Customer Reviews

Deception Well (The Nanotech Succession)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Given the Helpful/Not Helpful ratings of previous posts, Ms. Nagata seems to have fans who will punish any dissent, but dissent I must.

I am giving this book an average rating because I liked it but it has serious flaws. First and foremost, was an extremely slow, laborious read. Her characters were moderately interesting but they did not really grow or change in any significant fashion. For all his introspection, not even Lot changes so much as he moves around and lets events dictate what will happen to him. Urban's big surprise decision at the end was uetterly predictable since his character moved not one iota the entire novel. Other majour characters seem to act capriciously or randomly; one minute they're going one way, the other they've reversed themselves and while Lot seems to have a clue why (we are told anyway), Nagata never makes it terribly clear to us.

So, too the very creative society Nagata has envisioned. I found it intriguing, but it was so diffusely and haphazardly described that I never felt terribly invested in the conflicts that arose from it. And therein, perhaps lies the real problem with the book. The setting, concepts and central idea are all marvelous but the execution is second-rate. The real conflict arises so much from the setting, and so little from deep and convincing characterization, that Nagata is forced, again and again, to assert that events make sense or that a character's actions are reasonable - but I rarely felt that way simply from reading what happened. A truly great book would not need so much explanation and assertion.

I really had a hard time "getting into" this book even after I was halfway through it - so much so that, when I took it on a plane, I bought another book to read in flight because this one was too difficult to read steadily. Still, I liked the book. As an intellectual exercise, it was plenty interesting. It is written intelligently and fairly sparkles with the kind of imagination and creativity about ideas, cultures and settings that marks the very best SF produced today. The problem is, that isn't enough to set it above so much other quality work being produced.

In short: I won't hesitate to recommend that you buy and read this book if you have some free time, but if time constraints limit you to only reading the best, you'd be best served by looking elsewhere.

This is the first book I've read of Ms. Nagata's, and while she is obviously a talented writer, I didn't get a high degree of satisfaction from reading this particular novel. I never felt I was part of the world in which it was being told, which is a feeling I find vital in enjoying SF. The characters were compelling, the ideas interesting, but I felt like I joined the story in the middle, without proper exposition, and left it before it ended with any kind of climax.

I found the book extremely difficult to follow. The author introduces past events and characters that define the present time setting, but how it all fits together is hard to figure out. The technology was so 'out there' that it was hard to understand. Jargon and concepts were introduced that never really got explained. How the society, it which the story takes place, came about was really never explained. Somehow the society was split between people over a hundred and under a hundred. How this arbitrary number came about is anyones guess. As far a the story goes, what the heck is going on!!! I get a vague idea, but then characters suddenly pop up that have some stake it what's going on but why they do is again unclear. The plot seems really inconsistent. Antagonists are suddenly allies then enemies again. Don't even get me started on the main character's dream sequences. Avoid this book if you want a clear, understandable plot and world.

This was an excellent book, the third by the author in the last two years, detailing the life of a young man, the son of a self-appointed messiah who failed. The son is forced to come to grips with his father and the destiny he bequeathed to him through genetics and through the failure of the father to achive his goal. The book draws the personal conflict of the boy in with the greater conflict of the station he lives in and the possible destruction of humanity in the galaxy in the long run

There's a fine story here, but the plot-outline I read put me off, so I'll
start with the backstory: 3,000 yrs have passed since "Bohr Maker" (her
1st novel). Humanity has spread thru much of the galaxy, but
interstellar contact is limited to sublight ships. There are dreadful
Chenzeme war machines loose, still fighting the war which destroyed
that species long ago. Much of humanity lives in the Hallowed Vasties
- huge Dyson-spheres. Nanotechnology permeates everyday life, and
permits people to live for centuries.

The novel is set on Silk, a sealed habitat atop a space elevator on the
strange & isolated world of Deception Well. Silk was resettled by
refugees from Heyertori, a world sterilized by a rogue Chenzeme swan
burster. The city was deserted when they arrived, but full of human
bones. The refugees thought the Old Silken were killed by a plague
from the planet. They sealed off the beanstalk and live in comfort, but
supplies are running low & they have no way to leave - they were
dumped after a contract dispute with their sentient greatship.

Silk is attacked by followers of the prophet Jupiter, who believe they
can attain ecstatic Communion on the planet's surface. Many of the
cultists are killed, apparently including Jupiter. His son Lot survives,
and the surface of the novel is Lot's struggle to accept his father's
legacy, and to discover the true nature of the Deception Well.

The novel is a fine combination of top-notch tech-speculation and
traditional storytelling. It has a couple of sags that could have been cut,
but I'm nitpicking. If you haven't yet tried Linda Nagata, "Deception
Well" would be an excellent place to start. Nagata's website at www.maui.net/~nagata
is also worth checking out. IIRC it
has a sample chapter of "DW".

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

Deception Well is the most entertaining SciFi novel I have read in the last year. The characters are well developed, and the central idea is unusual and timely.

I perfer "hard science" novels written by authors with some training in physics, etc, but am frequently appalled by the lack of character development.

Linda Nagata is an excellent technician and I plan to read more of her work

I really liked this book. It had action right from the start but the plot took a long time to become clear and there are multiple clashes going on simultaneously. A planet that assimilates everything and a sattelite city up in the clouds where millions live and have problems of their own. And mammoth ships and weapons of destruction which are sentient beings. I thought it was Nagata's best book yet.

When I first started reading this book I had some hope that it would be an interesting story with interesting characters. By the third chapter I had an idea that I had been wrong. By the fifth I was sure. The book's pace is unbelievably slow, and the characters are unconvincing, as is most of the plot-line (what little there is). The society the author has created is poorly formed and very sketchy. The author also has an annoying habit of leaving physical descriptions out, or even worse not describing something until chapters later when the reader already has a completely different mental image formed. The robot (or whatever it was) Ord, is a perfect example. Another problem I had with the book is the lack of logic behind many of the plot points and character behaviors. The character or Kona for example; If he is so concerned about what Lot might do, particularly under the influence of Kona's son Urban why hasn't he (or any of the other character's) done anything to keep Urban away from Lot? Considering Lot's situation in the beginning I wouldn't think that would be too hard. The whole development of Lot's character is a little hard to swallow anyway, but unlike the rest of the characters at least he has some (and I do mean some) development. When the reader finally reaches the end it is anticlimactic. It was bad enough spending the major part of the book feeling I had been dropped into a story that had already begun, but at the end I felt I was left with out a real conclusion. But looking back over the story I don't know what could have concluded it satisfactorily when it had so little cohesion as a story to begin with.

I've just finished reading Mrs Nagata's Deception Well and I'm absolutely disgusted with myself for buying it. I mean, this must be the worst book I've read since... come to think of it, I can't remember any other novel that left me such a bad impression.

I'd like to be able to say something positive about it, but I can't. Even the artwork is sloppy! (I would have rated DW 0 star, only you can't.) As for the content, the hero, name of Lot (ring a bell?) grieves the death of his father/prophet/god, named Jupiter (of course, Yaweh would have been a bit obvious, wouldn't it ?). For reasons which are totally impossible to understand for anybody but Mrs Nagata, he takes about 200 pages to get himself ready to descend into the well where his father disappeared. (Yes, there's this well, see, only we don't know how it came to be or why - pretty convenient, in fact.) Anyway, Lot and his friends go down and, when they arrive, they discover that they have to go back up presto. When they do, the novel ends. Wow! Talk about an intricate storyline!

Well, that's about it. The characters are all one-dimensional, and the only thing that the reader discovers along the way is that the poor humans are persecuted by a race of mysterious aliens, the Chemzene (and the only thing we now about them is that nobody's even sure they ever existed - talk about mysterious, people!).

That sums it up, really. More than lives up to its French title (in French, "déception" means disappointment - and as for the disappointment, well... DW delivers in spades!).

Maybe the book should have been titled "Dejection Well"...