Tony

Oh my. I'm not a fan of Stephen Baxter's writing, and this series has convinced me to never again read a collaboration between a legendary and a lesser author, unless I already like the work of the lesser author on its own. I'm ashamed to admit I speed read parts of the book, that was how bad it was. Take my review with a grain of salt because it might not be impartial.

If you're reading the review of the third book, I'm confident to speak about things that might be spoilers. If you haven't read the previous two books, please don't read further unless you don't mind mild spoilers.

So, where do I start? Space Odyssey was a great trilogy, and I naively expected Time Odyssey to be another trilogy. What a fool I was, this is written to make a long series and thus no concrete answers were gained.

First, the science part of scifi feels off. The previous book made more sense, in this AIs vary wildly its hardware requirements, contradicting their massive needs stated on the second book; solar sails become combat ships; and a few other nitpicks.

Second, the plot moves glacially, dragging its feet with unnecessary frequent descriptions of clothing, environment, climate, buildings, people, etc., only to forget about it almost immediately. Authors get paid by the word, I get it, but I don't enjoy when words are there without purpose.

Third, plot holes made evident by the books themselves. For example, it was discovered that Mars suffered the same fate as Earth, Sunstorm and later Q bomb, yet the Mars of Mir seems to be timesliced during the Q Bomb, while Mir was timesliced before the Sunstorm. Why? Because that Martian is there to implausibly save the day, that's why. If her Mars was before the Sunstorm, she wouldn't be of use.

Fourth, the twin narration of Mir and Earth's timelines is done by alternating a chapter on Mir and a chapter on Earth. This come and go can become jarring because the final chapters are short and surprisingly bereft of content.

In conclusion: this series is not Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey trilogy, it should be thought as an independent work by Stephen Baxter, related only by accident.

A work full of pagan, religious and mythological trivia. It promises occult wisdom and powers to shape your environment, but that's the carrot on the stick for the credulous and naive.

Take it as a essay on occultism and you might enjoy it. Take it seriously and you will only lose many hours of your time.

Practically devoured the book, only to find the meal was cut short at the end.

The core premise (runaway science vs magic) is hugely attractive, it has plenty of action passages (sometimes barely justified), it has a doubly imaginative world building (needs more spells, though), and many characters are intriguing, even if not all are well-rounded... Why did I give it only 3 stars?

1. Too slow. The pacing is quick, but the plot advances slowly. A daring escape takes page after page after page, wasting precious space as the book nears its end, meanwhile loose threads keep piling.

2. Read bait. The book is evidently meant to be the first in a series, yet it could have done more with 500 pages. The ending feels incomplete, thrilling but hungry for real answers to its own questions.

3. Language. Imagine Harry Potter in his twenties, throwing f-bombs because it's cool. Imagine everyone important doing it occasionally. It's not very frequent, just enough to be distracting.

All being said, I will definitely read the next book in the series. I even changed the rating to 4 stars at the last moment because it's not a masterpiece, but it's a decent and entertaining book.

Continuing from [b:Time's Eye 64936 Time's Eye (A Time Odyssey, #1) Arthur C. Clarke https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388208559s/64936.jpg 1524294], but loosely. A different setting and only one character in common with the first, so it could be read on its own; but don't because you need the first anyway to make full sense of the third. My review of the first book.Should you read this? Yes if at least one of these is true:- You understand Clarke's name sells, but not guarantees actual Clarke writing.- You like other Stephen Baxter's books he's written solo.- You enjoy natural disaster novels because that's what this book mostly is.This is a welcome change from the first book, as it includes more science fiction. Like Space Odyssey, it happens in our not-so-distant future, yet we get to see how satisfyingly far technology has advanced.Its most glaring fault is that the whole book resolves a single plot point. Granted, it's a very significant plot point, but it becomes tiring because a book a third of the length would have sufficed, and the ballooning prose becomes an unnecessary delay. Nevertheless, it's better than the previous book.Nitpick: I consider a bad sign when authors sprinkle scifi pop culture references. At least here it's done sparingly.

After having read [b:Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker 10256723 Ghost in the Wires My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker Kevin D. Mitnick https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344265017s/10256723.jpg 15156997]. this book was missing details about how he managed to pull his scams off, and this is the main reason of my bad review.I was interested in finding how he did what he did, but the book reads more like a novel than a biography. It just glosses over numerous important details, which makes many incidents seem implausible. I was glad when I read the last page, because by then I felt I was wasting my time.

This is the first of the “Time Odyssey” series. There are three books as of now, but it is written to make much more. Unfortunately, Mr. Clarke died in 2008, so this series will probably stay unfinished, and that's probably for the better.

Should you invest your time in this? If you know Stephen Baxter's work and you like it, go on. If you are under the spell of Arthur C. Clarke's name, do not. This isn't Clarke's. He probably contributed at high level, but the grunt work is Baxter's, and his style overwhelmingly dominates.

If you are still undecided and don't mind a small spoiler, only read it if you enjoy historical fiction, because that is mostly what this book is..

It reads like an Ender's Game fan fiction. It's one of those books who aren't great books but would make great movies.