Challenging hard sci-fi with some characterization

I personally enjoyed listening to this, as a repeat of a very long ago reading.

This book falls into the sometimes uncomfortable genre of "hard sci-fi", meaning that it attempts to seriously engage engineering and science while also telling its story. As such, the listener needs to expect a certain amount of explanation meshed in with the story as the author justifies why the characters expect their solutions to work. This work manages to weave that genre-necessary explanation in reasonably well, but if you're not interested in science it's recommended you find a different genre. I can't take a star off for having explanations given the genre, and I felt it was handled at about an average level.

It is typical for hard sci-fi to have somewhat wooden characters, and unfortunately I had to take a star off for that problem. The characters do just well enough to make their development engaging, and there's an ongoing element of real danger which helps in that. As such, it's above what I'd consider the standard for the genre, but that is unfortunately not a high standard.

Finally, the story itself was helped along a bit too conveniently not only by the reasonable use of technology to overcome problems (and that's not just a trope; it's what engineers are supposed to do), but also by an all-too-convenient accident which happened at least twice -- and which, of course, was part of the scientific lesson the authors intend to teach. It nonetheless served to get me thinking about the symbiosis theory of the origin of complex life, so it served its purpose.

For followup reading, for those interested in the facts of the matter, I'd highly recommend "The Vital Question" by Nick Lane.

2 people found this helpful

What a fantastic work of Science Fiction

I read this in paperback back when it was first published in 1993 and had fond memories of it. But THIS audio performance was absolutely enthralling and I’m so glad I went into this work again via the fine, fine talents of Ochlan, Rudnicki, and de Cuir. As one might expect from a collaboration by PhDs Brin and Bedford the science was solid and has held up pretty well. Very much worth the read... and especially the listen!

1 person found this helpful

the story was bad overall

book needs fact checking
story is bad and the story drags it was very hard to get to the end

OK story, bad narration

I had to struggle through this book. simply because the narration was not good. there are three narrators, and each one is bad in their own right. the story is OK....even if it reads like a young adult novel early on. too much angst in the characters.

Sci Fi at its best!

An epic story about mankind, artificial intelligence, and our future evolution. Great writing, and very well performed!