ArNinetyEs

An Admirable Work Marred by Political Preaching

Revisado: 04-02-25

I liked the story a great deal. While somewhat derivative of Clarke’s “Rendezvous With Rama”— deliberately and reverentially so — it goes its own way to an interesting and satisfying conclusion.

Then why did I not rate it higher? Simple. I kept being pulled out of the story in its first two-thirds by randomly placed but very specific political preaching. The story would be moving along, when suddenly, one character or another would stop to lecture the reader/listener of a particular political view. This was made much worse by repeated discussion of certain events that have since been proven false.

From the beginning, authors have always woven political and sociological views into their tales. The best do it seamlessly, and it isn’t consciously noticed by the reader but influences all who experience the work. But highlighting such views, especially when reinforcing them by specific events that have since proven incorrect, shatters the narrative.

This author is very good with a story, and I hope in the future he either leaves politics out or, better yet, weaves his political views seamlessly, artfully into his work.

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Much to Like, When it Goes Wrong…

Revisado: 09-27-23

This story starts slow and has a wonderful buildup. The world building is very good. The characters (most of them) are decently developed and filled out. The first contact is different, and it had a fascinating concept. The story is mostly well written. I would have rated it higher but for a major, glaring flaw. The narrator did a very good job as well.

The problem lies with the final scene. While calling for people to work together, one of the main characters steps out of her accepted character and lectures the reader/listener on the importance of not questioning authority. She didn’t say those words, but by denigrating anyone who questions authority, by pretending that all “conspiracy theories” (i.e., any thing that goes against the accepted narrative), that is what she was saying, and it is what the author appeared to say.

This shattered the story leaving me wishing I’d never spent the time or money on it.

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Better The Second Time

Revisado: 09-08-23

I read this many years ago, and thought it good but not great. I just listened to the audible version. And, after the dearth of decent sci fi novels in the past few years, I have to elevate it to very good.

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Not Blake Crouch’s Best

Revisado: 07-05-23

This is an ugly, often tedious story about predictably nasty people, seasoned with evil personified and liberally sprinkled with betrayal of innocence. Sorry, Mr. Crouch. It just didn’t work for me.

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Beautifully performed, pointless story

Revisado: 04-27-23

The performance is great. It isn’t often a book narrator is able to convey so many emotions and do so convincingly.

But the story is focused on race and, with an incredible amount of stereotyping, ties privilege to race. But privilege is tied to wealth and power.

I gave it one star because I found it to be the most pointless book I have experienced since I wasted all those hours reading Dahlgren, expecting it to become more than it was. It never did, and neither did this.

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Zombies, Decently Written

Revisado: 04-24-23

If you love zombies, this is a decently written book. Of course, it’s only the first in a series.

If you’re tired of zombies, there’s not anything new.

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Sherlock Holmes as a Criminal

Revisado: 04-05-23

Yes. It was about Moriarty. Other than his criminal proclivities, he was indistinguishable from Holmes.

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Unsubtle Preaching

Revisado: 01-07-23

I so wanted to like this book. There were a number of things that had my attention, but I kept getting dumped out of the story by repeated preaching by all the characters.

Make no mistake: good fiction usually has some kind of social message. But good fiction addresses the message in the story, within the actions and interactions of the characters and their situations.

Instead, the author chose to have one or another character preach about the evils of racism, prejudice, bigotry, and stereotyping at least once every few pages. Every character was either white and blatantly racist, white and being a good ‘anti-racist’, or non-white and lamenting being a constant victim of racism.

It was so detrimental to the flow of the story, I could not finish.

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Potentially Interesting Story, Erroneous Science

Revisado: 12-22-22

Okay, let’s be clear. I don’t expect science fictions to adhere completely to known science, otherwise FTL, artificial gravity, and other fun concepts would not exist in fiction. On the other hand, some things are well known and should not be eliminated or altered for convenience.

In this tale, the most grating departure from real science was the proclamation that Earth had no moon until 50,000 years ago. This is not even remotely true. The presence of the moon around Earth is well documented going back billions of years. In fact, the evolution of early terrestrial life, from ferns and other plants to insects and vertebrates, appears to have relied heavily on large tides, which occurred because the moon was closer back then. But to arbitrarily claim the moon was captured 50,000 years ago? Sorry. This was jarringly incorrect and pushed me out of the story.

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First of a Series, NOT Standalone

Revisado: 10-09-22

If you are not already planning to get the follow up books, do not bother with this one. It is not standalone. It leaves most major threads hanging in a way unanticipated just a few pages prior.

If you are planning to get the series, it may be worth it, but I can’t say. I found most major characters, especially early in the book, to be unlikeable. That improved toward the end of the book, just in time to leave everyone hanging.

It was okay, but I didn’t see enough in book One to convince me to try the others in the series.

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