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Jack Potter #2
A Signal Shattered
Cryptographer Jack Potter's business dealings with an alien named Wheeler have resulted in the near-total destruction of humankind, but he has survived on the moon with the remnants and plans to start over again. Reprint.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 29, 2008
Looking for a new author, found this gem in the SciFi section of B&N. After reading the 1st page, was completely hooked. This is the sequel to a previous book titled Signal To Noise. If you are looking for scifi that is completely outside the realm of standard scifi, if you think scifi is just about robots and timetravel and shrinking people, if you think cyberpunk starts and ends with Neil Stephenson, then this book will completely change you perspective on the genre. The character development (which I find not as important as the innovation and the story telling) is there actually. You feel for these people even though they are the Darwinian end of the line of the human race. There is an amount of interpersonal relationships that is needed, but does not cross the line (too bad this could not be said of Attack Of The Clones).
The science in this work of fiction is really the lighthouse in dark waters. The author introduces concepts and takes liberties w/ modern science that no one has taken before. If you thought the Matrix was a groundbreaking movie, then this is its literary equivalent.
The last 50 pages of the book is simply an ending I can reread hundreds of times. It is really unexplainable, but you can follow along with the main concept easy enough. If you want to get bogged down in the details of the science, you can get lost for a long time. So it works on a couple of levels.
After reading this, the 1st book in the series was well worth it as well - just a shade under this one though in terms of re-readability.
The science in this work of fiction is really the lighthouse in dark waters. The author introduces concepts and takes liberties w/ modern science that no one has taken before. If you thought the Matrix was a groundbreaking movie, then this is its literary equivalent.
The last 50 pages of the book is simply an ending I can reread hundreds of times. It is really unexplainable, but you can follow along with the main concept easy enough. If you want to get bogged down in the details of the science, you can get lost for a long time. So it works on a couple of levels.
After reading this, the 1st book in the series was well worth it as well - just a shade under this one though in terms of re-readability.
January 30, 2023
Book Review: I've reread this so many times the pages are falling off. What I loved about Eric Nylund's sequel to "A Signal to Noise," a hard sci-fi cyberpunk, was that it truly stands on its own. The struggle with any sequel is to continue the story in a familiar but completely unique way. Nylund knocks it out of the park with "A Signal Shattered," then knocks it out of the atmosphere [of a decimated Earth], and literally out into the vastness of a cold outer space. If you like a fast-paced, action packed story full of smart science fiction told in a concise yet deliciously descriptive way, then this is the book for you.
🌚🧬👾👨🚀
Subtle Spoiler Alert! (if you havent read the first one): It begins with suspensful mysteries on the Moon, as Jack Potter and the few survivors of the human race struggle to survive, unsure if they can trust anyone (even themselves) as time, supplies, and even their air is running out. Space is a big place, but there's only so far they can run or hide, from themselves...and a universe lurking full of alien civilizations eager to make deals with Jack the master middle man,...and eager to exploit him. He and his ragtag team must either use the pandora's box of technologies they've gained from their business dealings to help them evolve fast, or meet their own extinction. But will evolving change them into the very coldhearted aliens they're trying to survive?
📖
#asignalshattered #sciencefiction #ericnylund #review #sequel #fourstars
🌚🧬👾👨🚀
Subtle Spoiler Alert! (if you havent read the first one): It begins with suspensful mysteries on the Moon, as Jack Potter and the few survivors of the human race struggle to survive, unsure if they can trust anyone (even themselves) as time, supplies, and even their air is running out. Space is a big place, but there's only so far they can run or hide, from themselves...and a universe lurking full of alien civilizations eager to make deals with Jack the master middle man,...and eager to exploit him. He and his ragtag team must either use the pandora's box of technologies they've gained from their business dealings to help them evolve fast, or meet their own extinction. But will evolving change them into the very coldhearted aliens they're trying to survive?
📖
#asignalshattered #sciencefiction #ericnylund #review #sequel #fourstars
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2025
A sequel to Signal to Noise, the action kicks off shortly after the end of the world. From there it’s one long firehose blast of technobabble & action set pieces, none of which make any sense if you take a minute to remember that so far as our protagonists know the entire human population of the universe has been reduced to maybe a couple or three dozen individuals. Which they promptly reduce further by engaging in a bunch of running gunfights. By the time I got to the end I was already struggling to remember what had happened leading up to it.
May 5, 2020
Good book. I’m gonna get straight to it, I can’t believe Reno just left like that! Just wow! Glad that he didn’t strike a deal with Wheeler. Hope Zero gets fixed. I didn’t read the first one so I don’t know we very thing that went on between Zero, Isabel and....wow I can’t even think of the guys name haha. But I’m really curious what zero was like, I got the gif of it what Isabel is like but I only know Zero with the gene witch.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2026
Really enjoyed this series. Both books were two halves of a whole story that fit together pretty coherently. Pacing was slow at times in the both books but especially in this second book. My choice to not try and understand the denser, math-ier/hard science parts helped me chug along. Nylund’s writing is very strong and easily transports the reader into Jack’s world. One of my most fun reads since picking up reading again a couple months ago.
June 25, 2023
Really good, it moves with a rapid pace and is a fairly unique concept in science fiction. The representation of cyber space is handled really well.
The only problem is that the characters don't react well. With all of humanity wiped out, and little to no reason to go on, no one succumbs to despair?
The main character magically solves all his problems at the last minute...
The only problem is that the characters don't react well. With all of humanity wiped out, and little to no reason to go on, no one succumbs to despair?
The main character magically solves all his problems at the last minute...
July 2, 2017
Original and pretty intense.
May 26, 2022
This just doesn't do what the first book did. It's mostly waving a magic wand with no consistency.
Read
July 16, 2024Didn't finish. Got through first section, and it was too plodding and slow.
Not my kind of story, I'm afraid.
Not my kind of story, I'm afraid.
October 29, 2025
Damn impressive. So many ideas stitched together into a wild ride of chaos and concepts, despair and hope. I devoured this book in 24 hours.
October 4, 2012
The Earth is the graveyard of billions, thanks to mathematician and rogue cryptographer Jack Potter and the treacherous extraterrestrial creature known as Wheeler, Jack's one-time business partner in the trade of alien and human technologies. But Potter and a handful of others managed to escape the holocaust thanks to the miracle of teleportation. From the cold gray ruins of the Moon, the last pitiful remnants of the human race now stare down at the devastation that one of their diminished species unwittingly helped to bring about. Here at civilization's end, a beautiful Chinese mind assassin, a cold-blooded cybernetics genius, a DNA-manipulating "gene witch," and Jack himself stand at the threshold of a new day -- when accelerated evolution will open the door to the full achievement of human potential; when the epic saga of humanity will begin again and Jack will ultimately be redeemed...if he doesn't go insane first.
But Wheeler is still out there -- and out to finish what he started. And this universe isn't big enough for Jack Potter to hide himself in.
Altho it was a little "heady" for me, Nylund, nevertheless, took me all over the universe, to all kinds of stars and worlds I had never imagined..., I was enthralled.
But Wheeler is still out there -- and out to finish what he started. And this universe isn't big enough for Jack Potter to hide himself in.
Altho it was a little "heady" for me, Nylund, nevertheless, took me all over the universe, to all kinds of stars and worlds I had never imagined..., I was enthralled.
January 6, 2016
I really enjoyed these two books (Signal to Noise, and A Signal Shattered). They were well written, engaging and explored concepts that were novel and unique. From an author known for writing Halo novels (I think), I likely wouldn't have picked these up if I'd have known that, and I would have missed some truly fantastic writing. Great books!
October 20, 2007
In my opinion this was a very good book and it had a very good plot line, and I loved how he was able to describe all the characters so well and everything else in this book, there were times where I felt like I was actually in the story.
September 21, 2012
Very good read
November 17, 2012
Mixed bag. I'm still thinking about this read.
April 3, 2018
The awesome conclusion to the fantastic Signal to Noise novel.
May 27, 2012
Like its prequel, hard hard SF. Enjoyed it a lot.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews