nicanical

I've only read a little Hemingway, just The Sun Also Rises and some short story collections, but I enjoyed all that a lot. So I was disappointed that I couldn't get into this one.

Plainly, it's the fishing. It's boring to read about. It's handlining too, not fishing with a rod or a net, so you'll read a lot about Santiago's hand pain. I didn't even take it all in as a tragedy in the end, more of an admonition of Santiago's unpreparedness.

I enjoyed the beginning and the end the most, where Santiago interacts with the boy. And of course, the prose is beautifully crafted as expected of Hemingway.

I enjoyed this book! Structurally, it is very similar to the previous two novels (Look to Windward and Matter), but avoids some deficits I found with those two: Surface Detail is better-paced, the conclusion isn't rushed, and the locations and races and characters all serve a purpose, compared to, say, Matter. (The Quietus agent's arc was still weak though, in my opinion).

One thing: the virtual hells and the War in Heaven never gave me the sense of contention that I think they're meant to have in-universe. We get the Pavulean perspective which is changing towards anti-hell. We know that generally, advanced civilizations (like the Culture) are anti-hell because virtual hells are barbaric. But, we never really learn what the pro-hell, advanced civilizations' perspectives are on the virtual hells. We know that the Nauptre, who are advanced enough to be on the cusp of subliming, still use virtual hells for example, but we never learn why. Fortunately, this didn't really affect enjoyment of the book because the War ultimately remains a background concern for the civilizations to jockey over, and is not really central to Lededje's story.

This was a good read, but it's hard to rate.

I liked the detail of the world: Orwell's portrayal of methods of control (widespread surveillance, growth and scarcity, language, and psychology) give Oceania a grounded believability. The main character, Winston, was sympathetic enough. It was no hard work to follow along with him.

On the other hand, the writing is a bit verbose. Particularly the first half. The wordiness seemed to create a sense of paranoia that complemented Winston's moments of introspection, so maybe this was intentional by Orwell. Nevertheless, I prefer stories that don't make you feel like you're wading through words.

Lastly, I respect that Orwell didn't go with a stereotypical happily-ever-after here, but I did not enjoy how the story wrapped up. The ending goes beyond sad, beyond tragic, and instead seems designed to antagonize the reader with despair. Being able to provoke such a strong reaction makes 1984 worthy of full stars by another rubric though, I'm sure.

In short: I can see why 1984 is a classic. I'm happy I read it. But, I probably won't read it again.

Very nice story overall. I liked the execution of the frame structure here, which Simmons deftly uses to simultaneously provide insight into the characters, the overarching narrative of the pilgrimage, and the greater setting and nascent faction conflict. Each character's story is written in a different style and tone too, which really sets each apart and gives them 'body'. I do think the Detective's story felt a bit clumsy—maybe because it starts out like noir/hardboiled, then becomes more cyberpunk.

Oh, and a number of sex scenes if you're into that sort of thing (2010s Netflix should have been all over this, I'm just saying).

The abrupt ending was not so good though. Until the end, I was thinking this would be a five star, something I could read over and over. But, the pilgrimage (which, again, is the main, overarching narrative here) is not concluded at all! The ending just shanghais you into the next book, and I don't like feeling like I'm being upsold.

I thought this story had a compelling setting and view of a possible future.

I liked the use of uplift here (i.e., the artificial acceleration of a species' intelligence). I feel like it's not a concept featured so frequently in written sci-fi (I can name several examples in film though), nor is it featured as prominently as it is in Children of Time. Usually, monkeys are the ones uplifted, and/or it's a horror story. Here, we have uplifted spiders in a non-horror story. Very cool! And jumping spiders too, the bros of the spider world—look them up.

I also liked that time dilation was featured, similar to how Alastair Reynolds does it. Most of the other SF stories I've read sidestep this by allowing faster-than-light tech, or drastically limiting distances traveled. So it's refreshing to see time dilation explicitly described and how it can affect characters, etc., even if it ultimately is a minor thing in this story.

The structure is relatively simple: chapters alternating between spiders and humans. Between the two, I felt the human side was weaker—the characterization for the humans was a bit meh. I would describe the prose as straightforward, direct, but not spartan—it's more detailed than, perhaps, Isaac Asimov's style. Personally, I prefer simpler styles like this that get out of your way, so the writing here was right up my alley. You might not like it if you prefer flowery and meandering, or dense and expository dump-style prose.