Reviews and Comments

The decline from the first book is evident

I started to sour on the first book during its final section, and this book started out better by leaving that behind for 1980's Paris, but it quickly fell back into the same bad habits, but worse this time around

His world building was excellent, and the week of the "ban gas stoves" controversy was a good week to read about a future Southern secession premised on continued fossil fuel use. The dialogue was largely expository and otherwise clunky, so it read more like a treatment for Premium Television than a novel. It will make a great TV show, for sure.

Her clean and effective writing style helped me inhale the book in two days, and even though I became interested enough in the historical figure on whom the main character is based to order a copy of her biography from the library, I remain puzzled as to why the author felt the need to tell this story through a fictionalized version of a well-known person rather than simply a fictional person. One thing I appreciate about SF writers is their willingness to invent basically everything but the essential human motivations at the core of the story.

This was a great approach to such a well-documented historical figure who has nevertheless fallen out of recognition, mixing his exploits with the author's journeys to each place in the modern day, and using the fascistic coup plots of the 30's that tried to rope him in as the narrative frame, closing with Reality Winner, January 6, and the Trumpist movement as examples of how much these times resemble those. Now I will go and read "War is a Racket," finally.

I very much appreciated his choice to center this narrative on the people affected (and infected) and other caregivers, rather than talk about his own extraordinary life and efforts. It was sad to see him, as of earlier this year, become one more example of an invaluable caregiver taken too soon, although his memory will certainly continue to be a blessing

The writing did not improve in the second book, although I did learn that neither Ty nor Dan can really write female characters. The premiere of the new LOTR show was the excuse I needed to go back on Prime and find the point in the second book that synced up with the end of the second season, and in the process I came across multiple direct examples of how the show is better than the books, most notably in the Avasarala and Bobbie characters, who are really made by the actresses, despite coming across as painfully inauthentic on the page (although the line "these cunts are cutting into my grandma time" is a great one). Plus they did such a great job with the ships on the show, I will stick with the televised version from this point on.

Really enjoyed this run-through of the early colonial period from the African perspective, not quite as much when he tried to bring it through the 1800's to the present

It was nice to read a standalone KSR gem, although I grew tired of the extended swimming scene at the end and the long narrative from the AI that preceded that (would have liked to look in on the other portion of the crew instead). The theme of the book is basically the after-credits scene from "Don't Look Up," which I agree with and appreciate.

I did not expect the book to unfold like a well-made documentary, with direct narrative access to the primary figures from the incident and the climactic appearance of the Guy Who Actually Did It, in disguise. The beginning section is a somewhat tedious history lesson but it is a page-turner after that.

I sped through the first two-thirds of the story and had multiple LOL IRL moments with some of her lines (which were best heard using Indian accents in my head), but I bogged down in and just could not buy the thinly-justified heist in the third act, which kind of felt tacked-on and maybe something to make the screen rights more marketable. Hopefully she keeps cranking novels out, she is a talented writer and has a good voice.

Really enjoyed reading this book, especially while I am visiting Chennai, where much of it is set, but minus one star for the ending making me sad and the second-person narration

Really loved this far-future fantasy epic, although my complaints about second-person narration were not answered by the ultimate explanation for why it was used here (on the second-to-last page), especially when that explanation was immediately undercut by the next (and last) page of the story. Also, I could not help but visualize the Stone Eaters as the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, right down to their pointy little teeth.

A well-written and thoughtful explanation of a thesis I am somewhat predisposed to, having set forth the same idea in a letter to my college newspaper long ago. She does not pretend this idea is hers, since it has variously been stated by people as famous as MLK and Albert Einstein, but instead she summarizes why it matters in the present moment, which is appreciated.

A thorough accounting of a conflict whose existence I had frankly missed until it flared up again in late 2020, and which seems as unresolveable as Kashmir or the West Bank. It is also very reminiscent of the Balkans, but without the large-scale Western military intervention (which was happening at the same time!).

I am a sucker for a good plaintiff's lawyer tale, especially when I understand the precedents behind her innovative theory of the case, although it was a little hard to believe she had to prepare for a merits trial at the last minute and that became the stipulated record of the entire class! I also appreciated her candor about how much help and support she got over the course of this case from her Dad or by trading on his name and good reputation in the state, and chuckled over the pre-internet clunkiness of such large-scale litigation.