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rheren's review against another edition
2.0
Sigh, very disappointing. First of all, this is a sequel, and I didn't read book 1, so maybe it's better if you've read the first one. The idea is an interesting one- a ringworld-type story- but I wasn't pulled into the story at all.
The big premise is that humans are made "peacekeepers" of this fantastic "ringworld"-type construct with thousands of alien races on it. Humans are demonstrating an astonishing, spectacular, incomprehensible incompetence at this job: one of the things that put me off throughout the book. Apparently the god-like race that put them in charge made a monumentally stupid decision here.
The main character also sucks all the excitement out of the story, which is terrible because he was a really likable guy. This just wasn't a good story for him to shine. Let me say it this way: I like sci-fi action books, and I also like slow-moving, introspective, philosophical sci-fi books. This was the worst of both: a naively pacifistic main character racked with self-doubt is dragged along on an action adventure that he's too incompetent to take part in very much and too self-conflicted to think about very much. Blah.
Interesting premise, and some fascinating creativity in some of the worlds that he created, but overall I didn't like the way it turned out. Perhaps I should say that the setting was awesome, but the storyline sucked.
The big premise is that humans are made "peacekeepers" of this fantastic "ringworld"-type construct with thousands of alien races on it. Humans are demonstrating an astonishing, spectacular, incomprehensible incompetence at this job: one of the things that put me off throughout the book. Apparently the god-like race that put them in charge made a monumentally stupid decision here.
The main character also sucks all the excitement out of the story, which is terrible because he was a really likable guy. This just wasn't a good story for him to shine. Let me say it this way: I like sci-fi action books, and I also like slow-moving, introspective, philosophical sci-fi books. This was the worst of both: a naively pacifistic main character racked with self-doubt is dragged along on an action adventure that he's too incompetent to take part in very much and too self-conflicted to think about very much. Blah.
Interesting premise, and some fascinating creativity in some of the worlds that he created, but overall I didn't like the way it turned out. Perhaps I should say that the setting was awesome, but the storyline sucked.
secretbadass's review
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
djwudi's review against another edition
3.0
First off, to borrow an old cliché, don't judge this book by its cover. The cover, of a suited warrior firing a laser rifle against a backdrop of explosions, gives the impression that this is a military sci-fi novel (a genre which I'm not terribly interested in). Instead, this book, the second in a series, has much more in common with Larry Niven's _Ringworld_, as it deals with the interplay between races on a giant helical constructed world, wrapped around a star like a slinky, with thousands of cylindrical worlds strung along like beads on a necklace.
However much the construct may invite comparisons to Niven's Ringworld, though, Brown's worldbuilding isn't quite so engrossing. The structure of the Helix allows for lots of variety in environments and races, but leaves a lot of the technical underpinnings (for instance, how do the individual worlds have gravity?) to be either entirely unexplained or brushed off as "technology so advanced we can't understand it". The concept sounds very hard-SF, but the execution leaves something to be desired.
That said, the book isn't at all bad, though it's not likely to end up as my pick for this year's P.K. Dick award (for which it is one of seven nominees). I just hoped for a little more Niven-like exploration of the hard-SF concept that instead acts as little more than an interesting background for the story itself.
However much the construct may invite comparisons to Niven's Ringworld, though, Brown's worldbuilding isn't quite so engrossing. The structure of the Helix allows for lots of variety in environments and races, but leaves a lot of the technical underpinnings (for instance, how do the individual worlds have gravity?) to be either entirely unexplained or brushed off as "technology so advanced we can't understand it". The concept sounds very hard-SF, but the execution leaves something to be desired.
That said, the book isn't at all bad, though it's not likely to end up as my pick for this year's P.K. Dick award (for which it is one of seven nominees). I just hoped for a little more Niven-like exploration of the hard-SF concept that instead acts as little more than an interesting background for the story itself.
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