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This book is the topic of our Virtual Book Club, meeting on the 23 of July! Find more details here.

A few questions for the forum aspect of the book club to get us started:

1. What did you think of scifi elements?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. How did you view the character growth?
4. What worked or didn't for you?


Non-spoiler thread here: First impressions

Finished this today. It was ... more than I expected! A solid 4 stars from me, almost a five. I'm glad I read it.
1. I am not a picky sci-fi reader, so the very little explanation of traversing was fine with me. I am easily satisfied. It if gets too technical, I tend to gloss over it so this was good for me!
2. I really liked Cara. She was so tough and passionate! I liked her sister, and Mr Cross, sort of. Dell was hard to fathom, given Cara's skewed view. Nik Nik et.al. was so horrible, but it seemed like some positive changes came in him and Adam at the end. Implausible as the whole ending was, it still was a feel good ending and I liked that.
3. I liked that Cara was able to grow to see other people for who they were, and move away from pigeon holing everyone. She had some fine people in her corner, and she grew to appreciate them. I loved that Cara was able to find contentment at the end, after all she'd been through, that is quite an achievement.
4. This was a pretty grim book, and so, as I said, I didn't feel the ending quite fit, although I appreciated it. I wouldn't have wanted a grim ending, anyway, although I was prepared for one! I loved the justice of it, and I loved funeral service. The author made some great points about the haves and have-nots, and about war, and what it changes us into. I liked what she said about guns, how they make killing too easy.

I liked the Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination nod. I’m not just imagining it am I?

Rich, poor, violence, revenge, tattoos and Stripes! Surely I’m not just imagining it.

1. What did you think of scifi elements?

I'm fine with the technical details of a SF world being lightly sketched, so that worked for me. I typically expect a book about dimension-hopping to be on the playful side, so my expectations were upended somewhat, but I appreciated the more serious look at that concept, including the whole thing where you have to die on the other world in order to reach the other one in relative safety.

Some elements felt more plot-convenient than convincing, like guns being eliminated, then coming back, but not able to be manufactured; or the pods for human transport and for material goods transport being exclusive of each other.

2. What did you think of the characters?

I think Caralee worked best with characters she had a fraught relationship with, so Nik Nik and Dell were the most interesting to me. Her arc with Dell was a little too romance-y for me, including a scene where they lined up their issues with each other in a big argument and then fell into bed with each other not long after.

I'd have liked to see as much development for Adam as there had been for Nik Nik. As is, he was a fairly straightforward villain who would cause no moral pangs to destroy.

3. How did you view the character growth?

I liked how Caralee went from perceiving herself as a "reacher" to someone who could easily negotiate between the two different worlds she's been exposed to: Wiley and Ash, and use that to create a satisfying, albeit imperfect life for herself.

4. What worked or didn't for you?

The pacing was pretty bad and the writing often felt stiff and disaffecting. I felt it should either have been a novella that ended a hundred pages earlier, or should have been a longer, self-contained novel that developed the other worlds, Earth-zero, and the characters more.

Beth wrote: "1. What did you think of scifi elements?

I'm fine with the technical details of a SF world being lightly sketched, so that worked for me. I typically expect a book about dimension-hopping to be on..."

I agree with everything you wrote, but I still liked the novel a lot!

😆

I'm practically typing this with my eyes closed, because I don't want to accidentally catch spoilers :)

Come buddy read this one with Diane and me. Especially if you're sci-fi team (multiple dimensions prompt).

Tentative start for BR is February 26, but I might dip my toe in it tonight.

Hi Olga,
I'll try to join you. I started it a couple of months ago but didn't get far before I had to return it to the library.
I have it again now and will restarted soon. :)

Juliana wrote: "Hi Olga,
I'll try to join you. I started it a couple of months ago but didn't get far before I had to return it to the library.
I have it again now and will restarted soon. :)"

Great!

I read the first chapter yesterday and (view spoiler)[that moment when she had to check "her" diary to check who Joriah was got me wondering and speculating on how a doppelganger could get to Earth Zero when the original Cara was away (is it possible?) and how original Cara died trying to get back and that's why POV Cara knew which doppelganger died, but it doesn't add up so far. (hide spoiler)]

Hi Olga,

I traveled this weekend and managed to read a lot while on the train.
So I already finished Part One and Part Two.

The first part was a little difficult for me to get into it, only near the end it started grabing my attention. It felt a warming up to the story, getting the mood and some world building.

Part Two was good. (view spoiler)[The encounter between POV Cara and doppelganger Nelline was somewhat expected but I liked the interaction and how they were different versions of the same woman. (hide spoiler)]

In general the book is more grim and brutal then I normaly read, really distopian vibes. But I'm intrigued.

I had a bit of insomnia yesterday and almost finished Part Three.

Some parts are very tough to read, but so far the bad stuff doesn't feel overboard and it all definitely plays into the plot.

I find that I enjoy the multiverse premise very much. And after the events in Part Three I'm very curious to find out how this all unravels.