zombiezami's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
4.25
This is the first book that I’ve read by this author, and I can tell he’s super talented and knowledgeable. He weaves history, advanced science, and philosophy together in fascinating ways. It was hard to follow at times, though, because of the thoroughness of his descriptions. Not sure if I’ll read the other books in this series, but this one was pretty fascinating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Murder, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Death, Suicide, and Animal death
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Confinement, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Colonisation, Genocide, and War
cinnamonandpancakes's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
3.0
This book is a very interesting read but I would honestly describe it more as a political thriller with hard science fiction elements. The aliens are vague and their advanced technologies are more fantasy than based in hard science, though the science on the human side is much more realistic.
Quibbles about genre aside, I found a lot of the conclusions people draw in this book to be very pessimistic and narrow minded. It is a very gloomy book. Many characters make terrible discoveries and then just give up. A terrible doom is coming and we can't do anything about it so we're just going to give up fighting?! Maybe I'm just young but that attitude infuriates me.
That being said, there's some imaginative uses of science in this book and the sequels are set up well. If you like the prospect of doomy political thriller with aliens then this is a very well written example.
Quibbles about genre aside, I found a lot of the conclusions people draw in this book to be very pessimistic and narrow minded. It is a very gloomy book. Many characters make terrible discoveries and then just give up. A terrible doom is coming and we can't do anything about it so we're just going to give up fighting?! Maybe I'm just young but that attitude infuriates me.
That being said, there's some imaginative uses of science in this book and the sequels are set up well. If you like the prospect of doomy political thriller with aliens then this is a very well written example.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, and War
Moderate: Blood and Death
Minor: Suicide
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