William Campbell (10)

The first thing that I want to say about this book is: Read it! Although I didn't give the first book in the series a particularly glowing reference, this book is a great read, and very thought provoking.

But I'll get to that in a moment. For the last book I began with the cover, and I'll start there again. It's a great cover, mainly a wraparound of the world the first part of the book is set on, overlayed with one of the final scenes and an image of the main female character, which ties it show more in nicely to the previous cover (see image above). This time the cover is more representative of the full story, and works really well.

But even if you don't like the cover, This is a great book to read. It's as entertaining as any good book, but unlike many it tackles some of the deep problems and questions of the world today, in a way that is subtle as you read the book, but makes you think when you put it down. If you are looking for a book that makes you think about the world, then this is a great one to read. I don't want to give anything away, but the theological implications are fascinating.

If you aren't looking for such a book, then don't worry, the book is great entertainment even if you ignore the philosophical ideas it presents. The first part in particular is very cleverly written, and great to read, while the second is full of action and humour. Well, on saying that, the whole thing is full of humour.

This is probably the most indescribably good book that I have read, and the only bits I found annoying were the main character's dreams, which seemed to get more and more confusing as the book progressed. But since there are few of these scenes the good far, far outweighs them.

If I were you, I would hunt a copy of this book down until you find one. Of course, I'm not you, and already have a copy, but I would seriously recommend this book to anyone. show less

If I'm honest, I would have to say I wasn't expecting a lot from this book. Not because I doubted the author's talents, but because of where the last book left things. Essentially what had been a story set in the vast expanse of the galaxy has been reduced to the story of someone on a single planet, Earth.

I'm happy to report that actually, Campbell pulls this off really well. I mainly expected the story to be for a large part stand-alone, but it integrates with the previous books quite show more impressively. It's difficult to explain how well it does work without just simply copying the first few chapters, but from the start, it does work well. So, alleviated of my fears, I could allow myself to simply enjoy the book.

And I did enjoy it. Quite a lot. I won't say it's my favourite in the trilogy, I really did like "Apotheosis", but it's close. It is of course, quite different in some ways, as the main character begins as a child. And to be honest, this is when I like him most. Not because of the character himself, although he is a pretty good one, but because of the way Campbell has others react to him. The kid is far too adult for a normal child, and too many times I've read books where the adults just accept that. In this we see how adults find it a bit creepy, and don't really know how to deal with him, which I think is a fantastic touch. For me, it's one of the highlights of the book, because it wasn't needed, but just adds that something.

The second thing I enjoyed about this book that wasn't required was the technical aspects it discusses. For some people this should be taken for a word of warning, although I believe that the average sci-fi reader enjoys this kind of thing to some degree. An example is a discussion about spacetime, and the laws of physics in general which goes into quite a bit of detail, but requires very little prior knowledge or mental skill-sets for understanding the conversation. It's easy to read, without sounding as if it's directed at a child, which often a danger in scientific discussions.

Similarly with Religion. Gods and beliefs are discussed in a similar way. And it's interesting. It's the kind of stuff that makes you think. Perhaps not as much as Apotheosis, in which Religion was a much more major subject, but If you like thought-provoking books then this is for you.

And I could go on. There is lots of things right with this book. The characters are great. The writing is great. The humour is great. Actually, sometimes the Humor is absolutely terrible, but in the best possible way. The bad jokes are the best, in a way.

But if every cloud has a silver lining, then every silver lining has a cloud. Resonance is no different. But it's only a small cloud. And it's that one aspect of the story is quite confusing. Time. It's the only technical aspect I found a bit hard to follow. Even the main character got confused, but he got it in the end. I'm pretty sure I did too, but it took a bit of thought. Basically, it's a similar problem to the time-travel paradox. Similar because there's no ACTUAL time-travel, but there are overlaps. So if you enjoy time-problems, then this would be a great one for you to read. If you don't, then it's not the end of the world, I'd still recommend it.

Overall, I thought that this was a very good trilogy, which while I found it slow to start, was unputdownable from roughly half-way through the first book. I don't expect it to become one of the benchmarks of science-fiction, it contains too many controversial statements about both religion and science for that, but it will be for quite some time one of the standards against which I measure other science fiction books. As I've said throughout this, and previous reviews, If you are a Science-Fiction fan, I would recommend this book to you. show less

It is relatively rare that I stop reading a book. I usually persist out of sheer obstinateness. I couldn't be bothered here.

It took way too long to begin to figure out what was happening with the protagonist -- it was beginning to be evident that people were reincarnated...

I got maybe a quarter of the way through and gave up. Too much thriller, too much coyness in drawing out the awakening, I suppose. Maybe I was expecting more sci-fi. Maybe I just hadn't gotten to the good bit.

The premise show more is: a homeless guy has memory problems and a terrible headache. When he starts remembering who he is, he becomes a problem to the Association. They like to play with their people before they kill them. At a point, it felt like a transparent tribute to the Matrix -- lots of identical people descending on the protagonist to kill him, and then saved at the last moment by a support crew in a ship. To explain that his reality is coming into a new body -- that the body is nothing. OK, cool...

But that's as far as I got. Too much handholding of the confused resurrectee, who apparently is/will be their leader once again. Too much coy spy thriller cheap writing. I don't know how else to describe it. I'm sure much lovemaking will commence, judging from the way the protagonist looks at one of his companions. Again, can't be bothered. show less

Where to begin? The first thing that most people see is the cover, and despite the popular adage it is normally a large part of the decision to buy a book. For a Science Fiction book, this cover has it all: A spaceship, A rather attractive young lady pointing a laser-gun type weapon and plenty of mysterious figures over a metropolis backdrop. Good Stuff. This cover however, meaant that it took me a few pages to realise that the main character was male. Also, I assume that the image refers to show more a scene towards the end of the book, but it's considerably different to what I read there. So brilliant but misleading cover.

Now we can look inside the book. The first two chapters are confusing and quite hard to get through. For me, it took some work. Things change rapidly, confusingly, and since the main character knows nothing, neither do we. I nearly put the book down out of disinterest. My obligation to review the book however, meant that I had to continue.

Fortunately, the Book gets a lot better very quickly. As soon as the main character is rescued it get's more interesting (and funnier). The character's friends have a sort of drunken humour, which can creat an interesting mind effect when reading sober. As for Adam, the protagonist, his observations of the world around him can be highly amusing.

The author is rather good at writing sexual tension, but when emotion starts to be an issue he loses it slightly. This could be because we don't understand the feelings, Adam's returning memory makes feelings apparently come from nowhere, for a character we don't meet until the very end.

In addition, there seems to be no main objective to the plot, which weakens it somewhat, although the ending is a direct suggestion of a sequel (which does exist). I've read other reviews saying that the author tackles the subject of reincarnation well, but I disagree. Not that his ideas on the matter are well written, but that it is truly reincarnation. It's a different sort of process. I would be interested to see where the author takes it next, but for me the sequel is not a priority read.

In all, the book is entertaining and not entirely frivolous, but if you are looking for a strong plot and realistic human characters, you'll need to look elsewhere. show less