Title: a 10-page essay straining to fill a 500-page novel
Product review: Whether or not you find the premise intriguing, this book is an unmitigated disaster when judged as an actual story. There are no antagonists worth mentioning, no real conflict, no satisfying explanations of the speculative technology, and NO PLOT. By the time I had reached the 300th page I was thinking, "ok, I get it already. Do I really need to read to the end? No." (I did anyway in the hopes of some surprise or twist at the end, of which there of course was none, or none worth mentioning at least.) Why these two gentlemen decided to force a truly lifeless novel out of a small essay's worth of ideas is beyond me. I have enjoyed Mr. Clarke's work in the past, but I was actually quite angry after wasting my time wading through this limp polemic.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
