Tres interesant, oui, mais aussi tres agacant. Troisieme personne mais assez distant et le scenario pas terrible. Berk.
Interesting yes but very annoying. Third person but not very close. Just an irritating plot. ( )

Կարդալ` խորհուրդ եմ տալիս, բայց որ յոթերորդ երկնքում կլինեք, չեմ խոստանում :D

(եթե հնարավոր լիներ 3-ի փոխարեն 3,5 գնահատել, կանեի դա) ( )

Having previously read and mostly disliked the Fourmis series, I wasn't expecting much from this.
I bought it in a hurry at a train station bookstore and was already halfway through it by the time my train set into motion.
It surpassed my (low) expectations, but not by much. I liked the premise, which Werber had hinted at several times in his previous books (humans abducted by aliens as specimens of their species and put in a glass box to be observed), and there were a few times when I thought the dialogue would take a genuinely interesting turn.
And then it fell just short.

Of course, a book I had the time to read three times on a three hour train trip on which I also slept can't be expected to explore its subject very deeply, but I felt like it didn't even try.

Werber just lightly juggles with the too many subjects that could have, individually, made this a genuinely thought provoking book, and eventually chooses to focus on a rushed romance between the two cardboard characters.

This is my other complaint: the dialogue, and dialogue is very important here as the book is written in a not-quite-screenplay form, constantly feels forced and unnatural, something I'd also noticed in Werber's previous books.
While the scientist character could, I guess, be expected to speak somewhat rigidly, the tiger tamer, who is supposed to make a bold contrast with him, uses painfully correct, starched grammar punctuated with awkward slang and childish swear words that made me picture the author blushing as he typed them.
At no point in the book was I able to forget that those two characters were just Werber speaking through paper dolls.

I can't say I hated this book, and I still liked it better than Les Fourmis, but I gave it away as soon as I got off my train (having already read it three times anyway - I suspect I became more critical with each reading). ( )

bon, c'est plat, attendu, sans style, et un tout petit peu suffisant... ( )