Bob Cottingham

I was very engaged in the present storyline but he tended to lose me on the flashbacks.

Fantastic story! Started a bit show but kept getting better and better. The ideas he explores and touches upon need to be discussed more in society and are ones that greatly concern me.

This was tough because I found the idea very intriguing and enjoyed the journey, while absolutely hating the characters, stilted dialog, misogynistic tropes and hero complex.

I was a bit disappointed after loving the second book. It is pretty much all slice of life with no plot at all to speak of. There's a story, but it is so buried that it might as well not be there. Too many points of view also weigh down the novel.

Great book, better than the first. It intertwined two story lines, both engaging, but I found I could have had an entire book just of Pepper's youth. I enjoyed it tremendously.

Good story, not too long. Engaging characters. Much more of a slice of life with a thin plot.

I was really disappointed after having loved the novellas and looking forward to a novel length story. I felt that the extra length of the novel added nothing to the story, simply lots of padding and rather ceaseless action, which isn't what endeared me to Murderbot. There are good scenes but I found myself somewhat distracted and bored while reading the constant unrelenting action, rather than invigorated as you might expect. Maybe I miss-remember, but I had far fonder memories of the dialog between ART and Murderbot than what we had in this novel. If this had been my first foray into Murderbot I'm not too sure I would have read the novellas, and that would have been a shame.

So slow. So very very slow. No one can take good ideas and make them drag out as long as Hugh Howey.

Nice prose, but I ultimately found it unsatisfying because of the incredibly slow pace. So much potential, but so little actually happens. The main character ultimately has no impact on the story, other than as a catalyst for others.

Better than the previous book, ultimately surprising.

This is the first time I've read a book that was written to be similar to a Role Playing Game. It was a bit odd, but he definitely made it work. The magical system was very involved and bordered on being excessive. The main character was interesting because he wasn't particularly powerful, but made the most of his situation. I'll read the sequel when it's out.

I really enjoyed this series and the final book in the trilogy really brought it to a good ending. The pace was better than the second book with several good threads ranging from the very personal to the Must-Save-All-Of-Humanity levels. I would happily read more books set in the Bobiverse.

This middle book definitely slows down the pace of the overarching narrative and feels more like a collection of mostly disjointed stories without seeming to have as much of a discernable plot, but is still great fun and engaging.

Great premise and easy and quick read. A little overboard on the references. Very immersive but without really having an ending in the first book.

While the series has some of the greatest expressions of emotion I've read, it also came across as rather cold and clinical. I had a little difficulty with total immersion, but thought the style of writing was intriguing and the world interesting.

I really liked The Martian and Andy Weir appears to have tried hard in Artemis to replicate everything he must have thought were a success in his first book. His protagonist, Jazz Bashera, is a female version of Mark Watney, including all the quips and insults every teenage boy loves. It doesn't work this time.

But what really killed it for me was the plan that Jazz buys into that is set up so that it would be incredibly obvious as to who was ultimately responsible, only they all thinks it's some master plan and nobody will be the wiser. The “perfect crime” described in the book summary is far from any definition of that idea that I've ever seen. There was no subtlety, no attempt to make things look like an accident or redirect blame somewhere else. This threw me completely out of immersion.

I did like the setting and the description of how being on the moon impacted their day to day lives, however, unlike The Martian, the detailed science often was superfluous and dragged things down rather than being an integral part of the plot.

With all the plot holes and character issues, I would not recommend this book.

I was really disappointed. I enjoyed Old Man's War, but Collapsing Empire just seemed juvenile and, frankly, lazy. I had the impression that it was written by a teenager that was snickering behind one hand while he wrote with the other. And when he finished he said “eh, good enough”. I certainly realize that writing well isn't easy, but I expected more from Scalzi. Perhaps my response was exaggerated because I started Collapsing Empire immediately after finishing the Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch. The quality of the writing couldn't be more different and the effective (and profuse) use of profanity in each made a stark contrast as well.

Seemed more like a collection of loose ideas than actual stories. Very little in the way of plot.

The characters were far too similar and lacking in personality while the writing was so dry that it was impossible for me to get into the story.

Not as good as the second book, but better than the first. No real significant thought provoking ideas in this book, unlike the previous two. Catherine, the main character, was a strange mixture of compelling one moment and just plain odd and two dimensional the next.

I really liked this book. Well, everything except the very abrupt ending. It kept me engaged and interested all the way through.

Very interesting, much better than the previous book. No glaring plot holes and the writing was much better in general. An insightful view of how AI could evolve without human direction and establish ethics and guidelines with other AIs and humans to mutual benefit.

This story really stuck with me and I still recall it many years later while most have completely left my memory.