The God Engines

Awesomely Dark and Rich

"The God Engines" is dark, heavy, and richly textured beneath a gauze of foreboding. John Scalzi's novella is a severe departure from the tone and wit of his popular "Old Man's War" series. But it's equally as awesome.

The title is quite literal. Superhuman god-like beings are the engines that drive human interstellar travel. While they have the power to move humans and ships across enormous amounts of space, their powers are much more vast. The story moves at a rapid pace, and the characters are well drawn despite the books' length. The universe of "The God Engines" is creatively conceived.

Scalzi's story, which sits somewhere between scifi and fantasy, takes an compelling look at religion, faith and what they can really mean to individuals and societies. The foundation of characters are military, like much of Scalzi's "Old Man's War", but this military and this universe is much more frightening.

Everything is drawn with muted colors. Scalzi's writing is very clear, and always crisp, but one can't help but feel a little suffocated in reading this story. Scalzi is also a master at forwarding a plot through well-worded and well-timed dialogue.

This is not your father's John Scalzi. And this is very good.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Scalzi, damnit.

Mr. Scalzi should really make a series for this story line. I enjoyed this novella quite a bit and am hungry for more.

Recommended, short read

This book (more of a novella) has some interesting concepts regarding religion and is entertaining, although I think that a strong believer in monotheistic religion would be offended by the ideas presented.

Interesting

A thought provoking book. Scalzi is one of the best writers out there for any genre.

Interesting concept

This novella is apparently how Scalzi does fantasy, which is pretty decent (though has room for improvement). Conceptually lovely, should have been longer and universe more thoroughly explained. Was left feeling a bit confused and wanting more details.

Good read but i wanted more

Excellent read and a great story. I would love to see more about this premise.

Great premise but frustrating

I really appreciate Scalzi's writing and the concept is fascinating but in the end I felt cheated. There's enough meat here for a feast of a book but all you end up with is a scant novella. Not worth the price

An Intriguing Read - Worth the time.

I enjoyed this novella. It could have been formulaic throughout, but it was not. It even has a touch of Shakespearian tragedy, but you'll have to read to the end for that. The only downside is that the illustrations of Vincent Chong are not as clear as I would have liked, and the formatting is a bit off so some lines do not wrap well around the images.

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