Kevin F. reviewed on + 211 more book reviews
"Interesting book" and that is not always good or bad.
At its heart is a book about world building, geography, lands and their peoples mixed with a crime thriller. I'm glad that I read it, but feel that it was too much work. I have enjoyed the author in the past, but this book was not as good as, say, the Mars Trilogy.
The Good: The author paints a vision of what "humanity" will look like in 2312, and like the present some people are good, some evil. Space Travel is "boring" as the characters regularly scoot back and forth between the planets, but while the traveling is common place the terrarium ships are each unique and entertaining. Most of the planets are occupied, although sometimes that means an enclosed settlement, or a settlement hovering in the clouds. The vision is sweeping and over whelming. I really enjoyed the characters and bought into them and what they were doing. As our protagonists travel, we see the technology and the vistas, and the planets through their eyes, and it's a rich and abundant view. One of the benefits of such a rich in ideas story, is that you see a lot of great ideas, and how the author thinks the ideas play out in the real world.
The bad: It's poorly edited in that it's boring and way too long. Perhaps it should have been two or more books. One of the problems is that the details of the "geography" are overwhelming. Who knew that there would be so much rich detail about the migration of the elk and the efforts that the wolves go to for a meal? These related but unrelated stories are interesting and help with character development, but they are pretty much a distraction from the main story. I usually read a book of this size in a few days. It took me months because I had to set it aside due to lost interest. Then I would read a bit more, get bored and read another book or two before I got back to it. Deeply in the story was an investigation of a crime, but there was so much emphasis on the vistas, the cultures, the re-population of animals on earth that the crime was a foot note.
At its heart is a book about world building, geography, lands and their peoples mixed with a crime thriller. I'm glad that I read it, but feel that it was too much work. I have enjoyed the author in the past, but this book was not as good as, say, the Mars Trilogy.
The Good: The author paints a vision of what "humanity" will look like in 2312, and like the present some people are good, some evil. Space Travel is "boring" as the characters regularly scoot back and forth between the planets, but while the traveling is common place the terrarium ships are each unique and entertaining. Most of the planets are occupied, although sometimes that means an enclosed settlement, or a settlement hovering in the clouds. The vision is sweeping and over whelming. I really enjoyed the characters and bought into them and what they were doing. As our protagonists travel, we see the technology and the vistas, and the planets through their eyes, and it's a rich and abundant view. One of the benefits of such a rich in ideas story, is that you see a lot of great ideas, and how the author thinks the ideas play out in the real world.
The bad: It's poorly edited in that it's boring and way too long. Perhaps it should have been two or more books. One of the problems is that the details of the "geography" are overwhelming. Who knew that there would be so much rich detail about the migration of the elk and the efforts that the wolves go to for a meal? These related but unrelated stories are interesting and help with character development, but they are pretty much a distraction from the main story. I usually read a book of this size in a few days. It took me months because I had to set it aside due to lost interest. Then I would read a bit more, get bored and read another book or two before I got back to it. Deeply in the story was an investigation of a crime, but there was so much emphasis on the vistas, the cultures, the re-population of animals on earth that the crime was a foot note.
