Pure Edutainment

Extremely interesting premise and characters, surprisingly educational in parts and well executed. Would definitely recommend.

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Up and down

Thought the narration was good. Can be difficult to differentiate lots of characters but this was ok. Felt the America-centric themes were tongue in cheek but it became nauseatingly overplayed. Far too heavy handed and a more subtle approach would have been just as powerful. no need to be so obvious when we are all aware. Too many disposable female character for me, especially early on. Got through it but can’t say I’ll be looking for a follow up or anything else by the same author.

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could be 75% shorter without losing anything

the over all story was great, but pacing was painfully slow. you could cut 3 /4ths of the book, lose nothing and have an interesting and thought provoking read. I wish there was an abridged version. this production was very well read, but the translation was a little sloppy.

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Disaster movie stuff

The science is informative and thought provoking, as is the overall philosophy, but you know where it is going from the outset and there are few surprises along the way. For such an epic work it is largely unrewarding. I was, however, hugely impressed with the narrative skills of George Weightman and will look out for anything else with which he is involved.

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Very good

A masterful story, brilliantly narrated.
I read it in the German originally but my German wasn’t quite up to the task of sustaining it to the end. My bad. The translation is excellent.

It’s a story you have to think into. It starts sooooo slowly that’s it’s almost painful. Schaetzing gives way too much time to developing the micro plots in the first section. But, like any grand steam engine, it takes its time to get going. When it does, the momentum is enthralling and the micro plots then all make sense, quite movingly in some cases. As I said, masterful. And a wonderful job. Having done the whole 30 something hours, I’m going to do it again. Because it’s worth it.

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3 people found this helpful

Really interesting story

Very nicely weaved together, interesting sub plots and overall very much enjoyed it. Would read other books from this author if available in English

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A good story struggling to get out

This was a bit of a slogg to get through. there is an entertaining story buried deep in this book, but it's nearly lost in all the padding. overwritten and often repetitive I was begging please just come to the point through a lot of it. this could easily have been half the length. the narrator on the other hand was excellent, there are a lot of characters in this story and was never lost on who was speaking.

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Excellent book,

fascinating story, brilliantly read, thought provoking concepts definitely worth a credit and your time

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3 people found this helpful

very nearly almost brilliant

i would say the story is great upto the last couple of chapters upto part 5 and epilogue... seemed a big rush to finish after a huge buildup and then its over and were talking about humanaties struggle with God in many forms of religion throughout the universe.
i heard there making a film of the book so lets hope they dont use as many scene references to the Abyss as this book does.

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Delightfully different

A bit drawn out maybe, but I truly enjoyed listening to this book. I had to keep reminding myself that I'm listening to fiction - it is fiction, right...? Quite scary, especially the realistic bits.

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