Clemens

This book is really short, something that you can squeeze through on a weekend or even in a day.

While I liked the whole book, at the end it left me with a slight shale taste, like something is missing. The whole book felt like one good draft that needed some more polishing. Well, it shows that Michael Crichton was a good author already back then, but it also shows that at the beginning he was not 100% perfect.

From all the “Culture” novels I have read, I think this is the weakest. I just couldn't get into the story. While there were interesting parts, there seemed to be way too much text without a story and too many loose ends and side stories that really didn't move the main story forward.

Some parts were interesting in deepening the main Culture lore, but not enough to somehow enjoy this book at full.

As all the books are pretty much stand alone, at the current point I would skip it.

A quite enjoyable read, a nice collection of short stories. Some in new universes with interesting twists and two really good ones from the Commonwealth Universe.

When the pandemic hit I lost my daily two hours of reading on the train.
So it took me a full year to read this book.

This book overall is really fantastic, because I could pick it up after all the months and continue some more and I always remember where I was. I really like the writing style from Clarke, plus the story in here is really good too.

Very much recommended

What a surprising great book. Of course not perfect, but what book is, still an amazing read which I highly recommend.