Customer Reviews

EVE: The Burning Life

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

*spoilers ahead*

As an avid sci-fi reader and an off and on Eve player I was pretty excited about getting this book, but since starting it I've been really disappointed. I should also mention I've stopped reading this book about half way through, there's just no motivation left to finish. First and foremost, in EVE-Online you're a enhanced human plugged into a space ship taking part in deep space naval combat. It would be nice if that was what the book was about rather than Generic Person Number 234234 and an "Agent" who's sole purpose in the game is to feed you the same canned missions and briefings over and over again. Perhaps the star of the next book could be a custodian in an restaurant somewhere and a tree since they have about as much impact on the game. Of course, they are part of the Eve-Universe, I'll grant that, but beyond their insignificance in general I just couldn't much care about them.

The first character, who's home colony is blown up, is part of the "Blood Raiders", a pirate faction of Eve who's back story is different but pretty much that of the Reapers from Firefly in terms of violence. Lots of torturing people to death and ickyness. "Blood Raiders" really says it all about them. It would have been interesting if the book had presented their 'other side', but no, its all about harvesting humans for them in the book as well. So when his home gets torched... I don't care. As for the Agent, aside from the page after page of descriptions of the inside of a space station (not all of which makes complete logical sense) its just the story of an overworked business person crashing out on drugs. There are a heck of a lot better written stories out there if that's what you want to read about. Her ethical dilemma is all fine and dandy, and perhaps even justified with her, but my lack of empathy on this gets back to not really caring about some space-born butchers getting killed such as the other main character's family, the fact that as an Eve player in the game world the reader would be one of the mass murders she bemoans (so I guess we're supposed to feel guilty?), and finally having just reread the first eve book before this one came out with its nearly planetary level genocide on several separate occasions, her whining just feels like that. Whining.

Maybe I was being overly optimistic, but when you pick up a science fiction book set in a space combat game universe with a battleship and an explosion on the cover, you maybe expect a bit more action than a paragraph about orbital bombardment and a single frigate attacking a battleship with predictable results (that entire part by the way was so contrived, nonsensical and poorly written both in terms of a story and in terms of blatantly breaking from how eve game play works it was depressing) in the first hundred pages. Maybe the book picks up in the second half but then good god Mr. Danielsson, learn some pacing.

All in all, I'd rate this a Uwe Boll movie in book form.

Eve: The Burning Life ended up reading more like an introduction to the non-player side and world of Eve-Online the online game. While there was a chapter or two that was of interest to learn more about the world of Eve, even to a old player like myself the overall quality and story of this "book" was lacking, I personally didn't feel it'd justify the price of a $5 paperback, and would have felt it been better if the makers of Eve-Online included it as a free PDF for everyone that bought a copy of the game. It really didn't read like an intro to any video game, just one that was spread over several hundred pages.

This is contrary to the better work done on Empyrean Age, which I felt was a much better and interesting book. I'd recommend searching that one out instead if you're looking for some Eve related material and a quality book.

You won't find it here.

I must preface this review by saying that I AM familiar with EVE Online and am fascinated by both the game and the fiction that the game has spawned. Both have demonstrated tremendous potential for depth; I have read excellent player fiction posted in the form of blogs and player run fiction sites, aside from CCP-produced fiction. I also must say that I generally have a policy of not writing a review of fiction . . . after all, it is so easy to critique someone else's work, but the reality remains that they are published . . . and I am not.

However . . . this piece of work was so less than satisfying, I feel that a caveat emptor is in order.

This book was a huge disappointment. Extremely loose plot, no theme, superficial characters and forced dialogue.

I will not go into great detail (just in case someone wants to buy the book), but the story deals with the protagonist who after an attack and loss, decides that vengeance is the only option left to him. In the meantime, another minor character, who is on a path of self-destruction, commits a crime and goes on the run. Of course, the two stories intersect towards the end, because of course, they need each other in order for the protagonist's plan to come to fruition. The lesson in the end is that . . . actually, I'm not sure what the lesson was. But that's okay; I don't have to have a moral to the story, as long as it's an entertaining read, which this was not. Boring.

The dialogue was no better. The conversations between characters read almost like a screenplay from a tween drama . . . quite fake and forced. The attempts to elicit emotion from the exchanges between characters did not work, probably because you don't get to know who these people really are. It seemed to me that what was more important to the author was focusing on the various factions in the EVE Universe as opposed to showing us who these people really were and what the reasons were for their actions.

The technique in writing was also a major disappointment. The following is a brief demonstration of the kind of words and terms that are found to be used multiple times every couple of pages: "entirely", "stock-still", "volumetric displays", something being 'half-this' and/or 'half-that', "proper" and "clearly". As I progressed through the novel, I became exasperated whenever I came across one of the foregoing terms; they were used so much throughout the story. The story was full of awkward word choice, word usages, and strange and excessive use of profanity. It made me wonder if the author would have been better off writing the book in his native tongue and then having it translated into English. This feature was one of the most distracting of the book, and took my focus away from the story.

The penultimate chapter began the book's hasty wrap-up and conclusion. The mental somersaults required to accept the conclusion was too much for me to accept, and it simply did not work.

My conclusion is that this book is - unfortunately - a dud. I found the writing to be tedious and horrendous. And forget about it if you have no clue what EVE Online is; you will be completely lost. I find that, in comparison to the first book - The Empyrean Age - this book is a huge disappointment, both for science fiction fans and fans of EVE Online fiction. This book cannot be classified as serious science fiction and it is most certainly not high-quality EVE Online fiction. I would say that it fits more into the category of middle-grade fiction; however, due to the frequent (and awkward!) use of profanity, I'm not sure that parents would want their 8-12 year olds reading this book. I would not recommend this book for purchase for these reasons. There are far superior works out there in cyberspace that are free, for example Kalin Ringkvist's "Against A Rock".

I apologize to the author for this scathing review, but I hope this review has been helpful to any thinking of buying and reading this book.

The book is quite detailed about two main characters in a two story book that is quite obvious about how it will merge from about a 1/4 of the way into the book. It has it's highs and lows, but I felt there was a lot of low compared to the highs(a lot like playing eve in my opinion). I did consider giving up on the book about half way through due to how dry and boring it became. I am glad though that I stuck it through as nearing the end picked up enough to make it worth it.

The book is a general coverage of Eve itself. Unfortunately it tries to cover too much within a single book: covering all the main factions and their leaders within two story arcs.

It would have been more interesting to see the various factions in their own books. Then again it is one of the first books about Eve. Still a good read for anyone that wishes a fun little read.

First let me begin by stating, I'm a huge fan of the game (been playing for over 6 years), and I really enjoyed the first EVE novel. Secondly, let me say that it took me over 2 months to get through this book. I read the first EVE novel in four days, this one was easy to put down, and I only finished it so I could feel comfortable in writing this review.

What did I like?

The author wrote the book from the perspective of the nearly namless and faceless NPCs in the game. This was an interesting change from the first novel which was written from the perspective of the players, known as capsuleers.

The author described the pirate factions (NPCs) very well, and they were as interesting as they were diverse.

The author described how the rest of New Eden views the capsuleers, in an amazingly eye opening way.

Early on I was made to think about the carnage that I was responsible for in the game. To be honest I had never thought about the hundreds of thousands of ships that I had "killed", or of the thousands of colonies that I had destroyed, until I read this book. With over 400,000 capsuleers in the game, we probably kill billions of people every month in the game world. It is no wonder that capsuleers are viewed as being Demi-Godlike, people to be both respected and loathed at the same time.

What I disliked?

The pace of the book was slow.......very slow......painfully so at times.

Far too descriptive on pointless, and minute details.

The main characters were both, sort of annoying.

The story lines of each of the two main characters just did not work. Drem's was about revenge for the death of his familiy, and particulary his brother. But, his path towards his ultimate revenge was too far fetched. No one would have backed his plans, seriously, and besides even if he were successful....who would have been the balance of power between the pirate factions? Yeah, I bet even the author did not think of that.

The female character's storyline made even less sense, considering the world setting of the novel. As I stated earlier, in New Eden, capsuleers probably kill tens of billions of people every month. Yet, we are to believe that a highly respectd and wealthy agent is going to be tracked down across the galaxy for killing ONE Drug Dealer in self defense!!!!

Last Point, and a Possible Spolier!!

For the author to wait until the LAST PAGE to twist the whole story around is a poor writer's device. And the revealed true motives of the main character (Drem) wasa to have his brother buried with honor, well it just made me think of him as being emotionally weak...kind of a sissy in a way.

Basically what all the other reviews have said. Terrible writing and plot. If you are going to read a science fiction book, go read anything except this.

As someone who enjoys the act of creation, i know what kind of passion, commitment, time, and energy goes into any act of creation: be it writing, music, art, or performance. As such, I absolutely hate to speak ill of someone else's work.

unfortunately.......(spoilers now)

most of the reviews posted here paint a picture of a subpar novel that shares nothing with the universe that spawned it aside from some cover art and the name. This is pretty much the case. Although I was able to make it to the end, I did so only because i had paid for the novel and was bound and determined to get my seven dollars' worth out of it. The ending in particular felt rather disconnected from the story, as the planning and buildup that was the focus of most of the novel was thrown out the window after the primary character has what might be termed a change of heart (though one might argue that the change of heart came at the beginning of the novel and rather comes to his senses at the end).

The secondary protagonist served little purpose, except perhaps to serve as an avatar through which players of EVE Online could see firsthand the empires they have been serving and/or blowing up (or both, depending on the day). It's not until the last pages of the novel that she actually develops a bit of relevance to the plot in which the primary character is entangled.

Now, because I don't believe in trashing someone else's hard work without some silver lining, THE GOOD:

I particularly enjoyed seeing the insides of the so-called "pirate" organizations present in game. The Blood Raiders in game only seem to be interested in blowing you up and drinking your blood, but those depicted in the book never even leave the planet, and we get a look at their religious customs, their family dynamic, and even their cooking skills. The depiction of the militant and ruthlessly efficient Angel Cartel seemed to mesh very well with the depiction of the Angels in game, and the depiction of the Guristas as nothing but a hard-fighting, hard-partying, hard-assed family was enjoyable as well. Meeting (albeit second-hand, through the protagonist's eyes) the surviving founder of the Guristas pirates was, while lacking in dialogue value, a bit of fan service that I was able to enjoy.

TL;DR?

So, if you're someone who can find a way to enjoy anything or just wants to get their hands on another piece of the EVE universe, this novel might draw a small nod of approval from you. But don't buy it new. pick up one of the used versions. Given most of the reviews available here, there are a great many copies of this novel available that haven't even been read all the way through, so they should be in "good as new" condition.

Your level of enjoyment will depend on what you're looking for out of this book. I think it does several things well, and a lot of things very poorly.

The Good:

-If you're fairly new to the game, the somewhat artificial introductions to all the various factions is somewhat interesting. It might be nice from a literary point of view if they were less artificial.

-If you're at all interested in getting a different point of view on the EVE universe than you would get from playing the game, this book is almost entirely about non-capsuleers. The downside for me of course is that I just had trouble seeing the guy who went on a quest for revent after his colony was blown up by a capsuleer as anything other than the main villain in the story.

The Bad:

-Character development is kind of weak.

-Plot is fairly formulaic

-If you're not interested in the EVE Universe, there are much better sci-fi books. Or if you are interested in the Universe but already know a lot about it, that's also true.

-Character pursuing revenge seems to be incredibly awesome at doing things he has no experience doing. He's inexplicably good at getting information, seems to have contacts that a random guy from a non-descript colony shouldn't have. The tactical genius I can accept maybe, but it seems like it would take longer than that to fully develop.

The Ugly:

-When the two major plot lines come together, the story stops making sense altogether. I could see the particular chain of events taking place, but not over 2-3 chapters. In other words, while the final chain of events is plausible, there's a lot of persuation on the part of one character that's missing.

-A lot of interesting moral questions could be explored in the last sections of the book. Instead it rushes to an ending that just feels unsatisfying.

The Ugly, part 2, now with spoilers!

-At the end the agent joins the Sisters of EVE because of the amount of corruption found everywhere in the other factions. When faced with such corruption within the Sisters, rather than become disgusted again she decides to help the other main character with his quest for revenge. I could see that happening, but not right away. Not without some more complex fleshing out of the characters, persuasion, manipulation, seduction, something... anything. That would have also made the story more interesting.

-If the capsuleer had recognized the agent at the end and accused her of complicity in the murder, some interesting moral dilemmas could have been explored. For example, why does the first character not seem to harbor any ill will towards an agent who sent the capsuleer out in the first place. To what extent are any of the characters responsible. If that capsuleer hadn't taken the mission, another one would have. If that agent had given out that mission another one might have. War existed before capsuleers and will after (if anyone does ever kill them off). Instead we get two self-righteous characters pursuing plain old revenge.

-Honestly, if I had been the capsuleer, I'd have chosen death (but then again I haven't played my EVE Online character that long).

I found it hard to get into the flow of the book. Had i not played the game for years might not have been able to ever.