adrian

Unlikely, but authors often write better books as they develop skills, and accomplished writers often try something new with poor results. I would not assume that Gregory Benford work is all like this.

Maybe start with a plot. More real color, and definitely character development would help.

The narrator was excellant.

Not unless the advertisements for the movie were deceptive, and I probably would not stay for the ending.

I could argue this book should get 5 stars. I could argue it deserves none. I give it 3 as result of the indecision. Most books contain some philosophy, the author bombarding the reader with his or her self-described wisdom about the life experience. This book contains abundance. It is not what I would call science fiction. Artistic fiction, maybe, an hour and a half of vivid descriptive language involving long sentence with seldom used words, but there is no science in there anywhere. No description of the space ships; no explanation how they work, no flow of time, only a lot of gore with no suporting science as to how it was created. Some readers may like that. It’s not for me.

At a writer’s conference a few years ago, the speaker explained that there was a basic format for all “good” stories. Three acts, character development, plot, setting, tension, resolution, dark moments; Gregory Benford was obviously not at that conference. The speaker further explained that some artistic authors purposely deviated from the tried and true methodologies. This book is an example of severe deviation. The speaker said there was a name for these writers. Homeless is the word she used.

If you read for a better understand your inner psychology, you may find value here, and I have to say, it was worth every penny I paid for it.