jamestomasino's review against another edition
1.0
I picked this book up at an airport minutes before a flight. It was a total panic buy. I grabbed the nearest fiction I could find so I'd have some company in flight. As I sat down in my squished middle seat I glanced over the back cover to see what the book was about.
"Sci-fi, rebelling against parents, elevator to the moon, check."
Then I tore into it. The writing wasn't anything special. It seemed that many parts of the plot were just excuses for the author to explain more about his ingenious moon elevator idea. Around halfway through the book I paused to re-read the back cover. Then I started wondering how long it was going to take before the book caught up with the synopsis.
Let me make a quick comment here about book jackets. When you read the back of a paperback or the inside jacket of a hardcover novel, you are expecting certain things as a reader. This short blurb will give you the overview of how the book is going to start and a vague idea of how it might proceed, or perhaps a lingering tension that will be paramount later in the story. These are teasers, like a movie trailer, meant to get you interested and started. They are not to be, at any time, a complete summary of everything you are about to read. After all, if that were the case, what's the point in reading the story?
So I continued the read and managed to finish it before I reached my destination. And there it was, on the very last page, that the story finally fulfilled the back cover text. Not a single surprise. Not a single new development. The book was its own spoiler.
I was pretty pissed off. Not only was the book bad, but it was ruined before I read it. Perhaps it was the middle seat on the plane, but I found absolutely nothing about this reading experience enjoyable.
In hindsight, I suppose it is a good omen for any budding authors out there. Apparently TOR doesn't set its bar very high.
"Sci-fi, rebelling against parents, elevator to the moon, check."
Then I tore into it. The writing wasn't anything special. It seemed that many parts of the plot were just excuses for the author to explain more about his ingenious moon elevator idea. Around halfway through the book I paused to re-read the back cover. Then I started wondering how long it was going to take before the book caught up with the synopsis.
Let me make a quick comment here about book jackets. When you read the back of a paperback or the inside jacket of a hardcover novel, you are expecting certain things as a reader. This short blurb will give you the overview of how the book is going to start and a vague idea of how it might proceed, or perhaps a lingering tension that will be paramount later in the story. These are teasers, like a movie trailer, meant to get you interested and started. They are not to be, at any time, a complete summary of everything you are about to read. After all, if that were the case, what's the point in reading the story?
So I continued the read and managed to finish it before I reached my destination. And there it was, on the very last page, that the story finally fulfilled the back cover text. Not a single surprise. Not a single new development. The book was its own spoiler.
I was pretty pissed off. Not only was the book bad, but it was ruined before I read it. Perhaps it was the middle seat on the plane, but I found absolutely nothing about this reading experience enjoyable.
In hindsight, I suppose it is a good omen for any budding authors out there. Apparently TOR doesn't set its bar very high.
gardenprophet's review against another edition
5.0
I am constantly confounded by the cover for every edition of this book featuring white people. Because all the main characters are very explicitly not.
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