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beeswax's review against another edition
1.0
My entire bookclub hated this book. Issues with the narrator's personality and recycled plot aside, my main problem with it was that it doesn't stand alone as a complete novel. I don't care that it's supposed to be a trilogy; trilogies are three linked but separate books, and this is not one.
thrabenvaliant's review against another edition
4.0
I was impressed and loved so much of this book. It was captivating and real. I love the steam of conciousness setup with interspersed vignettes into the narrator's previous experiences. The last 1/8 of the book or so feels incredibly rushed though, and the editing drops off significantly. The ending feels like a rough draft that doesn't match the feel or voice of the rest of the book.
Great book, but feels like it got pushed to print because of a deadline.
Great book, but feels like it got pushed to print because of a deadline.
colossal's review against another edition
3.0
First contact between the Earth and the S'hudonni Mercantile Empire contrasts familial conflict with the early stages of colonialism.
Peter Holman is an ex-professional athlete turned freelance journalist and a pioneer of sweeping, an immersive sensory recording/playback system. He "happens" to observe the arrival of the alien S'hudonni and becomes involved in the Earth response to them almost immediately. As an early sweeper he's perfect for the aliens to use as a sort of combined propagandist/liaison and he becomes intimately involved with them, but in doing so comes into conflict with his brother. At the same time, the alien he is working with is also in conflict with his brother (they've divvied the Earth up between them).
I sort of see what the author is trying to do here. Unfortunately the Holman family issues are profoundly uninteresting (all revolving around various acts of infidelity) and the S'hudonni family issues far too opaque. On the surface they sound like feuding toddlers more than sophisticated alien invaders.
The recording technology and the AI helpmates are interesting and something could have happened there, but nothing is really done with them in this book. There's a creepy parallel between Peter's AI helpmate myBob and the alien Twoclicks's assistant. She does everything for Twoclicks that Peter's myBob does for him, and like myBob can read Peter's thoughts. Given Peter develops a relationship with "her" while still being with his girlfriend is something I find disturbing. It's not even clear to me that the alien assistant is actually sentient and not just set up as Peter's perfect sex object.
There's some interesting ideas here, but overall I'm left wondering what the point was to it all and it just doesn't feel very well executed.
Peter Holman is an ex-professional athlete turned freelance journalist and a pioneer of sweeping, an immersive sensory recording/playback system. He "happens" to observe the arrival of the alien S'hudonni and becomes involved in the Earth response to them almost immediately. As an early sweeper he's perfect for the aliens to use as a sort of combined propagandist/liaison and he becomes intimately involved with them, but in doing so comes into conflict with his brother. At the same time, the alien he is working with is also in conflict with his brother (they've divvied the Earth up between them).
I sort of see what the author is trying to do here. Unfortunately the Holman family issues are profoundly uninteresting (all revolving around various acts of infidelity) and the S'hudonni family issues far too opaque. On the surface they sound like feuding toddlers more than sophisticated alien invaders.
The recording technology and the AI helpmates are interesting and something could have happened there, but nothing is really done with them in this book. There's a creepy parallel between Peter's AI helpmate myBob and the alien Twoclicks's assistant. She does everything for Twoclicks that Peter's myBob does for him, and like myBob can read Peter's thoughts. Given Peter develops a relationship with "her" while still being with his girlfriend is something I find disturbing. It's not even clear to me that the alien assistant is actually sentient and not just set up as Peter's perfect sex object.
There's some interesting ideas here, but overall I'm left wondering what the point was to it all and it just doesn't feel very well executed.
charleshb's review
3.0
Pretty good yarn. My introduction to this universe. I hadn't read any of the short fiction in this universe that came before. Will look for that short fiction and more in the series.
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