The first 370 pages of this 504 page book were really great. I love the pacing, I loved the setting, I loved the technology of the world, I loved how the esoteric mathematics in Patricia’s (main character) head was being described, I loved a lot about the book.
And then, just as we started learning about the “stoners” (that’s what they’re nicknamed) and their inner politics, the book just decided to send Patricia and her friends on holiday, and then have the story conclude itself. A character we’ve barely of at all heard from just solves the problems and the main characters rush to run away. The main characters had barely anything to do with the events of the story.
It felt like Greg Bear was originally going to write a book that was 600 to 700 pages and his publisher said no, and he had to rush through most of what he’s planned.
And the jarts? They’re the primary antagonsts of the last 100 pages, and they’re only ever mentioned and never shown. I don’t know what they look like, what they’re society is like, not even why they want to attack the stoners. They were completely flat. I was hoping it’d turn out they were a fake story made up by one of the politicians to distract the populace.
This isn’t mentioning the numerous spelling mistakes I found, or the pointless sex.
Lanier initially seems like a very asexual character (and not done badly either), but the book pulled a 180 and then decided to give him 2 girlfriends and say he thought Judith Hoffman was sexy too. Neither of these relationships had good development and also went nowhere.
In fact, he only has sex with Patricia because she’s having trouble with the eosteric maths and she says that sex will make her understand it. They don’t even have mathematically or geometrically described sex, it’s just sex and it opens her mind.
(and btw, my issue with Lanier is not that I read him as ace and then he had sex. Ace people can have sex and still be ace. My issue is that neither of the sexual relationships had weight, and that he went from a very ace character into being highly sexually attracted to the 3 women)
This book really just disintegrated on me. Both figuratively and literally because the plastic front and back covers started peeling off while I was reading. I’ve had this a lot with modern books and it’s the worst.
by syntaxGarden
1 Comment
There’s a prequel and a sequel. I haven’t read them, but maybe the sequel expands on some of these things. Really liked Eon but I read it ages ago and don’t remember much.
>ve had this a lot with modern books
This book came out in the 80s didn’t it?