Reviews and Comments

I really wanted to enjoy this book as I thought the overall concept was very interesting, but I constantly found myself frustrated by the writing and characterisation, and the last section of the book drove me positively demented and I found myself speed reading through chunks of it just to get it over with faster.

The author's propensity to give everything Very Silly Proper Names and repeat those names over and over was definitely something I could have done without, and whilst there are some great sections of the book conceptually, I found so much of it was spoiled by either trying to be funny or by the sheer unlikeliness of such a thing coming to pass. On top of this, the book charts a huge tragedy and when it happens, the psychological impacts of the aftermath is just kind of ignored and it's business as normal with too much effort at humour.

An extremely in depth look at the impact of the War on Drugs on black and brown minorities in the USA. Some of the facts laid bare here are absolutely shocking (rates of incarceration for black males vs white males for the same drug crimes especially when looked at in terms of usage percentages vs population size of each group - none of it makes any sense except in baked in racist terms).

The only thing I'll say against the book is many of the points are repeated over and over. It definitely felt like it could have been edited down without losing impact.

It was difficult to not find myself comparing this to The Expanse, given just how much I enjoyed that staggering 9 book series. Sadly I didn't find this lived up to my expectations. I appreciated the imagination that clearly went into it, but I didn't find myself connecting with any of the characters in the same way that I did in The Expanse.

In theory this book starts out with a much much bigger scope than The Expanse but strangely feels much narrower and small. You don't really get the same sense of space or the worlds involved or the technologies.

I'm hopeful that it turns around and proves me very wrong in the subsequent books, and I think if I had read this without ever reading The Expanse I probably wouldn't be so critical. I did enjoy it, just not in the way I'd hoped to.

A fascinating life revealed in a very open and honest manner. Definitely gave me a new perspective on the man and I look forward to delving into more of his films - I didn't realise quite how prolific he has been!

I was quite looking forward to this but came out disappointed. A lot more time seems to be spent on listing the places over which the ISS was currently flying, sometimes interspersed with some pleasing descriptions, but other times just feeling like a chore of describing yet another fly-over. The randomly jumping point of view and switching from one person's train of thought to another was also something I could have done without, and ultimately came out of it feeling like the characters were wholly undeveloped.

On the plus side there are some very nice passages scattered throughout, and some nice musings on life and meaning, but it just felt like the book was missing real substance to keep attention.

I often found myself semi-speed-reading through yet another listing of landmarks.

Your mileage may vary though as a lot of people seemed to like it!