For seven years Mikey and I have been exploring a few pledges. We pledged to no longer make decisions based on money, to live from waste and from...
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nrlymrtl, July 27, 2012 (view all comments by nrlymrtl)
This Greg Bear tale is told through the sometimes exhaustion-bleared, and sometimes shocked wide-open, eyes of one dude who is woken up to a very nasty shock. Earth was in desperate straights and put together a very fancy, very large ship to send humanity out to a very, very distant star system. The ship had everything that could possibly be needed for such a long voyage, with every horrible scenario thought about and planned for. So they thought.
This was an odd book. On one hand, keeping the reader as ignorant as the main character really made me feel the dude’s vexation at the whole situation. However, I am not sure I enjoyed being vexed and in the dark for roughly 7 of the 9 hours of the book. Still, I finished it because I wanted answers and the last 2 hours of the book were pretty good because things were coming together and there was this sense of danger and clarity and hope all at the same time. Most of our characters don’t have names until near the end of the book.
Danielle G, April 9, 2011 (view all comments by Danielle G)
Hull Zero Three throws the reader to the wolves along with the main character, 'Teacher,' who awakens with no memory in a hostile environment (a ship in space), attacked repeatedly by monstrous creatures, aided by strange companions who are as dangerous and bewildering as the surroundings, and a creepy sensation that the ship is actively trying to destroy them. And it is clear he has done all of this before, and failed...a lot. It narrated in a stream of conciousness that takes some of the best psychological gambits of Phillip K. Dick and melds them with what Bear excels at: exposing moral and ethical implications of technology and space exploration. I had a hard time putting down this book, and it left me wanting more.
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"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"Multiple Hugo and Nebula winner Bear (City at the End of Time) sets this difficult but rewarding short novel on an interstellar colony ship gone astray. Teacher was supposed to be awakened just before landfall. What he finds when he gains some semblance of consciousness, however, is a dangerous and chaotic environment, with monsters roaming the ship's corridors and no one in charge. As he and a small band of equally ignorant crew members attempt to reach the gigantic ship's control center, they travel through a series of labyrinthine spaces, uncovering a variety of clues to the disaster that has destroyed large parts of the starship and damaged the controlling AIs. Not for those who prefer their space opera simpleminded, this beautifully written tale where nothing is as it seems will please readers with a well-developed sense of wonder. (Dec.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright PWyxz LLC)
"Review"
by Booklist,
"[A] harrowing ride on a labyrinthine starship....One of Bear's most thought-provoking and well-crafted novels to date."
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