Shawn

I think the fantasy sub-story was fascinating.

If you liked the first book, you will like this one. It features renewed emphasis on the fantasy sub-story in the dream sequences,

This book was a good, clear book that showed how the company Google thinks about it's mission, works on the inside, and affects our lives, as the subtitle says. Some bits here and there delve into technical aspects but was simplified well. As a programmer and someone who follows the tech industry this book shed a little light on why Google has done the things it did.

I've never a Liaden book or a book from the authors. This far future sci-fi tale was interesting, the pace was constant, and the universe interesting. While this novel didn't excite me terribly, but it kept my attention and there are some interesting ideas that are in the background that will clearly be major elements of future books as this book was written after but takes place before the main series of books. I will look forward to reading them.

The story was fine for a 2 hour story. I don't know if it would have been better if the audio quality was better. Contains some big, interesting ideas against a boring everyday extraction story with a small twist. I might have enjoyed the story itself more if not for the audio quality and performance.

The audio was poorly made: there was an echo, it seemed to use a very cheap microphone that gave poor audio quality, and while the voice actor gave a much better job than I could, had very uneven voices for all the character, but all the characters did have very different voices. Perhaps too different?

Very much a let down from his Commonwealth Saga/Void Trilogy, and Mandel series. And I thought John Lee was a so-so voice actor.

Actually, this book takes place mostly 150 years after first contact. But there is still a cultural divide that makes working together almost, but not quite, impossible. This book does a great job of speculating about a language and a culture that is — dare I say it? — foreign to our own.

At times I was very frustrated with this book for the exact same reasons the main character was. At no point did I think that things were happening that didn't make sense. It was well constructed and was an interesting way in exploring a foreign culture. I look forward to reading the sequel.

I didn't know how this was going to end until the I actually got there. The plot twists and sudden revelations make the entire book interesting. It wasn't what I expected: I expected to be more about everyday domestic violence. But things are not as they appear.

This was not entertaining. As I have knowledge of history, and a basic understanding of math, computer, physics and biology I found their intellectual musing interesting. And it was neat to see fictional characters interacting with historic characters and talking them in to or out of actions, cajoling them to act as they actually did in history.

It written in a dense and convoluted way. I almost abandoned this book because the Stephenson wrote the book as though he was getting paid by the word: the simplest actions are written in the longest and most boring way possible. I've bought the sequel, but probably will not read it. (They were on sale.)

Everything about this book should have appealed to me. It had lots of fantasy, Cthulhu and computer programming jokes, was fast paced and action packed, and you were never left scratching your heading trying to figure out what the author was trying to get you to realize.

But it didn't do it for me. I'm not sure if it's because the characters didn't take themselves seriously enough, or too seriously. If the plot wasn't serious enough, or too serious. But somehow it didn't connect to me.

After reading reviews and summaries for other books by Stross I don't think I'll be reading anymore of his. They seem fun and good natured but not in a way I appreciate. Which is a shame, because at first brush all his ideas are interesting and comical, yet are just executed wrong somehow.

I find a lot of classic science-fiction is over rated. I didn't read the whole thing. While vaguely interesting from a literary and sub-genre perspective the story just didn't capture my attention and I moved on to other books.

In general, I avoid science fiction more than a few decades old, and this book is why. If you love classic and genre defining SCI-FI from decades ago, the book might be okay.

An interesting book structured like the Pilgrim's Tale with many literary references. Common themes are sacrifice, pain and trials by fire. Torture and horror are common. As the structure necessitates this novel is very personal, yet the diverse travellers allow for many different perspectives of the Human civilization in the story.

I found it went on at times but was interesting.

This sequel has a different structure than Hyperion. While sacrifice, pain and tests of torture are common in the Hyperion Cantos novels, this one more closely follows two people in a narrative of the events since the last book.

This one feels more civilization spanning and more big picture than the first book, which was more personal, as required by it's structure.