Critiques et Commentaires

A fitting conclusion to a fantastic trilogy.

So good!

Le vers libre peut être un peu déstabilisant au début, ou juste inhabituel, mais ça se lit bien. La forme épouse le fond : le côté lancinant et répétitif du travail d’usine, le rythme des moments dedans et des rares moments dehors… Une très bonne lecture dans un train.

it came in just in time for my birthday!

At first i wasn’t convinced, I felt it was a bit confusing. Then everything got in line and the big reveals are surprising. Good character-driven story.

Good, but far from transcendental.

The action scenes are good. The characters are tittering on the cliché side of modern sci fi stereotypes.

Considering that these "finest minds" mostly come from an era where slavery is not a problem, and that Plato's ideas on personal relationships—as logical as they might be—have nothing to do with how humans relate to each other, well, the experiment would be interesting to watch.

Jo Walton pushes the thought experiment by giving us well written characters, a fantastic setting (Atlantis was real!) and sci-fi musings (do robots have souls?), and uses the rules of the experiment to make us question it (thanks, Sokrates).

I really enjoyed this book, but I'll wait a couple of weeks at least before opening the second volume of the series—I don't want to burn out on it.

I liked it. The characters are compelling, and the worldbuilding makes up for the very spare action scenes.

Nothing really memorable, but a good page turner nonetheless. The “military” themes are subverted quite a bit, so we avoid the worst types of copaganda that are normally present in military science fiction.

One character is woefully out of place in his new environment but knows how to do everything, he carries the plot ; one is the grizzled veteran plagued with doubt about her capacity to carry her duty ; then there’s the crew of “specialist” misfits without much depth… thankfully the pacing of the action is good, and the setting and main concepts are interesting. I wonder how the rest of series will go on, but I’m not on the edge of my seat waiting for it.

A good short story (I think I discovered it in an award shortlist?) inspired by Asian history and religions. Perfect length to read on a train ride.

I’m alternating between being slightly interested and not very interested in what happens next.

The Golem And The Jinni has a sequel that resolves some things, but not all of them. See my review of the first installment: lire.boitam.eu/book/8848

Both characters are more human, but don't want to lose what made them "them". Both are confronted by a being similar as them (but of the opposite sex), which doesn't make anything easier. The new cast of human characters are more interesting than the main couple, which is a nice change.