nwhyte's review
http://nhw.livejournal.com/251088.html[return][return]Oh dear. A real disappointment. Lots of infodumping, tedious handwaving technicalese - the nadir, close to the end, is this sentence: With a rest mass of 1.9 eV and a charge of 5.95x10-25 C, abitons only needed an accelerator with a 50 cm radius and 0.0001 Telsa [sic] magnet. Which I wouldn't mind if it actually helped the book make sense; but it doesn't. Anyway thanks to the helpfully provided diagram I spent much time wondering how you could possibly keep anything, let alone tons of antimatter, in a Klein bottle (whose inside is the same as its outside). [return][return]I was quite unable to suspend my disbelief to take seriously the family and interplanetary politics as I could for the first book. The good guys always escape certain doom in the nick of time, unlike the bad guys. And worst of all, my particular b
vailynst's review against another edition
3.0
Notes:
Currently on Audible + (Publication Order)
Great narration by Anna Fields.
- Concepts for the series are grand & epic in scale.
- Character presentation & establishment range between well done and flat.
- For the past few books, I've been poking at the details & storytelling of the books. Dark themes and actions don't bother me. It's a mix of context, presentation and delivery that determines how I react to those themes. So, I was wondering why the slave, abuse and rape themes bugged me in this series. The scenes are brief and not overtly graphic. However, the context of those scenes should have a bigger impact in the way characters act within the established cultures/species/races. Too much is relied upon a 'take it as it's shown' and that rubbed me the wrong way. Most likely due to the fact that there are well-written passages for emotional and terrible scenes. The imbalance between details and execution bugged me. =P
Loved the way the original duo from the first book are brought back into the story line. I liked the first 1/3 of the story more than the rest.
Currently on Audible + (Publication Order)
Great narration by Anna Fields.
- Concepts for the series are grand & epic in scale.
- Character presentation & establishment range between well done and flat.
- For the past few books, I've been poking at the details & storytelling of the books. Dark themes and actions don't bother me. It's a mix of context, presentation and delivery that determines how I react to those themes. So, I was wondering why the slave, abuse and rape themes bugged me in this series. The scenes are brief and not overtly graphic. However, the context of those scenes should have a bigger impact in the way characters act within the established cultures/species/races. Too much is relied upon a 'take it as it's shown' and that rubbed me the wrong way. Most likely due to the fact that there are well-written passages for emotional and terrible scenes. The imbalance between details and execution bugged me. =P
Loved the way the original duo from the first book are brought back into the story line. I liked the first 1/3 of the story more than the rest.
stelepami's review
1.0
Thank goodness that's over. I remember being excited about how sciencey the sci-fi was when I first read this series in high school, and I still appreciate a klein bottle or two, but there wasn't enough plot or character development to leaven all the detailed explanations of the mechanics of the world. And some authors can spend all their time worldbuilding and I don't mind, but I think that's more when I read fantasy. For sci-fi, give me one or two good concepts woven in and explained and then get on with the story!
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