Jak
I generally like Scalzi's stuff, but this one felt a little weak. It's a fun concept but I was disappointed he didn't explore more of the physics side of it, only having certain characters exposit minor details occasionally. The story's really more concerned with how society as a whole responds to such an inexplicable event, but the way Scalzi chose to portray that was by constantly shifting around between the perspectives of a huge, disparate cast of lightly-drawn characters. A few of them are returned to, but it felt like most of the chapters were one-off's, giving the book this oddly disconnected feel, with most of the story being conveyed by unrelated vignettes (e.g. "here's how this random college student is emotionally dealing with this situation...and now, here's how this this random Hollywood executive is dealing with the situation...and now, here's how..." etc etc). The ending felt pretty weak, with a major (potentially apocalyptic) problem being introduced and then abruptly resolved without any explanation. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this one unless you're a Scalzi superfan or are just looking for some mindless, fun, "what if" style romp.
I generally like Scalzi's stuff, but this one felt a little weak. It's a fun concept but I was disappointed he didn't explore more of the physics side of it, only having certain characters exposit minor details occasionally. The story's really more concerned with how society as a whole responds to such an inexplicable event, but the way Scalzi chose to portray that was by constantly shifting around between the perspectives of a huge, disparate cast of lightly-drawn characters. A few of them are returned to, but it felt like most of the chapters were one-off's, giving the book this oddly disconnected feel, with most of the story being conveyed by unrelated vignettes (e.g. "here's how this random college student is emotionally dealing with this situation...and now, here's how this this random Hollywood executive is dealing with the situation...and now, here's how..." etc etc). The ending felt pretty weak, with a major (potentially apocalyptic) problem being introduced and then abruptly resolved without any explanation. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this one unless you're a Scalzi superfan or are just looking for some mindless, fun, "what if" style romp.