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Burning Paradise (2013)

by Robert Charles Wilson(Favorite Author)

3.3 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0765332612 (ISBN13: 9780765332615)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Tor Books

review 1: Wilson writes well and the book held my interest all the way through. I was at first put off by the implausible alternative history premise. The basic idea is that in this 2014 Earth the radio-reflective layer is alive and intelligent; it keeps humans from yet another world war by altering the signals it receives and reflects to manipulate human behavior. The science part of science fiction didn't really apply, but as fiction goes, it was imaginative and mostly entertaining. The book appears to be trying to impart some deep philosophic ideas, or at least pose some significant questions about the meaning of life, intelligence and self-awareness. I found it to be unconvincing in this respect. In the end, it seemed like the author had been given an assignment by his publisher... more to write another sci-fi book and he was just fulfilling his duty. Still, I just pulled this one off the shelf of the library and wasn't expecting an epiphany. I was expecting to be entertained for a few days and it succeeded just fine in that.
review 2: Burning Paradise started out terrific as Robert Charles Wilson alternated suspenseful chapters between multiple characters regarding aliens that resemble humans trying to kill select members of a group aware of alien existence. Each chapter ended with a cliff hanger to get back to their story. The middle part of the book was not so good as Wilson bogs the action down where little happens and by then the characters have become a little one-note. The last third picks back up as the action picks back up as well. Needless to say, Burning Paradise is an up and down affair that is getting the three stars for the first 1/3 of the book which I highly enjoyed. It's a shame Wilson couldn't keep that up for the duration. less

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