Leo’s Comments (group member since Mar 08, 2018)

Leo’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

I see. In the end they changed their mind after discussion with constructs Aaor and Jodahs. Earth will still exist as a planet with life on it. That is a nice turn. I'll put my gun down then - but I'm still angry. Although they heal people, and the constructs even do that without asking favours in return, they still use people for their own benefit. And those people are at least initially drugged with chemicals to change their anger into affection: "Once: pheromones." "At first: no doubt. By now, he loves you." I still find that disturbing. It reminds me of A Momentary Taste of Being by James Tiptree.

Kathi wrote: ".....interrupted that and offered an alternative to extinction for both the humans and the planet itself ...."
I did not think so. People who did not cooperate would be extinct because they were modified and could not have children. Oankali would demolish the planet and everything on it would die (I still haven't finished the book to see if they did...). They could have chosen to leave the people and the planet and use just a part of it - but they did not. So the only people to survive are those that are used for reproduction of the race of the Oankali. I think that's scavenging or at least very selfish. It was only one person who came with the idea to make a refuge on mars, and there was not much enthousiasm for that idea with the Oankali as I remember.

Hi all. I jumped into this trilogy a bit late but now I'm finishing the last pages of it. It also made me look up some more info about Octavia Butler. She was special. As are these books. And disturbing too. I agree with Chris and think Stockholm syndrome is a good way to discribe a lot of what we see, although here it's chemicals more than psychology that is responsible for the hostages behaviour. I see the Oankali as real scavengers, taking advantage of the weak elements in the human race. And in the end tearing apart the whole planet for their own benefit. I would definitely be found in one of the resister villages, cursing the aliens ;-). I think the writer does a very good job here in discribing Lilith, torn between pros and cons but unable to make a free decision.

For me too it's better than The Human Division, which I found too scattered. The brain-in-a-box controlling a space ship reminded me very much of the Bobiverse We Are Legion (We Are Bob). I checked, Scalzi's book came first.

To be honest this felt as a waste of time. I liked #3 a lot, but for 90% of the time it was like reading the same story again. Allthough author explains in the afterword he was very pleased with the result, imo the new pov did by far not add enough to the story.

Hi all, I liked this group planning to read the whole series so I kind of picked it up. Read #1 Old man's war a while ago and was impressed with the original story. Last month finished #2 Ghost Brigades and although it read very pleasantly, it lacked the originality of the first book. Guess now I'm used to stories happening in the setting that was already created in #1, because I really liked Last Colony better.
They're all fast readings, Scalzi tells a lot in conversations instead of descriptions, this keeps up the pace.

I finished the first book and nearly the second one. In my (translated) part 1, the editor added The Last Castle, which I liked a lot. Seems it is not a part of the series though.