final days

Some interesting ideas, although the underlying scientific theory felt a little dated, more 1970s than 2010s. The technological ideas & invention were great fun, though.

I didn’t like the manipulation of the readers’ opinions of the characters towards the end of the book. I’d have much preferred it if Gibson had left it up to the reader to decide whom they rooted for. He’d done alright in a number of places: for example, before the klutz, he’d left some important minor characters fate unsaid as they overlooked their particular cliff, which was satisfying.

I get the feeling two people wrote this book. The great majority was written by the first chap, who wrote an open flowing thriller with a good exploration of ideas and a fairly sophisticated development of not uninteresting characters. Then came the klutz with the sledgehammer and the ten minute deadline to wrap the plot up ASAP. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but not nearly enough of one. I could go back through the book to play spot the join, but I’m not going to do so.