Dušan Jovanović
Right of the bat, I want to give big praise to the translator of this book, Bojan Tarabić. I read it in my native language (Serbian) and the choice of words had me reaching for the dictionary quite a few times. I don't know if it was an artistic choice of the translator or a stylistic imitation of the original to use such unorthodox phrasing and wording but it strongly elevated my reading experience.
That being said, this was a awful book. I could understand the one-dimensional characters, pasing issues and the messy narrative structure if the ideas were at least presented in a meaningful way. But they are not. They are dry exposition dumps that are no more exciting than reading a physics textbook. And they are delivered in a very non-organic way where the whole story is interrupted just so the author can take a few pages to explain a concept. They concepts are not organically woven into the story.
I had no idea what to expect when I started reading. The opening had me hooked. Science community during the Chinese cultural revolution. Sounds exciting. Certainly novel to me. But then it goes to a present day murder mystery. Which turns into a sci-fi mystery with the countdown (which gets completely abandoned) Then there is the video game which helps introduce the alien race. And after the video game is finished it's just meanders from one info dump and character back-story to another with eye-rolling plot conveniences, interruptered only once for that boat-cutting "action" scene. Even though digestable, interesting sci-fi concepts does not a good story make.
This whole book is just clumsy introduction with fascinating concepts and one interesting character (the cop). Someone else wrote this, but I could read a book just about the adventures of Da Shi. I am very hesitant about continuing with this series. And I've grown tired of people telling me to endure the first book because everything improves with later installments. If the author wanted me to continue, they should've written a more compelling first novel. Nowadays we get these thousand+ page monstrocities that are divided into three parts and we are asked to blindly trust that things will get better as the story progresses. I'm not sold.
Right of the bat, I want to give big praise to the translator of this book, Bojan Tarabić. I read it in my native language (Serbian) and the choice of words had me reaching for the dictionary quite a few times. I don't know if it was an artistic choice of the translator or a stylistic imitation of the original to use such unorthodox phrasing and wording but it strongly elevated my reading experience.
That being said, this was a awful book. I could understand the one-dimensional characters, pasing issues and the messy narrative structure if the ideas were at least presented in a meaningful way. But they are not. They are dry exposition dumps that are no more exciting than reading a physics textbook. And they are delivered in a very non-organic way where the whole story is interrupted just so the author can take a few pages to explain a concept. They concepts are not organically woven into the story.
I had no idea what to expect when I started reading. The opening had me hooked. Science community during the Chinese cultural revolution. Sounds exciting. Certainly novel to me. But then it goes to a present day murder mystery. Which turns into a sci-fi mystery with the countdown (which gets completely abandoned) Then there is the video game which helps introduce the alien race. And after the video game is finished it's just meanders from one info dump and character back-story to another with eye-rolling plot conveniences, interruptered only once for that boat-cutting "action" scene. Even though digestable, interesting sci-fi concepts does not a good story make.
This whole book is just clumsy introduction with fascinating concepts and one interesting character (the cop). Someone else wrote this, but I could read a book just about the adventures of Da Shi. I am very hesitant about continuing with this series. And I've grown tired of people telling me to endure the first book because everything improves with later installments. If the author wanted me to continue, they should've written a more compelling first novel. Nowadays we get these thousand+ page monstrocities that are divided into three parts and we are asked to blindly trust that things will get better as the story progresses. I'm not sold.
Right of the bat, I want to give big praise to the translator of this book, Bojan Tarabić. I read it in my native language (Serbian) and the choice of words had me reaching for the dictionary quite a few times. I don't know if it was an artistic choice of the translator or a stylistic imitation of the original to use such unorthodox phrasing and wording but it strongly elevated my reading experience.
That being said, this was a awful book. I could understand the one-dimensional characters, pasing issues and the messy narrative structure if the ideas were at least presented in a meaningful way. But they are not. They are dry exposition dumps that are no more exciting than reading a physics textbook. And they are delivered in a very non-organic way where the whole story is interrupted just so the author can take a few pages to explain a concept. They concepts are not organically woven into the story.
I had no idea what to expect when I started reading. The opening had me hooked. Science community during the Chinese cultural revolution. Sounds exciting. Certainly novel to me. But then it goes to a present day murder mystery. Which turns into a sci-fi mystery with the countdown (which gets completely abandoned) Then there is the video game which helps introduce the alien race. And after the video game is finished it's just meanders from one info dump and character back-story to another with eye-rolling plot conveniences, interruptered only once for that boat-cutting "action" scene. Even though digestable, interesting sci-fi concepts does not a good story make.
This whole book is just clumsy introduction with fascinating concepts and one interesting character (the cop). Someone else wrote this, but I could read a book just about the adventures of Da Shi. I am very hesitant about continuing with this series. And I've grown tired of people telling me to endure the first book because everything improves with later installments. If the author wanted me to continue, they should've written a more compelling first novel. Nowadays we get these thousand+ page monstrocities that are divided into three parts and we are asked to blindly trust that things will get better as the story progresses. I'm not sold.
Right of the bat, I want to give big praise to the translator of this book, Bojan Tarabić. I read it in my native language (Serbian) and the choice of words had me reaching for the dictionary quite a few times. I don't know if it was an artistic choice of the translator or a stylistic imitation of the original to use such unorthodox phrasing and wording but it strongly elevated my reading experience.
That being said, this was a awful book. I could understand the one-dimensional characters, pasing issues and the messy narrative structure if the ideas were at least presented in a meaningful way. But they are not. They are dry exposition dumps that are no more exciting than reading a physics textbook. And they are delivered in a very non-organic way where the whole story is interrupted just so the author can take a few pages to explain a concept. They concepts are not organically woven into the story.
I had no idea what to expect when I started reading. The opening had me hooked. Science community during the Chinese cultural revolution. Sounds exciting. Certainly novel to me. But then it goes to a present day murder mystery. Which turns into a sci-fi mystery with the countdown (which gets completely abandoned) Then there is the video game which helps introduce the alien race. And after the video game is finished it's just meanders from one info dump and character back-story to another with eye-rolling plot conveniences, interruptered only once for that boat-cutting "action" scene. Even though digestable, interesting sci-fi concepts does not a good story make.
This whole book is just clumsy introduction with fascinating concepts and one interesting character (the cop). Someone else wrote this, but I could read a book just about the adventures of Da Shi. I am very hesitant about continuing with this series. And I've grown tired of people telling me to endure the first book because everything improves with later installments. If the author wanted me to continue, they should've written a more compelling first novel. Nowadays we get these thousand+ page monstrocities that are divided into three parts and we are asked to blindly trust that things will get better as the story progresses. I'm not sold.
Even though this second book in the series has a premise very similar to the first book (a girl goes missing and our heroes have to find her), it builds on the world established in the first book. It expands on the political dynamics between Earth and Mars. It introduces badass new characters (Chrisjen "Potty Mouth" Avasarala is my favorite). It continues building the protomolecule mystery. The book gripped me from the very beginning and never let go. I started keeping notes after every couple of chapters just so I could follow the story. When I was done and when I read my notes, I couldn't believe how much was packed into this book. There were only a couple of chapters where I felt my mind wondering. But otherwise it was a thrilling ride. Can't wait to get to the next installment in the series.
Even though this second book in the series has a premise very similar to the first book (a girl goes missing and our heroes have to find her), it builds on the world established in the first book. It expands on the political dynamics between Earth and Mars. It introduces badass new characters (Chrisjen "Potty Mouth" Avasarala is my favorite). It continues building the protomolecule mystery. The book gripped me from the very beginning and never let go. I started keeping notes after every couple of chapters just so I could follow the story. When I was done and when I read my notes, I couldn't believe how much was packed into this book. There were only a couple of chapters where I felt my mind wondering. But otherwise it was a thrilling ride. Can't wait to get to the next installment in the series.
Asteroid/moon hopping space murder mystery with a backdrop of political intrigue sprinkled with a pinch of horror. It's a fun ride. The two main characters are broad archetypes that could've use a bit more development. The worldbuilding got me interested enough to continue with the series. I do want to find out more about the dynamics between Earth, Mars and the Belt.
Asteroid/moon hopping space murder mystery with a backdrop of political intrigue sprinkled with a pinch of horror. It's a fun ride. The two main characters are broad archetypes that could've use a bit more development. The worldbuilding got me interested enough to continue with the series. I do want to find out more about the dynamics between Earth, Mars and the Belt.
Added to listOwnedwith 15 books.
