Infinite

At the time of my writing this (May 17, 2017), Infinite had nothing but a perfect score, a flawless 5 star rating spread out across something like 11 or 12 reviews that sung the book's praises, often times claiming that it was "Robinson's best novel to date", his deepest and most thought provoking story yet, or simply just "fascinating". While there are a lot of "great" things about Infinite, and it's hard to against the fact that it is a quick read (look at the short amount of time it took me to read it: 2 days in 2 sittings), I'm still struggling to side with everyone and give this one another perfect rating to add to its average.First of all, I'm not just trolling for the sake of being a jerk. I'm a huge Robinson fan and have read almost every novel, novella, short story, and whathaveyou, and would absolutely love for every single one his books to garner 5 stars. The guy is obviously one of the most talented, hard working, and still underrated authors out there, and I think it goes without saying that he needs every ounce of positive publicity, word of moth and over all high marks on hit works.So now that that's been cleared up and I've wasted enough time with a lengthy and wordy intro, let's get into the actual review.Like I said earlier, Infinite is a fun read. It starts out with an interesting premise and keeps up the relative excitement throughout its 380 or so pages. It's written well enough that had any other junior or intermediate author written this, it would easily have been a no-brainer to give it 5 stars. It tackles deep concepts like the meaning of life companionship, our future, and where we are going. It uses (mostly) understandable technobable and future tech in a way that could actually make sense. And, it's got some real emotion sprinkled here and there, just enough to make you have a few minor moments of "the feels".The problem is, however, that having read a multitude of Robinson's other work, I know that he's better than what Infinite would have readers believe. Yes, there is a deepness and relative "realness" we haven't really seen before in any previous offerings, and while the whole space opera/sci-fi premise is somewhat unchartered territory for Robinson so a lot of explosions and high tension moments are replaced with introspection and contemplation (which does have its place, i should add), the whole "feel" of the book just didn't seem to grab me like say The Distance or Apocalypse Machine did. I know that Robinson was writing the majority of Infinite in the midst of a really horrible period of his life and it definitely comes across in many of the passages of the book, but unlike the books I just mentions, I struggled at times to identify with the themes, the settings and the characters of Will, Cap, and the AI of Gal.And there's my other issue with this book. I suppose it's mostly due to the fact that deep down inside I'm not really that big a consumer of the sci-fi genre, so it would make sense that there were times that I failed to fully wrap my head around certain concepts. That's probably why I wasn't the world's biggest fan of Gal, the sentient AI of the ship. The book is fiction and I get that, but I really found her incredible evolution to be totally unbelievable. One second she's a disembodied voice speaking through the ships speakers and within the course of 10 short pages, she's progressed to the point of assembling herself a new sentient intelligence, along with a brand new body that seems ripped from both the plots of The Terminator and Age of Ultron.There's other instances of slight unoriginality or at least super heavy homage: the VR/VCC segments, as well as the idea of simulated lives felt ripped straight from The Matrix. The sentient and all knowing intelligences of Gal and later Wicks were eerily similar to Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The weird human offspring of Keplar were described as a weird mash-up of The Lord of the Rings and something out of Game of Thrones. Hell, even our main protagonist, Will, being left alone in the far depths of interstellar space has already been covered in the recently released film Passengers. Yes, Robinson is a described comic book and media nerd and he's done simliar things in basically every single book of his Nemesis collection, it's just that it's never felt so copied and bluntly unoriginal.In all honesty, this book was looking as if it was going to be awarded a very pedestrian and average 3- star rating, the lowest rating I've given a Robinson novel (not including his Chesspocalypse novellas) since Ragnarok (though that one gets a slight pass since it wasn't entirely all his own book). Thankfully, though, the ending bumped it back up into the respectable 4 star range. Not only did the final pages make sense (as much as science fiction novels about the edges of space and time can makes sense), but it worked and worked well. There's no doubt that it was really the only logical conclusion to this story and I'm glad Robinson never once tried to make it into something entirely crazy or unbelievable, and having the courage to not let his readers feel insulted.I guess when you really get down to the brass tacks of the thing, and overall rating of 4 stars is actually a pretty good one. If you want to go down the arithmetic route, 4 out of 5 stars is 80%, or a B, which is easily a passing grade. So in that case, Infinite is a success, especially taking into consideration the health scare and personal issues Robinson was experiencing while writing it, you can't help but define it as a true "good" read. And look at that cover. The yellow cover, red writing, and somewhat minimalistic approach has got to mark it as one of the best in the entire Robinson collection.Here's to more books from Robinson that move back to the coveted 5-star and "best of" bookshelves and that, like he promised in the afterword, that the next one has "more explosions"

This book was recommended to me (I think by Amazon) after finishing Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary". In a way, that makes perfect sense; both stories involve solitary characters traveling vast distances through space in a last ditch effort to save humanity. But that's where the similarities end. Where PHM focuses on scientific problem-solving, "Infinite" is all about questioning the very creation and structure of the universe, and the catalysts for our distinctly human perception of it.In general, the plot follows the story of William Chanokh, a coder/computer scientist aboard the Galahad, a massive space ship destined for a distant but potentially habitable world. Things have not gone well aboard the Galahad while Will has been in cryo-sleep. The first sights that greet his waking eyes are only a start to the horror that lies before him. Aided only by the Galahad's advanced AI and his own know-how, Will has to salvage the mission - and his own sanity - before it's too late.The above description takes place over only the first pages. It's nearly impossible to describe the story that builds from there, and attempting to do so in any way would be a bit of a spoiler. It's best to be experienced. I will point out that the story can be dark, almost cynical at times, but that can be subjective. It certainly has its fair share of violence.I loved this story for the questions it raises about the nature of humanity, our potential, the universe, and our own fallible perception of it. Infinite is less concerned with the science of things like faster-than-light travel than it is the big-picture implications of time, space, and the fabric of reality. Hard science this is not, although there is a flavor. It's closer to philosophy.It's also a page-turner, well-written and - thankfully - organized into digestible chapters that make for great stopping points. You probably won't want to stop though! I'd recommend this for anyone looking for soft science fiction or thrillers in space with a philosophical bent. I loved this book, and can't wait to read the sequel.

If the story appeals, I recommend you listen to it on Audible. I had a fantastic time listening to the story, and was fully engaged through even the crazy sections. However, my partner (with whom I share the same love for the same sort of books, normally) really did not like it, and pointed out various passages that read quite immaturely. It seems Goodreads agrees with us… most of the positive reviews were from audiobook listeners, And most of the negative reviews were from book readers. And unusual example… I’ve never come across this phenomenon before!

When you read the description you expect not much action and maybe a lot of introspection. But it was much more and never boring. Read it!

Nicely twisted sci-fi-horror-romance right out of Rick and Morty. Raises interesting questions about the nature of reality and love. Do you like Sci fi? Yes? Then you will like this book. Read.

This was a metric tonne of fun! Had an episodic feel (in the best possible way). A true epic adventure!

Jeremy delves into sci-fi and is well suited to the task. A book that really asks what it means to be human when faced with impossible odds. Great read.