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micheala's review against another edition
This book has a really cool premise, in terms of post apocalyptic SciFi. The set up is that humans had started terraforming the galaxy before a nuclear war destroyed all humans living off planet, and threw Earth into an ice age.
We then get a ship with a few thousand of the remaining humans centuries later, travelling through space (in stais) in the hopes of finding a new home.
The planet they do eventually arrive at was supposed to be an experiment to "speed run" evolution and create new humans from monkeys + an engineered virus. However, those monkeys died being sent to the planet, and giant senteant insects evolve instead.
Cool right? I had a few quibbles with the spider sections (they don't know what humans/earth is, and they don't know about the virus let alone how it functions, so stop talking about it in the narrative portions of their sections; and I was kinda disappointed that their society also was fundamentally sexist and pretty much a 1:1 of humans in the medial ages in terms of society)
The humans finally get onto the planet, and we get drop kicked into full on horror, specifically graphic body horror. So I noped out of a story I was otherwise enjoying at 37%
If you're cool with horror, I'm guessing this book is going to continue to play with some really interesting ideas, however as someone who cannot deal with horror, it's a DNF for me.
We then get a ship with a few thousand of the remaining humans centuries later, travelling through space (in stais) in the hopes of finding a new home.
The planet they do eventually arrive at was supposed to be an experiment to "speed run" evolution and create new humans from monkeys + an engineered virus. However, those monkeys died being sent to the planet, and giant senteant insects evolve instead.
Cool right? I had a few quibbles with the spider sections (they don't know what humans/earth is, and they don't know about the virus let alone how it functions, so stop talking about it in the narrative portions of their sections; and I was kinda disappointed that their society also was fundamentally sexist and pretty much a 1:1 of humans in the medial ages in terms of society)
The humans finally get onto the planet, and we get drop kicked into full on horror, specifically graphic body horror. So I noped out of a story I was otherwise enjoying at 37%
If you're cool with horror, I'm guessing this book is going to continue to play with some really interesting ideas, however as someone who cannot deal with horror, it's a DNF for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
vicky3's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and War
Minor: Genocide and Religious bigotry
csangell11's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Murder, and War
Minor: Torture and Forced institutionalization
cookiecat73's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Sexism, Xenophobia, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War
Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Child death, Incest, Excrement, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
cathepsut's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
My first re-read, after seven years. I thought I remembered quite a bit of this book. I had forgotten a huge amount of the plot. Good fun.
I maybe looked more favourably onto the human characters this time around. And it didn‘t feel preachy to me.
+*+*+
Review of my first read in August 2017:
Humans, the end of the world as we know it and an uplifting attempt, that went sideways and results into some pretty cool spiders. Classic sci-fi of colonization, aliens and odd societies.
Changing POV, pretty fashionable in recent years. I blame GRR Martin. There are our uplifted spiders on the one side and the remains of humanity, stuck on an ark ship and being the usual unreasonable species.
The insect view I liked a lot, it felt a bit like watching a National Geographic or Discovery Channel documentary. Suspenseful telling of the spiders' developmental path through the ages. However, the great world building and very close look at their societal evolution in my view comes at the disadvantage of lacking character development. Ok, you say, how much personality can a spider have…. But they are being uplifted considerably over the course of the book.
There is a lot of internal monologue and reasoning, the struggle of the male spiders, fighting for their right not to get eaten after mating, religion, a mad god, interaction with other species, interesting bio-science and some great imagery. I would love to see Great Nest!
The humans in contrast seem rather uninteresting and stupid. It seems we can not learn from out mistakes. I could not develop any real interest in the human story arcs. The parts with more action were good, but generally the characters felt flat to me, with the minor exception of Holden. And even he came across as pretty bland.
It gets a little preachy at the end. I guess that is the required message you get in classic SciFi. So there. There is a nice view forward, with a good plot bunny for another book. Bottom line, great story.
The audiobook narration was good, I liked it. Good personalization of characters, nice flow and emotions came across well.
I maybe looked more favourably onto the human characters this time around. And it didn‘t feel preachy to me.
+*+*+
Review of my first read in August 2017:
Humans, the end of the world as we know it and an uplifting attempt, that went sideways and results into some pretty cool spiders. Classic sci-fi of colonization, aliens and odd societies.
Changing POV, pretty fashionable in recent years. I blame GRR Martin. There are our uplifted spiders on the one side and the remains of humanity, stuck on an ark ship and being the usual unreasonable species.
The insect view I liked a lot, it felt a bit like watching a National Geographic or Discovery Channel documentary. Suspenseful telling of the spiders' developmental path through the ages. However, the great world building and very close look at their societal evolution in my view comes at the disadvantage of lacking character development. Ok, you say, how much personality can a spider have…. But they are being uplifted considerably over the course of the book.
There is a lot of internal monologue and reasoning, the struggle of the male spiders, fighting for their right not to get eaten after mating, religion, a mad god, interaction with other species, interesting bio-science and some great imagery. I would love to see Great Nest!
The humans in contrast seem rather uninteresting and stupid. It seems we can not learn from out mistakes. I could not develop any real interest in the human story arcs. The parts with more action were good, but generally the characters felt flat to me, with the minor exception of Holden. And even he came across as pretty bland.
It gets a little preachy at the end. I guess that is the required message you get in classic SciFi. So there. There is a nice view forward, with a good plot bunny for another book. Bottom line, great story.
The audiobook narration was good, I liked it. Good personalization of characters, nice flow and emotions came across well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder