Ben Saufley

This was a very satisfying thriller/mystery. I liked the linguistic angle and for the most part I think it was convincing – I'm not a linguist but I do think there are times when one reads a book and the writer's actual lack of expertise is apparent, and I don't think that was the case here. The payoff, the resolution, was certainly spectacular, but it didn't feel unearned or out of left field. I really enjoyed it, start to finish.

I really enjoyed this one. I'm completely aware that I'm a sucker for school books, especially "magic school", but the magic in this one was really interesting, the atmosphere was great, and the romance was charming.

Coming up with an engaging premise is only part of writing a book, and while it's not easy, it's certainly the easiest part. I thought this book was pretty interesting and asked a lot of interesting questions right up until it became clear that it would hand-wave them all away in the resolution. By that point, a lot of the flaws of the book – the constant, clichéd "in English, please?" between scientists; the cartoonish villain; the less-educated style of speech of a supposedly brilliant protagonist (plausible, sure, but just one more thing) – went from things I'd forgive for an interesting premise to signs that it was never going to wrap up the way I'd hoped. Disappointing, in the end.

It wasn't bad, had me interested in what was going on, how it all played out—but the concept that it was a book-within-a-book, introduced at the very start, was confusing until it was resolved, and its resolution was unsatisfying. I can applaud the attempt, because it's an interesting idea, but it was a bit too much to work, for me.

This was an interesting kind of thriller but the pacing kind of lost me – it's _kind of_ over with 20% of the book to go. Sure, not completely, but the writing's on the wall and there's really no more tricks up its sleeve.

This book purports to be about first contact, but mostly deals with a hyper-capitalist future and how humankind might react to the _possibility_ of first contact. It may be a minor spoiler, but "contact" barely occurs in this book. I did think it was interesting, and for a while I thought the cynical angle of such a hyper-capitalist future added something interesting to the story, but at the end it became clear that that _was_ the story and I was left unsatisfied. If Dixon intends to write a sequel, it would make sense, but I don't see any indication of that at this point. Which leaves a big chunk of the _focus_ of the book more-or-less unresolved.

This book just won the Hugo, so I had to know what the buzz was about. The premise definitely seemed interesting, but as the book got going I wasn't convinced of its hype-worthiness. In the end, though, yes, absolutely loved this book. It builds on a whole bunch of comfortable formulas and tropes to create something new, entertaining, and really satisfying in the end. I'm not always looking for a message in the books I read, although it can be hard not to notice the harmful ones (think: copaganda, or the myriad thrillers that hinge on a woman lying about abuse or assault) – but this book has some really interesting things to say about government and power, without hammering you over the head with it (ok, there's a _small_ amount of hammering at the end). You don't have to get those themes to enjoy the book, but I definitely felt a deeper appreciation for the book as those themes (and themes of neurodivergence) revealed themselves. Highly recommend this novel and I've already picked up the next in the series.