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booksandlemonsquash's review against another edition
2.0
I just couldn’t connect with this book at all. The main character is very distant and doesn’t seem to get people at all and that translates to the reader - I didn’t care about any of the characters.
I actually almost DNF’d the book a couple of chapters in but felt I’d not given it enough chance, sadly I wish I had.
I also have to say that I found it very hard to follow bits of the plot because of how it was described, I had to keep going back to reread paragraphs. At one point I did this thinking I’d missed something but I actually hadn’t, it just wasn’t explained that the person involved was different to the one the character thought it was originally, and he never reacted to the realisation it wasn’t. The whole book is like that. And Mira is also always like that, everything is with his understanding and he doesn’t seem to react to anything.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend this book.
I actually almost DNF’d the book a couple of chapters in but felt I’d not given it enough chance, sadly I wish I had.
I also have to say that I found it very hard to follow bits of the plot because of how it was described, I had to keep going back to reread paragraphs. At one point I did this thinking I’d missed something but I actually hadn’t, it just wasn’t explained that the person involved was different to the one the character thought it was originally, and he never reacted to the realisation it wasn’t. The whole book is like that. And Mira is also always like that, everything is with his understanding and he doesn’t seem to react to anything.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend this book.
kingsamong's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Murder
Moderate: Gore
susssu's review against another edition
4.0
Liked this a lot more on the second time reading it, maybe bacause the unlikeable characters didn't bother me as much this time around. These books might also just benefit from being read multiple times.
---
Original review:
Three stars for a book that had the most misleading synopsis on the back cover I've read in a while. I get that you don't want to give away too much in a book like this, but creating completely false expectations for the reader shouldn't be the end result either.
I do think that Smythe is a good author, but when you are good at creating annoying characters, the book overall reads really whiny. I would have gotten more out of this had I felt more sympathy toward a single character in the story. Now I just kept going in the vague hope that the ending would be better than the ending of The Explorer (spoiler: it isn't.)
Still, I do hope Smythe keeps going with the series, if only just to find out if there's an actual end game to all this
---
Original review:
Three stars for a book that had the most misleading synopsis on the back cover I've read in a while. I get that you don't want to give away too much in a book like this, but creating completely false expectations for the reader shouldn't be the end result either.
I do think that Smythe is a good author, but when you are good at creating annoying characters, the book overall reads really whiny. I would have gotten more out of this had I felt more sympathy toward a single character in the story. Now I just kept going in the vague hope that the ending would be better than the ending of The Explorer (spoiler: it isn't.)
Still, I do hope Smythe keeps going with the series, if only just to find out if there's an actual end game to all this
bibliovino's review
1.0
So depressing. I felt like I had died about 30 times before I got to the end. And it wasn't the end. I still got no closer to figuring this out. I forgot this was a quartet. Jesus.
robotwitch's review against another edition
4.0
Please note that this review will be spoiler heavy for the first book, The Explorer.
Where do you start with something like this? In the first book, we saw Cormac Easton, a journalist on the first manned mission into deep space, watch all his crew mates die and his ship run out of fuel. We then saw him die, and be reborn as an old man who is in some amount of time loop, related to an anomaly at the edge of known space. It was one of his crew’s lifetime work, this anomaly, but he died before they reached it. We also encountered a ground control that had lied to them about coming home, intended for this mission to never return, in an attempt to create mystery and inspire the world to take up more space travel - if only to find the Ishiguro.
In this book, it seems that the latter purpose has failed. If anything, it has made humans feel doomed to remain on this planet forever - well, until twenty years later, after the “two most brilliant minds in science”, Tomas and Mirakel Hyövnen, decide to study the anomaly in which the Ishiguro was lost in. Decided on a game, Tomas stays at ground control, but in constant communication with his twin brother, Mira, who is sent off into space with a small crew in a small ship.
Mirakel - who prefers Mira - is a troubling character right from the start. Injected with sedatives, he somehow doesn’t fall asleep for the launch - though even the ship’s doctor is inclined to think he’s lying. And then there is his constant competitive feeling with his brother. Everything Tomas does, Mira believes he is doing to undermine him. He’s not like Tomas, he tells us, he’s not good with people.
At first, I didn’t think I’d enjoy this book. It is written in a very different style from the first - Mira isn’t a journalist like our Cormac, and the prose is stark and, until nearer the end, not as flowing. I found it difficult to immerse myself at the start, and given the crew were so dispensable, I barely bothered to learn their names. Whereas in the Explorer, we get to know them through snippets and tales and it helps us shape Cormac in our minds, Mira doesn’t get such a treatment here. He has to stand on his own, with his strange eyes watching the world. I found him difficult to trust - not because he wasn’t trustworthy, I think he was - but because it seemed like everything he saw was filtered through his emotions first.
So he’s definitely a difficult one to get down, and therefore so is his brother. Is he the competitive man Mira tells us? Is he purposely undermining Mira, or is Mira paranoid, up too many nights taking “stims”? It’s impossible to tell - at first, at least - and that is cleverly done by Smythe. Of course, we do find out eventually just what kind of relationship Tomas and Mira have, and where the limits and boundaries lie.
Where The Explorer was a tragedy, this book was tragic. We know what Mira and his crew are hurtling towards, we know what the anomaly does. And yet, despite knowing this, when they first encounter its loop, I was horrified as they were. Funny how it happens, but it’s shocking when it shouldn’t be, and plays on most human fears. The end is, undoubtedly, a sad one, and Mira becomes a pathetic and sympathetic character - as if he wasn’t enough of those things already.
One small thing I love from both of these books is actually not in the story itself. It’s the hinting at new technology, of this future earth that we never see. With highly advanced plastic surgery, with non-addictive drugs, with all this technology and all these satellites. I would love to see what kind of Earth all this things belong to, but sadly that is unlikely to come.
It is a slow starting book, with some flat support characters, and the ending is very...intriguing. Presumably, this is to leave some mystery for the next book. But despite that, its strengths are massive, and the book is therefore loveable.
I’m am incredibly excited to see where this goes - as well as Smythe’s new young adult series he’s just signed. He is definitely one to watch, and I love forward to going through his back catalogue, as well as eagerly awaited his next offerings.
Review can also be read on Robot Witch.
Where do you start with something like this? In the first book, we saw Cormac Easton, a journalist on the first manned mission into deep space, watch all his crew mates die and his ship run out of fuel. We then saw him die, and be reborn as an old man who is in some amount of time loop, related to an anomaly at the edge of known space. It was one of his crew’s lifetime work, this anomaly, but he died before they reached it. We also encountered a ground control that had lied to them about coming home, intended for this mission to never return, in an attempt to create mystery and inspire the world to take up more space travel - if only to find the Ishiguro.
In this book, it seems that the latter purpose has failed. If anything, it has made humans feel doomed to remain on this planet forever - well, until twenty years later, after the “two most brilliant minds in science”, Tomas and Mirakel Hyövnen, decide to study the anomaly in which the Ishiguro was lost in. Decided on a game, Tomas stays at ground control, but in constant communication with his twin brother, Mira, who is sent off into space with a small crew in a small ship.
Mirakel - who prefers Mira - is a troubling character right from the start. Injected with sedatives, he somehow doesn’t fall asleep for the launch - though even the ship’s doctor is inclined to think he’s lying. And then there is his constant competitive feeling with his brother. Everything Tomas does, Mira believes he is doing to undermine him. He’s not like Tomas, he tells us, he’s not good with people.
At first, I didn’t think I’d enjoy this book. It is written in a very different style from the first - Mira isn’t a journalist like our Cormac, and the prose is stark and, until nearer the end, not as flowing. I found it difficult to immerse myself at the start, and given the crew were so dispensable, I barely bothered to learn their names. Whereas in the Explorer, we get to know them through snippets and tales and it helps us shape Cormac in our minds, Mira doesn’t get such a treatment here. He has to stand on his own, with his strange eyes watching the world. I found him difficult to trust - not because he wasn’t trustworthy, I think he was - but because it seemed like everything he saw was filtered through his emotions first.
So he’s definitely a difficult one to get down, and therefore so is his brother. Is he the competitive man Mira tells us? Is he purposely undermining Mira, or is Mira paranoid, up too many nights taking “stims”? It’s impossible to tell - at first, at least - and that is cleverly done by Smythe. Of course, we do find out eventually just what kind of relationship Tomas and Mira have, and where the limits and boundaries lie.
Where The Explorer was a tragedy, this book was tragic. We know what Mira and his crew are hurtling towards, we know what the anomaly does. And yet, despite knowing this, when they first encounter its loop, I was horrified as they were. Funny how it happens, but it’s shocking when it shouldn’t be, and plays on most human fears. The end is, undoubtedly, a sad one, and Mira becomes a pathetic and sympathetic character - as if he wasn’t enough of those things already.
One small thing I love from both of these books is actually not in the story itself. It’s the hinting at new technology, of this future earth that we never see. With highly advanced plastic surgery, with non-addictive drugs, with all this technology and all these satellites. I would love to see what kind of Earth all this things belong to, but sadly that is unlikely to come.
It is a slow starting book, with some flat support characters, and the ending is very...intriguing. Presumably, this is to leave some mystery for the next book. But despite that, its strengths are massive, and the book is therefore loveable.
I’m am incredibly excited to see where this goes - as well as Smythe’s new young adult series he’s just signed. He is definitely one to watch, and I love forward to going through his back catalogue, as well as eagerly awaited his next offerings.
Review can also be read on Robot Witch.
zzzrevel's review against another edition
2.0
Ok, I have now read Book 2, and this one was extremely
frustrating whereas the ennui in Book 1 at least kept
me intrigued until the end. But here in Book 2 it was
more of the same in a way -- not only is the survivor
acting aimlessly but it even seems the author's writing
proceeded aimlessly.
I am very curious how this all turns out -- what is the
Anomaly and how it causes the effects that it does -- but
am I going to endure 2 more books of any more of
this 'emptiness' ?
I really cannot recommend this series, although it remains
to be seen if I will stick it out anyway. What a paradox.
frustrating whereas the ennui in Book 1 at least kept
me intrigued until the end. But here in Book 2 it was
more of the same in a way -- not only is the survivor
acting aimlessly but it even seems the author's writing
proceeded aimlessly.
I am very curious how this all turns out -- what is the
Anomaly and how it causes the effects that it does -- but
am I going to endure 2 more books of any more of
this 'emptiness' ?
I really cannot recommend this series, although it remains
to be seen if I will stick it out anyway. What a paradox.
kirjakauris's review against another edition
3.0
Three stars for a book that had the most misleading synopsis on the back cover I've read in a while. I get that you don't want to give away too much in a book like this, but creating completely false expectations for the reader shouldn't be the end result either.
I do think that Smythe is a good author, but when you are good at creating annoying characters, the book overall reads really whiny. I would have gotten more out of this had I felt more sympathy toward a single character in the story. Now I just kept going in the vague hope that the ending would be better than the ending of The Explorer (spoiler: it isn't.)
Still, I do hope Smythe keeps going with the series, if only just to find out if there's an actual end game to all this
I do think that Smythe is a good author, but when you are good at creating annoying characters, the book overall reads really whiny. I would have gotten more out of this had I felt more sympathy toward a single character in the story. Now I just kept going in the vague hope that the ending would be better than the ending of The Explorer (spoiler: it isn't.)
Still, I do hope Smythe keeps going with the series, if only just to find out if there's an actual end game to all this