SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this on the 13th May 2012.

Things have gone seriously to pot on this massive generation ship. For one thing, why is the ship trying to kill its passengers?

Oh boy, yet another Generation Ship novel. Offhand I can think of three: Aldiss' "Non-Stop", Herbert's "Destination: Void" and Harrison's "Captive Universe". OK, that list is a bit dated. But one thing I've learned that never changes is that things always go wrong in the end. It amazes me that people just don't expect that.

Fun to read it but it lacked passion and a sense of purpose, surprise omissions in a Greg Bear book. I got the feeling that Bear scoped out the adventures before deciding why they should be necessary and sort of wrapped the plot around them. Furthermore, having the story start in Hull Zero One and with it rapidly becoming clear that there are only three hulls, sort of implied a progressive denouement.

Hey, and nit-picking here I may be, but: if you were numbering the hulls of a three-hulled generation ship, you'd have numbered them 1, 2 and 3 wouldn't you? Not 01, 02 and 03? You don't stick an extra zero in front just to waste4 space. Think of the painting costs.

So the novel missed its mark. There was something great there but it slumbered through the novel and never awoke. Come on, Mr Bear, give me some more masterpieces!