I'm afraid that I won't be able to review this book as seriously as I originally intended. I wanted to read it as an adventure and a novel of chase, because that's how it felt, but I got sidetracked by alienish and outright aliens being bred in the bowels of the generation ship. I wanted to get waylaid by Tristan, the toolbox, the necromancer, and the fragment of our big bad angel from Dust, but I'm afraid I was distracted.

It could be because the novel was a departure from the excellent setup from the first in the trilogy, and perhaps it is because the main actors from Dust were forced into more cerebral and sendentary roles. Perhaps I wanted a smarter overmind, incorporating the pizazz of the angels from before.

Unfortunately, the novel felt like it was suffering from the same problem as the ship. It was outrunning a supernova, but it had no idea where it wanted to go. I know, it sounds rather damning, but that's my take, and the characters within go and hunt for a reason, or an engineer, to take them by the hand and just go astrogate.

We do get it, by the end, with the help of leviathan, but it felt more like a whimper than a bang. The first novel was much better.

Fortunately, I'm still riding the supernova of the first novel, so I haven't given up on the trilogy. I'll take on Grail right away and pray it picks up again.


In the spirit of full disclosure, I do have to let everyone know that this novel is going to suffer, in my mind, because I devoured a singularly fantastic book during the reading of this one. The problem is simple. I've suddenly had to rearrange my favorite top 3 books of all time to make room for Raphael Carter's Fortunate Fall. This out of print book was a complete unknown to me, but it STILL has an iron grip on my mind and makes me look at EVERYTHING else in a poorer light. It's not fair to the books that come after or, in this case, during, because it's become almost impossible to be objective.

This is also the best reason I can give for continuing on to the third book in good faith. ( )

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, "Dust." I very much liked the juxtaposition of the near-derelict generation ship with the mythology that has grown up around its technologies, and the complex, 'old-fashioned' court hierarchies of the society.
Unfortunately, I didn't feel that "Chill" lived up to the first book's promise. I just wasn't sucked back into the world. The plot kind of meandered, and while there were some interesting ideas and imagery, I didn't feel any tension or driving drama... it was a bit of a slog to get through it. ( )

This is almost a 4 star book - but an ending that seems to easy plus some dense language dropped it down to a 3.5 star rating.

I read the first book years ago - and don't remember much of it - but this book picks up right where the other book left off - and it doesn't stop for a reader to figure out what is happening. Is the first book essential to read? Not really. But, it is hard to figure out each of the characters relationships and a reader gets lost in who is who.

As for the story itself. The writing is tight. The science in this book is so advanced, it feels magical (although it clearly isn't magic). The plot - I actually enjoyed the story up to the end, where the conclusion has "Deus ex Machina" feel to it. The characters were interesting and well created. The ship itself was unique in that it felt like a ship and a world, all at the same time. At times, the language was too dense and required a reader to be paying attention at all times.

Highly recommended. ( )

http://ninecats.org/margaret/blog/2015/02/02/chill-elizabeth-bear ( )

middle of the Jacob's Ladder trilogy, and i like this series a lot. this time round, more quest than action, which doesn't necessarily make for a very exciting narrative (a lot more happened in the first book, a lot more is learned in this one), but there are such fertile ideas playing out, and Bear's getting better at keeping track of her various themes and bringing them all together so dropped stitches don't let the knitting unravel. but hey, big ideas, always a plus, and it's well-written. this series is set on a far future shipworld with a failed mission, in which the principals are immortal but stranded, and the infighting is deadly, with a family of siblings and cousins descended from the founders, messing with alien DNA of various kinds (there's a basilisk, AI, electronic angels, arguably a dragon, along with legendary altered swords, considerable wizardry, armour for space, and suchlike). the basic conceit is basically late Arthurian, with spaced archetypes arising from that in play; and the family setup more than hints of the Chronicles of Amber too. ergo, the quest, the need for purpose, the christian underpinnings of the original migration echoing across the ethics and the mechanics of the quest, the issues of evolution and revolution in unpinned technological advances taking its toll across time in a deadly environment. and all the imagery arising from all this is grand and imaginative - the whole thing would make a great TV series. ( )