Shiva In Steel

This book was all right, but I had a hard time getting in to it at the front of the book. It seemed to pick up about half way through, and then got real exciting. Unfortunately, the end wasn’t what I hoped it would be: Shiva, the berserker that was the subject of the book was left quite unresolved—you don’t know whether it survived or not. Endings left open like that annoy me when you know there isn’t a continuation of the story.

I think I've become a sci fi snob. I expect certain things from a book, even when its deep into a series. This book didn't really fill those expectations.

The concept is one that has been touched on by other big names in the genre. Master builders release machines of destruction to stop their enemy in war then the machines turn on them to destroy all life as they know it. The "twist" with the machines having AI that could ponder things as humans do, though without the emotional baggage, not that big a deal to me. Its what AI should do.

The plot moved as a snail until the last few chapters, but even then the hill was short and rounded. I felt no real climax to the book. It just ended. Too often the author inserted himself into the writing show more which distracted from the otherwise ho hum writing. While the list of characters seemed small, the jumps between the points of view left one dizzy at times as they tryed to figure out who the author refered to as "He" in the beginning of the next segment.

Definitely not a book I'd offer to others. show less

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