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metaphorosis's review against another edition
3.0
reviews.metaphorosis.com
3.5 stars
A focused young boy and a girl with a strange power meet early in life, and continue to cross paths as they learn secrets of the Earth's past.
I ran across a translation of Andreas Eschbach's The Carpet Makers some years back, and thought it excellent - original, interesting, and well told. When I found Lord of All Things for sale, I jumped on it, forgetting even to check for a version in the original German. Though Lord of All Thingslacks the creativity of The Carpet Makers, it's a fun, enjoyable read.
Eschbach starts slow, introducing the characters as children, and describing their first meeting. It's immediately warm and engaging, and there's a pleasant suspense in wondering where the story will go. Unfortunately, it's a section that also plants the seeds of some disappointment - Eschbach describes Charlotte's unusual power, which crops up occasionally throughout the book
Spoiler
, but turns out to be more of a flourish than a core plot pointThis is a near-future story with some high tech. However, the really speculative elements of the book are, if not superfluous, at least peripheral. The real story is about the characters. Given that, the central relationship between Hiroshi and Charlotte is treated from a surprisingly distant, almost clinical perspective. It's interesting, but never really moving.
Eschbach introduces a number of intriguing leads, but lets most of them lie. Much as we'd like to, we never learn much about them.
All in all, a good but flawed read, without the balance of The Carpet Makers, and with more of the feel of a very good draft than a complete story. Nonetheless, I recommend this for readers looking for a story more about people than gadgets.
Note: the translation is good, but with a slightly folksy tone that doesn't match most German writing. I haven't read the original, so it's possible the translation is 100% faithful, but it didn't match my expectations.
might_be_may's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
*sigh* A good book? I think so?
I'd probably happily recommnd it to anyone if only it was half as long.
I'd probably happily recommnd it to anyone if only it was half as long.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
evolvemind's review against another edition
5.0
Lord of All Things (English translation) is an excellent technical sci-fi with a fascinating concept and plot. The primary characters are well developed. There's a good balance of action, suspense and tension, conflict, characterization, and exposition of technical concepts. The story traces Hiroshi Kato's lifelong obsession with using technology to overhaul global society to be more egalitarian and less conflict prone. Hiroshi's brilliant intellect and humanistic motivation run upon obstacle after obstacle.
The second main character, Hiroshi's childhood friend Charlotte, has two special abilities that both drive and channel her choices in life. Hiroshi's and Charlotte's paths cross at various points in interesting ways.
The technical content inspires and cautions equally, provoking a thoughtful reader to consider the opportunities, risks, and moral implications of new technologies.
I greatly enjoyed this book. A competent production company and director could make a fantastic movie (or series of movies) from the book. The dearth of decent film adaptations of great sci-fi stories, however, almost leads me to hope no movie is made. No movie would be better than the typical Hollywood botch.
I think the story could have been tightened up a bit without losing anything critical. Other than that, I found it captivating and highly thought provoking. Great job, Eschbach!
The second main character, Hiroshi's childhood friend Charlotte, has two special abilities that both drive and channel her choices in life. Hiroshi's and Charlotte's paths cross at various points in interesting ways.
The technical content inspires and cautions equally, provoking a thoughtful reader to consider the opportunities, risks, and moral implications of new technologies.
I greatly enjoyed this book. A competent production company and director could make a fantastic movie (or series of movies) from the book. The dearth of decent film adaptations of great sci-fi stories, however, almost leads me to hope no movie is made. No movie would be better than the typical Hollywood botch.
I think the story could have been tightened up a bit without losing anything critical. Other than that, I found it captivating and highly thought provoking. Great job, Eschbach!
saneyossarian's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
laurenges_and_lemons's review against another edition
3.0
A strong start to the story, lots of interesting things mentioned that make you stare into the distance wistfully about what's to come in the future.
However, I found the pacing really slow, and thus lost interest about 4/5 of the way through.
I didn't complete this, as I felt that I had what I needed from the plot, and the characters were no longer that likeable.
It's an interesting read, but isn't something I'll be writing home about.
However, I found the pacing really slow, and thus lost interest about 4/5 of the way through.
I didn't complete this, as I felt that I had what I needed from the plot, and the characters were no longer that likeable.
It's an interesting read, but isn't something I'll be writing home about.
julia_w's review against another edition
4.0
really interesting. starts off slow but the resolution was worth it.
brandontw's review against another edition
5.0
A neat book! I didn't really know what to expect at all, so the book was a surprise the whole way through. Some really great ideas and an awesome story. Some of the character development is a bit weak, perhaps some of this is lost in translation, but i can still definitely recommend.
charliemudd's review against another edition
4.0
Mash together nano technology, John Carpenters "The Thing", and Romeo and Juliet, and you get this long, fun book, that really only suffers from a few spacehatches* and some bad dialog. While the writing is predictable, the plot is not, and that alone is plenty to keep you enjoying this book. I will definitely read another by Eschbach.
[*A spacehatch is a scene in a book or a movie that just couldn't really happen in real life. We came up with the term after watching several movies where the characters casually open a pressurized space hatch to dispose of an unwanted item or monster, almost like rolling down their car window to throw out their fast food remnants. As it has matured, the term has been generalized to mean a plot point that was not well thought out, and ended up using some type of impossible or very unlikely ploy to get around the situation. It usually means that the writer is bad or at least got lazy.]
[*A spacehatch is a scene in a book or a movie that just couldn't really happen in real life. We came up with the term after watching several movies where the characters casually open a pressurized space hatch to dispose of an unwanted item or monster, almost like rolling down their car window to throw out their fast food remnants. As it has matured, the term has been generalized to mean a plot point that was not well thought out, and ended up using some type of impossible or very unlikely ploy to get around the situation. It usually means that the writer is bad or at least got lazy.]
tashadandelion's review against another edition
4.0
This is a hard book to classify. It defies genre boundaries to some extent, though may be called speculative fiction, as it deals with near-future nanotech. It sprawls all over the world, jumps time periods in the two protagonists' lives, and left me feeling melancholy at the end. While the writing was smooth enough and easy to settle into, I had the nagging sensation that the lead female character was under-served in this plot; she is an extraordinary person who barely does anything extraordinary with her gifts. Is this yet another example of a man writing a 2-dimensional female character? Not quite so, because the author does at least give us a view of her inner life. It's just her actions -- or lack thereof -- that feel anemic. I'm giving this 4 stars because of the imagination of the author, and the fascinating tech and ethical concepts this book tackles.
bmartino's review against another edition
3.0
I have to say, the plot veered off in a direction I was totally not expecting, which may have saved the book for me. I didn't really enjoy the characters. Also I was so annoyed that the settings were so anonymous - you never really felt a sense of place. Lastly I could have done with it being about 30% shorter. A lot of bloat here. Part of it may have been due to it being a translation, which always leaves some quirky remnants behind.