Rating: 
Summary: Simply Awesome!!!
Review: This is some of the best sci-fi material I've read in a long time and definitely NOT your fun of the mill recycled, rehashed story about robots. Card and Chiang's amazing tale of a world filled with robots, each with their own personalities and hang-ups makes this stand out from your typical robot affair. This is NOT your 'Terminator' variety of killing machines. These robots are insecure, vain, and have some serious hang-ups. At first it didn't make sense why robots would need or want clothing but the surprise revelations at the end made this very clear. It's pretty deep stuff and some of the material may take a second reading before it makes complete sense but trust me when you get 'it', it's wonderfully fresh. Simply amazing. Oh, and did I say that the artwork is worth the price of admission alone? Buy this book and you are in for a great ride.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Gift for a Science Fiction Addict
Review: This is the perfect book if you: 1) love the look/art of Star Wars, 2) Love Orson Scott Card, and/or 3) are a science fiction junkie with cash.Fortunately, I fall into all three categories. The pictures are well concieved, lush, and exotic. I am not sure about this, but I suspect that the pictures and the plot outline were done before the story was actually penned. If this is the case, Card does an excellent job of fitting plot to the puzzle pieces represented by the pictures. If it's the other way around, well, it's still good Orson Scott Card, just don't expect "Ender's Game". For those of you who like your SF worlds as tight and seamless as Kate Moss's one-piece in "The Matrix", well, you had better give it up. Dinosaurs gambol with robots and *everything* seems to be smarter than Homo Sap on this planet. Put your brain in "park", keep your hands inside the car, ooh and aah at the pretty pictures, and enjoy the good ride. Yes, this is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.
Rating: 
Summary: VERY disappointing
Review: Though the paintings are nice, a lot of them feel like Chiang's rejected designs from 'The Phantom Menace'. The main human characters look and dress like jedi, the robot characters look like battle droid rejects and there's even one character that looks EXACTLY like a mechanical Jar Jar Binks (complete with floppy ears). Hell, the robots even use AT-ST's to get around. If only it had an interesting story to save it... ...and that's precisely where the book fails. The writing is absolutely AWFUL! It feels like Orson Scott Card phoned this one in, or had his 10 year old nephew write it. I'm aware that the book may be intended for younger readers, but I just couldn't get over how perfunctory and uninteresting the writing was. Not that the story was that interesting either. The worst part was the back cover, which was plastered with quotes from the likes of George Lucas, James Cameron and Robert Zemeckis, praising the book and saying they'd like to see a big-screen adaptation. This REALLY made me lose a lot of respect for these guys, as they're obviously friends of Chiang's, and feel obligated to do the guy a favour. $100 says they never even read the book. I really can't recommend this book. There are SOME nice images, but you've seen it all before if you own the 'ART OF STAR WARS' books. After all the hype, I really expected more.
Rating:
Summary: Great art and solid story
Review: While the story here is pretty simple and wouldn't normally be considered a great sci-fi epic, it is still a cool concept and really well-written. I actually thought that the story would have been more generic, maybe even boring. But, I was plesantly surprised by the plot twists and surprises I found. And, the art is totally awesome.
Rating:
Summary: Great art and solid story
Review: While the story here is pretty simple and wouldn't normally be considered a great sci-fi epic, it is still a cool concept and really well-written. I actually thought that the story would have been more generic, maybe even boring. But, I was plesantly surprised by the plot twists and surprises I found. And, the art is totally awesome.
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