jakej's Reviews (94)

What a fun and funny book.

The first book I've read that truly showcases the wild hopefulness and ambition of Golden Age sci-fi.

A powerful allegory that has only increased in relevance since publication.

Would be a 5/5 if

it ended with Ralph getting killed by the boulder instead of Piggy, and Piggy being hunted and killed like a pig (why else is his nickname Piggy?). No naval rescue.

Way too short when it didn't have to be.

The time loop struck me as a gimmick and a cop-out to avoid writing the rest of the story. Would've probably blown my mind when I was 12, but not now.

A great tour of world history through the lens of salt. A bit too reliant on knowledge of geography (or maybe that's on me!) but otherwise well done.

Not sure what to say. The pacing is bonkers, tons of things are left unaddressed, and the author tramples every fantasy convention he can find. I rarely like contemporary fantasy but this was fantastic. No lazy outs or obvious romantic arcs. Brilliant, dark, funny: feels like the weirdness wasn’t forced, it just came out of him as he was writing. Reminds me of The Stars My Destination (both are fast paced, dark revenge stories that play with big ideas). Will read this again later to find out what the hell is going on.

Carolyn killed Steve and resurrected him, but why did she need his heart? David wanted an innocent heart originally, but Steve’s heart isn’t innocent (or maybe it is and that’s the point).There are tons of obvious places where one might call “plot hole”, especially with how convoluted Carolyn’s plan was, but I think this misses the point. She spent her entire life planning this alone in total secrecy and fear, so I’m not surprised it quickly became convoluted and unnecessary: the insanity is her response to what she’s doing (and this is even pointed out, when Steve says he would’ve done her little jog for $200). And to be fair, she’s right that killing David is something so hard that at first blush it seems impossible, so an insane plan was needed anyways.

 

This had a truly titanic task to finish up the story started in Hyperion, and by almost all counts succeeded.

We got the relevance of each separate pilgrim, more backstory on their arcs, and the final climax Hyperion was building towards. Some of the quantum physics/The Void Which Binds woo-woo was disappointing, but other than that I’m impressed. Still some unanswered questions, like what’s the deal with Leigh Hunt, and who is coming through the farcaster to meet him?