A review by rjnn
Apex by Ramez Naam
3.0
Meh. Writing was sorta sloppy, and really started to fall apart. I was thrilled at first. After the excellent job Ramez Naam did on transhumanist ideas with Nexus, I was really looking forward to seeing him tackle the posthuman/AI setting that Apex promised, but it sort of falls flat. Too much overdone prose, not enough big ideas. I suppose I now have an appreciation for why Vernor Vinge portrays AIs as unfathomable gods, because if the alternative is as cringeworthy as it is in Apex, better to not even try...
I was hoping that Crux was lacking in new ideas due to the usual middle-of-the-trilogy issues and this would not be an issue with Apex, but it looks instead like a linear decrease over the series. Nexus 5/5, Crux 4/5, and Apex 3/5.
I was hoping that Crux was lacking in new ideas due to the usual middle-of-the-trilogy issues and this would not be an issue with Apex, but it looks instead like a linear decrease over the series. Nexus 5/5, Crux 4/5, and Apex 3/5.