Sheltered all her life in a corporate satellite in Earth's outer orbit, Jamisia must face the truth about her origins and her role in the power str...
read full description
reviews
Aug 07, 2010
Jon
rated it: 
2.5-3 stars
I guessed the criminal master mind behind this mystery cloaked as science fiction (more speculative fiction than science) within the first one hundred pages. The other 450 pages seemed to be a wild goose chase through inner and outer nets, space stations, nodes and multiverse rifts. Little or no character development left me cold and completely disconnected with the cast. In more than one case, a character was created and destroyed within a single chapter, never to appe More...
I guessed the criminal master mind behind this mystery cloaked as science fiction (more speculative fiction than science) within the first one hundred pages. The other 450 pages seemed to be a wild goose chase through inner and outer nets, space stations, nodes and multiverse rifts. Little or no character development left me cold and completely disconnected with the cast. In more than one case, a character was created and destroyed within a single chapter, never to appe More...
3 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Dec 27, 2011
ambyr
rated it:
I loved, loved this book as a teen. As an adult I'm a bit more critical--the science is flawed in a lot of places, and it could have used an editor's attention to the numbers given for times, distances, and populations, which frequently change by an order of magnitude from scene to scene--but you know what? It's still a fun book. And sometimes, what I really want isn't something shocking or deep or gorgeously written, but just reasonably paced adventuring fun. This has that in spades. Add some c
More...
2 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
S.A.
rated it: 
I hadn't realized I'd read anything by Friedman before, until I glanced inside the cover and saw Black Sun Rising. This led me to anticipate a good read, an expectation that was not disappointed. The science is explained in layman's terms, including the computer hacking that is central to the book's plot of a major virus infecting (and killing) the Guild Pilots who provide the only means of transport between the far flung human worlds and space stations. While I was not all that fond of the lead
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jun 04, 2010
Ron
rated it: 
Good story, well-written. Uneven pace: parts dragged.
Frankly, the ending felt like a cheat. We are only told, not shown, what happened to the protagonist.
An odd note: Friedman uses Christian expletives throughout, but there's not other indication that any form of Christianity exists in these far future cultures.
Frankly, the ending felt like a cheat. We are only told, not shown, what happened to the protagonist.
An odd note: Friedman uses Christian expletives throughout, but there's not other indication that any form of Christianity exists in these far future cultures.
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Dec 14, 2010
Legsoffury
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Apr 22, 2010
Km249
rated it:
Long, long ago... Earth humans discovered a way to do a kind of warp travel to travel quickly to far reaches of the universe to colonize human-friendly planets. Unfortunately, no one had realized that traveling in this manner caused all sorts of DNA mutations in the people who traveled in this manner. Earth humans freaked out and this manner of travel was abandoned. People transported to these worlds were left to fend for themselves. This abandonment caused the mutant descendants of these abando
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 13, 2009
Chuck
rated it:
Transcendently good, pardigm shifting, mind blowing SF. Can't say enough good things about this book--I haven't read an SF book that made me think this much since I first read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (ultimate high praise coming from me).
The novel deals with the cost to humans of interstellar travel, of, quite literally, what it means to be "human." In Friedman's world, the first "wave" of Faster Than Light (FTL) was accomplished by the Hausman drive, which More...
The novel deals with the cost to humans of interstellar travel, of, quite literally, what it means to be "human." In Friedman's world, the first "wave" of Faster Than Light (FTL) was accomplished by the Hausman drive, which More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Feb 20, 2011
Artur
rated it: 
Durante esta leitura passei o tempo a pensar "onde é que já li isto?". Uma mistura de space opera com cyberpunk, This Alien Shore é uma espécie de conto policial onde hackers e corporações perseguem vírus misteriosos e uma rapariga com um sério caso de múltiplas personalidades cuja existência é um perigo para a organização que detém o monopólio das viagens hiperespaciais, num fundo onde a humanidade se espalhou pelas estrelas mas a Terra é xenófoba em relação aos colonos geneticamente
More...
Jan 11, 2011
Tom X.
rated it:
While This Alien Shore has some compelling ideas — particularly the Gueran society of what would today be called "neurodiverse" individuals — the author gets the flavor of computer technology completely wrong. She seems to be heavily influenced by traditional cyberpunk, and throws around ridiculous conceptions of programmers and code. She even gets her science dead-wrong here and there, e.g., claiming that evolution is "random". (Mutations might be random, but evolution it
More...
Aug 21, 2008
Erinn
rated it:
I absolutely love this book. I've read it several times and convinced several other people to read it too. In each case they really liked it too. I wasn't a huge fan of this author's previous books, so it was surprising to me how much I got into this book.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Mar 21, 2010
Christine
rated it:
A great SciFi book!!! When an overcrowded earth sends humans off to distant worlds, they eventually find that the spaceships drive causes DNA mutations in the people aboard; they immediately abandon all space travel effectively marooning those who have already left. This book is set at a distant time well after this happens when trravel between habitats is via the annique (some sort of rapid transit which runs like a vein through space) on ships piloted by members of The Guild who are the only
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Mar 16, 2010
Leighann
rated it:
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. The setting, full of aliens who, when it comes down to it, are not really alien at all, was fascinating, though it was . The technology was intriguing, even if bioware-type brain-computer interfaces are hardly a unique idea. I found the use of the technology, particularly the more day-to-day examples of it, was well handled. Not overly complex, but enough to make it feel like a real part of the setting. And the mystery-parts of the story, both the mystery of the L
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 17, 2011
Matthew
rated it:
This book was very annoying.
Not in any sense that the story was terrible or the writing atrocious; both of those were reasonably good. This book was annoying because it refused to admit that it was actually two.
For the entire novel there are two story-lines that run congruently to each other. Both seem connected in a overall sense, and as the story climbs to its conclusion you begin to feel that they are going to come together in an interesting climax.
Then reality hits you like More...
Not in any sense that the story was terrible or the writing atrocious; both of those were reasonably good. This book was annoying because it refused to admit that it was actually two.
For the entire novel there are two story-lines that run congruently to each other. Both seem connected in a overall sense, and as the story climbs to its conclusion you begin to feel that they are going to come together in an interesting climax.
Then reality hits you like More...
Sep 16, 2010
Sbuchler
rated it:
Genre: Science Fiction
This was one of the best novels I’ve read all year. The history of the future depicted is that humans discovered faster-than-light travel and started colonizing the stars. Unfortunately well after colonization was underway they discovered a flaw in the drive that allows the travel; the children of all who travel that way are mutated. Each trip resulted in a different set of mutations – essentially it causes speciesization. Earth immediately abandons all its colo More...
This was one of the best novels I’ve read all year. The history of the future depicted is that humans discovered faster-than-light travel and started colonizing the stars. Unfortunately well after colonization was underway they discovered a flaw in the drive that allows the travel; the children of all who travel that way are mutated. Each trip resulted in a different set of mutations – essentially it causes speciesization. Earth immediately abandons all its colo More...
Jan 12, 2008
Donna
rated it:
I've said this many, many times this year, and I'm gonna say it again. This
book was great, but just far too long! I was thoroughly enjoying until the
halfway point when the storyline just began to drag on and on and on. I was
really glad when it was done. A sci-fi novel set in the distant future,
when human brains have computers implanted in them at birth, you no longer
read a monitor because you can connect to the net just by deciding to and
the info is fed direct More...
book was great, but just far too long! I was thoroughly enjoying until the
halfway point when the storyline just began to drag on and on and on. I was
really glad when it was done. A sci-fi novel set in the distant future,
when human brains have computers implanted in them at birth, you no longer
read a monitor because you can connect to the net just by deciding to and
the info is fed direct More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Mar 13, 2010
Sandra aka Sleo
rated it:
I finally finished it. It was frustrating, complex, and ultimately emotionally unsatisfying. All the unanswered questions did get answered. I had a hard time figuring out who the protagonist/protagonists were. Masada was the most sympathetic. Jamisia was too unstable and flighty and the computerized brain business too hard to wrap my mind around completely. The whole concept of the ainniq was bizarre and unreal to me; and depersonalized. I guess that's probably the best word for the whole
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Mar 31, 2009
Bobbie
rated it:
I would never have chosen this book for me... fortunately, Andrea did.
From the cover I dismissed it as SciFluff, which it is not. Extremely well written and multilayered, I read it in a night. It starts in the future and ends there -- and like any of our alternative universe futures it is chock full of what we think would be nifty today but will, I am certain, be hopelessly antiquated by the time we actually get there.
From the cover I dismissed it as SciFluff, which it is not. Extremely well written and multilayered, I read it in a night. It starts in the future and ends there -- and like any of our alternative universe futures it is chock full of what we think would be nifty today but will, I am certain, be hopelessly antiquated by the time we actually get there.
Jun 02, 2011
Kimberly
rated it:
This is an author who knows how to tell a story. It sweeps you up from the moment you read the very first page and speeds you along until you turn the last page. At which point, if your anything like me, you won't want it to be over. The plot never lags, the characters are three-dimensional, and the emotions are spot on. It even manages to make some poignant observations about humanity. All in all, it's an excellent story.
Sep 18, 2010
Renee
rated it:
This book was simply wonderful... in it, a young girl who has been the subject of an experiment is allowed to escape and ends up on the run, leaving Earth for the outworlds. It was very compelling and gripping, with fast-paced action, and I got very emotionally caught up in the story. Very difficult to put down! Many of the concepts were fascinating, and I liked the theme of acceptance of neurological differences.
May 03, 2010
Laura
rated it:
It's so fun to read science fiction again. I loved this book - great characters, complex plots, and a lot of explorations into human nature - both as it is now and as it might be extrapolated into a future where certain genetic mutations evolved into whole cultures. I'll go read more of her books now - hadn't heard of her before but she is quite prolific!
May 18, 2010
Anna
rated it:
For the first 100+ pages, I debated giving up on this book. It started slow, with too much jumping around between different characters. But the world was vividly imagined, a fascinating look at a future where mutations resembling mental illnesses were both a boon and a bane. Then it sped up and turned out interesting. Worth a read.
Aug 02, 2011
Slee
rated it:
I found this book disturbing, but in a good way. As I see our world more and more becoming like the world in the Friedman's book, I am ever reminded of it. Rife with complex themes of identity, classism, racism, and the myth of corporate morality, This Alien Shore is both a good read and a thought provoking read.
Jan 03, 2012
Pol
rated it:
It was good, I liked the universe. There was some disbelief that I had to manually suspend (for example, artificial-gravity pseudo-tech is too slippery a slope for me, once you can do that, basically all bets are off. Also: it's easy to spin things, so just do that!). Additionally, the author is clearly not a programmer, so the coding metaphors were a bit thin. Still, the story was good enough for that to not be too big a deal.
Jul 28, 2008
Jay
rated it:
A most excellent book about a young girl who is coming to age while on the run from people who destroy her home. She is thrust into a wide almost unlimited universe populated by human variants, which while they are technically human, can be anything but human in appearance and demeanor. The book also follows the exploits of a hacker and computer programmer who are trying to figure out the reasons for a deadly computer virus which has infected systems all over, effectively causing panic in the
More...
Apr 07, 2009
David
rated it:
This was a fun read. The plot pulls you in and I sped through this in about 12 days (faster than I would normally read a book this long but I couldn't put it down). I really enjoyed the themes that dealt with the value of diversity and the inherent worth of people who live with mental illness. If you enjoy science fiction, you won't go wrong with this one.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 13, 2009
Paul
rated it:
Ah, alien politics. Industrial espionage. A functioning galactic society that doesn't like Earth very much, and with good reason. Fun stuff.
A good story, pretty snappily paced without seeming rushed, and science fiction that's not overly science-y. Also, unlike this review, featuring complete sentences.
A good story, pretty snappily paced without seeming rushed, and science fiction that's not overly science-y. Also, unlike this review, featuring complete sentences.
May 02, 2010
Emily
rated it:
The story is a little...silly, but the world itself is amazing in so many ways. I want to be able to think of a glyph and have my current thoughts automatically saved for me.
I've read this at least three times, and regularly recommend to friends.
I've read this at least three times, and regularly recommend to friends.
Sep 02, 2011
Crydwyn
rated it:
I read this book years ago, just after it had been released. I leant it to my brother and shortly after he finished it it went missing. Even 10 years down the line I still remember it as a book with striking originality. Fortunately for me I just discovered it in a box in the attic and it has gone straight onto my must read list!
Feb 10, 2009
Beth666ann
rated it:
Good space opera of the late 1990s, very influenced by the cult of the hacker. Takes an interesting look at mental illness as otherness. Good characterizations. I really enjoyed it; wish the au had done more in this universe.
Nov 26, 2008
Rachel
rated it:
Another of my favorite books. Very futuristic and some great underlying social commentary on conformity and tolerance. If you don't go for the deep stuff, you can just ignore it and still read a good story.
