Jeff’s Reviews > The Sixth Nik > Status Update

Everything in this book is in service of shock value and yet every major plot development is painfully predictable. Sure, we hadn't gotten self-mutilation yet, why not?...have we hit the vomit into an open wound mile marker? Oh right, yeah, after she wakes up from being raped by a sentient space ship. Just--so much has happened, hard to keep track of all these highlights.

Knew the dog's death would be grisly and unnecessary and unjustified, but to make it such a footnote on top of everything else.

I was not aware that bio-horror or splatter-scifi were genres. Now, I'm aware. Thanks, Daniel.

Oort Behemoths are the sandworms of this universe, in the worst possible way--repeatedly referenced with no real description or discernible purpose. Another thing this book shares with Herbert's writing is that it makes 200 pages feel like 400. We've progressed from John Carmack presents David Cronenberg's Alien, and now we seem to be fully into Ridley Scott territory.

Another major development that should be seismic in terms of the plot but really just feels inevitable.

The pace is picking up but that was a heavy opening. Emotion without much empathy. And so bizarre.

Kraus did the work on this part. He preps the reader with ominous discussion of the "snarl" and then goes right into an extended section of experimental form, similar to the verse chapter from Angel Down, but maybe even more of an achievement. Unfortunately, I'm not enjoying this one as much as that book. So unique it's almost indescribable. The ex-stream of consciousness.

The most moving moments of this book come outta nowhere. They're not built up very well, but they are there and they're powerful.

Librarians as warrior-poets? Okay...points...

First the direct comparison of a dog's (any animal's) cognition and behavior to that of a robot--now a reference to using them as the proverbial canaries in a coal mine. Pulsing folds of mucus membrane for a bed is bad, but this is really gross. Probably the most interesting thing about this story is the teen protagonist who is impossibly self aware and able to regulate emotion. Vaguely Kwisatz Haderach.