Sam

Magical. Terrifying. Perfect.

Revisado: 09-06-20

... from a fan and collector of the original graphic novels. Wonderful. Neil Gaiman as our narrator really makes it transcendent. I am still reeling from the experience.

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Every white person must read this!

Revisado: 06-18-20

It is essential to learn to recognize our white fragility and how it hurts people of color. No matter how enlightened we think we are, we will always be learning how to be better.

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Men, men, men, men...

Revisado: 07-16-19

(imagine the chanting of "men, men, men, men" in the background to the tune of "spam" from Monty Python)
Men, men, men, men
Men, men, men, men
Heroic men... This book is all men.

What is this? The 1950s? There are only four female characters (only one is a truly positive representation of a woman and even she is robbed of her backbone at the end) I can think of out of a cast of hundreds. When a room of scientists, programmers, engineers, or a board of directors are addressed, it's always as "gentlemen", even by one of the female characters, because of course none of them would be women! There is no female presence in any branch of the military, the police, the FBI, etc. There's not even a female gamer.
(men, men, men, men...)
I finished out the book because I wanted to find out the resolution of the tech part of the story, even though I cringed the whole way through.
(men, men, men, men...)
One reason I read science fiction is because most good sci fi authors recognize that sexism and misogyny don't have any place in the future. Speaking as a person who works in male-dominated fields I can say that the present is not as starved of string female presences as depicted in this book. At one point, the one positive female character is called "Missy" by some good old boy at a government meeting and nobody calls him on it. Like this sort of thing is still okay and will be okay in the future.
*sigh*
Signed,
An engineer, soldier, and gamer who happens to be a woman

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Great writing. Terrible narrator.

Revisado: 06-21-19

I really loved the new outlook on studying Alexander III of Macedon, but almost turned it off to go buy the print version. The narrator mispronounces so many words... Not just names and places but normal, everyday, sorts of words. I found myself uncontrollably yelling the correct versions of the words at the audio book while it was playing. Has the author even listened to this?

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A gem

Revisado: 03-26-19

My favorite Alastair Reynolds book so far (I've read almost all of them). What an amazing story... Great concepts and an original look at the future. Highly recommended.

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Wonderful. Amazing.

Revisado: 01-19-19

I. Loved. This. Book.

Everything about it - deliciously complex plot, incredibly narrated. An obvious love of history on the part of the author. I'm pretty much speechless.

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Cute. Also, slightly annoying.

Revisado: 01-04-19

Good ideas. Fun exploration of MMORPGs from the point of view of the characters... As a long time tabletop and online RPG player I did appreciate that. But only one adventurer character that was female? Seriously? Everything was "men" this and "men" that. Having to deal with this in the analog world is bad enough. At least in an actual RPG there's a decent mix of male and female characters. This time, the book wasn't better. The narrator changed volume so drastically between different characters that if I turned it up enough to hear Hans, I got my ears blasted by the strident, whiny tones of Dani. The story was an interesting enough premise that I finished it. Still, so annoying.

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I cannot recommend this more highly...

Revisado: 11-30-17

Giorgio Vasari describes the art, artists, and contemporary events of the Italian Renaissance as only an actual artist of the time could do. The narration is wonderful, the speaker's voice both melodious and interesting. I appreciated the music played between each chapter, as it added to the atmosphere of stories being told about artists by someone who actually knew and worked with them.

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