David Sandey
Thoroughly enjoyed reading this with my son. He has been running around with a ballpoint pen uncapping it and calling it Riptide. It is a great intro to Greek myths. But a little too predictable if you are an adult.
My rating is based on the level of fun I had reading it with my son. For an adult I'd probably rate it a 3 - a solid like but not the best book I've ever read.
A fresh and exciting branch on the cyberpunk tree.
Edelman draws the reader into the world of Natch, Jara, Horvil and his many enemies with such ease that it is easy to imagine the wonders of a Bio/Logic, the Multi Network and even the exquisite creation of MultiReal, a collaborative technology that allows one person to create the reality that the desire while the rest of the world subconsciously agrees to it.
The protagonist, Natch, is not a nice guy. He will do anything it takes to get ahead, taking risks and ruthlessly punishing those he thinks are getting in his way. Even knowing what a poor example of a human being he is, it is never hard to root for him while secretly wishing him hoping that he gets his comeuppance.
The book deftly asks many ethical questions about business practices, freedom and most importantly about personal risk vs corporate responsibility. Not all of these questions are answered or even addressed deeply—they are simply to big to be solved in the first third of a story. Personally, I would have been happy with this as a stand-alone book. Questions left hanging don't bother me. I love being left with questions that I have to answer.
I'm definitely looking forward to the next installments. I trust David Louis Edelman to answer the questions that he has raised and to pose even more intersting and challenging ones.
In short, light weight and very entertaining. The time spent reading it certainly wasn't wasted.
The book gripped me from the beginning and kept me turning the pages even when I should have been sleeping.
Others have complained about the multiple points of view, to me this was a plus. It brought the book alive in a very tele-visual way.
The plot was fantastical. I don't doubt that this is based on a highly unlikely, even impossible conceit but as I was reading I just didn't care. It was fun and entertaining.
The characters were engaging. They weren't truly three-dimensional but the were well enough rounded that I cared for them.
The pacing was fast and fantastic. It was a real page turner.
Long. Very long. And should have been read immediately after [b:Pandora Star 45252 Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga, #1) Peter F. Hamilton http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170278188s/45252.jpg 987015] as it is essentially the second half of that book rather than a sequel. Having said all that the action, plot twists and pacing of the book more than made up for the fairly two dimensional characters. Would I recommend it to anyone? Sure, if you have the time and the energy to dive into a complex, sweeping SF novel that is engaging and has a fantastic world to live in for a considerable amount of time.
I haven't read a Neal Stephenson book that I haven't enjoyed and this was another pleasure to read.
Most of the negative comments that I have read are about the made up words. This is a sci-fi novel. There are made up names for things in almost every sci-fi novel I have ever read. In a phrase: Get Over It. Amongst the reasons for this are to remind you that this is a different world with different ways of going about things, that the devices are not exactly analogous to those in our world and that Mr. Stephenson chose to do it this way.
Still, I loved the book even if it did take me even longer than normal to get through it (many diversions with work, comics and life got in the way. Pre-schoolers have a way of destroying reading time unless you are reading with them.
A great follow up to [book: Idlewild] though it can definitely be read without any prior knowledge of its predecessor.
I loved the way that it discussed parenting styles, religion vs. science, and repopulating the earth following a disaster. There was some predictability to the plot. Not really predictability but inevitability that allowed the characters to shine through.
Another smash hit from Mr. Pratchett. Moist van Lipwig returns from Going Postal and this time he has to run the Royal Mint and The Bank of Ankh-Morpork. This pits him against the rich and powerful of Discworld's favourite city including another battle of wits with the Patrician Vetinari. It was consistently funny, had a rich and complex plot and included more of Pratchett's Dickensian characters. Undoubtedly a five star book. Read it. Love it. Share it.
The only downside of this book was that my paperback copy self-destructed during reading. Not great.
Ex Machina has a great vibe going on. And after waiting far too long to read Vol. 5. It was much easier to get back into than I expected. Having said that, Smoke, Smoke is not as visceral as the previous books and feels somewhat like a filler arc. I am not ready to say that the book is going downhill as some other reviewers have said; it is too early to say that. May be after reading Vol 6. I'll be able to tell.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. It's in the Bond mode with some similarities to [author:Richard Morgan]'s Takeshi Kovac books.
The plot raced along and contained many twists some were easy to predict, others came out of nowhere. Making Ian Cormac someone who struggled to relate to the world was very helpful in drawing in the reader.