Alex
I really enjoyed this novel! It is broadly separated into two parts, about “a human lifetime” apart. Those chapters alternate throughout the book, with the historical parts providing context for the present timeline.
The current-time plot was maybe a bit too simple to be truly satisfying. The historical/past chapters of the book offered more engaging world building and character development for me.
A lot of the world building and the way the magic is described makes me want to discover more stories in this universe, I think there is a lot of potential here.
Kai was an enjoyable viewpoint character and his supporting cast of witches and Immortals felt fleshed out enough to feel the stakes and care for them.
Reading them in a slightly different order (The Hidden Schools??? Choice Sequence) and really enjoyed this look at Elayne Kevarian in the ‘past'.
The tension I felt throughout the book was immense and doesn't exactly ebb in the second half of the book. Characters are vibrant again and so is the city and the currents that move it.
Love this series and already started Four Roads Cross.
For me this was a satisfying conclusion and tied a near bow around the series. I'd have to agree with other reviews that some of the earlier parts of the book are somewhat superfluous. The real mind bending sci-fi parts at the end are what I'm here for after all. Nonetheless I found all of it entertaining.
Excellent fast-paced fantasy thriller! I put this down at about the halfway mark and only recently started again, getting sucked into the whirlwind of plot points to conclusion that is the latter third of this book.
I particularly enjoyed the seamless fusion of magic/fantasy, contract law, and a touch of steampunk elements in the setting. It adds a unique flavor to the story.
World building is something I enjoy above all else, and this book delivers with a rich world that is never explained too much, but always informs the story and characters. The City of Alt Couloumb and its strata of society are a character in itself and the proximity of technology, gods and magic makes it feel like a truly unique place with a rich and interesting history.
The characters themselves are intriguing and well-developed. Their conflicts and interactions are captivating, and I found myself invested in their journeys and the outcomes of their dilemmas.
Looking forward to the rest of the series!
Taylor can't really write interesting characters, they're all pretty much stand ins for his middle aged white self, with similar humour, world view and a weird obsession over coffee? Or maybe it's just the same sit-com coffee joke repeated a million times.
Nonetheless I enjoy his books, the plot is exciting and the sci-fi is fun, combined with a stellar narrator in the audiobooks, they're a great diversion.
Outland is somewhat weaker than the Bobiverse, just to get that out of the way - a lot of the science exposition reads like a documentary about volcanoes.
The antagonists are fairly cartoonish and as paper thin as the rest of the characters, which makes the conflict feel flat as well.
Still liked it, but for anyone considering picking this up, be aware of those caveats. Also make sure you get the 2019 rewrite.
It was engaging and fun enough to finish it, but the story had too many holes and hard to believe jumps in reasoning.
I have two big problems: Number one is the secrecy aspect of it - I get why it was important for the plot. They needed to be alone and stranded to overcome adversity on their own and for the whole arctic exploration metaphor.
But it's impossible for me to believe, that 1: nobody would've tracked the ship leaving. Several Organizations track celestial objects, even hobby astronomers would've found an anomaly like that.
2: after they lost contact the engineers of the automated asteroid mining company wouldn't have said anything or tried to help (btw the deaths associated with that were pretty dumb as well)
3: the amount of people needed to keep that operation running and nothing leaking to anybody outside? come on.
Problem number two is that Suarez does not fully grasp the concept of delta-v, he's conflating orbital velocity, thrust, acceleration and actual delta-v into one, using whichever he needs in a given paragraph. This book wants to be hard sci-fi so bad, but you need to get the basics down. I can suspend my disbelief for a lot, but it is literally the title of the book.
But five rocket engines? Each of them had a vacuum thrust of more than 400,000 pounds. That was a lot of delta-v.
Tighe had become so space-focused that he reflexively estimated the delta-v of the champagne cork.
Barely 5 percent of the Konstantin???s length, the Nicole Clarke was nonetheless twice the Konstantin???s mass. However, since only 412 meters per second of delta-v was needed to depart Ryugu for cislunar space on this date, one lone rocket engine and a single large fuel tank would suffice to propel it homeward.
Due in part to its huge mass, the new robot tug required two methalox engines instead of one, and this time it consisted of twenty-four spherical tanks, with thirty-six smaller tanks in the gaps between???4,500 tons of water, ammonia, nitrogen, and iron-nickel-cobalt carbonyls in all. It was more than four times the size of the first return vessel. Additionally the return delta-v to depart for cislunar space this time around was 706 meters per second???almost double the previous tug???s acceleration.
This is a perfect little fantasy novel, that I didn't know I needed. I got through it extremely fast and could hardly put it down. Even though it doesn't sound like much, the story keeps you hooked until the very end. I enjoyed the hint of romance more than I thought I would and missed the ‘high fantasy' far less than I had feared.
Tchaikovsky reinvents his fascinating wheel of a universe again. Terraformers and uplifted animals and entirely alien concepts mix together again to form something new, unexpected and delightful.
This time around utterly mind blowing as well.
I enjoyed this book a lot and I hope that we see more stories in this universe so full of life and interesting narratives.
very enjoyable, extremely Cosmere aware capstone for Era 2
not sure why, but finishing it felt somewhat hollow - maybe some plot points felt too similar to things I've seen Sanderson do before, or it being the end of Era 2 left me wanting more time with those characters
edit: the antagonist here felt somewhat weak, maybe that's it
I loved the court intrigue and the titular character!
This was a fast read for me, I finished it in two days. It wraps up neatly and while there are several more books in the same world, they focus on an entirely different protagonist (a side character in this novel).
The criticism i have is the somewhat non standard language elements, that the author uses. There is a great two page in-world “Extracts from: A Handbook for Travelers in the Elflands” that succinctly summarizes the quirks on pronunciation, names and the various intricacies of the forms of address (which is what i had most trouble with)
Because I didn't check and was reading the eBook, I only found that wonderful and thematic aide... after I'd read the book.
While that is to be blamed on my own ignorance, it still highlights my biggest gripe with this novel: while the names are wonderful and different and interesting and give a glimpse into the language and culture - I had serious trouble to keep the various characters straight, I had a character reference opened on my phone and I strongly recommend it to anyone picking up this story, because it just makes the journey a lot easier (there is one of those at the end of the book as well, but I'd use a digital one to be able to search it easily).
It's fun Sci-Fi high jinks as I've come to expect from this author. However, the incorporated references to current events feel extremely heavy handed and on the nose.
Overall the plot hits you over the head with a cast iron skillet. Snarkily explained to you by the AI character that hates humans and how dumb they are (reminds me of skippy in ExForce novels).
It's fairly short and it's perfectly fine to listen over a long drive or two, but don't expect anything fresh or too interesting.
