Galactic civilizations, robots and mistery

The begging and the end of the book where great, some parts in the middle could've been omitted.

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2 people found this helpful

Well written and expansive in its scale

I enjoyed the book overall and I'd recommended it.
The good:
The story is somehow different from the other sci fi I've read and I love space opera. The story is simply huge in its scale and Reynolds does a great job of writing across time and civilisations. I loves this element. The story wasn't too focused on protracted warfare or world explanation yet it beautifully crafted an expansive universe and managed to deal with a story spanning hundreds of thousands of years.
I love John Lee as a voice actor, I can listen to him all day long. This book was no exception, very well done.
I liked the interweaving elements of the story too, past and present, that added a cool element of explaining the present progressively as the story went.

The less good:
I just found the ending a let down. I'm increasingly sick of sci fi authors who can cast these amazing worlds and build intrigue across a story and then you get to the end and... seems like very few authors know how to end books well.
While I found the story really unique in many ways the story of Abigail's mother is a blatant rip off of the Winchester Mystery House which annoyed me a bit.

Overall I enjoyed it though, well worth a listen and we'll written!

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Interesting themes

I like this type of sci-fi - complex and intellectually challenging. Seemingly well-researched in the theoretical technology it presents. Epic in the time scale it tackles - perhaps more so than any book I've read. Wonderfully narrated. My only criticism is that it began to lose me a bit in the end... I think due to a lack of personal development by the main characters over the course of quite a long book and the sheer sprawl of the tale. Some new characters were introduced towards the latter half that I just didn't care that much about. Overall very good though, I'd recommend to other sci-fi enthusiasts.

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2 people found this helpful

Pretty Darn Epic

Just fantastic! I went on not knowing what to expect and left delighted and inspired.

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mind melting at times with the scope

highly enjoyable book, its scary to imagine the world like this but its so possible at the same time you cant help but let your imagination run wild.

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Classic & very entertaining

excellent great character development. Damming space and time hard to distinguish gender but that’s fine

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Pan Galactic

Expansive swashbuckling ride spanning 100 millennia - had me finished in a week of listening!!
- Now, back to the real world 😊, let my brain cool down a bit...
WoW

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Mind opening

Very captivating, makes you think about traveling through space and time. and time in cosmic scale.

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great story

this was a really good listen. I imagine that I'll be listening to this a few more times just to register all the detail.

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New Alastair Reynolds Universe

This book is set in a different universe to Alistair Reynolds other books where shatterlings (clones) travel the galaxy to explore it and capture knowledge. That is, until one of the Shatterling lines is attacked.

Another great sci-fi book from the author and one I’d highly recommend.

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