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theshleester's review against another edition
3.0
I also want to know what happened with the supercomputer. It saves the day when everyone's losing their minds (proper deus ex machina), it runs the virtual Assembly, and then we never hear about it again. Presumably the US kids inherit it. Why doesn't that bother anybody?
The language felt clunky, which irritated me throughout - not sure how much is the author's voice and how much is the translation.
Last chapter and epilogue felt boring, confusing, unnecessary and anticlimactic. Whatever the point was, I missed it.
It started strong, and I enjoyed the first half - but the second half was increasingly disappointing.
Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Death of parent, and War
iono's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
Graphic: Death of parent and War
Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence, and Xenophobia
Minor: Suicide
shermansays's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Child abuse, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy
olityr's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
jcath's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Child death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Death of parent
larkken's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Death of parent and War
Moderate: Child death and Gun violence
maurits's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
It is completely unrealistic. The story doesn't make any sense and is absolutely unbelievable. It's stretching suspension of disbelief to its very limits and far beyond. It seems Liu meant to write a book about human nature, but really, he failed to even write a book about humans, let alone their nature.
Moreover, compared to his Remembrance of Earth's Past series, the science in this book is plain bad. In the aforementioned series, I felt like the science could actually have a chance of being true. It sounded at least somewhat plausible, despite knowing it is fiction.
The science in this book is just lacking. It's not hard science fiction. Liu just posits a super-smart quantum computer for random reasons. We just have to accept that. We have to simply accept whatever bullshit he comes up with.
Lastly - and this point is for better or for worse - the book is simply anti-American propaganda. Which, again, is a route you can take, but Liu definitely wasn't concerned with writing anything remotely close to real Americans.
Moderate: Death of parent and War
Minor: Child death