Trop semblable à l'éclair

Pas de couverture — Ada Palmer: Trop semblable à l'éclair (Paperback, French language, 2019, Le Bélial')

Livre broché, 672 pages

Langue : French

Publié 8 octobre 2019 par Le Bélial'.

ISBN :: 978-2-84344-958-1

(2 critiques)

Année 2454. Trois siècles après des évènements meurtriers ayant remodelé la société, les concepts d’État-nation et de religion organisée ont disparu. Dix milliards d’êtres humains se répartissent ainsi par affinités, au sein de sept Ruches aux ambitions distinctes. Paix, loisirs, prospérité et abondance définissent ce XXVe siècle radieux aux atours d’utopie. Qui repose toutefois sur un équilibre fragile. Et Mycroft Canner le sait mieux que personne… Coupable de crimes atroces, condamné à une servitude perpétuelle mais confident des puissants, il lui faut enquêter sur le vol d’un document crucial : la liste des dix principaux influenceurs mondiaux, dont la publication annuelle ajuste les rapports de force entre les Ruches. Surtout, Mycroft protège un secret propre à tout ébranler : un garçonnet aux pouvoirs uniques, quasi divins. Or, dans un monde ayant banni l’idée même de Dieu, comment accepter la survenue d’un miracle ?

12 éditions

ilk@bookrastinating.com a publié une critique de Too Like the Lightning par Ada Palmer (Terra Ignota -- Book 1)

Too Like the Lightning

2 étoiles

This is a temporary DNF, and one of my big disappointments of the year. I read to approx. p220, giving up during an extended (and frankly inane) overstuffed dialog sequence.

I like the author. Palmer is intelligent, and passionate about her chosen subjects. I share a stack of the same interests, particularly censorship (she has a couple of great lectures on YouTube about the subject, explaining what censorship regimes really do, how they work, how universally slipshod they are, etc.)

I also like the book's key ideas. My social milieu DOES matter more to me than the country on my birth certificate, and that SHOULD count for something. But I couldn't grok her writing style. It's baroque. Too wordy, too 'mannered'. The framing device she employs is original (a history of events, about which extraneous details are included, like editorial decisions and commentary on people) but I can't help but …

This is a temporary DNF, and one of my big disappointments of the year. I read to approx. p220, giving up during an extended (and frankly inane) overstuffed dialog sequence.

I like the author. Palmer is intelligent, and passionate about her chosen subjects. I share a stack of the same interests, particularly censorship (she has a couple of great lectures on YouTube about the subject, explaining what censorship regimes really do, how they work, how universally slipshod they are, etc.)

I also like the book's key ideas. My social milieu DOES matter more to me than the country on my birth certificate, and that SHOULD count for something. But I couldn't grok her writing style. It's baroque. Too wordy, too 'mannered'. The framing device she employs is original (a history of events, about which extraneous details are included, like editorial decisions and commentary on people) but I can't help but feel it got in the way of the story. Pacing is weird: I read practically half the book and it felt like only a couple of things had happened.

The extensive cast doesn't help things either. Then add in alternate names for certain characters, used in the same paragraph. Then add unconvential punctuation. The book has an obsession with names and titles.

I might pick up the book and the series again later on and discover a favorite. But I know it didn't hold me on the maiden read. A pity.

Flauschbuch a publié une critique de Too Like the Lightning par Ada Palmer (Terra Ignota, #1)

Only half the story

2 étoiles

This book only covers the first part of a two-part story. At the end of it, none of the big mysteries have been solved and several of the characters are in trouble. I wish I had known that before starting it. I probably would not have finished the book. But I kept on reading despite my misgivings (more on that in a second) because I wanted to know who was behind the criminal case at the heart of the story.

The two things that put me off this book (and its sequels) are the gory descriptions of several murders and the way this book in the form of the narrator deals with gender. Very stereotypical views and a ton of misgendering. Not sure what the point of that was.

I'll end with a positive aspect: the worldbuilding is done very well.