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sadtourist's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Picking up this book, 'space spiders' was not on my Bingo card. After finishing it, I can honestly say that I'll never look at a spider the same way again.
This was solid science fiction: lots of exciting plot points, reflections and commentaries about the nature of humanity, anthropological explorations of 'alien' cultures, and a dash of humor/irony thrown in.
The writing took me a while to get into, I kept fumbling over some words or sentences, but now that I'm into it I'll continue on to books 2 and 3.
This was solid science fiction: lots of exciting plot points, reflections and commentaries about the nature of humanity, anthropological explorations of 'alien' cultures, and a dash of humor/irony thrown in.
The writing took me a while to get into, I kept fumbling over some words or sentences, but now that I'm into it I'll continue on to books 2 and 3.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Violence, and War
If you're uncomfortable with spiders, this book will either help you get over that, or not.linda_wolf's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, and War
Spiders are frequently mentioned in case anyone has a phobiacadimy's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
3.5
It was a bit slow to get through, and the needless use of a slur was off putting. Interesting idea, will make me think twice next time I go to squish a spider.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Genocide, Violence, War, and Classism
black_cat_iiix's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Classism
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and Kidnapping
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Genocide
Many sentient spiders and descriptions of spider anatomyyuripiano's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
God, where do I even begin....
This is easily, easily one of my favorite books of all time, no questions asked.
The way that different points of view are written is so deeply interesting regardless of who the chapter is about, and the juxtaposition of evolving spiders with devolving humans and the question of what it means to be human is just... so. incredibly. good. You really feel and pull for the spiders, and there's a sense of "humanity" tied to their un-humanness that's lacking in the actual humans that's super fascinating to read. i feel like i could talk forever about the crew of the Gilgamesh contrasted with their predecessors and how that relates to the spiders and Kern - it's deeply fascinating and exciting and really thought provoking.
i don't think i can sing enough praises - i'm trying to come up with things to criticize, because every time i write a review here, i'm like "this book was okay!" and then i just bash the book to pieces, but...
the pacing is snappy, the characters are incredible, and the constant tension of feeling the three main points swirling like they're in a whirlpool and you're just waiting for them to converge is such a page turner!
i suppose, if i had to point something out, some metaphors and such were very spelled out... but, coming from the internal thoughts/point of view from the classicist a lot of the time, i felt that it was fine, and honestly, i didn't particularly feel like it was talking down to the reader either.
At the end of the day, it's an incredible read, and easily the first book i would recommend to someone. If this book were 2000 pages longer, it would be too short.
This is easily, easily one of my favorite books of all time, no questions asked.
i don't think i can sing enough praises - i'm trying to come up with things to criticize, because every time i write a review here, i'm like "this book was okay!" and then i just bash the book to pieces, but...
the pacing is snappy, the characters are incredible, and the constant tension of feeling the three main points swirling like they're in a whirlpool and you're just waiting for them to converge is such a page turner!
i suppose, if i had to point something out, some metaphors and such were very spelled out... but, coming from the internal thoughts/point of view from the classicist a lot of the time, i felt that it was fine, and honestly, i didn't particularly feel like it was talking down to the reader either.
At the end of the day, it's an incredible read, and easily the first book i would recommend to someone. If this book were 2000 pages longer, it would be too short.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Sexual content
nonesensed's review
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Humanity has decided on a grand experiment. Well, parts of humanity have. In a far flung future, scientists have found ways to not only terraform planets toward an Earth-like biom, they're considering experimenting with sapience. Where exactly goes the line between animal and "sentient being"? Cook up a nanovirus that will encourage rapid evolution toward cooperation and what humanity at this point in time perceive as intelligence, add a couple of monkeys, and sit back to watch it all evolve. That's the plan at least. Unlucky for the scientists, not all humans agree with playing with life in this way. The monkeys end up dead, the head scientist trapped in orbit around their planet, and the nanovirus finds a number of other hosts, with interesting results. Turns out a certain kind of spider works well with the programing - sort of.
What a ride! I flew through these 600 pages and each chapter was a delight of emotions and interesting ideas and scenarios. I'm usually character-focused when reading and thus I wasn't so sure how I'd get along with a book that spans uncountable generations of spiders. Turns out, I got along with it famously! Each chapter in the life of the evolving spiders drew me in, a complete story all on its own, and the parallel of humans and their evolution alongside of the spiders' (so to speak) was a wonderful contrast. And that ending! Five stars out of five, no notes.
Recommending this book to all science fiction fans who enjoy "what if these unlikely but interesting evolutionary and technological things were possible"-scenarios. Can't wait to read the next book in the series!
What a ride! I flew through these 600 pages and each chapter was a delight of emotions and interesting ideas and scenarios. I'm usually character-focused when reading and thus I wasn't so sure how I'd get along with a book that spans uncountable generations of spiders. Turns out, I got along with it famously! Each chapter in the life of the evolving spiders drew me in, a complete story all on its own, and the parallel of humans and their evolution alongside of the spiders' (so to speak) was a wonderful contrast. And that ending! Five stars out of five, no notes.
Recommending this book to all science fiction fans who enjoy "what if these unlikely but interesting evolutionary and technological things were possible"-scenarios. Can't wait to read the next book in the series!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual violence, Violence, and Sexual harassment
If you've got arachnophobia, this is not the book for you.mals_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
holsten, my beloved
i liked this a lot more than i thought i would. read this for a book club and i’m not much of a deep space reader, but something about this book hooked me!
it isn’t overly explanatory in its technical jargon (which loses me) so it’s more reader-friendly than i expected imo!
i wish i liked the spider pov more than i did, but Holsten was the star of the show for me. i feel like he really embodied the reader — your average guy (a historian) with little technical knowledge or ability to keep the ship afloat just waking up every century show as more shit happens in their journey to rebuild humanity. very chill and fun
this is for you if you’re looking to dip your toe into a new & adventurous series set after the fall of humanity. maybe more factions later? 👀
i liked this a lot more than i thought i would. read this for a book club and i’m not much of a deep space reader, but something about this book hooked me!
it isn’t overly explanatory in its technical jargon (which loses me) so it’s more reader-friendly than i expected imo!
i wish i liked the spider pov more than i did, but Holsten was the star of the show for me. i feel like he really embodied the reader — your average guy (a historian) with little technical knowledge or ability to keep the ship afloat just waking up every century show as more shit happens in their journey to rebuild humanity. very chill and fun
this is for you if you’re looking to dip your toe into a new & adventurous series set after the fall of humanity. maybe more factions later? 👀
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death and Violence
Minor: Gun violence
amorphousbl0b's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
tense
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? Yes
4.5
A test of empathy, taking one of mankind's great anxieties - the spider - and bringing us on a journey alongside them that leads us to understand their completely alien society even greater than that of the human characters to which we ostensibly relate. With beautifully detailed worldbuilding, its reputation as one of the great works of modern science fiction is wholly deserved.
May cure your arachnophobia.
May cure your arachnophobia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Xenophobia
maddie_can_read's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
Aug 2024
I decided to reread because I read another Tchaikovsky book (Cage if Lost Souls) and it made me want to read the sequels to this book. A lot easier to get into this time, I didn't find it slow and I liked the characters a lot better. I found half the plot more compelling than the other half and that there was a bit of a mismatch in tension jumping back and forth between the spider and human parts . Also some parts were very difficult to visualize and I wished there was a bit more descriptions.
There's so much going on in the book that I wasn't bored rereading and I'd found that Ive forgotten a lot of the interesting details.
The most fun part of the reread was seeing themes across the author's workslike civilization destroying itself, things evolving, future generations loosing th technology of their ancestors, the vibe of like things just getting progressively worse/ a more realistic/ pessimistic view of future problems
--
Jan 2024 - 4.25/5
I had a super difficult time getting into this book but I'm glad I powered through because I ended up really enjoying it towards the end. I did find it a bit slow and a bit plodding throughout.
I had a difficult time vibing with the writing style at first. I think it was a combination of it being written in third person but then also being kind omniscient narrator (like they knew everything about past humanity - like comparing the spider pandemic to the black plague .
And I just could not connect with any of the characters until almost the half way point. I don't think the author is great at characterization.
I kept going because I liked the premise and I read all these reviews talking about how weird (in a good way) the book was and just thought I'd keep going and give it some more time.
And wow, I loved it when things got weird! Having the structure of the book set up the way it isspanning multiple generations made it so some really interesting things could occur. Really liked how the two story-lines came to a head.
Lots of wtf moments really was not expecting Arvana to turn away the last of humanity, the mutiny, the spiders holding a human captivity for decades, spider sexism, the captain wanting to become the ship and being kept alive by machines, the captain letting people out of some pods and them having generations of children that followed him like a cult leader, really loved the love story between the humans (how it was impacted by one of them staying out of their cold sleep for longer) and then the one between two of the spiders towards the end where the male sacrifices himself, and loved the twist/ fake-out at the end!
I decided to reread because I read another Tchaikovsky book (Cage if Lost Souls) and it made me want to read the sequels to this book. A lot easier to get into this time, I didn't find it slow and I liked the characters a lot better. I found half the plot more compelling than the other half and that there was a bit of a mismatch in tension jumping back and forth
There's so much going on in the book that I wasn't bored rereading and I'd found that Ive forgotten a lot of the interesting details.
The most fun part of the reread was seeing themes across the author's works
--
Jan 2024 - 4.25/5
I had a super difficult time getting into this book but I'm glad I powered through because I ended up really enjoying it towards the end. I did find it a bit slow and a bit plodding throughout.
I had a difficult time vibing with the writing style at first. I think it was a combination of it being written in third person but then also being kind omniscient narrator (like they knew everything about past humanity -
And I just could not connect with any of the characters until almost the half way point.
I kept going because I liked the premise and I read all these reviews talking about how weird (in a good way) the book was and just thought I'd keep going and give it some more time.
And wow, I loved it when things got weird! Having the structure of the book set up the way it is
Lots of wtf moments
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Blood, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, and Excrement
SPIDERS, insectsseverin's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, and War
Moderate: Xenophobia