Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel 1.5 stars rounded up

[Karin]

This was a disappointing end to an otherwise good trilogy, and I had to work hard to not lower my initial thoughts on rating the second book just now since this one has clouded my feelings about that. I did like the ending more than most of the rest of the book, and so that's one of the reasons this gets two stars instead of one.

I still like the epistolary-style format of this (it's not completely that since there are interviews as well as journal entires.) It didn't lose points due to the fact that it is less exciting--honestly some of the excitement in the second book brought it down a bit for me, but not all of it.

While I don't except deeply developed characters in this sort of scifi, I wasn't at all impressed with how he formulated some of his characters, etc. I got sick and tired of all of the philosophy/politics, etc he put into this (yes, of course it comes up in all of the books and is one of several reasons the first one didn't get five stars, but not the only one.) I didn't care for his world building, either, but I am behind on reviews and have a busy week, so won't be getting into all of the reasons why. Suffice it to say that I am not sure if I'll read more fiction by Neuvel in the future at this point. It's too bad, since I overall I really enjoyed the first book in the series.

[Jen K]

Great review. I was also super disappointed in this as an ending to the trilogy.