Oct. 5th, 2010

lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
Chasm CityChasm City by Alastair Reynolds




I am so jaded: you read one book about plagues that eat nanotechnology, and religious experience as the result of an indoctrinal neurovirus, and the particular kind of psychosis that results from decades-long sublight space flights, you’ve read them all.



Particularly when you’ve actually read three, all by the same guy. Seriously, Alastair Reynolds, think about something else!



And this book is a mess anyway – bloated, terrible dialogue (seriously, the narrator of my audiobook did the best anyone could, and everyone still sounded like they were reading off teleprompters), oh and some deus ex alien. Reynolds generally has better gender politics, too. And he is one of the worst offenders of the ‘don’t write about how the whosit drive works, write about how it feels to use it,’ thing.



That’s too strike outs for him – I didn’t much like Century Rain either. I wonder if any of his later stuff is better edited? Or, you know, about some-fucking-thing else.





View all my reviews

Profile

lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
lightreads

May 2025

S M T W T F S
    123
456 78910
1112131415 1617
181920 21222324
25262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 22nd, 2025 02:14 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios