cloramagone's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.0
-3.5/5
-excellent concepts stemming from a wide range of physicists and mathematic visionaries' prior work, meh execution
-i liked the 5 separate subarcs following different groups of people around the solar system and their different resources and strategies for survival, and the outcomes
-the subarc focusing on the titanic guy was unnecessarily long and annoying. a book about an alien invasion does not have to spend this long explaining the history of the titanic, which does not even qualify as a metaphor or analogy because nothing about the titanic arc paralleled the main story.
-i did not like the conversation between random big name astrophysics personalities in the middle of the book, as it was artificial and excessive.
-the consequences of any horrifying event in the book are not explored enough. no character reacts with enough horror to what they are witnessing. most simply discuss the event and move on, which was deeply unsatisfying.
-excellent concepts stemming from a wide range of physicists and mathematic visionaries' prior work, meh execution
-i liked the 5 separate subarcs following different groups of people around the solar system and their different resources and strategies for survival, and the outcomes
-the subarc focusing on the titanic guy was unnecessarily long and annoying. a book about an alien invasion does not have to spend this long explaining the history of the titanic, which does not even qualify as a metaphor or analogy because nothing about the titanic arc paralleled the main story.
-i did not like the conversation between random big name astrophysics personalities in the middle of the book, as it was artificial and excessive.
-the consequences of any horrifying event in the book are not explored enough. no character reacts with enough horror to what they are witnessing. most simply discuss the event and move on, which was deeply unsatisfying.
vip1001's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
harlequingemma's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
mike_word's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
steveatwaywords's review against another edition
5.0
Maybe I've just been missing true hard science fiction, but the grimness which makes the (*not a spoiler*) destruction of Earth in the first view pages of the novel suggests at first that there is nowhere for the novel/narration to go: I was quite wrong.
Using some hard truths of biochemistry, robotics, and physics, Pellegrino and Zebrowski still find room for history, theology, and hope if only . . .
"If only." There is one of the most important roles ethically speaking for the best writers: understanding our responsibility for our present and future.
"The Killing Star" has plenty of turns and unexpected moments, resolutions and untied strings. But mostly it uses not "grimness" but hard facts to reveal some pathways of real caution in our "innocent" arts and ambitions . . . and hope, too.
*Sidebar: Find everything Pellegrino has put his pen to for more like this. He is hardly without controversy and he has often been wrong, but when you forward 20,000 speculations of the future and miss the mark on about 100, read the other 99.5%.
Using some hard truths of biochemistry, robotics, and physics, Pellegrino and Zebrowski still find room for history, theology, and hope if only . . .
"If only." There is one of the most important roles ethically speaking for the best writers: understanding our responsibility for our present and future.
"The Killing Star" has plenty of turns and unexpected moments, resolutions and untied strings. But mostly it uses not "grimness" but hard facts to reveal some pathways of real caution in our "innocent" arts and ambitions . . . and hope, too.
*Sidebar: Find everything Pellegrino has put his pen to for more like this. He is hardly without controversy and he has often been wrong, but when you forward 20,000 speculations of the future and miss the mark on about 100, read the other 99.5%.
ashlawson09's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
hundred's review against another edition
3.0
Amazing premise - intelligent life has an incentive to eliminate other intelligent beings before they become threats. A galactic "first strike" principle.
Some good writing and this great premise is weighed down by some very boring characters, other less plausible ideas, and an unhealthy amount of time spent talking about the Titanic.
Good
- Great premise.
Bad
- Weird idolization of other science fiction writers. In this story they become titans of science and predict the coming alien apocalypse and design just about all the scientific breakthroughs after 1990.
- Weird fascination with the Titanic (one of the authors wrote a whole book on it). Almost totally irreverent to the rest of the story, but a lot of time spent on it.
- The protagonist here is “Humanity”, so there aren’t any characters to really get invested in.
Don’t really recommend this to anyone other than hardcore sci-fi fans.
Some good writing and this great premise is weighed down by some very boring characters, other less plausible ideas, and an unhealthy amount of time spent talking about the Titanic.
Good
- Great premise.
Bad
- Weird idolization of other science fiction writers. In this story they become titans of science and predict the coming alien apocalypse and design just about all the scientific breakthroughs after 1990.
- Weird fascination with the Titanic (one of the authors wrote a whole book on it). Almost totally irreverent to the rest of the story, but a lot of time spent on it.
- The protagonist here is “Humanity”, so there aren’t any characters to really get invested in.
Don’t really recommend this to anyone other than hardcore sci-fi fans.
evnlibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
I finally finished this book, and it left me with a difficult task in appointing a star rating. It probably intrigued me on levels and will definitely be a book I bring up in many a science fiction discussion but I also found myself breezing through parts of it, and shaking my head at a few others. But the fundamental premise is one that I'll definitely bring up in any discussion of looking for life on other planets, or reading any story of first contact with an alien species.
Short summary: Turns out being able to travel at speeds fast enough for interstellar travel also means you have the ability to destroy a planet with a bombardment, and what's more, so could any other species to you. And there would be little to you could do to stop it, so it's basically like the Cold War if a nuclear first strike almost guaranteed total victory. It's enough to make you question whether we should be announcing our presence out into space at all. Those hoping for salvation from friendly green men may be making a leap of faith indeed.
The story itself deals with the few survivors of earth after such an attack. Quite bleak as you could imagine. The book employs a back and forth narrative, switching to different perspectives where we get a bunch of other speculative science fiction discussions, cloned dinosaurs as pets, an accidental genetically engineered bird flu that leaves crops at the mercy of unchecked insects, people addicted to virtual reality, etc. A large section deals with survivors led by a clone of Jesus and clone of Buddha trying to survive, and honestly while I'm up for a science fiction book that respectfully and intelligently approaches religion, there's a lot of stumbles there and it treats generic liberal religious pluralism as a little too much of a shocking revelation (it also brings up some theories about Jesus' life that I think are not credible but I won't bog down the review here). The character study of a person told his is the 2nd coming of Jesus is interesting, it where I feel the book is in turn preaching to me that it fails a bit.
Still, definitely worth checking out for all fans of serious science fiction. Just uh...don't look for a happy story. This a tale of a bleak, cold, world where humanity is all but stamped out just because somebody else thought it might be a threat down the road.
Short summary: Turns out being able to travel at speeds fast enough for interstellar travel also means you have the ability to destroy a planet with a bombardment, and what's more, so could any other species to you. And there would be little to you could do to stop it, so it's basically like the Cold War if a nuclear first strike almost guaranteed total victory. It's enough to make you question whether we should be announcing our presence out into space at all. Those hoping for salvation from friendly green men may be making a leap of faith indeed.
The story itself deals with the few survivors of earth after such an attack. Quite bleak as you could imagine. The book employs a back and forth narrative, switching to different perspectives where we get a bunch of other speculative science fiction discussions, cloned dinosaurs as pets, an accidental genetically engineered bird flu that leaves crops at the mercy of unchecked insects, people addicted to virtual reality, etc. A large section deals with survivors led by a clone of Jesus and clone of Buddha trying to survive, and honestly while I'm up for a science fiction book that respectfully and intelligently approaches religion, there's a lot of stumbles there and it treats generic liberal religious pluralism as a little too much of a shocking revelation (it also brings up some theories about Jesus' life that I think are not credible but I won't bog down the review here). The character study of a person told his is the 2nd coming of Jesus is interesting, it where I feel the book is in turn preaching to me that it fails a bit.
Still, definitely worth checking out for all fans of serious science fiction. Just uh...don't look for a happy story. This a tale of a bleak, cold, world where humanity is all but stamped out just because somebody else thought it might be a threat down the road.
More...