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Spider Star (2008)

by Mike Brotherton(Favorite Author)

3.14 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0765311259 (ISBN13: 9780765311252)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Tor Books

review 1: I really enjoyed this book. It weaves several fairly unusual (for *Hard* SF) ideas together to make a fun story. Mike seemed to instinctively know how to strike a balance between character development, relationships, plot, and awe-inspiring alien settings.We have:* A Marriage - torn apart, but later* A man who's also a robot octopus.* A friend and lover, only not really because *idiot*!* Ancient technology, because obvious plot device* Floaty home-maker spiders because, not really.* Gorillas are cool* Bigger Gorillas are not cool.* Since when did people become like sexy bears?* Falling hasn't been this much fun since my last jet-pack failed* And who wants tea with vent dwelling critters that hide from squid?It might sound like I'm making light of this book, but really thin... moregs *like* all the above are in this book and there's still room for evolving plots, personalities, terrible and wonderful acts, even an ending of sorts. A good, good read.
review 2: Despite being hard SF with interesting, and realistic, physics, I was unable to enjoy this book. My primary objection was with the characters. I did not like the style of their dialog, and most of their arcs seemed fairly superficial and shallow to me. The major characters each had an obvious character flaw, that was fixed over the course of the story in a simple and unsophisticated way. I did like the science in this book, particularly the dark matter planet (more precisely a planet of WIMPs). It's clear that Brotherton did his homework regarding cosmology and the timescales required for interstellar travel. The good science is what elevates this from a one star review. Read this book only if you don't care much about the characters and want to get some extremely rigorous science with some interesting conjectures. less

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