Rating: 
Summary: SACRED IS THE NEW
Review: OUTSTANDING. I am giving this book 555 stars. It's true it requires some (actually a lot of) intellectual effort on the reader's part. No pain, no gain, though. And the gain is HUGE. Maybe the most rewarding book I have read for the last several years. THANX JOHN.
I tremble in anticipation of the next two installments in this trilogy. Well, all disappointed readers should be really disappointed with themselves, not with the book. A TRUE MASTERPIECE.
Rating:
Summary: My My - Tough, but worth the effort. Okey Dokey?
Review: Since buying the UK first edition from Amazon UK in 2001, I have tried 3 times before to get past page 10. My concentration wasn't up to it. I was out of practice with dense SF language. Whatever the problem, I failed. (One attempt must have been in my doctor's waiting room since I found a receipt from 2003 in the book.)
Somehow, I was at the right point earlier this week to tackle it again. It was worth it, worth it, worth it. Dazzling language, a constant stream of references and illusions, and characters suggested only by hints, but hints that tell you all you need to know, make this a challanging but firecracker burst wonderful book. ("Read" is a verb, not a noun.)
I cannot suggest strongly enough that you buy it and (when you are ready) read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Wanted it to be more than it was
Review: The book seemed to be going somewhere, and then half way through, I found myself wanting it all to be over. It just did not mesh with its potential.As others have mentioned, the language is definitly not run of the mill. I found I had to skim more than read, and not concentrate on any individual word or phrase, in order to grasp the concepts. I would be intrigued to see other books set in the same universe, but following a more interesting story line. So much potential, but for me, it fell far short.
Rating:
Summary: Wanted it to be more than it was
Review: The book seemed to be going somewhere, and then half way through, I found myself wanting it all to be over. It just did not mesh with its potential. As others have mentioned, the language is definitly not run of the mill. I found I had to skim more than read, and not concentrate on any individual word or phrase, in order to grasp the concepts. I would be intrigued to see other books set in the same universe, but following a more interesting story line. So much potential, but for me, it fell far short.
Rating: 
Summary: Massive, Myopic
Review: This book has a language all its own, the kind that requires you sit next to a computer with access to all the world's dictionaries just to figure out what Clute is talking about when discussing Flyte AIs vs Jack AIs, or when he describes a starship's bridge displays as "intagliated." Once you become used to it, however, the visuals, the textures, the world he's describing become very vivid, very real. However, the ending is straight out of some 1970's "new wave" SF, with humans as "special" and absurd amounts of sex and anlalochezic profanity replacing a painful creative lacunae as the story draws towards its ending. I suspect this is a book for writers, not readers, of science fiction, a salmagundi of examples, John Clute's notion of "how some things should be done." And they're such clinquant examples, it's too bad that there's no real story there to enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Dazzling wordplay makes a thin soup
Review: This book has been lauded for its invention of a dazzling new lexicon for the post-human future. Unfortunately, dazzling wordplay is about all it has. Plot? Not hardly. In the first 100 pages, all that happens is that our hero lands on a planet, buys a couple of military A.I.s on the cheap, is attacked almost as soon as he leaves his one-man trade spaceship, and barely escapes from the planet with his cargo and his delivery instructions (in the form of a plant-like alien). Character development? Not much chance of that, when 90% of our hero's dialogue consists of the phrase "okey dokey" If you slog through the sometimes-amusing wordplay to the end, you find that although the hero finally gets his marching orders, there is still no indication of how (or even why) he is to complete his mission. Maybe that will happen in a future volume. But I wouldn't bet on it. There doesn't seem to be any room in the post-human future for outmoded concepts such as plot or character development. Only "words, words, words."
Rating:
Summary: Dazzling wordplay makes a thin soup
Review: This book has been lauded for its invention of a dazzling new lexicon for the post-human future. Unfortunately, dazzling wordplay is about all it has. Plot? Not hardly. In the first 100 pages, all that happens is that our hero lands on a planet, buys a couple of military A.I.s on the cheap, is attacked almost as soon as he leaves his one-man trade spaceship, and barely escapes from the planet with his cargo and his delivery instructions (in the form of a plant-like alien). Character development? Not much chance of that, when 90% of our hero's dialogue consists of the phrase "okey dokey" If you slog through the sometimes-amusing wordplay to the end, you find that although the hero finally gets his marching orders, there is still no indication of how (or even why) he is to complete his mission. Maybe that will happen in a future volume. But I wouldn't bet on it. There doesn't seem to be any room in the post-human future for outmoded concepts such as plot or character development. Only "words, words, words."
Rating:
Summary: Waste of time
Review: This was a frustrating novel to read. It was a chore working through the verbose and convoluted language. You certainly get the impression that the characters are living in a completely different time and place, but the author barely gives any real explanations for the reader trying to envision the settings. It constantly left me scratching my head and I didn't find it the least bit witty or entertaining. Most readers will want to stay away from this one.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money or time.
Review: This was a truly amazing waste of energy. Clute really thinks a lot of his writing style, but it makes me nauseous even still just thinking about it. I've never read anything so "descriptive" and yet so completely and utterly abstruse. There's a big word for ya, John. It means unnecessarily obscure, as in, sometimes I would read two or three paragraphs not knowing what the hell was going on, or even if anything was. I am an avid reader of science and science fiction, a big fan of people like William Gibson, Peter Hamilton, and Neal Stephenson. Stick with folks like them if you want to read something really thought provoking and adventurous. Poor Clute should go back to writing reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money or time.
Review: This was a truly amazing waste of energy. Clute really thinks a lot of his writing style, but it makes me nauseous even still just thinking about it. I've never read anything so "descriptive" and yet so completely and utterly abstruse. There's a big word for ya, John. It means unnecessarily obscure, as in, sometimes I would read two or three paragraphs not knowing what the hell was going on, or even if anything was. I am an avid reader of science and science fiction, a big fan of people like William Gibson, Peter Hamilton, and Neal Stephenson. Stick with folks like them if you want to read something really thought provoking and adventurous. Poor Clute should go back to writing reviews.
|
