livia_r's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
andy_hird's review against another edition
2.0
I was interested in this book by the premise on the book and the involvement of Arthur C. Clarke. Unfortunately, the story never really developed, the character back-stories or sub-plots were largely irrelevant, and the overall execution (including the writing itself) was just plain poor.
ainsleym's review against another edition
1.0
The prologue was interesting and the cover art was gorgeous. Unfortunately, those are the only two good things I can say about this book.
archiekeys99's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
regnarenol's review against another edition
1.0
I don't think I'm going to touch Gentry Lee with a bargepole after this train crash of a book. It's so bad I'm almost tempted to stop this review right now because you shouldn't give too much time to things you don't love, right?
Anyway, the problem with the book is Gentry Lee has this idea that character development should be the core of any book, even a science fiction one. A fine ideal to strive towards, certainly. But somebody failed to tell him that character development should be woven into the plot - bombarding the reader with dozens of pointless anecdotes and escapades about every character major and minor without, for a moment, giving us a hint as to how everything would tie in together in what's ostensibly a science fiction novel is immensely frustrating.
An excellent pay-off in the form of a mind bogglingly visionary climax might still have redeemed the book somewhat, but we don't even get that. If the arduous character building at least resulted in complex, interesting characters that we'd kind of care about, this book would be somewhat palatable, even if still a failure as a science fiction book. But, and this is the biggest failure of all, Lee, after hundreds of pages of minute backstory development manages to construct remarkably two dimensional cutouts of stereotypical characters - the cold, successful, man-hating feminist; the happy-go-lucky black man who can't seem to say two words without referencing his race. Even the interactions between the characters never seem to evolve beyond the third grade playground bully variety. (Argh, my head.)
Even after all that criticism, I'd happily take it all back if the writing were spectacular, and take in the book as a well written intellectual exercise, even if a rambling, pointless tale. But it isn't well written. It's often stilted, and the humour, if you can call it that, primarily around crude racial references.
Is there any Arthur C. Clarke at all in this, you may wonder? I think there is a little, at least, in the sequences that describe the manouevrings of powerful alien races; sequences that are so out of tune with the rest of the book, that otherwise fine pieces of speculative writing may even begin to jar. Yes, Gentry Lee is so bad, he's made my Clarke hard to swallow. Avoid this book!
Anyway, the problem with the book is Gentry Lee has this idea that character development should be the core of any book, even a science fiction one. A fine ideal to strive towards, certainly. But somebody failed to tell him that character development should be woven into the plot - bombarding the reader with dozens of pointless anecdotes and escapades about every character major and minor without, for a moment, giving us a hint as to how everything would tie in together in what's ostensibly a science fiction novel is immensely frustrating.
An excellent pay-off in the form of a mind bogglingly visionary climax might still have redeemed the book somewhat, but we don't even get that. If the arduous character building at least resulted in complex, interesting characters that we'd kind of care about, this book would be somewhat palatable, even if still a failure as a science fiction book. But, and this is the biggest failure of all, Lee, after hundreds of pages of minute backstory development manages to construct remarkably two dimensional cutouts of stereotypical characters - the cold, successful, man-hating feminist; the happy-go-lucky black man who can't seem to say two words without referencing his race. Even the interactions between the characters never seem to evolve beyond the third grade playground bully variety. (Argh, my head.)
Even after all that criticism, I'd happily take it all back if the writing were spectacular, and take in the book as a well written intellectual exercise, even if a rambling, pointless tale. But it isn't well written. It's often stilted, and the humour, if you can call it that, primarily around crude racial references.
Is there any Arthur C. Clarke at all in this, you may wonder? I think there is a little, at least, in the sequences that describe the manouevrings of powerful alien races; sequences that are so out of tune with the rest of the book, that otherwise fine pieces of speculative writing may even begin to jar. Yes, Gentry Lee is so bad, he's made my Clarke hard to swallow. Avoid this book!
rainbowrachel's review against another edition
It is hard to express just how abysmal this book truly is.
If you're like me, you might be thinking, "but how can a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke be bad?" To which the answer is that this isn't really science fiction, isn't really a novel, and isn't really by Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke himself has stated:
"Another important influence on my life, of course, has been Gentry Lee, who was introduced to me by Peter Guber, who wanted to make a film based on Gentry's ideas. It was never filmed, but it led to the novel, Cradle, which was based on our joint ideas but almost entirely written by Gentry."
So, it isn't really by Clarke, and it is more a novelisation of a failed idea for a movie than a story that was originally conceived as a novel. As far as science fiction goes, it is certainly a story that has science fiction elements, but they are not prominent. The majority of the story is in a contemporary setting, and it would not have beendifficult to rewrite the whole thing to completely remove all traces of science fiction.
And yet, it is probably best labeled as science fiction because no other label fits either. It has elements of a thriller, yet it is not thrilling. It has elements of a romance novel, yet it is not romantic. Sometimes, it seems to aspire towards literary fiction, yet I can't imagine anyone considering it literature. Science fiction is where it arrives by default.
When I read some of the classics of older science fiction, I often come away feeling conflicted. On the one hand, they contain grand ideas and flights of fancy, they paint a vision of a possible future, envision glorious new technology, or shine a light on the human condition. Yet on the other hand, they are often deeply flawed. Too often, the genre is highly sexist, or it features wooden characters, stilted dialogue or awkward sex scenes.
Cradle feels like a condensation of all that is bad about old science fiction, without any of the good in there as a counterweight.
There are no grand science fiction ideas to be found, here, no exciting plot, no lovable characters, no redeeming features of any kind. Instead, there is sexism and racism aplenty, a boring and meandering plot in which very little happens, inconsistencies and plotholes, a cast of entirely unlikable characters, date rape, a 43 year old man lusting after a 17 year old girl, a pornographic video game, terrible dialogue, clumsy and misfiring attempts at social commentary, and badly written prose.
I can't say for sure that this is the worst book that I've ever had the misfortune of reading. I've read a lot of books, and some of them have been pretty terrible. However, if this isn't the absolute worst, then it's certainly a close contender. Every aspect is a failure, and it has no redeeming features. Avoid, at all costs.
If you're like me, you might be thinking, "but how can a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke be bad?" To which the answer is that this isn't really science fiction, isn't really a novel, and isn't really by Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke himself has stated:
"Another important influence on my life, of course, has been Gentry Lee, who was introduced to me by Peter Guber, who wanted to make a film based on Gentry's ideas. It was never filmed, but it led to the novel, Cradle, which was based on our joint ideas but almost entirely written by Gentry."
So, it isn't really by Clarke, and it is more a novelisation of a failed idea for a movie than a story that was originally conceived as a novel. As far as science fiction goes, it is certainly a story that has science fiction elements, but they are not prominent. The majority of the story is in a contemporary setting, and it would not have beendifficult to rewrite the whole thing to completely remove all traces of science fiction.
And yet, it is probably best labeled as science fiction because no other label fits either. It has elements of a thriller, yet it is not thrilling. It has elements of a romance novel, yet it is not romantic. Sometimes, it seems to aspire towards literary fiction, yet I can't imagine anyone considering it literature. Science fiction is where it arrives by default.
When I read some of the classics of older science fiction, I often come away feeling conflicted. On the one hand, they contain grand ideas and flights of fancy, they paint a vision of a possible future, envision glorious new technology, or shine a light on the human condition. Yet on the other hand, they are often deeply flawed. Too often, the genre is highly sexist, or it features wooden characters, stilted dialogue or awkward sex scenes.
Cradle feels like a condensation of all that is bad about old science fiction, without any of the good in there as a counterweight.
There are no grand science fiction ideas to be found, here, no exciting plot, no lovable characters, no redeeming features of any kind. Instead, there is sexism and racism aplenty, a boring and meandering plot in which very little happens, inconsistencies and plotholes, a cast of entirely unlikable characters, date rape, a 43 year old man lusting after a 17 year old girl, a pornographic video game, terrible dialogue, clumsy and misfiring attempts at social commentary, and badly written prose.
I can't say for sure that this is the worst book that I've ever had the misfortune of reading. I've read a lot of books, and some of them have been pretty terrible. However, if this isn't the absolute worst, then it's certainly a close contender. Every aspect is a failure, and it has no redeeming features. Avoid, at all costs.
sarah1984's review against another edition
1.0
Read for the 2017 POPSUGAR Challenge prompt 'A Book with Multiple Authors'
6/3 - I think this may be up there with the worst books I've ever read. Most of the books I give one star to are because of their atrocious editing, off the top of my head I can't remember reading a book where the plot played such a big part in drawing the one star.
The original premise sounded quite interesting - advanced aliens, and treasure hunters find their space ship on the ocean floor - but then someone went and ruined it and produced this pile of crap. Most other reviewers are blaming Lee (I hope it's not Clarke as I bought his [b:2001: A Space Odyssey|70535|2001 A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1)|Arthur C. Clarke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1432468943s/70535.jpg|208362] series and I don't think I could read four entire books written like this), but as I haven't read anything from either of them I'm taking their word for it.
The characters were ridiculously overwritten - a treasure hunter with an unnecessary back story of a love affair with a married older woman who broke his heart when he was young; an army man with an unnecessary back story about his pre-marital sexual escapades which somehow lead into his desire to bed his underage co-star in the community theatre production of Tennessee William's The Night of the Iguana (he plays Shannon to her Charlotte); a black man who was an embarrassing caricature of a black man from the south (constantly using the exclamation "Oooeee!" and never calling Carol by her given name, only 'Angel'); and a reporter who has the most annoying internal dialogue since Ana.
There were a couple of totally dreadful sex scenes, one was so awkward I haven't felt so uncomfortable reading a sex scene since I finally finished [b:Lolita|198806|Lolita|Vladimir Nabokov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1379905639s/198806.jpg|1268631] last year while the other was a weird mix of awkward and clinical.
The final nail in the coffin for this one was the aliens! They have to be the most inept 'advanced alien lifeforms' ever. They crash land their space ship in the ocean and when some humans (the main characters) finally happen across them by accident they request
"An English dictionary and grammar, plus the same thing for four other major languages; an encyclopaedia of plant and animal life; a compact world history; a statistical tract defining the current political and economic status of the world; a comparative study of the world's major existing religions; complete issues covering the last two years of at least three significant daily newspapers; summary journals of science and technology, including surveys of weapons systems both deployed and under deployment; an encyclopaedia of the arts, preferably including video and sound where appropriate; forty seven pounds of lead; and fifty eight pounds of gold."
That is the most illogical list of demands!! I'm assuming they want the gold and lead for some kind of 'repairs' to their ship (Troy was pretty vague with explanations using the excuse that despite the 'communications bracelet' they gave him he had trouble deciphering what they were saying), but why bother with all information about human language, history, and technology only to leave without using their new found knowledge to their advantage. If they weren't going to use it why did they want it? The type of information they wanted originally made me think they were going to use it to wage war against us, but in the end they just attempted to leave a 'seed packet' (why wouldn't an advanced civilisation like theirs realise what would happen if a foreign, more advanced species was introduced to the environment?) and then disappear back home with very little explanation.
There were no redeeming features to this story. I would recommend it to no one, although I still can't bring myself to destroy it so I will be passing it on to some poor person (I'm sorry anonymous receiver of this book, it might be a dreadful book but it is still a book and I can't kill it) via my local Brotherhood of St. Laurence.
6/3 - I think this may be up there with the worst books I've ever read. Most of the books I give one star to are because of their atrocious editing, off the top of my head I can't remember reading a book where the plot played such a big part in drawing the one star.
The original premise sounded quite interesting - advanced aliens, and treasure hunters find their space ship on the ocean floor - but then someone went and ruined it and produced this pile of crap. Most other reviewers are blaming Lee (I hope it's not Clarke as I bought his [b:2001: A Space Odyssey|70535|2001 A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1)|Arthur C. Clarke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1432468943s/70535.jpg|208362] series and I don't think I could read four entire books written like this), but as I haven't read anything from either of them I'm taking their word for it.
The characters were ridiculously overwritten - a treasure hunter with an unnecessary back story of a love affair with a married older woman who broke his heart when he was young; an army man with an unnecessary back story about his pre-marital sexual escapades which somehow lead into his desire to bed his underage co-star in the community theatre production of Tennessee William's The Night of the Iguana (he plays Shannon to her Charlotte); a black man who was an embarrassing caricature of a black man from the south (constantly using the exclamation "Oooeee!" and never calling Carol by her given name, only 'Angel'); and a reporter who has the most annoying internal dialogue since Ana.
There were a couple of totally dreadful sex scenes, one was so awkward I haven't felt so uncomfortable reading a sex scene since I finally finished [b:Lolita|198806|Lolita|Vladimir Nabokov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1379905639s/198806.jpg|1268631] last year while the other was a weird mix of awkward and clinical.
The final nail in the coffin for this one was the aliens! They have to be the most inept 'advanced alien lifeforms' ever. They crash land their space ship in the ocean and when some humans (the main characters) finally happen across them by accident they request
"An English dictionary and grammar, plus the same thing for four other major languages; an encyclopaedia of plant and animal life; a compact world history; a statistical tract defining the current political and economic status of the world; a comparative study of the world's major existing religions; complete issues covering the last two years of at least three significant daily newspapers; summary journals of science and technology, including surveys of weapons systems both deployed and under deployment; an encyclopaedia of the arts, preferably including video and sound where appropriate; forty seven pounds of lead; and fifty eight pounds of gold."
That is the most illogical list of demands!! I'm assuming they want the gold and lead for some kind of 'repairs' to their ship (Troy was pretty vague with explanations using the excuse that despite the 'communications bracelet' they gave him he had trouble deciphering what they were saying), but why bother with all information about human language, history, and technology only to leave without using their new found knowledge to their advantage. If they weren't going to use it why did they want it? The type of information they wanted originally made me think they were going to use it to wage war against us, but in the end they just attempted to leave a 'seed packet' (why wouldn't an advanced civilisation like theirs realise what would happen if a foreign, more advanced species was introduced to the environment?) and then disappear back home with very little explanation.
There were no redeeming features to this story. I would recommend it to no one, although I still can't bring myself to destroy it so I will be passing it on to some poor person (I'm sorry anonymous receiver of this book, it might be a dreadful book but it is still a book and I can't kill it) via my local Brotherhood of St. Laurence.
clockless's review against another edition
1.0
Not even mediocre at best. It's a book written by two people, and it shows. The bulk of the book is a boring, typical Crichton-like thriller/adventure story. Woven between -- sometimes in nearly incomprehensible separate chapters, sometimes as jarring asides -- is the actual sci-fi content. Unfortunately, the earth-based sci-fi was written for the future of twenty years ago and it has not aged particularly well, but it may have been better contemporaneously. The alien-based sci-fi is overly detailed for the limited explanations the reader actually receives. Clark took the "you couldn't understand the tech, so I won't come up with an explanation" route, but he still takes an awfully long time to tell you nothing. What's worse is that those chapters are written from the alien perspective (they still use nano- and milli- prefixes though, somehow), so they are even harder to understand than should be necessary. They make references to millicycles, for instance, which is clearly some length of time but you are not given enough information to decipher how long it is until almost the end of the book (14 years, by the way).
There was an idea behind what the aliens were up to, but it remains philosophically unexplored. There was never any real resolution to any of the earth-based plot lines, but I wouldn't have enjoyed reading any more anyway.
There was an idea behind what the aliens were up to, but it remains philosophically unexplored. There was never any real resolution to any of the earth-based plot lines, but I wouldn't have enjoyed reading any more anyway.
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