by Mary Doria RussellI guess I knew this was a first in a planned series but I'd forgotten. About seven-eights through, I looked at the number of remaining pages and swore at the authors, "If you've taken me this far to leave on a cliff-hanger, by dang it! I'll...." Thankfully, not having to carry through on my threat, I finished and was able to breathe again. (I'd been on oxygen deprivation for a while.)
Other than that all I'll say is that it's good science fiction, maybe even great. Read it.
She and I don't agree on the degree to which you can pervert the concept of convergent evolution into the architectural construct of "form follows function." It almost killed the book for me, but then I got hold of myself and gave her the artistic license to design her own alien species as she pleased. I personally think that if we ever encountered alien life we wouldn't even recognize it as life. Why carbon-based--why not silicon? Or some totally different chemical combination we never considered? Why bipedal? Why two-eyed and not four or eight? Humans are sometimes very stupid in their lack of imagination. The hive aliens of Ender's Game were much cooler.
But I'm being silly. And the rest of the science in her fiction is totally believable. Like all truly great science fiction, this is a book about real people--emotions, fear, life, the universe and just about everything.
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