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kerstincullen's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent hard SF. Reminiscent of the Bobiverse books, Revelation Space and the Three Body Problem, but with better writing and smart, likable characters that make understandable decisions.
synoptic_view's review against another edition
Spoilers throughout.
A mixed bag. I was really into the initial premise--last bastion of humanity holding out against a galactic machine intelligence by hiding in a bubble of space that re-aligns any machine spaceships that enter. But that gets dropped within the first couple chapters and is followed by a long (like 1/3 of the book long) and extremely boring section. Too many people have decided to go on a space journey, so the captain of the ship is forced to keep them in cold sleep. He ends up having a bunch of debates with the other two people who are onboard, then having more debates with the crew when they wake up. It all amounts to nothing in the end, and only rarely does anyone point out the obvious thing: that the ship couldn't support everyone if they were awake. This is especially frustrating because the characters are all supposed to be these hyper-rational transhumans. In the end, I started skipping each chapter that started with this plot point. After skipping my way through about 35% of the book, these debates mercifully ended.
The majority of the rest of the book is taken up by the people in the spaceship finding then doing battle with a potentially malevolent, human-derived computer virus/former god. This had some cool parts, but again I was struck by the fact that these supposedly smart people couldn't think to (literally) save their own lives.
Oh, and the audio-book narration was flat and contained multiple mispronunciations.
Everything I have said so far is pretty negative, but the book did have some cool bits. And I love the idea of living spaceships (really wish the spaceships had been more fleshed out as characters).
A mixed bag. I was really into the initial premise--last bastion of humanity holding out against a galactic machine intelligence by hiding in a bubble of space that re-aligns any machine spaceships that enter. But that gets dropped within the first couple chapters and is followed by a long (like 1/3 of the book long) and extremely boring section. Too many people have decided to go on a space journey, so the captain of the ship is forced to keep them in cold sleep. He ends up having a bunch of debates with the other two people who are onboard, then having more debates with the crew when they wake up. It all amounts to nothing in the end, and only rarely does anyone point out the obvious thing: that the ship couldn't support everyone if they were awake. This is especially frustrating because the characters are all supposed to be these hyper-rational transhumans. In the end, I started skipping each chapter that started with this plot point. After skipping my way through about 35% of the book, these debates mercifully ended.
The majority of the rest of the book is taken up by the people in the spaceship finding then doing battle with a potentially malevolent, human-derived computer virus/former god. This had some cool parts, but again I was struck by the fact that these supposedly smart people couldn't think to (literally) save their own lives.
Oh, and the audio-book narration was flat and contained multiple mispronunciations.
Everything I have said so far is pretty negative, but the book did have some cool bits. And I love the idea of living spaceships (really wish the spaceships had been more fleshed out as characters).
imyril's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Damn this was hard work. Intriguing ideas rendered flat and unapproachable (possibly due to the mechanical narrator) - I’m giving it 3 stars for ambition, but I didn’t enjoy it at all and don’t plan to continue the series.
clarkeyhk's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
buchanator's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
ielerol's review against another edition
4.0
I don't read a lot of straightforward hard science space opera these days, and maybe that's a mistake. I'd forgotten just how soothing I find lengthy explanations of barely plausible fictional tech. Plus most of this book consists of a bunch of nerds trying to do their best, which I also love. I honestly expected more interpersonal conflict on the Dragon based on the initial setup, but other than some routine disagreements the only real conflict is when the antagonist shows up at the very end, and I am into it.
I've had a couple of Linda Nagata ebooks for years now that I sort of forgot about, so clearly I have some catching up to do.
I've had a couple of Linda Nagata ebooks for years now that I sort of forgot about, so clearly I have some catching up to do.
jefffrane's review against another edition
5.0
Nagata returns to her galaxy-spanning, far-future universe with a stunning beginning to a new series. Hard SF with real and fascinating characters and solid tech. I consider Nagata to be one of a small group of cutting edge SF writers that deserve far more attention than they have gotten to date. Like Linda Nagata, they should all be showered with awards but at the very least, go out and by this book!
wynnz's review
1.0
Ok, let me start off by agreeing wholeheartedly with the one percenters. Straight off the bat, I did not like this book, not one iota. It's going to be more of a rant than a review.
In fact, I would go as far as to say, read the blurb, don’t bother with the book. I gained more information from the blurb than I did from the book. Whomever wrote the blurb did a good job, if the author wrote the blurb, then she should have continued in that vein. Instead, I got pretentious, highbrow claptrap. I also want to emphasise my utter contempt for this book by swearing, but swearing they say is a lack of vocabulary. Unfortunately, this book had the mother-lode of vocabulary, after every sentence I had to virtually look it up in the dictionary, in fact it was like reading the dictionary.
Language and vocabulary are as grand as her ideas, if you have a degree, PhD or a doctorate in literature, philosophy and any of the other ologies, then this is the book for you. I didn’t even know whether the characters were human, there were avatars, ghosts, copies, copies of copies, sub minds, was it the Matrix in space? Transhumanism? Consciousness uploaded or downloaded, were they all digital consciousness, I haven’t got a clue. On top of that there were the philosopher cell, WTF are the philosopher cells, I thought it was a bunch of philosophers sitting around discussing the meaning of life, metaphysics, epistemology, and there’s me thinking it was 42. Apparently, it's the coating of the spaceship, see I did read it, mind you I wish I hadn’t, I wished I'd been poked in the eye with a sharp stick, more enjoyment, I think.
Imagine a bald fat man sitting in his underwear in front of the TV, scratching his arse, smelling his fingers afterward, eating pizza and drinking a beer. Now he sends his avatar down to the shops to do some shopping, he then sends a ghost to work, sends a copy to watch a movie in the theatre, and his sub mind is on a date. They all come back, and he’s got all their memories, or something like that.
The characters were bland, sterile, clinical, I couldn’t empathies nor sympathies with any of them, they had no pathos whatsoever, I couldn’t care if they all died, in huge explosion of nanomachines and biomaterial.
The premise sounded interesting, but the delivery was abysmal.
In fact, I would go as far as to say, read the blurb, don’t bother with the book. I gained more information from the blurb than I did from the book. Whomever wrote the blurb did a good job, if the author wrote the blurb, then she should have continued in that vein. Instead, I got pretentious, highbrow claptrap. I also want to emphasise my utter contempt for this book by swearing, but swearing they say is a lack of vocabulary. Unfortunately, this book had the mother-lode of vocabulary, after every sentence I had to virtually look it up in the dictionary, in fact it was like reading the dictionary.
Language and vocabulary are as grand as her ideas, if you have a degree, PhD or a doctorate in literature, philosophy and any of the other ologies, then this is the book for you. I didn’t even know whether the characters were human, there were avatars, ghosts, copies, copies of copies, sub minds, was it the Matrix in space? Transhumanism? Consciousness uploaded or downloaded, were they all digital consciousness, I haven’t got a clue. On top of that there were the philosopher cell, WTF are the philosopher cells, I thought it was a bunch of philosophers sitting around discussing the meaning of life, metaphysics, epistemology, and there’s me thinking it was 42. Apparently, it's the coating of the spaceship, see I did read it, mind you I wish I hadn’t, I wished I'd been poked in the eye with a sharp stick, more enjoyment, I think.
Imagine a bald fat man sitting in his underwear in front of the TV, scratching his arse, smelling his fingers afterward, eating pizza and drinking a beer. Now he sends his avatar down to the shops to do some shopping, he then sends a ghost to work, sends a copy to watch a movie in the theatre, and his sub mind is on a date. They all come back, and he’s got all their memories, or something like that.
The characters were bland, sterile, clinical, I couldn’t empathies nor sympathies with any of them, they had no pathos whatsoever, I couldn’t care if they all died, in huge explosion of nanomachines and biomaterial.
The premise sounded interesting, but the delivery was abysmal.