Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Next up: The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu. A very recent purchase that looked interesting. I hope it wasn't a mistake.
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It wasn't a mistake, but it was also a bit of a disappointment. It's almost brilliant, but the time scales of the aliens mean their motivations are ridiculous.
Spoiler for background of the aliens in the story:
Spoiler:
The aliens are immortal unless deliberately killed, and arrived on the Earth 65 million years ago. They can only survive in the Earthly environment by inhabiting animals. They strive to develop creatures that can build a civilisation that can build what's needed to get them home.
OK, we grant that they found an artificial breeding program impossible, and so had to wait around for an intelligent creature to evolve naturally (us).
We're then suppose to believe that the best they could do for at least 100,000 years was get us to neolithic culture.
And then agriculture and technology start taking off just 10,000 years ago. And now, they're within a few hundred years of us having the technology they need.
But, after 65 million years working together, just 400 years ago, within a millennium of their target, they split into two factions that actually start killing each other, in an argument over whether to spur us on best by warfare or not, the difference in the strategies being at most a few hundred year difference in the achievement of their goals.
It just doesn't add up I could just see it if they arrived 10,000 years ago, and were the cause of agriculture, etc. But 65 million years ago? Chu seems to have no appreciation of deep time.
So only a 3/5, and I don't think I'll bother with the rest.
Next up:
The Black Wolves of Boston by Web Spencer. Looking wonderful already.