smiorganbaldhead's review against another edition
5.0
4.5/5. The first part didn’t quite grab me, but after that I found the book riveting. There are so many big ideas here that I found fascinating, and that might have inspired elements of popular science fiction films, such as the Matrix and Terminator. I also enjoyed seeing some parallels with one of my favorite series, Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion, including the struggle between chaos and order, Paul’s identity, and the nature of the Alternate Laws. It’s also worth noting that there is a very memorable scene involving some squirrels. Overall I really enjoyed this book, and I definitely plan to continue reading the Childe Cycle.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
3.0
Wow. That was weirder than I remembered. This was a really early book for Dickson to have written in the Childe Cycle. It would have worked better if he had written it in order hence writing it later. As such it kind of overreached in terms of what the Chantry Guild could do at this point. Well at least from what I remembered. This book was also unevenly paced. And our main pov character Paul in some way doesn't do much. And still with the occasional token female character. And lots of philosophizing in an almost brilliant way. And self-driving cars.
rogue_runner's review against another edition
1.0
I am not really sure what I just finished.
I didn't enjoy this really, in any sense. I have this feeling that Dickson was trying to do something big and grand with this, but it just mostly passed right over my head. It made just under 200 pages feel more like 600, and took me longer to finish than a 600 page novel too!
With the plot, not much really seemed to happen, and when it did, it was a bit disjointed. Mostly things get metaphysical and philosophical very quickly, which put me off a bit- especially as I've not read many scifi books, and don't really find them gripping when I do manage to get through them. This, I found myself wanting to put it down a good few times, but refused to do so, mostly on the facts that A) it was a borrowed copy, and B) it was under 200 pages, and therefore should have been a quick read.
It wasn't a quick read. I did half expect something like this though, considering it's 1960s scifi.
I never felt that connected to the characters, especially Paul (the main character). Nobody seemed to really stand out to me, with side-characters being names that passed by without any real personality. 'Arrogance' was assigned to Paul, but this never really came across to me that well; as for the others, they barely were more than names on a page, which registered as 'important', but never got much further than that. Things definitely focused on the philosophical points, rather than any sort of plot or character development.
I have a few other Dorsai books lying around, so will give those a go, but I'm hoping they won't be as slow as this one. If you like something weird and meta, give this a read.
I didn't enjoy this really, in any sense. I have this feeling that Dickson was trying to do something big and grand with this, but it just mostly passed right over my head. It made just under 200 pages feel more like 600, and took me longer to finish than a 600 page novel too!
With the plot, not much really seemed to happen, and when it did, it was a bit disjointed. Mostly things get metaphysical and philosophical very quickly, which put me off a bit- especially as I've not read many scifi books, and don't really find them gripping when I do manage to get through them. This, I found myself wanting to put it down a good few times, but refused to do so, mostly on the facts that A) it was a borrowed copy, and B) it was under 200 pages, and therefore should have been a quick read.
It wasn't a quick read. I did half expect something like this though, considering it's 1960s scifi.
I never felt that connected to the characters, especially Paul (the main character). Nobody seemed to really stand out to me, with side-characters being names that passed by without any real personality. 'Arrogance' was assigned to Paul, but this never really came across to me that well; as for the others, they barely were more than names on a page, which registered as 'important', but never got much further than that. Things definitely focused on the philosophical points, rather than any sort of plot or character development.
I have a few other Dorsai books lying around, so will give those a go, but I'm hoping they won't be as slow as this one. If you like something weird and meta, give this a read.
katmarhan's review against another edition
4.0
7/10
Background on earth of the origins of the Dorsai and the settled planets of later books. A well-told, fast-moving tale.
Background on earth of the origins of the Dorsai and the settled planets of later books. A well-told, fast-moving tale.
rpbperry's review
5.0
I had read the Dorsai series (Childe Cycle) many years ago, but I think at the time of that first reading I had missed the significance of Necromacer. It is in fact a very important piece in describing the germination of the Dorsai universe.
bookcrazylady45's review
3.0
I read this as Childe Cycle 1 and hung on every word. Actually, I had to go back and read paragraphs over and over to try and make sense of what he was saying. Chantry Guild and its Laws weird. But it grabbed me and got me into the series and that is all I ask of a book and a writer. Hold my interest.
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