Hmmmmm, yeah ok. Was expecting a bit more and I am a little disappointed; not in the story or its potential, but the actual writing. I was expecting aHmmmmm, yeah ok. Was expecting a bit more and I am a little disappointed; not in the story or its potential, but the actual writing. I was expecting a lot more from Norton, so was very surprised that I found the writing style difficult at times. My initial thoughts are that this was a much larger book and the publisher said "you need to cull that down to a third of the original story, otherwise we aren't going to print".
There was just huge gaps that just made the whole experience disjointed. An example of that is when our hero arrives in the new world, he has his first experience and meets some people and the chapter ends. You expect to then read about his integration into society and the difficulties associated with being an off worlder, but no, next chapter is 7 years later and he is 'one of the boys'. This kind of writing made it difficult to stay with the story, especially when reading other books at the same time, as I often wondered if I had somehow skipped a few chapters on my reading device.
I'd like to try a couple more books to see how the story pans out, but reality dictates that many many other 'want to read' books will take precedent. ...more
That was better than I thought. The cover had me a bit hesitant, although I don't know why, it is pretty standard art for 80/90's sciSolid 3.75 Stars.
That was better than I thought. The cover had me a bit hesitant, although I don't know why, it is pretty standard art for 80/90's sci fi.
This is a dystopian scifi story. Battles are fought with disrupter guns, which are unstoppable and kill you dead! and swords. The guns are fine, but one shot wonders as they take 5 minutes to recharge and they are pretty rare, so back to the trusty sword. This story is on a planet way out in the boonies of space, a world protected from the EVIL Empire by its physic defense team acting as a human mind shield to prevent the empire from blasting the planet to radioactive dust. Which it has a history of. Pretty much everyone on this planet is on the run from the empire or escaping from something. The range of character is very interesting and pretty well written, you have cat burglars, tavern owners acting as fences, sirens who can sing you to death and double up as cold blooded Empire trained assassins (take out the one space ship, a couple of dead computers and this would have been a fantasy novel) and a assortment of side characters, all of which are distinguishable. The world building likewise is good, the planet is pretty grim and does paint a bleak picture of over expansion, getting too far away from civilization, trade embargoes etc and your whole tech collapses and you are back to living in semi dark ages as you butcher your tech to keep things running. There is a overall feeling of desperateness on this book and I always felt it was going to be a 'the best we could hope for' ending rather than a happy one.
Overall I really enjoyed it. Probably not enough for 4 stars, but only just. I am going to keep hunting these down in the book shops and ops shops, because for a buck each, they are well worth the money.
Recommended to those wanting a quick easy scifi read with a solid story and great pacing. But also to those fantasy readers wanting some scifi in there reading mix.
Well, pretty much a lot of the same for our intrepid hero. Stuck on a planet, getting into trouble and finding ridiculously inventive (read: deus ex mWell, pretty much a lot of the same for our intrepid hero. Stuck on a planet, getting into trouble and finding ridiculously inventive (read: deus ex machina) ways of escaping trouble.
There isn't much to say on this book, there is nothing really new in comparison to his previous and the next book. So I am thinking that I might have a bit of break before the next one. To be honest, I use these when I have flights as they are small and light and good for take off and landing. ...more
I am firmly on the fence with this book. I really can't make up my mind whether I liked it or not. It is certainly one of those stories that has its mI am firmly on the fence with this book. I really can't make up my mind whether I liked it or not. It is certainly one of those stories that has its moments and you find yourself going along for the ride, then boom! A seemingly uncalled for show off period of space time travel of theory of light speed, that shows how clever the author is, but doesn't add to the story. The basis of the story is down right ridiculous, but funny and interesting in its audacity. The main plot of the story is that someone is kidnapping people from earth, wiping their minds and training them for a invasion on earth. The invasion is doomed to fail and the leader knows this, it's all about uniting earthlings in the defence of their planet. For me, the book was about 20 pages too long. I really struggled finishing off that last bit, when I had, I took nothing extra from it and wished I had finished back on page 180. It was an ok read, but there are a lot better old scifi books out there compared to this, but I am glad that I got to try some Vonnegut....more
I enjoyed the story way more than the ending. One of those old school scifi's where it is all about the story and the ending is just something that isI enjoyed the story way more than the ending. One of those old school scifi's where it is all about the story and the ending is just something that is used in two pages to give you posture, regardless of how unlikely it is....more
What did I think? I don't know what to think. I consider myself widely read and reasonably capable of understanding things in general, but I have to sWhat did I think? I don't know what to think. I consider myself widely read and reasonably capable of understanding things in general, but I have to say this book just completely had me mystified. I have read it and I have no idea what it was that I read. I understood the story itself as it was happening, I am just failing to put it all together into anything that resembles a complete story. The last book was the worst for me, as I felt when I finished I had picked up a random book and read the middle of some other story. I have no idea why or what the last part was about. It left me feeling stupid, I have read great reviews and I sat there thinking, why don't I get this? What are others seeing that I am not?
So it's finished and I am confused like I have never been before after reading a book....more
Well. If a Bookshelf/tag was ever a perfect description, then 'oldschool scifi' is it.
A solid 3.5 stars, (I wonder why GR has refused to listen for alWell. If a Bookshelf/tag was ever a perfect description, then 'oldschool scifi' is it.
A solid 3.5 stars, (I wonder why GR has refused to listen for all these years on half star ratings?)
This is the second read of this story for me. The first was over 25 years ago and was when I was just getting into fantasy. I kind of liked it, but rushed through it and never picked up book 2. To be honest, I can't actually remember finishing it, so it was probably a dnf.
My second read through, found me older, wiser, relaxed in my new reading chair with a glass of red wine and thankful that committing to my first group read in over a year was only a 117 pages long. A perfect way to get back into social reading and the crew I read with are very social :)
Back to the book, since this is supposed to be a review. Zelazny's writing is quite unique, he manages to tell a story with considerably less words than anyone I know. Talk about not fleshing out the story with wordy sentences (looking at you China Meiville). He manages to pack into just over 100 pages a story with enough back story to not make you feel Malazanish, enough character build to clearly define the main characters, some drip feed magic to keep you guessing and a hint at a much bigger plot. Some scenes are very very short and that is different, I am used to big drawn out battles with descriptions of arm muscles being torn and wrenched till they pop etc. In amber it is more like 'he rode straight at me on his horse, sword aloft, I stepped inside his arm and pulled him off. I won'. Simple, effective and time to move on.
You do really need to read with book 2, commit to 250 pages. I think a lot of people, the younger me included, probably feel there wasn't enough in the first book, but I am confident that after reading the fist 5 pages of book 2, that the story is going to unfold before us, in a deliciously old fashioned way. ...more
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