Reviews and Comments

DEATH is still my favorite character.

A very well done story exploring social identity, reckoning with past mistakes, coming to forgive yourself and others for mistakes. All wrapped up in an engaging story to unravel the mystery behind a failed space colony.

Be warned that christianity is part of some of the social identity story line. It came on a little strong at first and had me wondering if this was a book with a hidden proselytizing agenda. Thankfully that was not the case.

Excellent coverage of a wide variety of science topics from Quanta Magazine over the past five years. Is you enjoy this book them I highly recommend that you look for the Quanta Science Podcast.

A good second book in the series, but for me the many interspersed storylines lessened my enjoyment.

Murderbot, ART and friends are working through some things and doing their best to minimize harm along the way.

Another interesting "explore an idea" novel from Greg Egan around physically embodied versus reality simulating virtual versus no bounds virtual living. But this one didn't engage me as strongly as Egan's books usually do. Mainly I think because the discussion of the differences between the two virtual modes of living went on to long for me. I understand why that length and depth was needed for reasons critical to the plot, but it was too much for me.

Overall a good story in Asher's Polity universe. However, the backstory on Ian Cormac has too many "miraculous man!" sequences that kept jarring me out of the story. And by the end of the book the rationale for the reasons Cormac reacts in certain ways were letting him evade responsibility for his not great responses in some situations.

This story blends real people and events from the Apollo missions into a fictional Apollo 18 mission today never happened.

This was an interesting story but the ending felt abrupt and a little incomplete.