What do You think about Marrow (2001)?
Marrow (2000) by Robert Reed.Plenty of potential, very little delivery. I thought I'd try a selection from my local public library's "Books You May Have Missed" section, so I picked up Robert Reed's _Marrow_. The introduction struck me as "old school" science fiction, and sucked me right into the book. The story was captivating at first, but the characters' immortality doesn't seem to benefit the story in any way except to allow them to survive over geological periods of time. While that might seem to be an advantage to science fiction on a "grand scale," it saps the need for urgency on behalf of the characters. _Marrow_ contains occasional profanity related to sexual activity. (Is it just me, or doesn't it seem like the language would change substantially over thousands of years, and that the words used as profanity several millennia from now [or by people who haven't had contact with Earth] WOULDN'T BE 20TH CENTURY SWEAR WORDS?!? --Just wondering.)Not really worth the time and energy invested, so I'll probably add this author to my "Don't Bother Reading" list.(18 Nov 2005)
—Jay Michaels
I'm a sucker for large scale, inventive imaginary SciFi. And Robert Reed thoroughly provides satisfaction for this fetish :)I think he's en par with Iain M Banks, Alistair Reynolds and Larry Niven.His concepts and ideas, physical sizes and timescales are simply eEpic.Marrow is a great space opera with high entertainment value, but at the same time scientifically 'sound' in a sense that the universe is consistent. I wouldn't classify Reed as Hard SciFi writer, but it all makes sense, which makes it even more enjoyable...I would have given this 4 stars if I had emphasised a bit more with the Characters, Reed's writing in parts can feel a little bit clinical, and if, towards the end I wasn't getting a bit bored with the plot dragging on and on. I felt the book could have been a bit shorter and would have been more enjoyable to read...But in any case, for every SciFi lover, this is a must read.And of course, if you like this you need to read the related short stories 'The GreatShip'
—M
Marrow is the kind of huge in scope, imagination stirring, idea driven science fiction I love. This epic tale of an abandoned five billion year old ship of unknown origin and the strange society that evolves over hundreds of millennia once near immortal genetically modified human beings discover it calls to mind Asimov's Foundation series, Baxter's Xeelee Sequence and a touch of Forward's Dragon Egg.Like those other works characterisation takes a back seat to ideas, characters whilst interesting are there primarily to drive plot and embody ideals, but when the size of the imagination that runs through these five hundred pages is so large and the concept so well formed that hardly matters and no amount of praise can do it justice.From the steady paced scene setting, to the planet sized mass hidden within The Ship and the five thousand year quest to escape it undertaken by a few hundred trapped crew members, and the surprising eventual revelation of what the mass and The Ship actually are, Reed thinks BIG; amongst other things he describes hydrogen fuel tanks converted in to living spaces for an alien species, a new race of humans living on the outer hull of The Ship evolved in the harsh radiation of space, a complex and unchanging hierarchical structure and the inevitable flaws in such a system, the birth and death of a religious idea, an evolution of nanotechnology & human connectivity and many more wonder filled passages to flesh out his universe. It's an extraordinary read and a real pleasure journey of discovery and with several sequels written offers many more hours of satisfaction.
—Tfitoby
