Customer Reviews

If the stars are gods

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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We take an enjoyable and memorable journey with an astronaut researcher searching for life beyond Earth. His first encounter with an alien species is hilarious at times. This lasts only temporarily, as the aliens soon present intriguing ideas about how immense and common other life is. The story concludes in grand fashion, as the main character discovers other life beyond anything he could have imagined. There are few dull moments, as we try to figure out just where we're headed. The answer is simple and easy to accept in the end, but is still fascinating and intriguing.

I've read several of Greg Benford's novels, and although this novel tackles some interesting ideas, on the whole it is sketchy, underdeveloped and lacks continuity. This might have been more entertaining if the authors had stuck with one segment and worked through it. The action is nonexsistent, extended over nearly one hundred years and broken up into 20-25 page chapters for each time period. The characters are few, two-dimensional, and unsympathetic. Plotlines are too many and undeveloped, (none of the aliens stick around for more than a few pages, nothing is taken to any kind of a logical conclusion.) Finally, there is a very unsatisfying ending. You might want to try reading "Heart of the comet," which Benford co-wrote with David Brin.

Yeah, I'm nitpicking, but there sure is an age discrepency in the 2nd and in the next to last parts of the book. In the 2nd part, he's in his fifties, but his age as stated doesn't agree with his age at the beginning, using the dates assigned to each part. And in the next to last part, His age is given first as 95 (which agrees with the time frame} and at the mid point as 127.

Small detail, but indicative that this book gives an appearance of not being well planned. It has an interesting concept which appeals to my metaphysical nature, but it just doesn't follow through. All the same, it is a good read for the heavy science-fiction reader, but not recommended to the more discerning.

No longer the good Sun at all.


4 out of 5