time jumps that cover anywhere from twenty to a couple of hundred years in between. This is an issue because each individual instalment is supposed to be one cog in an overall structure, yet due to poor execution, it’s difficult to tell that it’s all interconnected, or supposed to be at the very least. Story A will not be fleshed out, or even reach a comfortable finale at all, and suddenly we are on Story B that has similar problems. We do get some recurring characters, which helps with that unified feeling, but only to a tiny extent.
In addition to the insufficient fluffing of the tales, another thing that I noticed is that as we get closer and closer to the end of the entire book, each instalment becomes increasingly rushed and incomplete, bordering on incoherent with certain situations. More frustration filled my brain, clouding my patience.
Even with these facets, there is still one more aspect that surpasses all of them as the worse thing about [b:The Ouroboros Wave...|7326882|The Ouroboros Wave|Jyouji Hayashi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348536549s/7326882.jpg|8940795] *drum roll*… the translation. It’s horrendous.
I’ve lost count as to how many times I have encountered English-translated-Japanese books that have suffered horribly at the hands of inconsistent and incorrect translations. There is a huge difference between literal and contextual translations! If you confuse them, you risk changing the entire fucking dynamics of a book! They are very different and it’s so fucking important to be able to differentiate between them!
My cousin, who speaks, reads, writes, and flirts (‘tis a joke, haha) in fluent Japanese (he grew up and lives in Osaka, Japan) is someone with whom I conferred with on this matter, as he had read the title in its native tongue. I expressed to him some of my suspicions in very specific parts of [b:The Ouroboros Wave,|7326882|The Ouroboros Wave|Jyouji Hayashi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348536549s/7326882.jpg|8940795] and he helped me to understand what it was supposed to say, or read as. If translated correctly, I feel that a lot of those cohesive and disjointed feelings that I received would have been resolved, which would have created a completely different reading experience for me.
Look, I know that translating shit is no easy slice of pie. Trust me, as someone who speaks multiple languages and spends some of her time translating stuff, it can be really fucking hard. But poor translations can result in stereotyping an entire language or region for “bad writing” when that really isn’t the case at all. It can mar a very talented writer’s credibility. Not to mention that it can inadvertently change something wonderful into something offensive (oh yes, I’ve encountered this before as well). It’s so important to make sure that you can get someone who knows the difference between literal and contextual, as well as someone who can understand idioms.
Aside from all these cons, there was one good thing to [b:The Ouroboros Wave,|7326882|The Ouroboros Wave|Jyouji Hayashi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348536549s/7326882.jpg|8940795] and that was the science. While being presented in an awkward means, it’s still fucking brilliant! The physics, engineering, programming, astronomy—all of it was exceptional and did a fantastic job of complementing the dilemmas that the scientists faced. I will say that it’s all SUPER technical, so if you are not a fan of comprehensively detailed scientific prattling, you will more than likely not enjoy it. But I adored it! It made my brain think in ways that I don’t normally do. When a book can get me to contemplate extensively complex and intelligent concepts, I swoon.
Overall, the book was a hot mess for multiple reasons. With good faith, I feel I would not be able to recommend it to anyone, nonetheless, I am going to recommend it to anyone who enjoys complexly mind-blowing science and questions involving sentient AI. Just go into it with a big ass bag of salt.
2 collisions outta 5!
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