Not his best

I generally like Reynolds. Like all writers he has his better volumes and then the lesser works, this being one of the latter.

Feels very much like a story meant for publishing in a magazine devoted to stories written by fledling science fiction authors.

I didn't care for tha main character nor of her motivations. She seemed petty and vindictive. The combination of future spaceflight capability and then of having to scribe information on walls like in a medieval monastery was... ...unsurprising.

Seems some Brit authors have a love of combining far future and their historic surroundings and/or their country's historic past.

Hamilton, Banks and Reynolds to name a few. They all revert to this trope every now and then. I find it less than satisfying, though. Seems a bit too easy. Seems like one doesn't feel like science fiction, but fantasy and then they dredge up the regressed culture. And it always, always ends up lookin like ancient Britain.

I kinda expect that people would retain some kind of capability for investointi and creativity and would be able to figure out at least something new. Same goes for SF authors.

Anyway, read and listened better.

Then again to quote Monthy Pyhton "Could be worse. Could be stabbed."

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Not up to his usual standards and the telling is i

AR writes a good story and this was OK - not his best, but it was fine for a short story. Unfortunately, a reasonable story was let down badly by the breathy reader. I like to hear female voices when I am listening to a story more than listening to a man, but SD was so breathy and liked to narrate as if she were commentating on a Reality Program, every sentence laboured out and ending in a downward note. Someone let her know - this is not the right intonation for story telling. She read the odd sentence quite well, so I know she can do it. The producer must have been sleeping during the whole thing. Well back to the story - it was kind of out of date, sort of 1950s in style. It lacked real purpose and sharpness, but in the end - I would not send it back. Lets have some more of your good stuff AR!!!

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2 people found this helpful

boring and hard to finish

struggled to finish it and to many plot holes and to many unanswered questions.

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Not his best work.

I like Reynolds, as my bookshelves attest. He is wide of the mark on this one though. A very 'Meh' storyline. I struggled to finish which has only happened a couple of times before. The narrator was also a bit breathy for me. Heigh ho. It was free. Hope the author is back on form next time.

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Only made it thru by 1.30x

Absolutely terrible way of narrating... I made it thru only because once again the the story/idea from Reynolds was interesting and 1.30x speed hide some of the worst flavours of the narrator's style... sorry to be brutal but will never listen anything narrated by this particular narrator

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2 people found this helpful

More holes in the story than a Swiss cheese

I really like Alistair Reynolds book but this is a shoddy amateurish booklet. The dud that demonstrates his genius perhaps. The narration suits it but I’d blame the producer. I’m sure the narrator could be brilliant.

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Distracting narration

I don’t usually pay attention to reviews that complain about the narration, especially as there’s an obviously misogynistic tendency on many reviews and usually I can get past any slight accent issues or sub par performance and get used to it by the end of the book.

This time no such luck; incredibly irritating- sounds like a voiceover from an advert trying to be unusual just to get your attention!

I persevered but have finished the book now and it was irritating to the very end. Not worth it - save yourself the bother and read it on kindle!

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1 person found this helpful

Meh

A jumble of half ideas topped off with an annoying narrator. At least it was free.

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Maybe OK with a better narrator

Story was so-so but further degraded by what sounds like an "Alexa" doing the narration.
Even the narrator did not seem to "get into" the book.
The story was humourless with un-engaging shallow characters.
It may have been lifted by a better audio performance but not by much.

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Interesting short story

An interesting novel that focuses on some thought provoking elements of forgiveness and justice after a war. Worth a few hours listening

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