Review: 3.5 stars. A good effort but..
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 4, 2012
First of all I have to congratulate the author on finishing such a long book. If you are looking for a quick read then look elsewhere. Reaching the end of Koban was an effort but I don't by any means feel like it wasn't worth it. Good new science fiction is hard to come by these days and at times this book definitely fits the description of good science fiction but I have read some of the more negative reviews here and have to agree with their gripes about editing.The writing, for the most part, is good, with few egregious errors. Sure there are some misspelled words but the errors don't necessarily jar you from the story. The plot is engaging and both the protagonists and antagonists are both well fleshed out. The world-building is good and there aren't any serious flaws in the premise. My problem with the book is that the story progresses in what seems like real-time. Every waking second is described in detail for the first half of the book. (The first time the author skipped ahead in time I jumped for joy). The second half, on the other hand, progresses much more fluidly and shows excellent promise. I found it quite ironic that the characters in the story kept cutting the AI of from rambling on in answer to each question while the writer was guilty of the same problem. It is also ironic that this review is taking so long.I will be buying the sequel but I hope Mr Bennett can be a little more brutal with his editing. I enjoy a long book (so I don't have to buy as many) but I would also like the story to progress on a less geological time scale.