Review: Interesting story and characters, but a bit too much trivial detail.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 3, 2013
Threads is an interesting read about the world of 500 years on the future.  The author has a well developed world and society (variety of societies) which have a realistic flavor and feel.  In some places the dialogue is exceptionally well done and the books flows smoothly and is a pleasure to read.  Plot twists are well crafted and some are surprising.  Very interesting aspects of space travel, communications, and other technology issues are woven into the story and often that works very well with the characters and the plot.There are a few downsides that I found troubling.  Not all readers will share my feelings and opinions on these. On occasion, there are just too many trivial details which bog down the reading.  Some of the technology is over explained and feels a bit too much. For me it distracted from the story.  Details of how things work can be important as a supplement to the story, but when overdone they became too much of the focus.  This happened on occasion, not often, but regularly enough to hinder my enjoyment of the book.There are violent scenes which some might find a bit over the top (torture, abuse, ect...)Sexual encounters are described in a bit more detail than I prefer, but no where near fully explicit or inappropriately graphic.  Most times those situations did have reason in the plot.Sprinkled throughout the 500+ pages of Threads were sometimes subtle political commentary about the 21st century.  Perhaps these are there as "inside jokes" but I found them a distraction.  Naming spaceships after 21st century minor political figures, added trivial details on name origins, and various other things like that which were lopsidedly in support of right wing 21st century issues seemed out of place in a world set 500 years in the future.  Had the setting been 2100 that would have fit better than the year 2576.A bravo to the author for giving 10% of the profits from the sale of Threads to ALS funding for research and patient care.Had Threads been slimmed down to its main plot without the excessive trivial details and the "inside political jokes" I would have enjoyed it more, but it is an interesting read with a good main story.