Three Stars from Alexander Crommich because he didn’t like the multiverse/ holographic structure of the novel (one star?) and didn’t appreciate the “spanning” nature of Volume I of the 10-Volume series (the other star?), not wanting to wait (I guess) for the details and stories coming in subsequent volumes. Oh, well, can’t be everything to everyone.

He made some great, insightful comments and put in a lot of time, so I am grateful for his review. Link is below some excerpts, here. First, from his email to me:

“I really liked the ideas you played around with in your book, but it would have worked better for me if you had picked one very small part of how the world changes that Clara gets involved with and followed just that vein. I think you tried to cover too much ground, in too many different formats and styles, to effectively do what you wanted to. Again, though, I really did find the ideas you discussed in the book quite interesting.”

-A. Crommich

from his review:
“This is one of those strange books that was, on the one hand, difficult to read, but on the other, fascinating….”

“The book deals with interesting subjects ranging from alternate realities, reincarnation, some fairly trippy interpretations of science, and alien life that’s truly alien.”

“First, the whole idea of aliens constantly resetting small chunks of the universe to try and get the best outcomes for everyone involved is downright cool. This book treats parallel universes as a given and goes to great lengths explaining the different ways the MWC plays around with them to create a greater galactic society. It’s always interesting when a book decides that alien life is not only friendly, but has a utopian agenda.”

“Second, when the presentation of the material works, it’s a very unusual take on things that I found enjoyable. My favorite part is still a council meeting in which MEMBERS of the MWC discuss how they intend to handle the advent of nuclear power on earth. That, as well as how they handle religion, involves sleeper agents, reality resets, calculating probabilities, and a whole host of funky stuff that’s quite interest.”

“In summary, this book never flows together into a focused novel, which is unfortunate given how interesting the subject matter is. It does, however, present enough fascinating ideas and viewpoints to partially redeem its shortcomings. I’d almost recommend treating it like a scrap book and picking out the various chapters that seem to interest you, rather than reading it cover to cover straight off the bat. All told, I give it a 3/5.”

http://alexandercrommich.com/2014/01/25/this-changes-everything-by-sally-ember-review/