Laurens

Good story, good narration, good processing

Revisado: 04-19-25

I'm reminded a bit of old man's war, vibe wise, except in this case I unfortunately don't have a whole series to continue reading. That's fine, it's a complete story. The narrator didn't leave me guessing who was who, and there were even effects to signify different forms of communication.

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Never gets going

Revisado: 04-07-25

Almost every chapter introduces a bunch of new people, and the narrator only does one and a half voices, which doesn't help.

The start of a new book is almost always the hardest part to me, when I don't yet know the characters, and this book is just that on repeat. It also frustrates me that the only "working the problem" that happens regarding the main premise is done by people in executive roles, which makes those processes less interesting to me, due to the limited options they seem to consider. It somehow managed to make Seveneves feel optimistic by comparison. (A book that incidentally manages to mitigate the first chapter problem with the best opening line ever). And most of that book felt pretty bleak to me.

There are a few story lines that have a classic scalzi arc, with nice resolutions. But those are more satisfying when I feel like I know the characters. This was the first Scalzi story that didn't work for me.

It does make me wonder if it is secretly related to "when the yogurt took over", despite the afterword grouping it with two other books...

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Repetition

Revisado: 03-08-25

It can be amusing to read, but it tends to repeat itself. Partially by explaining the exact same thing two or three times in subsequent chapters, but mostly like this:

A: you are dumb
B: you are rude and annoying
A: I know, but I am smart, unfortunately the problem we are facing is impossible
B: how about this approach
A: whoops, that could almost work, I feel embarrassed
B: Let me rub it in
A: Whatever, let me just use my pet insult.
some time later:
B: I miss him when he's not here
A: I secretly care for them.

(part of a )mission here
Repeat.

it's like they don't really have an arc, so much as a squiggly line... a sinus waveform perhaps

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Great space adventure with minimal violence

Revisado: 08-29-23

The science fiction and future fiction books I listen to are often centered around a certain amount of violence. This book meanwhile manages to make a compelling story with characters who avoid violence as best they can, with satisfying story beats around eating together and receiving mail.

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Quantum woo

Revisado: 08-31-22

A good first half of a book. Then it gets silly. And not in a good way. Towards the end it unravels further and further, until it devolves into a 4 or 5 level deep exposition dump. People behave annoying; saying one thing, meaning another, behaving poorly and immediately being forgiven for it, or holding back vital information from each other purely to come across as smart or to build tension.

Perhaps it bothers me more because its main gimmick relies on a standard misunderstanding of quantum mechanics, ascribing almost spiritual or poetic behavior to it. I'd rather read about something more out there.

Narration is alright. One of the most annoying characters has an appropriately annoying voice.

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Great fun

Revisado: 04-24-22

As usual John writes with levity about heavy subjects and situations. The characters show great humor in difficult situations, and even when they're annoyed or something, they tend to handle things in an amusing way.

I listened to this book right after listening to the Old Man's War books again, and I have to be honest, I do miss its narrator William Dufris a little bit. Wil Wheaton does a fine job here, but I sometimes feel like he missed a few opportunities to highlight the joking manner in which the characters speak to each other. I got used to it though, and there was still plenty of upbeat energy left.

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Makes the immune system seem more understandable

Revisado: 02-25-22

More understandable than immunology probably is. I originally got the book as a physical copy, which has amazing illustrations, but I ended up listening on my walks, and looking at the illustrations when I got home.

The related videos on the Kurzgesagt YouTube channel give a decent summary of the things discussed in this book, often using similar stories, but I still feel like I understand the topics better after reading the book, thanks to the extra background information and context.

I also love that it's narrated by the same person who narrates the Kurzgesagt videos.

I used to always be scared about biology in general. But learning more about the immune system trying to defend me, as well as familiarity because of how much it now feels like my main field of parallel programming, made me feel a little less helpless. Even though I learned about a bunch of different ways in which I probably am.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Great fun; not very elegant.

Revisado: 10-31-21

I feel like the author was a fan of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Firefly, and perhaps the culture novels (and probably more), borrowing and combining elements into a future fiction hero fantasy adventure that the culture novels specifically tried to avoid. I wonder if those books only come to mind because the audiobooks share a narrator, and that's how I found this book. But I do think it's helpful to compare and contrast them. They do share some powerful AI themes, though this book is set in a more mystical universe, with most AI being somewhere in-between Data from Star Trek and C3PO from Star Wars. The kind of culture ship level AI has more of a mythical role here.

This book very much follows the "faster and more intense" direction used in Star Wars, whereas the Culture novels can take a little while to get going. But in the end those feel way more sophisticated, making me get way more invested in the world, and encouraging a re-read. This book does a little more handholding, which does help it get started.

A lot of the plot developments feel convenient, with things happening just in time, and protagonists seemingly somehow being the best in their fields, with lots of aces up their sleeves, hidden until the last moment. Like the story is written around a series of cool things that could happen, writing the protagonists into corners until something extra is needed to get them out.

But that can be great fun, and despite all the convenient developments, the characters didn't feel overpowered to me. I look forward to reading the rest. I'm just not expecting to be amazed by Culture novel levels of revelations, social commentary, or self awareness. It's more like watching one of the movies and series I mentioned above. Including some of their "this feels like it was written by a guy" vibes.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Problem Solving Inspiration

Revisado: 09-10-21

It's hard to say much about this book without spoiling significant parts of it, but I think it would still be worth reading if you did read spoilers. It keeps asking interesting questions, and showing processes, successful or otherwise, for answering them, in a way that's exciting and often fairly emotional, with a generally optimistic vibe.

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Not much happens, and Yennefer is annoying as ever

Revisado: 07-11-21

Halfway through this book I lost interest, and I finished listening all of the Culture novels by the time I finally got round to finishing it.

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