Century Rain was my first touch with Mr Reynolds. I guess I'll give him another chance, though I was not convinced this time.

The setting of the book was great: year 1959 on Earth, there had not been the WWII, the German had failed, France and the rest of the Europe had not been invaded and occupied, the technology had not developed much since the thirties. However, something was going on in Paris, France, something strange; on the other thread of the book the 23rd century (my mistake above) Earth is dead, people live in the Near Earth space, divided into Slashers and Threshers who have a very different view on the advanced technology and its use(fulness). These separate times meet, though it is not about time travel---more imaginative than that, I must say.

That is what was fine, and everything derived from here was cool.

But most of what is related to the characters is not that great. They are annoyingly simple and shallow, the dialogue was ridden with way too many smart one-liners and explanatory techno babble, not to mention the 'romance' bit... Shallow characters are not an exceptional problem in this genre (space opera) but the author makes the reader spend so much time with the characters and their relations it becomes a problem here. Had he stuck with what he's good at, this would be a fine book---now it is just ok. But I've heard this is not one of his best. ( )

This book hold some real interesting concepts and ideas but both plot and character development has some holes in them - they are a vehicle only and seemingly of no great interest to the author.

The story takes it's time to take off - about 250 pages in the stage was set and the story could get going, and until then the reader had to trust that the story would be worth the effort - in my edition the volume is 530 pages.

With 30 pages left it it did look promising, but when I closed the covers I was left feeling unsatisfied. A lot of threads left dangling, too much left to the reader to decide, and a deux ex machina resolution to the respective situations around the two main protagonists that really made the plot holes stand out.

There's a need for editorial intervention here; someone who could had guided the author, who - no need denying it - can write, who can conceive a story, but who had needed some help straightening things out, tightening the pace. As is this has the feel of a very promising second draft, and that is not only a shame but a waste. And a hint of how uninterested the current generation of publishers are in books. ( )

This stand-alone novel was pretty entertaining. A mixture of noir and sci-fi —partly because it involves a post-WWII Europe setting—, it delves into the split of humans who support technology without limitations (hybrids and body nanotechnology included) and those who apply it with responsibility. At times it felt a little like reading two different novels in one, and I am not completely convinced that Reynolds managed to fuse them successfully into one plot.
Nonetheless, it was a good read. ( )

This is the first book I've read by this author - he was recommended to me by a colleague and I'm delighted to have 'found' him - I thought the quality of writing, story, and characterization were excellent. This book kept me interested all the way through - my only complaint is the ending (and specifically, I'm talking about the last two paragraphs here). I really didn't like it. ( )

I enjoyed this book, granted it's not as good as Revelation Space. I few things I disliked was that it seemed to drag a little at the end after leaving E2, and then the story was wrapped up a little to quickly for my liking, but it was good to see Reynolds move into another 'universe'.

I enjoyed some of the original elements which generated the plot.

It is refreshing to read some speculative fiction in which the story line doesn't follow the same old patterns.