Reviews and Comments

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Will Sargent

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Joined 2 years ago

I like books.

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reviewed Incandescence by Greg Egan

Greg Egan: Incandescence (Hardcover, Night Shade Books) 2 stars

"The Amalgam spans the nearly entire galaxy, and is composed of innumerable beings from a …

Review of 'Incandescence' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

Normally I like Egan. He stretches the brain.

Not in this case, sadly. Working through engineering problems and deriving physics is interesting about 10 pages, but it's clear that the gravity and orbital mechanics were more interesting to Egan than the actual plot. Once you take it out, there's not much left to the story.

UPDATE: I literally forgot that I read this book. It took 30 pages in to remember that I'd read it before.

reviewed Replay by Ken Grimwood

Ken Grimwood: Replay (1998, Quill) 3 stars

Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn't know he was a replayer until he died and woke up …

Review of 'Replay' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

It's workable, but uninspired. Part of the problem is how undistinguished the two main characters are -- after living the same lives over and over, they should be incredibly savvy and experienced individuals. They should know themselves inside and out. But they don't. In many ways, they know even less each time around.

If the writer had taken the premise further, this could have been an amazing book. But he doesn't even take it as far as Groundhog Day does.