Russ

Not nearly as good as the first one. I hope the next is better.

Banks is back with another great Culture book. It cover's all the fun stuff I like about the Culture books: intelligent warships with funny names, Avatar/AI (although I think they take issue with being called artificial) and their relationships with humans, aliens not liking how “arrogant” the Culture is.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. And, like most of his other Culture books, it left me wanting to read more about this universe and it's inhabitants.

Reminded me a lot of Hellboy. But, nowhere near as fun. It has some potential, so I will probably give the series another chance.

It slowly moved the plot forward. And, not much else. Maybe introduced us to a new character who will reappear later. Maybe not. Why am I still reading these book?

I enjoy books about technological / societal singularities. Stross has written a number of them himself. This particular one is a mess of unoriginal ideas, poorly constructed characters that I just couldn't care about and jargon that adds little to the overall story.

In a nutshell, it tries too hard and doesn't bring anything original. I was never pulled in to the story and found myself just “trying to get through it”

Mind numbingly dull. I like Zombies. I can tolerate Austin. The mix of the two came together like milk and lemon juice. I tried to like this. I really did.

A good follow up to Singularity Sky. A basic thriller set in a sci-fi backdrop. It is probably a bit more accessible to the general public than SS was. It left me wanting more Eschaton (Herman), Martin Springfield, and Rachel Mansour. The rest of the characters are pretty forgettable.

Blech... Based on the hype I thought this book would be, if not awesome, then at least interesting. I was so wrong.

As someone who enjoys sci-fi from Adams to Vinge, I keep an open mind for every authors unique narrative and plot. This book had neither. It spent so much time with gobbledy gook fake techno babble, that it forgot to make any plot points or my capture interest.

Sorry Charlie, maybe next time.