Helpful Score: 1
So. Hm. Existence.
Essentially, this is the story of humanity's first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, without the magic of warp drives, wormholes, or other mechanisms to cheat Einstein. And done in a way that's meant to fit the reality of Fermi's Paradox (why is the sky silent?).
The first 60% of the novel is just wonderful. It's got Brin's touch of connecting just-out-of-reach technology with social optimism, and finding fascinating ways it all flows together. (The idea of a "smart-mob" is here, and terrific.) Reading this kind of conjecture always makes me feel smarter, and that the text is more than just mere escapism.
The last 40% though gets a bit more silly. Some plot threads get dropped entirely, and there are at least a few pieces of "then many years pass..." which left me wanting more. (Though, perhaps, that "more" would have been worse. It's hard to know.) It does feel a bit like "I need to fill out my outline to meet my deadlines" kind of writing. It's quality, but it's missing the punch of the earlier portions of the book.
I'm still giving the book 5 of 5 stars, though. There are a lot of neat things to think about in here, and generally speaking, it is a very well crafted yarn.
Essentially, this is the story of humanity's first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, without the magic of warp drives, wormholes, or other mechanisms to cheat Einstein. And done in a way that's meant to fit the reality of Fermi's Paradox (why is the sky silent?).
The first 60% of the novel is just wonderful. It's got Brin's touch of connecting just-out-of-reach technology with social optimism, and finding fascinating ways it all flows together. (The idea of a "smart-mob" is here, and terrific.) Reading this kind of conjecture always makes me feel smarter, and that the text is more than just mere escapism.
The last 40% though gets a bit more silly. Some plot threads get dropped entirely, and there are at least a few pieces of "then many years pass..." which left me wanting more. (Though, perhaps, that "more" would have been worse. It's hard to know.) It does feel a bit like "I need to fill out my outline to meet my deadlines" kind of writing. It's quality, but it's missing the punch of the earlier portions of the book.
I'm still giving the book 5 of 5 stars, though. There are a lot of neat things to think about in here, and generally speaking, it is a very well crafted yarn.
My husband who is the SciFi reader HATED this book so badly he didn't even finish it. That is very rare for him. He can normally finish even the worst books but this one didn't make four chapters before he tossed it. He's a great lover of SciFi and has read more than 1000 books in this genre...loves the classics and Pratchett both so he has an appreciation for many types of SciFi so this one must be a real stinker for him to toss it without finishing it and then tell me not to get any more books from this author.
