led's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
flighty's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. Things were happening, very exciting. If this were a TV series, I'd give it 4 stars, maybe even 4.5 depending on how good the acting was. In book form, however, there was just not enough value per word to justify such a rating. A book this long on this sort of scale should say something, but despite a few good observations here and there, it felt like it was all for the fun of it in the end...which would have been fine, I suppose, if I hadn't gotten tired of the last few hundred pages of description.
The plot, which had been delightfully tangled in Pandora's Star, unravels a lot in this book. By unravel, I mean it frays. There will be no revelations in this book, because chances are you'd already predicted the answers. Sometimes, the answer is so obvious you want to yell at all the idiots in the book who haven't figured it out yet. Numerous characters carry Idiot Balls, the quantity of which rises exponentially in the end. I can remember few examples as my mind was immediately washed with whatever the next scene was, but I remember they were there. The ending was a whirlwind of action and tension, so fast that it seemed Hamilton himself couldn't keep up if I were to judge by the typos, but events were happening for nearly indiscernible reasons.
I also find myself surprisingly ambivalent about the characters. The one character arc I was looking forward to since the beginning of Pandora's Star ended with no climax, which I found unbelievable giventhe number of them whenever Mellanie Rescorai pops up the page-time these characters were given. I felt both flabbergasted and cheated.
Ozzie, who I think I'm supposed to like, becomes a pain in the butt in this book. If he were a true twenty something, his immaturity would be acceptable, but how can someone over 300 years old and so well-traveled act so petulantly? I mean, maybe they can, but only as an example of a real jerk.
I think Mellanie was supposed to have a character development arc, but character development was lacking on all fronts in this book, and it's most insufferable with Mellanie because she really, really needed a purpose to justify all that page-time. Something other than a reason to write about sex.
On the topic of sex, the Commonwealth's obsession with first-lifers (those that haven't been 'rejuvenated' from old age) borders on pedophilia. Romances were shallow and superficially based. There just should have been less of this stuff, period.
And yet I do give it 3.5 stars, because I could complain all day about the book, but I could probably talk a long time about what I did like about the book. The snapshots of each world were so vivid, and the writing fluid, and I can't help but wonder how much more satisfied I'd have been if he'd made another scene as emotionally charged as that of Paula's low point in Pandora's Star, or if he'd focused more on Wilson's connection to flight and Mars, or honestly any one character, because there was probably a good story in any of them, and I was moved by at least one line for all of them. Instead we got only a dash of spice from each POV character, calling to mind that saying about too many cooks...
The plot, which had been delightfully tangled in Pandora's Star, unravels a lot in this book. By unravel, I mean it frays. There will be no revelations in this book, because chances are you'd already predicted the answers. Sometimes, the answer is so obvious you want to yell at all the idiots in the book who haven't figured it out yet. Numerous characters carry Idiot Balls, the quantity of which rises exponentially in the end. I can remember few examples as my mind was immediately washed with whatever the next scene was, but I remember they were there. The ending was a whirlwind of action and tension, so fast that it seemed Hamilton himself couldn't keep up if I were to judge by the typos, but events were happening for nearly indiscernible reasons.
I also find myself surprisingly ambivalent about the characters. The one character arc I was looking forward to since the beginning of Pandora's Star ended with no climax, which I found unbelievable given
Ozzie, who I think I'm supposed to like, becomes a pain in the butt in this book. If he were a true twenty something, his immaturity would be acceptable, but how can someone over 300 years old and so well-traveled act so petulantly? I mean, maybe they can, but only as an example of a real jerk.
I think Mellanie was supposed to have a character development arc, but character development was lacking on all fronts in this book, and it's most insufferable with Mellanie because she really, really needed a purpose to justify all that page-time. Something other than a reason to write about sex.
On the topic of sex, the Commonwealth's obsession with first-lifers (those that haven't been 'rejuvenated' from old age) borders on pedophilia. Romances were shallow and superficially based. There just should have been less of this stuff, period.
And yet I do give it 3.5 stars, because I could complain all day about the book, but I could probably talk a long time about what I did like about the book. The snapshots of each world were so vivid, and the writing fluid, and I can't help but wonder how much more satisfied I'd have been if he'd made another scene as emotionally charged as that of Paula's low point in Pandora's Star, or if he'd focused more on Wilson's connection to flight and Mars, or honestly any one character, because there was probably a good story in any of them, and I was moved by at least one line for all of them. Instead we got only a dash of spice from each POV character, calling to mind that saying about too many cooks...
jjmaclean's review against another edition
4.0
I *really* enjoyed the first book - between the Prime aliens, the SI, and other one-off aliens it really felt like an incredible world; it's like nothing I've read before. However, this isn't as good for a few reasons:
1) The wrap up at the end has nearly everyone who was not explicitly killed magically surviving through various means, it really took away the risk those characters took at the end and watered it down.
2) The entire SI plot goes nowhere. This maybe more fully developed in the Void series, but it was a huge unresolved issue. Why did it choose Mellanie and why did it barely intercede even though the Prime aliens were hell bent on destroying everything in the universe?
3) Speaking of Mellanie, she was a terrible character: sleeping her way around, not contributing a thing on her own without her sexual partners or the SI. I had thought she would grow in the second book at be able to hold her own, but alas that wasn't to be. Unfortunately most of his depictions of women in this book are terribly dated at best.
1) The wrap up at the end has nearly everyone who was not explicitly killed magically surviving through various means, it really took away the risk those characters took at the end and watered it down.
2) The entire SI plot goes nowhere. This maybe more fully developed in the Void series, but it was a huge unresolved issue. Why did it choose Mellanie and why did it barely intercede even though the Prime aliens were hell bent on destroying everything in the universe?
3) Speaking of Mellanie, she was a terrible character: sleeping her way around, not contributing a thing on her own without her sexual partners or the SI. I had thought she would grow in the second book at be able to hold her own, but alas that wasn't to be. Unfortunately most of his depictions of women in this book are terribly dated at best.
rssulliv's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
jadedmirror's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Overall this book is more immersive and intriguing than the first one. I did enjoy it more. But the end of the book, I would say around page 750-900(the attack on Armstrong city) before the last 100 pages of the book was very drawn out with fight scenes. It was hard to keep my attention. I had to keep putting the book down and reading in 20-30 page spurts. There were a couple of parts that I think weren't explained as well as I would like. If it wasn't for that I would give it a higher rating.
infleantre's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-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? No
4.0
flexluthor's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I read the first book in this series earlier this year and was pretty unimpressed. It's a truly unending cast of characters, and many of them follow superfluous and distracting paths. There's this bizarre tonal whiplash caused by the author's insistence on including immortality in his future human society. When characters can just body hop to a new clone when they die it's extremely hard to give any section of the book much urgency. This second book is far more fast-moving than the first, which is absolutely a good thing. In the first 1000 page book there were probably 500 wasted pages, in this second one there are maybe 200 wasted. Not a great series to spend 2000 pages with, but it shines through in various moments of tension.
alex_t's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0