Fantastic read!

Loved it! Wished it would never end as I fell in love with all the characters, especially ICC. Hope there is a sequel.

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Interesting ideas but perhaps not realistic.

So many ideas about social structures and how that will resolve at the interpersonal level. So that is great to read and think about, but they are tarnished by by view that they are not really possible or realistic. Still it has the big picture about learning and expansion and what that means to people. The way to solve the long time scales is one of those clever but unrealistic ideas. So it is forgiven due to it being required to make the plot work at all. Not great, but good enough to get me to buy the next book and still be looking forward to it.

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One of the nicest AIs you'll meet, but the humans

This was enjoyable though there's a slight tweeness at times. I think it would be tighter with less obvious spelling out of some situations. But then it also deals really well with a long term societal change and how slight tweaks in a culture can have drastic results.

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A superbly entertaining story

Following the different generations of a convoy of human clones tasked with travelling to a star and back, Noumenon is the story of a society changing for better and for worse. It's also the story of ICC, the Inter Convoy Computer changing from an expert system with a personality overlay, to a sentient AI whose primary goal is the success of the mission.

In one sense the novel lacks coherence and getting to know characters is impeded by them dying off, but the constant of ICC pulls that together and gives us someone to root for.

I enjoyed it and will read the succeeding novels in the trilogy.

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space opera

if you love millennia spanning space operas, you can't miss this, feels like losing a friend when it's over

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Thought provoking story, epic in scale, well narrated

This is a very unusual story with each chapter being of a different time period. Conceptually strong with a big dose of socio-political content - really quite a commentary on the challenges of our societies today. It took a while to get going but I liked it a lot, and will read the inevitable sequel. The narration was excellent.

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Patchy - more short stories than novel

Follows a central them, but really a collection of short stories along the theme. They vary - some better than others. Never really came together and when you do connect with a character... it’s the end of that short section

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Good performance of some untapped potential

Short version: there is a sequel and I'm not bothered in the slightest.

Long version: This was a good listen but a weak execution of some interesting ideas.

I won't fault the audio experience at all, delivery was good and clear (though I was annoyed that cloned generations had the same accents as their originals, done to help clarity but narratively unlikely).

The premise was great but the execution was weak. There was a lot of telling and less showing. We saw crises unfold but the reasons behind the crises were listed off rather than beong experienced in the story. And ideas of nature vs nurture were under explored.

Really liked the mid point and finale plots but by the last quarter of the book I just wasn't engaged.

Overall just a bit bland - may be better reading it.

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great multi generational space story

I really liked this story, some very goodnand new ideas (to me anyway)
looking forward to next installment

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Great story, not too long not too short.

I love that each chapter was essentially a mini story within the main plot. Lots of great concepts through out the book.

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