Prostagmatos

Absolutely insufferable main character

Revisado: 04-19-25

The personality of the main character makes this a really tough listen. The reader doesn't help at all, magnifying his most horrible traits by giving him this mocking basic Californian high-school girl cadence which is really out of place on a grown up man, no idea why anyone in their right mind would play it like that.
My contempt with the main character has nothing to do with his mistakes and shortcomings, or which he has quite a few, but with his personality and mannerism, which make him absolutely insufferable. If it wasn't for my physical inabllity to drop books midway, I would have happily dropped it at his 300th mention of him being "just a high-school science teacher, duh!". Stuff like "don't ask me how I know that, I'm a high-school science teacher" or "you wanna know how I know that? You would be surprised the questions a high-school teacher gets from kids, looool" got very cringey, very quickly. Topple it with this mega-basic LA chick cadence.
The writer seems to know a lot about science, but with zero experience in the actual field. Everything the main character thinks becomes reality. He's never wrong and comes up with really complex multi-layered scientific theories on the go which are always proved right with little to no testing. This, plus every time he makes an experiment he has to say something like "ehmm... It works? I guess. A-WE-SOOOME 💅". Horrible.
I stayed away from this writer for a long time because of all the hype. Audible has been trying to sell me this book for years and I finally decided to give it a chance because of a friend's recommendation. I will go back to avoid him.

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10 points to the narrator

Revisado: 03-05-25

The narrator took an already great book and turned it into an incredible adventure. Got me hooked from the get go, even though the premises were not really promising (modern actual settings, abundant references to brands and celebrities). I dare anyone to imitate a speaking rat and make it sound credible, but Ryder made it and even took it a step further.

Great characters, great action. Can't really say much about the story as I didn't find anything particular exciting or new about it. Also, a few times the science had to take some major leaps into the fantastic in order for the story to proceed, but that didn't necessarily ruin the experience for me.

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Little Sci and not so entertaining Fi

Revisado: 02-25-25

The book is not "bad", it's just so disappointing for people who were looking for a sci-fi and would have settled for a space horror too, because the book is none of the first and very little of the second. The horror is indeed there, but it's not the scenes and the reality of the situations described that make it so, but the extreme reactions of the overly-emotional characters that make it.
That brings me to the next point: the writer is obsessively describing the characters reactions and hand-holds us through very basic human emotions in a way that I've never experienced before. A character is not "disappointed and upset", they are "disappointed and upset, hanging their fists by their hips, curling their brows and twisting their mouths in a scowl". They are not "confused", they are "confused, squinting their eyes in a questioning way and holding their mouth half open" (I just made these examples up). I really could do less with the overly described faces and postures which could have been explained with a simple adjective.
Another thing that I just couldn't swallow was the author constantly making the characters cry and weep at the mere mention of their parents / siblings / relatives / random people they encountered once in the past. "I miss my mommy", "my daddy was so kind", "we were punished because my poor grandma stole some medicine for my sick little sister" (I'm not exaggerating). Very aggravating, considering that all the characters can't think about anything else except their sobbing back-stories for the whole duration of the book, even in the face of situations that really needed their undivided attention.
Last thing, don't start this book if you're expecting the author to fantasize about new technologies, alien organisms and space exploration. You're not getting any of that. There's a spaceship, but that's all we get to know about it. If I remember correctly, some "thrusters" are mentioned at some point, but that's it. Same thing with the "virus" and the crew that encountered it first. The author is clearly not interested in any of that.
Anyway, I enjoyed the narrators and the idea about the "virus", so I totally recommend the book if you're not bothered by the previous points I listed.

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What. A. Book.

Revisado: 02-20-25

I'm writing this fresh right after finishing this book and all I can say is: what a ride. I was so disappointed when I realized after the first lines that it was not going to be a serious hard-sci fi book (my favorite), but the great writing and witty sarcastic tone of the prose made me chose to give it a chance anyway and I just stuck along for the ride, and what a ride it was! Absolutely unforgettable.

The ironic performance of the reader somehow helped making every beautiful and surprising twist of events hit me in such a unexpected way that I often found myself sitting in the car (I often listen to audiobooks on my way to work) after reaching my destination, unable to pause for a minute.

I grew so close to the main character that I would have to try very hard to hold back the tears at the mere mention of another character which I won't name to not spoil the experience to any potential reader, but I'm sure that whoever read the book understands who I'm talking about. During the ending, I just let myself go in an unapologetic cry of joy.

I need to go wash my face now. Please make yourself a present and read/listen to this book, it's totally worth your time!

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Nice plot, awful characters

Revisado: 05-02-24

First of all: this is a typical American sci-fi book as in, even though the story relates to a world effort against in a war against an alien species, all the characters are American, there's no other flag except for the Star-Spangled Banner and generally no reference to the existance of any other country outside the USA.
Second: the narration is quite good, even though it focuses way too much on the history and psychology of the human characters for my taste and doesn't spend one line explaining the science behind anything that is happening.
Third: I really enjoyed the narrator from beginning to end. Bravo to her!

Last but not list: the characters are simply awful human beings. There's no way around it. They are quite realistic, but you can't help but hate all of them and wish for them all to die the most horrible death. I kept listening to the book waiting for the final moment of retribution, which never arrived. One of the characters is so awful that single handedly *spoilers* causes the destruction of the entire gigantic space ship and condemns the entire crew to death out of pure egoism, yet no one mentions this ever once, nor there is ever a moment of self reflection on his side. Christ I hated all of them so much.

I will stay away from this author, this type of literature is not for me.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

'MERICA'S LITERATURE AT ITS FINEST 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Revisado: 10-26-23

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS!!

Oh, where to begin...

First of all: it's not a bad book, it kept me hooked until the very (rushed) end. It is a sci-fi as in there's some science in it, even though it's only exclusively about kinetics and grade school thermodynamics. Someone mentions something about nuclear energy further into the book, but nothing deep.

This introduces us to the next point: the only science we meet is rocket science, in the most purely americacentric way imaginable. NASA science, the most noble and valued field of science there is. Nothing else matters, no one else needs to be part of the picture.

Also, the writer tries so hard to be "cool" and to keep in touch his young / contemporary audience. I wanted to drop the book every time I heard expressions like "trolls" or "fangirling". At some point I heard "welcome to the dark side, we've got cookies".

Oh, and of course it wouldn't be an American sci-fi book if there wasn't the omnipresent hurricane disaster story! Oh no, that one can't be missing. The writer decides to waste a big part of this sci-fi book about humanity's first alien encounter talking about a collateral hurricane disaster as seen through the eyes of a very sweet Mexican grandpa and his priest friend who are taking care of children in an orphanage, out of the pure kindness of their hearts. It was just so embarrassing to keep hearing "padre" and "papi" over and over again, from people who were otherwise speaking perfectly in English all the time. By the way, this tear inducing side story adds absolutely nothing to the book.

One of the main characters of the book, a young female scientist with a double doctorate in astrophysics and quantum physics (we never find out how the latter had any relevance to the story) spends the entirety of the book fighting against ignorance and trying to force her agenda on the world, convinced that we must should always trust in science and we must silence all the inferior people who, out of their atavistic barbarism, are afraid of the oncoming aliens and consider them as a threat,
At the end of the book (careful, major spoilers here) they finally realize that the aliens actually came to destroy the world. After coming back from a mission where she almost died, she's given a chance to address the world. She's completely oblivious to the irony of the situation, as she's now screaming to the cameras telling the audience that they have to stop believing in false myths and stop spreading lies about her expedition, because the aliens are indeed a threat to humanity, contrarily to what some trolls are saying on the internet. By the way, the aliens were destroyed using a weapon that she vehemently insisted was not necessary. Not one single word was uttered on the matter.

Anyway, I warmly recommend this book to all those who are not bothered by blatant American patriotism, cringy internet neologisms and soppy hurricane disaster stories. After all, it was quite a fun ride!

One last thing: yes, there's a car chase scene.

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Starts slow, then it gets intense

Revisado: 06-14-23

I'm a huge Lem fan and I always left this book aside. I decided to finally give it a chance only now.
The book starts slowly and sets you up for some less serious / goofy adventure in a not so distant future. By the time you start understanding more of the background of the characters and the world you realize that the story is so much deeper and intense. Lots of high quality sci-fi content worthy of the good ol' Stan. Totally recommend.

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Book for American children with zero science

Revisado: 05-11-23

CAREFUL, MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS

This book contains absolutely no science and no technology whatsoever. Even the agricolture in the new planet is brushed over very superficially, you just know that someone grew an apple tree, no explanation needed.
Never once in this book any reference is made to anything that isn't elementary school American history, this includes all the names for the locations, starships, events, etc.. There's an entire section of the book describing massive earthquake, but you could just exchange "earthquake" with "hurricane" and "Ganymede" with "Florida" (after which the sister of the protagonist dies, event that is never mentioned once again the rest of the book).
There's much more that I could say but this book doesn't deserve any more of my time.

The narrator did a great job, 5 stars to Nick Podehl!

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Good, even for avid sci-fi enthusiasts of today

Revisado: 04-11-23

Goofy science for today standards, but wonderful story telling and lovable characters. A must read for all ages.

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Sci-fi without any science whatsoever

Revisado: 04-03-23

The book was pleasant and posed some mildly interesting psychological points. I particularly enjoyed the surprisingly grim ending of the first story, which was made particularly shocking due to the infantile style of writing the author chose to start with.
The author doesn't spend one character trying to explain any of the science behind space travel, the martians (who are extremely anthropomorphic, at times more than humans themselves) or the terraforming of Mars, though he spends a few characters having his characters going on rants against science itself.

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