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pjonsson's review against another edition
3.0
On the whole this has been a enjoyable series. Most of the books have been 4 out of 5 stars for me with a few in the 3 out of 5 star. I was hesitating as to what to give this one but in the end I settled for a 3 star rating.
Ian Douglas writes good stuff. Characters, dialogue, action etc… are all well done. I do like most of the characters including the AI Konstantin. I do like the action. All those things are quite good as always with this author.
What I am less inclined to like is that the author really goes far out with the fictional elements. We are presented with almost God-like entities, superintelligences and a story which is really almost entering fantasy land. That includes time travel which I always despise. It’s just wrong and almost always just a cheap plot element to either cover up problems with the plot or to introduce sensational elements. A big fail more often than not.
Since I felt somewhat hesitant over the story from the start the author didn’t exactly make it better when he felt obliged to introduce nonsense statements about how we supposedly are refusing to discuss climate change while sea levels are rising and coastal cities are flooding. Crap serving only to score cheap political correctness points.
So overall, even though I did enjoy the book, it was probably one of the weaker ones for me.
Ian Douglas writes good stuff. Characters, dialogue, action etc… are all well done. I do like most of the characters including the AI Konstantin. I do like the action. All those things are quite good as always with this author.
What I am less inclined to like is that the author really goes far out with the fictional elements. We are presented with almost God-like entities, superintelligences and a story which is really almost entering fantasy land. That includes time travel which I always despise. It’s just wrong and almost always just a cheap plot element to either cover up problems with the plot or to introduce sensational elements. A big fail more often than not.
Since I felt somewhat hesitant over the story from the start the author didn’t exactly make it better when he felt obliged to introduce nonsense statements about how we supposedly are refusing to discuss climate change while sea levels are rising and coastal cities are flooding. Crap serving only to score cheap political correctness points.
So overall, even though I did enjoy the book, it was probably one of the weaker ones for me.
bosermoki's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-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
sbisson's review against another edition
4.0
Recent Reads: Star Carrier Bright Light. Volume 8 in Ian Douglas' space opera series concludes its universe-spanning Conciousness arc. A visit to a superintelligence that feeds off blue stars might just be the key to saving more than just Earth. Super AIs last all universe long.
snowcrash's review against another edition
3.0
Here we find ourselves in the 8th installment of the ongoing saga of the humans vs. the rest of the galaxy. At present I'm not sure how much more can be mined from this story. I have read everything written by the author under this pseudonym. I think his older books have more substance.
As always, the author takes the latest ideas of today and extrapolates them out to an extreme. Don't get me wrong, it is part of the fun to see how far they play out. Tabby's Star is an excellent example. Or the idea of emergent intelligence from trillions of individual micro machines. Here it is mainly a quest for the humans to communicate with things bigger and more advanced then themselves. Not as much action this time around, just a lot more zooming around with some problems waved away (lots of expository paragraphs about time dilation).
In the end, this is about average space opera. The author has done much of this before. It does feel like this could be an end point in the series. I think eight books is long enough. As I said, the author's books are overall a lot of fun to read. He makes excellent points about consciousness and the merging of organic & machine intelligences. But he needs a new story to bring a fresh perspective.
As always, the author takes the latest ideas of today and extrapolates them out to an extreme. Don't get me wrong, it is part of the fun to see how far they play out. Tabby's Star is an excellent example. Or the idea of emergent intelligence from trillions of individual micro machines. Here it is mainly a quest for the humans to communicate with things bigger and more advanced then themselves. Not as much action this time around, just a lot more zooming around with some problems waved away (lots of expository paragraphs about time dilation).
In the end, this is about average space opera. The author has done much of this before. It does feel like this could be an end point in the series. I think eight books is long enough. As I said, the author's books are overall a lot of fun to read. He makes excellent points about consciousness and the merging of organic & machine intelligences. But he needs a new story to bring a fresh perspective.
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