Skolia

While I greatly enjoyed “To Sleep in a Sea of Stars”, this story was interesting but I had issues with the characters, mainly I didn't really like any of them.

The mystery on the planet was interesting but nothing really gets discovered and it ends up being sidelined, much of the time, while four pathetic characters make stupid decisions and mostly complain to themselves.

The main character is going through grief, sure, but he seemed unusually stuck in it. Doesn't his company do psych evaluations? He wallows in his grief so much that it eroded the sympathy I might've otherwise felt.

The expedition leader became an extreme zealot; and seemed too much of a military type than an astrophysicist. Yes, the two aren't mutually exclusive but there didn't seem to be any evidence of the astrophysicist.

The chemist ended up a weak willed and incredibly boring character. First physically incapacitated, later completely useless. Why was he even in the story?

Finally, and perhaps the worst case was the geologist, how was this man even assigned to an expedition with such a hostile personality? It's hinted at that he has connections; that might've made his character more interesting. None of his behavior was a surprise; and I hated him from the start.

The ending was also rather abrupt, it could've used an epilogue.


Audiobook
Jennifer Hale's reading was superb; and while I generally don't like sound effects in non-dramatized audiobooks, in this particular case it was very effective.

First time audiobook read, not thrilled with Allyson Johnson so far...

This was a decent trilogy but definitely Peter F. Hamilton “lite”.

A decent sequel to “This Alien Shore” but at the same time it's somewhat disappointing, the novel's scope is much smaller than the first previous book and, while that's not a bad thing in itself, the story takes it's time to get moving.

I can't get much into the plot without spoilers so I won't go over specifics, but there are some interesting ideas and characters - although perhaps not as interesting as those explored in the previous work.

The final act of “This Virtual Night” felt anti-climatic to me and was somewhat abrupt (although somewhat abrupt endings is largely a hallmark of C. S Friedman's storytelling.)

If, for some reason, you're reading this review wondering if it's worth a read, the short answer is ‘yes' but I'd recommend not to expect an epic adventure this time around.

Really enjoyed the audiobook of this classic novel, great reader.

I'm somewhat torn on this, I enjoyed the book but the author seems to be doing a lot of foreshadowing that does not have a payoff. (I apologize for being vague, I'm trying not to give away spoilers).

I'm not sure if he's going to do another book or not, if he does and it explores some of these threads (and some of the ones in A Deepness in the Sky), it could raise my rating for the entire series. If not, and this is the end, then it's good but a little disappointing at the same time.

I enjoyed it a lot although I think it might have used a bit of a trimming down but I could be wrong.

This is my 4th, and probably last, Culture book that I've read.

I can't see why people like this series.

Horrible characterization, no real plot to speak of that isn't riddled with holes and cliches.

Slightly better than Consider Phlebas but not by much. No idea why these are so popular.

Once again, there's a real lack of depth to the material. You could easily cut out about 70% of this book and not lose anything.

The characters are not very interesting and it's hard to have much sympathy for them.

Rather dull space opera (never thought I'd say that), some interesting backstory bits that are, by and large, glossed over with a B-movie action plot.

I tried to read this book on 3 previous occasions and this was the first time I made it past chapter 1.

The big problem with this series is the overall mysteries are interesting and don't get sufficiently explored while most of the books are character development involving, largely, boring characters.

For the 7th Doctor, the producers/story editor came up with a new, expanded, mysterious backstory for the character. Sadly, when the BBC quasi-cancelled the original run much of that material fell by the wayside.

The novel “Lungbarrow” was intended to use that material which I eventually read out of curiousity.

Unfortunately, the framing plot is extremely bad and reads more like a horrible Scooby-Doo/Doctor Who crossover fanfic.

Moreover, the author, tries to be too clever for his own good making for a confusing and dull read.

While the background material was interesting (although vague and non-comittal), everything else in this book underlines, highlights and adds a blink tag to why I usually avoid media tie-ins like the plague.

An “ok” series. There's a number of loose ends making me wonder if a fourth book is in the works.

The TV version is much better.

Big fan of the Commonwealth books but this was just... nothing.

Overall, this is a good exploration science fiction series.

Having said that, some of the series mysterieres are never resolved/explained. I don't know if Sheffield planned to do more with it later or not but if you are a reader that needs all the i's dotted and t's crossed, you may go crazy.

Hilarious book, I recommend the audiobook version in this case.

One of Peter's weaker books unfortunately, it wasn't bad but you could literally cut most of the first third out without affecting anything.

Very bloated book, I usually like Mr. Baxter's work but the plot moves way too slowly with poor characterizations.

NOTE: The audio version has a terrible narrator.