Leviathan Falls: Underwhelming as series finale > Likes and Comments
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I agree with most if not all of your points. It does feel make you feel wanting. At the end, there's some part of me who thinks, oh well, at least it's over. (view spoiler)
The series died a gentle death. It seemed to be heading that general direction for the last few books. At least, that's how I felt.
I listened on Audible & loved it! I gave it 5 stars! I'm curious to see how they'll end the show. The narrator, Jefferson Mays, did an amazing job as usual!
OK, I'm about 2/3rds of the way through, so I have not read any of the spoilers yet. I'm liking it. It was a bit of buildup, and then a whole lot of release at the 1/2 way point. But there is one thing that is annoying the crap out of me. The double negatives. We've had multiple pov charcters internally monologue that they weren't feeling/doing something, but at the same time they were "not, not" doing that as well. My only hope for the multiple use of this bad turn of phrase is it is tied into the plot, and I see a slight chance of that. Otherwise, once was enough, twice it needed to be edited, three times and they need to take a fricking break from writing. If there is a 4th I may seriously consider not reading any more of their books for a long while.
Haaa, it's funny that this is what ticks you off when there is so much more to get annoyed with! Anyhoo, as to word choice, I have always been puzzled by Peter Hamilton's love affair with the word "judder." Because of his egregious overuse of that word I now notice it every time I see it. Same with "jounce" which, actually, I just ran across in Startide Rising. That was only one use of the word, but I've become sensitized to it.
I feel the last three books generally suffered overall from the time jump requiring aging characters to still perform as younger, to new characters we needed to get to know but didn't really care about, to just way too many characters.
Finished, and read the spoilers. I’m not sure why but apparently I’m in a good mood, and I’m seeing the good in things I’m seeing/reading these days. I don’t disagree with John that this series is not wholly original, but at the same time that really didn’t bother me. I’ll also agree with others that this is probably my least favorite of the series, although “Cibola Burn” may take that spot. While they didn’t completely stuff up the ending, they didn’t nail it either. But it ended, and I’m glad for that.
So they did a Harry Potter “19 years later” thing?
Trike wrote: "So they did a Harry Potter “19 years later” thing?"They did a 19 years later thing and then a whole trilogy. The time jump was between books 6 and 7, right after the TV series concluded.
For fans of The Expanse, there’s a new space game out called Nebulous: Fleet Command.https://store.steampowered.com/app/88...
It was a poor finish... Although it was nice to see someone other than Greg Bear or Greg Egan doing a riff on rewriting the laws of physics.
^ Nope, but I have it queued up literally next. It came in off library hold while I was ready Clarke's "Bar Story" collection Tales from the White Hart, which I finished last night.Sins is listed at 77 pages so I'll reply back in a day or two!
Silvana wrote: "Anybody read The Sins of Our Fathers yet?"Just finished it. Felix Nagata is the featured character. A good story, (view spoiler).
I'm doing a full listen of all the novellas & stories in Memory's Legion. On Gods of Risk now. I hadn't read or listened to the 1st 2 & obviously not Sins of Our Fathers either.
Gonna spoiler protect the whole thing here as a courtesy to e-newsletter readers. If you crack it open expect whole-book spoilers.
(view spoiler)[First there's the whole "we did what before?" thing from the authors. The crew of the Rocinante are all getting noticeably old. Except that in book 7 or 8, can't recall which, they are all doing fine courtesy of newly developed rejuvenation treatments. So they are conveniently old because plot. Then the rehashes. Avasarala dies a few books back, only to be replaced by someone much like her. Alex has a convenient new wife and new kid, to replace the one that grew up because the story timeline went too long. Feels like some books were added to the original intention. IIRC it was originally stated to be seven books, then when it was a hit that went to nine. I always want authors to make money, so fine, drag it out. But. BUT! Give a great ending when you finally finish.
Maybe they waited too long. This series owes a debt to Niven's Belter books, which owe a debt to Bester's "The Stars My Destination." I don't judge Bester by Niven's later, higher quality prose, nor Niven by today's standards. But the "other trees of life" bit that predominated later books has been done better, recently, by Adrian Tchaikovsky in The Doors of Eden.
And, the concept of a galactic war so bad that intelligent life had to evolve again. That was great when I first encountered it in World of Ptavvs. So it's the Tnuctip War again. Sure, I'm on board for that, but you've got to do something more than repeat Niven storylines from five decades ago. Heck, I wonder how it is that aliens from other galaxies haven't made it over to see what's going on with our suspicious silence.
TBH I thought this series would have been tight as a trilogy, well fleshed out as five books, and pushing it at seven. Getting to nine required some rehash and replay.
And for what? The final fifty pages could have been tacked on to almost any of the plotlines from book three onwards. Discovery of a Jupiter-sized library crystal and it DOESN'T have the original race hiding out? Nope, it's just a side-take on the Big Dumb Object: Sits there and provides some barely understandable info on the original race, AND NOTHING ELSE. Oh. Great buildup.
Okay, I did enjoy Miller's return and Holden's resolution. But...for what? We didn't even know the nature of the enemy until the final few pages. What actual assurance do we have that Holden "pulling out the splinter" will have the desired effect? If anything, the final book should have been books 7 and 8, with a slow build of the extradimensional alien enemy. I didn't need two books of "the real enemy is man" when the human race is facing annihilation.
And then the silly epilogue. Okay, Amos is basically immortal and helping out Earth a thousand years later. How is it that they are having trouble a millennium later? Earth went from a medieval society to space travel IRL in a thousand years, and if we take the millennium prior in The Expanse, from early Renaissance to colonizing the solar system. It's a silly plot point.
Anyhoo. Not terrible, just not the great sweeping finale an eight-book setup ought to bring. It was okay. I wanted more. (hide spoiler)]