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crimsoncor's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
From the absolutely stunning cold open to the book to the crazy inventive integration of historical narrative into this very fictionalize tail of the space race, there really isn't anything not to love about this book. The writing is terse and energized. The relationship between the two main characters is complex and odd. Definitely odd. The non-humanity yet essential humanness of the Kibsu really works. The author's love of space and the history of humanity striving for the stars shines through every page. Loved this book.
timinbc's review against another edition
3.0
Worthwhile, maybe memorable, but I won't call it good.
If I hadn't already known quite a bit of the history of rockets and space flight, this book would be excellent for that alone.
It's an interesting idea: what if our journey to the stars has needed and had outside help?
But after 300 pages I don't know who/what the helpers are, how they got here, why they are humanlike, why they are helping, or why half of them are trying to stop the other half. And why have they split male-female?
And I wonder how Neuvel decided that these helpers (and by extension their opponents) would be JUST like us only capable of superhuman physical feats. We have straight-up reporting of scientists, and suddenly we have Marvel Comics / graphic novel gore violence. And there's a lot of it.
Mia's a whiner, and gets a lot of page time. Her social ineptness is OK, but we spend too much time on it. It's hard to like her - but why do we have to? Maybe it works better this way.
What saves this book for me is nearer the end, where we are shown that some of the super-characters all along have been asking the classic question, "are we the baddies?"
If I hadn't already known quite a bit of the history of rockets and space flight, this book would be excellent for that alone.
It's an interesting idea: what if our journey to the stars has needed and had outside help?
But after 300 pages I don't know who/what the helpers are, how they got here, why they are humanlike, why they are helping, or why half of them are trying to stop the other half. And why have they split male-female?
And I wonder how Neuvel decided that these helpers (and by extension their opponents) would be JUST like us only capable of superhuman physical feats. We have straight-up reporting of scientists, and suddenly we have Marvel Comics / graphic novel gore violence. And there's a lot of it.
Mia's a whiner, and gets a lot of page time. Her social ineptness is OK, but we spend too much time on it. It's hard to like her - but why do we have to? Maybe it works better this way.
What saves this book for me is nearer the end, where we are shown that some of the super-characters all along have been asking the classic question, "are we the baddies?"
joellenroberts's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
sentetia's review against another edition
1.0
DNF @17%
I am so bored.
How is this the same author that wrote the Themis Files?!
I am so bored.
How is this the same author that wrote the Themis Files?!
s_h_a_r_i's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting idea, obviously very well-researched for the history bits (the author epilogue was fun!).
The audiobook production was very good, but I suspect that reading a book that is 100% dialogues might be incredibly annoying.
The audiobook production was very good, but I suspect that reading a book that is 100% dialogues might be incredibly annoying.
jenhurst's review against another edition
2.0
I can see that the author put a lot of work into this book and it’s very well researched. It’s a really interesting idea. This book just didn’t work for me at all. It involves a Soviet style space race and 99 generations of families, which sounds fascinating but was just so boring. I admit i skimmed most of this. It just really wasn’t for me :(. I loved the Test and am very excited to read sleeping giants though.
liormaleficent's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
mllejoyeuxnoel's review against another edition
5.0
Don’t skip the Further Reading. Fascinating. And LOL-inducing.
thecurseofchris's review against another edition
DNF. I wanted to bad to like this book because the premise sounded absolutely incredible, but the writing just was not doing it for me. I even tried the audiobook and I think that made it a little more irritating. I'm sure others would enjoy this but I couldn't get into it.
cheeky_sifter's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75