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A review by branch_c
Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds
4.0
I had a feeling when I read the description that this would be a good one, and that turned out to be true. While I could see the spark of brilliance in the two previous books I’d read by Reynolds, the premise and setup of this one sounded too good to miss.
The gradual revelation about the reality of the situation is expertly done, keeping up the suspense both in Floyd’s POV sections and in Auger’s. I liked Floyd better as a character, which may have been intentional - Auger’s prickly personality was presumably created by design. She was still mostly likable, except at moments where her condescension toward Floyd showed through. Likewise her antagonism toward Cassandra didn’t seem entirely warranted.
The plot is tight and well-executed. Having said that, there’s a section toward the end, around the time that Auger and Floyd complete their journey from E2 and interact in some depth with the Slasher / Polity characters, in which the writing seems a bit looser. There’s some repetition, some excess dialogue, and a bit of info dumping that to me seemed like a slight drop in the polished story up to that point. But it’s a minor lapse, if anything, and overall I certainly enjoyed the book.
The gradual revelation about the reality of the situation is expertly done, keeping up the suspense both in Floyd’s POV sections and in Auger’s. I liked Floyd better as a character, which may have been intentional - Auger’s prickly personality was presumably created by design. She was still mostly likable, except at moments where her condescension toward Floyd showed through. Likewise her antagonism toward Cassandra didn’t seem entirely warranted.
The plot is tight and well-executed. Having said that, there’s a section toward the end, around the time that Auger and Floyd complete their journey from E2 and interact in some depth with the Slasher / Polity characters, in which the writing seems a bit looser. There’s some repetition, some excess dialogue, and a bit of info dumping that to me seemed like a slight drop in the polished story up to that point. But it’s a minor lapse, if anything, and overall I certainly enjoyed the book.