SF classic. Lots of hard science, an okay story hung on the strength of some strong ideas about space travel. He gets away with it once, but th3.5/4.0
SF classic. Lots of hard science, an okay story hung on the strength of some strong ideas about space travel. He gets away with it once, but the writers who follow have to take a different path and flesh out the technology in different ways....more
I started this book months ago, but the beginning is punishing and slow. That's a set up for the rest of the novel, to acclimate you (the reade3.5/4.0
I started this book months ago, but the beginning is punishing and slow. That's a set up for the rest of the novel, to acclimate you (the reader) to 14th century monastic life. After that, it's worthwhile, but I'd have to read the book again to have anything intelligent to say about it.
Finally finishing it does, however, point to yet another flaw in Anathem. The beginning of the SF novel is also a punishing introduction to the world--but then the characters leave their monastery, and all that work is left behind for an adventure story.
Eco's book sticks with the abbey. The hard slog is used for a purpose....more
It's funny, intriguing, intelligent, and filled with interesting people and an insane world. The Mafia ope3.5/4.0
This is 75% of a world-changing book.
It's funny, intriguing, intelligent, and filled with interesting people and an insane world. The Mafia operates a pizza delivery chain, and the main character delivers for them.
Eventually things get too complicated, and the story requires a massive info dump of exposition. We're introduced to a talking computer program who can explain what the hell is going on, and the book falls completely flat at that point with all the momentum wasted. Things manage to rev themselves up again for the finale, but the damage is done. No perfection for you, Mr. Stephenson....more
There's some grand ambition to the ideas here, but the ideas don't mix with the plot. The book's at its best when he abando2.5/4.0
This book is a mess.
There's some grand ambition to the ideas here, but the ideas don't mix with the plot. The book's at its best when he abandons his fancy concepts to just spin the tale. There are great moments when he's doing only that, with the mess beginning again whenever he has to return to the information dump to explain what the hell is going on. More problems:
1) The vocabulary of his made-up world isn't well handled. It allows him to make some decent puns, but that's not nearly worth it. The half-assed otherworldness, where he uses conventional words when it's convenient and made-up bulshytt* whenever he wants to make things "foreign" is just grating. He should've done with bullshit the same he did with potatoes and not fuck around arbitrarily, which is just distracting.
*I'm not making that up. There are paragraphs and paragraphs about bulshytt, which is total bullshit.
2) The grand ideas aren't consistent. There's some attempts at high philosophy here, and it would be nice if it didn't so blatantly contradict itself.
3) Related to that (and this might be a slight spoiler, so beware), the actions of the main characters are rendered almost entirely irrelevant by a deux ex machina. Which is strange since this solution should've been available the whole time. In fact, the whole structure of the world doesn't make sense in light of what some of these people can do.
4) Stephenson's having problems with women and love again. Yes, the girlfriend has to be a convincing person, too, or the "romance" doesn't work. She's not, and it doesn't.
5) I get the feeling that this was inspired by Eco's Name of the Rose, with the focus on monastic life and a mystery. A totally intriguing concept, but he bungles the introduction to the world. He spends his time on the wrong details, and he doesn't take advantage of the time-frame available to him. With the concepts in the book, it could've been told over the course of 50 years instead of 1.
We're left with a novel with a lot of potential that simply misfires too many times. That can be tolerated with a 400 page book. It's unacceptable in a 900 page hardcover....more
There's no great literary craft, and I can't imagine it would be a great re-read. But it's a classic exa3.5/4.0
A truly excellent science-fiction book.
There's no great literary craft, and I can't imagine it would be a great re-read. But it's a classic example of some extremely cool ideas taken to their logical extremes, which lead to some mind-bending revelations. The characters and writing are solid, and their journey through the consequences of these exquisite ideas is compelling.
There are no characters in this book. No personalities. No human beings. At one point, the main character has his mind erased, and it doesn't m3.0/4.0
There are no characters in this book. No personalities. No human beings. At one point, the main character has his mind erased, and it doesn't matter in the slightest because the book is an intellectual and satirical exercise, not a novel.
But it's a damn entertaining exercise, and I still recommend it....more
You've read Hyperion, right? Fall of Hyperion? You've noticed how breathtakingly brilliant they are and you want more?
Don't read these boo3.0/4.0
STOP!
You've read Hyperion, right? Fall of Hyperion? You've noticed how breathtakingly brilliant they are and you want more?
Don't read these books yet. They're not a continuation. They use the same names in ostensibly the same world, but the underlying structure of the place has been changed entirely.
In other words, you're walking into a marketing trap. It looks like you're getting an extrapolation of the same concept, when in reality the Endymion books could've and should've been put in a completely new universe. It's an interesting place, worth visiting. But you should give yourself a lot of distance between the masterpiece Hyperion books and these lesser but still good books....more
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