Paul

It's a war novel.

Revisado: 11-05-24

I enjoyed the in-universe novels and biographies that filled out the background and points of divergence. I didn't need all the detailed descriptions of weapons and vehicles. Overall, it's not as accessible as the Nantucket series, but I'll probably keep reading.

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I love Bentley Little but

Revisado: 10-26-24

I love Bentley Little but this one is full of missed opportunity and some pretty important dropped threads.
It is an early effort from the author who has since become the master of finding horror in mundanity. Here he starts with a very interesting serial killer premise.

The murderer uses regular household items and an obsessive precision to create cinematic crime scenes.

These deaths take time and patience and are unbelievably cruel in nature. It's the kind of extra crazy we like to see on a prestige cable or streaming drama.

BUT THEN - Little just drops that amazing MO altogether. The killer becomes undisciplined, dumb and sloppy. The murders, while suitably gross, lack any of the creativity shown earlier in the story. It goes from brilliant to boring about midway through the investigation. Even the "twist" in the killer's identity is kind of boring by the time we get there. Such a missed opportunity.

Overall, it's a fine tale and mostly well told. Little's signature sexual weirdness is present and as always he can write kids really well. The Narrator had to be sped up to be tolerable but wasn't too offputtingly bad.

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finally get to enjoy Scalzi without

Revisado: 10-18-24

I finally get to enjoy Scalzi without listening to Wil Weaton's smarmy voice dripping with condescension. This story is delightful. It's a little predictable but still nice.

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a bit of a filler episode

Revisado: 09-10-24

I love the Bobs. I've enjoyed the series immensely but whereas Heavens River was ambitious and had two interesting adventures at its core, this one felt like meaningless vamping.

Things happen but not much impact. The new species stuff seemed rushed. Very neat ideas but none explored.

The ongoing human/post-human political development was bare bones.

The new science was tediously dull for the most part. And while this is absolutely baseless speculation on my part, I firmly believe the whole rogue AI thing was added by the marketing department. It went nowhere and impacted the story not at all.

I love the Bobs, but the only way this book works is if it's setting up an epic story for the next one.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

five hours in and nothing of substance

Revisado: 08-11-24

I stopped at five hours because I started dreading turning it back on. I mean, great writer obsessed with an interesting period of time and place, it should have at least been interesting. It wasn't. Literally five hours of nostalgia with three drips of plot.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

He's the master of finding horror in the mundane.

Revisado: 08-08-24

In this one he goes straight at things we've all agreed not to think about.

The hospitality industry is on the outer edges of the social contract. Total strangers touch and prepare our food. Our possessions are left out, touched and moved by other strangers . And we trust minimum wage workers to make sure intimate areas, toilets and sheets are not teaming with unseen filth.

It's completely horrifying when you think about it. Of course, Little also includes his greatest hits, sex, violent tendencies and ghosts.

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dull and disjointed

Revisado: 07-27-24

dull and disjointed. the narrator did his best to add interest, but it just never went anywhere.

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nonsense sociological experiment

Revisado: 07-19-24

Neat idea. Could have been a rollicking adventure. It's not. It's an attempt to impose an unrealistic sociological ideal, the needs of the many, on messy humans. Unfortunately, these humans aren't messy or even interesting. They're literally NPC-level sketches of various stereotypes. I became disgusted with them halfway through and had to stop. And just on a personal note, can we please get a strong trans character once in a while. They're always played as victims and broken. That's not respectful representation, it's pandering and pointless. Also, casting the Mennonites as the "Noble Savages" isn't fooling anyone.

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so boring

Revisado: 04-07-18

hated the main character and wanted her dead. i got through 20 chapters before i just couldn't take her stupidity any longer.

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Willfully ignorant main character = Painful Read

Revisado: 10-21-17

Just a note of explanation, I don't usually leave bad reviews but Audible wouldn't let me return this one so I figure the least I could do is warn others of my experience.

This book is incredibly over-written. It takes a very simple story and stretches it out with commentary on minutiae and willful ignorance on the part of its main character.

I should have given up after the first three hours wherein a theoretical physicist struggles to grasp the basic concept of the book - that the multiverse is real and he's crossed dimensions - despite the fact that his supposed field of theoretical physics touches on this very thing.

I gave up finally when they reached the plague world and I was forced to spend 20 minutes listening to our "hero's" whining about the deaths of alternate versions of his wife and son while he himself becomes exposed to the virus that killed them. I can forgive a lot, but this level of stupidity from supposedly smart characters eventually wore me down.

I love almost every science fiction story I've ever read. The multiverse is one of my favorite sub-genres and this story ruins the concept.

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