I am sad to say that the first time I saw Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear (official site) on Amazon I skipped over it because of the rating - in retrospect a somewhat sad reminder to myself about the value of ratings... Thankfully on the Potpourri of Science Fiction Literature blog I came across a review of Hull Zero Three that immediately made me add it to my reading list!
To describe the setting - a star ship hundreds of years into a colonization mission - or the plot - awakening without memory in the depths of a mysterious ship - might be a good teaser for the book, but the real reason to read the book is the main character's dilemma/puzzle/problem of who he is. Awakening without a complete memory is really the least of his problems - who are you if you were thrust out into space hundreds of years ago, engineered/created many times over by a star ship and given incomplete memories that you never lived? Quite an interesting question I think...
Part of me wanted the book to be longer to allow for the characters to develop and adventure more - but I appreciate that the length allows for quite a few ideas without endless rumination, perhaps the better choice.
Rating: 4 of 5 First Read Date: November 2011
CM