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SiFi gets personal with Chasm City

Advantages: Fast paced, action packed, complicated
Disadvantages: Sometimes too complicated. Lacking some periferal character detail.

...the often rancid, often sterile Chasm City. Indeed it is a marriage of both Good and Evil, sanity and insanity, the dirty and the clean which septate with dramatic distinction the sometimes confusing shifts in plot, location and time. Much like some sort of cart running away from any form of user screeching around corners to the point, but not over it, of a spillage. In some ways it is the charm of this that there is little time for stability or ...
...Any criticisms can come in the form of the lack of peripheral character development, as many of them seem just hollow in comparison to Tanner and the other main individuals. And the oddly rigid form of first person narrative which is not wholly successful. A great and enjoyable read, complicated and fast paced. Much fun will be had for SiFi/Fantasy lovers and those who just want a good Adventure with twists and turns galore! ...

Karath 02.12.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Chasm City - Alastair Reynolds

Another Time

Advantages: Engrossing, atmospheric
Disadvantages: x

...Prague, which on early 21st century Earth resembles post-war Paris much more than anything any further west. Theirs is a Paris of checkpoints and rain. Dark, barely lit streets. Jazz clubs. Musicians masquerading as detectives, or maybe the other way about. A Paris where being either a musician or a detective is a very romantic thing to be…but, obviously, not romantic enough to keep the girl by your side. Especially if she is a singer with more ...
...the 1950s. A 24th century archaeologist on a field trip to Earth. But this is not a time-travel story. This is a tale in which time struggles to retain any sense of identity, and the nature of reality itself becomes confused. And yet - somehow - it all makes perfect sense. Floyd's story & Auger's run along those parallel lines which, as they must, cross at the point of infinity… and that's where the science kicks in. How real is it? I only wish ...

hiker 30.09.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Century Rain - Alastair Reynolds

Not a dog, but not up to scratch either.

Advantages: Good basic story, good characters
Disadvantages: Lack of attention to detail, dodgy science

...there's no real data on Coyote other than it could probably support life? Reading the blurb on the book ("A novel of interstellar exploration") would suggest that Coyote was a science fiction novel. My first thought was that it would be something similar to Arthur C Clarke's 'Rendezvous with Rama', which is one of my favourite books. However, that's not really the case. Coyote's origin is as a series of eight short stories, all of which have been ...
...Coyote is always there, the focus at all times remains on the characters. It's very much about the people involved, which isn't really a pure science fiction story in my opinion. I'm not sure how much work was done on the stories before they were compiled into this novel, but it is obvious to me that there are four individual stories here rather than a single, flowing tale. It's not that this is a problem for the most part, because the pace and ...

TheDuke 02.05.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Coyote - Allen Steele

quite good read

Advantages: good storyline
Disadvantages: like odd at times

City Who Fought is an amazing book which I really love. The characters are all very real and three-demensional. I found myself so drawn into the story that I forgot about many other things, including my favourite tv show. I stayed up til...bout 2:30 AM reading this book, so that I could find out what happened to Simeon, Joat, Channa, and the rest of them. My favourite character was Simeon, of course, but Joat, Channa, Joseph, Seld, Patsy, Chaundra ...
...wonderfully three-demensional. Simeon is my favourite brain -- favourite character -- from any of Anne McCafferey's B&B books. The only problems I found with this book were a) that it was much more militaristic than I like, but I knew that when I began reading it, so I can only blame myself, and b) the Kolnari were a bit..flat, and 2-dimensional, not something I personally like in a book, especially for the villians. One thing that I read in another ...

david1978 24.07.2000 · Read full review
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Review of City Who Fought - Anne McCaffrey

Classic sf

Advantages: Highly effective large-scale plot
Disadvantages: Prose style is sometimes pedestrian

Anyone who seriously wants to read science fiction should probably take the time to read some of the classics, as an idea of sf's history can be invaluable in understanding where modern author's are coming from. "Childhood's End" would undoubtedly be one of those classics. The three novels Clarke had written before (including one children's book) were dull, plodding books about space exploration. With "Childhood's End" he turned to a more original ...
...The story concerns the alien Overlords, who despite their fearful appearance, have contacted humanity to guide us towards our destiny (a destiny that the Overlords themselves are barred from). The book effectively builds up to its moving climax, where the next stage of humanity is observed by the last living human being - one of the most moving passages Clarke has written. Clarke is not always the finest writer in sf, but he has an imagination to ...

NeilHudson 20.08.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke