Ancestral Night - Elizabeth Bear

Ancestral Night

By Elizabeth Bear

  • Release Date: 2019-03-05
  • Genre: Science Fiction
Score: 4
4
From 181 Ratings
$9.99 On itunes Buy on Amazon

Description

“Outstanding…Amid a space opera resurgence, Bear’s novel sets the bar high.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A space salvager and her partner make the discovery of a lifetime that just might change the universe in this wild, big-ideas space opera from Hugo Award-winning author Elizabeth Bear.

Halmey Dz and her partner Connla Kurucz are salvage operators, living just on the inside of the law...usually. Theirs is the perilous and marginal existence—with barely enough chance of striking it fantastically big—just once—to keep them coming back for more. They pilot their tiny ship into the scars left by unsuccessful White Transitions, searching for the relics of lost human and alien vessels. But when they make a shocking discovery about an alien species that has been long thought dead, it may be the thing that could tip the perilous peace mankind has found into full-out war.

Energetic and electrifying, Ancestral Night is a dazzling space opera, sure to delight fans of Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks, and Peter F. Hamilton—“Bear's ability to create breathtaking variations on ancient themes and make them new and brilliant is, perhaps, unparalleled in the genre” (Library Journal, starred review).

Reviews

  • Tedious.

    1
    By Anton Brecht
    Page after page of repetitive inner babbling. I have read 100’s of science fiction books and usually find something to enjoy about even the most mediocre stories but this was truly one of the worst books I have ever read. I agree with the other reviews, seems like the author turn what would have initially been an uninspired generic plot short story into a magnum opus of mindless drivel. Stay away at all costs.

  • Too much psycho melodrama

    3
    By Jenshadus
    Pages and pages of it. The action was fun to read. But the new words, I had to take a gander at them. Yawn

  • A good overall premise

    2
    By fleetamus1
    This seems like it was planned as a short story with an interesting premise and plot that then somehow became a full novel. Unfortunately, in adding length it became filled with drivel from the main character’s pedantic, juvenile blabbering. I stuck with it to the end and thought “whew, glad that’s finished.”

  • Ancestral Night is d r e a d f u l

    2
    By DHP2
    Of literally thousands of books over 60 years of reading, I have never ever seen one so badly edited as this. It should be one third the length, one fifth the self indulgently complex, and one twentieth as poorly written (meaning actual editing, not talk-into-the-machine written). Flee; save yourself!

  • Unforgettable and Definitive

    5
    By Tethys-Sea
    Elegantly written, conversational and ever unfolding under the radar, Ancestral Night is not your typical “Space Opera”. It’s something else, resplendent and vast. Personally, this one of the most enjoyable SciFi novels in many years.... It respects the readers’ intelligence and isn’t afraid of nuance, subtlety, slow burn beginnings and detailed Sci-Fi-scapes with dashes of great mystery and multi-layered story. It can be so...quiet in one breath and then suddenly all-encompassing and beautiful in others. This is sumptuous world-building, reflective and wholly imaginative, with an undeniable laugh-out-loud sense of humor that surprises, delights and then is just plain unforgettable, reverent to what’s come before. IF you are looking for all-out, testosterone-laden, action (and make no mistake, there’s plenty action) this may NOT be your book. There are very few sledgehammers here. This is a finely wrought SciFi, worthy of the best writers who’ve ever written a definitive book in the genre.

  • Boring

    1
    By Backroad Rider
    Most of the book consists of the the prime character expressing her thoughts and feelings. Sort of stream of conscience. The plot isn’t clear. Hands in place of feet—not a new idea. Psychologists might like this book.

  • Had to stop reading at 25%

    1
    By tc_sting
    Painful to read. A space opera with little action but lots of discussion. And many characters that are supposed to be alien but all act and sound like the main character.

  • I’m really getting old and out of touch

    2
    By rfbuim
    Listening to a conversation between Einstein and hawking, I recognize the words just absolutely no concept of their meaning in this context. Three generations too late for understanding gender fluidity. Way too much “magic” getting in the way of suspended reality physics. Sorry not my cup of coffee.

  • Disappointing and boring

    2
    By Kolsky
    TL,WR ? - A boring novel, written by a talented author. Sad really. Comparing this novel to Banks is frankly insulting. What a disappointment - Bear is generally a clever author. This novel had such potential, yet it quickly degenerated into hundreds of pages of mind numbing, grinding self reflection. It goes on, and on and on. The high points of Ancestral Night are the very rare pieces that actually deal with the plot. The good news is this - the plot is so simple that you’re not missing anything.

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