Dan
3.5/5 stars
This was interesting and I am not sure what to make of it. It's hard to accurately rate this book since it felt much more as a first act than a book that can stand on its own. On it's own I can only give it 3.5 stars since I am not a fan of stories that end in a cliffhanger and this one ends with a big one.
We experience the story mainly through 3 characters.
Naranpa - The Sun Priest (think pope)
Xiala - a half human, half teek sea captain
Serapio - a young man groomed to fulfil a prophecy
I liked Xiala und Serapio, they have a nice dynamic and are interesting characters and interesting to read. Naranpa I did not know what to make of her. She is rather naiv bordering on dumb and it's a bit frustrating to read her parts and I am not sure if its intended but she comes of as a villain, kind of.
The story is overall somewhat predictable in great parts which did not negatively influence my enjoyment though, there were enough surprises to keep me interested. What is very cool Is that I have not figured out who the ‘bad guy' is in the story. Everyone has their comprehendible motivations, minus one annoying side character maybe.
This books makes use of the Xe/Xir pronouns, as a non American, non native English speaker I had a hard time getting used to that, it was very confusing at first. I thought Xe was a name and Xir was a typo but when it was repeated I had to look it up. Turns out it's a twitter thing ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Broke my flow and pulled me out of the story every time I encountered those since I had to reread the line to understand it, at first. Got a lot better near the end of the book when I got used to it, I expect to have internalised it by the end of book 2, which I instantly preorder after finishing this.
One great thing to mention here is the settings. It's influenced by South American culture which is refreshingly new and unique to read, at least for me who mainly read western themed fantasy. In my opinion the author could have used a bit more time to describe the world and people to a greater detail though, the book was very much focused on the story. But the description that we do get paint a wonderful, interesting and, to me, foreign picture of a world I want to know more of.
Lots of open questions, lots of untold lore lots to look forward to in book 2.
3.5/5 Stars
That was a mixed bag.
The first half of the book is fantastic 5/5 stars but then it loses quickly once the novelty wears of and we stop learning about new worlds and it's all about his wife and kid.
There would be so much more interesting stuff to read about in this world.
On the other hand, I really like how the author writes, very clean, understandable the words jump off the page right into your brain and the novel really sucks you in within the first few pages.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who likes sci-fi, parallel words, mystery or thrillers.
Well that kinda sucked. 1.5/2 Stars.
The first half of the book is a snooze fest one can only endure with skimming and skipping. We are in book 2, we should be done with the setup by now.
Halfway through the book it get's to a solid 3.5/5 stars and sharply drops off near the end.
There are too many characters, too many storylines, too many ppl who want to talk to each other, too many ppl the author wants to give some room to breathe.
The book is constantly switching context, jumping around form one place to another to another to another and back, often every 2 or 3 pages, which never let me really get into the book, minus a few very cool scenes/dialogues.
There is hardly any new development, just the one thing that happens near the end, the rest is just characters eating each other for the first time.
I don't think the author pulled it off, I hope David Mack brings it home with book 3.
3,5/5 stars
This is a nice little mysterious adventure story that could be a great episode of Star Trek, The Orville or Stargate. Probably not something you gonna reread, since its strength is the mystery and trying to piece together wtf is going on. If you are going to read this, do yourself a favour and don't read anything about it, take and afternoon or two and enjoy a mystery.
If I had not bought that at full price I would have DNFed it.
This is neither character driven nor plot driven, this is world building driven.
If you are fine with that, you get a beautifully drawn alien world with lots of unique things but the plot is thin at best. While the description of the earth and how we got here is lacking, the alien world is fantastic.
Baxter's ideas are, as always, grandios, interesting and though provoking but the execution is so poor in this one.
The story only really starts at around 45%, the first half of the book is basically pointless filler with story lines that go nowhere and are never picked up again. Maybe those are for book 2, idk, I am not gonna read it.
It gets interesting in the second part of the book but that too is drawn out only to end at a cliffhanger, which was infuriating to say the least.
It put me off so much that this will be the last Baxter book I will read for some time.
Oh and the book has nothing to do with the text on its back. Literally nothing.
Disclaimer: I ‘read' this on audible, if that is of importance.
If you are searching for a Science Fiction book, this is not for you.
This is a story about a strong protagonist with questionable morals, an outsider making her way in a hostile world against all odds. You get religious themes, social commentary, philosophical ideas and, in great parts, a gripping story, but what you do not get is science fiction.
No explanation about how anything works hardly any information about the world and why it is how it is, let alone the parallel worlds, close to zero world building.
We get pages and pages exploring Cara and her feelings, former lovers, current crush, domestic violence, hopes and fears while the science fiction elements are glossed over in a paragraph or two and later happen totally ‘off screen'.
That being said, I could not put the book away and read through it within a few days. I like the style of the author, it never gets boring and has enough interesting ideas to keep you hooked and makes you think but overall I was looking for a sci-fi book, not some human drama. But that's on me.
2.5/5 stars.
Mild spoilers ahead.
Easy interesting read, with some really good parts in it. The “love story” is totally unneeded, plain, uninteresting and just feels totally out of place, so is the Trial story in the parallel world. It does a good job of explaining their world a bit and delay the return of Ponter but other than that i was glad when the trial parts ended and we got back to the interesting Ponter storyline.
Overall i would recommend it to people who like alternate history and/or world exploring.
