The Rig

If you are looking for a book that tells the story of unique drilling rigs on the unique planet and the challenges of drilling for unique stuff, you would be a bit disappointed. While the "Rig" plays it's part in this story, it is not the story; and that's perfectly OK.This book has so many ideas and presents them in a unique and ultimately a very connected and satisfying manner. That's A significant accomplishment as the story could've gone off the rails many times; but it never did.Fathers and sons and brothers are at the heart of the conflict. Their love and hate are the catalyst that drives the story, the innovations and ideas contained within.Religion, or the lack thereof, plays a key role in the story. Two planets are built on religion, the rest not so much. The "questions" around religion are explored in depth and drive the technological innovations, including Social media taken to interesting extremes, that are at the root of the biggest conflict.Cops and detectives and internal auditors and murders contribute to the story. The characters are well put together and technological advancements are logical. What at first appears to be a bit of a diversion to the main story ends up tying together many disparate threads.If you like extreme sports, you will love the Chute. Nuff said. Interplanetary crime syndicates also play their part.The author loves to create new words. What is amazing is that you don't need a dictionary to understand them. They are somewhat logical evolutions of our existing language; and then placed in the context of sentences they just make sense. For example: For example: putery, screenery, flycykle, message flake, Humechs, sarcs, vodkaffeiner, visky, pornosphere, husman and Sinday.Enjoy! I sure did!

AfterLife. Voting on people to determine whether they should be brought back from the brink of death. I expected the social media and voting aspect of this program to be a main driving force of the story, but it wasn’t, and I am glad for this. It was more about the reason the program was created and how this ties to the Human Condition.The actions of five viewpoint characters helped me see this: Alef, Tallen, Razer, Bale, and Delta (introduced later). Alef’s story takes place over a hundred years before the others in a completely different location. The other four occupy the same place and time.Alef’s plotline was the best, and he was my favorite character. His story began in childhood and focused on him working for a heinous man at the head of an expansive, multi-planetary company. Alef was highly computational and emotionally stunted, but the way his mind worked made me want to see as much of him as possible. The tragedies he had to endure, and the fact that he was forced to work made me feel for him. Due to his character and the narrative he was part of, I found myself constantly wishing the story was rewritten to just be about him.Razer’s, Bale’s, and Delta’s story revolved around investigating a spree of murders and why some of the events during said spree didn’t add up. Too much time was spent talking about how the situation felt off, and it took an eternity for Razer’s importance to become apparent. For most of the book she was just there. Despite this, I was entertained by Razer.Tallen had the least amount of words dedicated to him. His beginning and ending scenes were great, but the ones in the middle involved him constantly complaining about not feeling too well. As not to spoil what happens in the Rig, I will spare you the details of what exactly he doesn’t feel too well about. I also felt as if he was tacked on for a large part of this novel.It took forever for all of these threads to twine and move as a unit; I felt as if this was the Rig’s weakest aspect. I am not saying all of the questions needed to be answered early. No, no, no! Unanswered questions are what push a narrative forwards. I mean there wasn’t a clear chain of cause and effect. The events during one viewpoint didn’t seem to build upon the events of another one for WAY too long. Halfway through the Rig it still felt like a handful of stories were thrown into a book because they occupy the same universe.Levy has a tendency to replace words with alternatives for no real reason. Here are some examples: screenery instead of screens, puter instead of computer, and visky instead of whisky. I can’t find a reason behind why this was done… aside from adding unique adding unique flavor to the book. I wasn't particularly bothered by this, but some readers don't like this kind of thing.The process of reading the Rig wasn’t always the best, but after thinking about it for a couple of days, I would have to say I enjoyed it. If you can deal with the extended lack of cause and effect and not knowing how a character drives the plot forwards, you will find the world, story, and conclusion satisfying.

I just finished Josiah Bancroft's 3rd Babel book and found it to be truly excellent. So I was prepared for a letdown when I picked up The Rig. But The Rig is fantastic. It is relentlessly absorbing in a melancholic way. Similar to Clare North's The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. Although The Rig does end very well, which is to say happily. You get your money's worth here at 617 pages. None of this $12 a pop, 150 page novella stuff. Hats off to author Roger Levy and thank you sir.

I had never read anything by this author before, and had minimal expectations. The story unfolds gradually, as a hard science fiction murder mystery, but then blooms into an epic tale. The universe of the story is familiar, because the characters are very human and well drawn. At the same time, the backgrounds are full of innovative ideas and amazingly vivid creations. I was completely lost in this book, and loved every page.

Writing a super smart character is hard, but this author creates believable intellect without a lot of handwaving the plot. The plot is a bit of a stretch — it seems like travel between stars takes a couple weeks and communication is basically instantaneous, with no details about that, for example — but the plot within that world is well done.

I really enjoyed this book. The premise was interesting and different, the text was well written and engaging, and the conclusion was satisfying. The characters were well written, memorable, and consistent. Major developments were reasonably surprising without feeling arbitrary. What else can you ask for?

don't like the juvie writing

Very unique and compelling premise, told from different characters point of view. One wonders how pervasive the “Whisper” organization mentioned in the book is Like what we experience today.

Let’s keep this problematic review short and simple (unlike the book itself)- I get the distinct impression the author quit writing this book for several months and jumped back in two thirds of the way and fired off a bunch of plot twists in rapid succession that rambled and wrapped up poorly.- At least four characters were not at all necessary and had long, drawn out scenes that padded the book.- Lack of description. There’s almost no description to anything, it’s written like: and this happened. And then this happened. And this happened. Any description it contains is vague and it’s like hitting a wall of ice. You can’t connect to the story, setting or characters.- The back cover does a terrible job of setting a scene or ides for what is in this book. Don’t expect what you read there to be what’s delivered.- Overlong and overwritten, especially at the end. I was furious and wanting to yell at it to just hurry up and end already.- The ending absolutely destroyed whatever shreds of goodness the book carried.I rated this book 2 stars. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either. It definitely has a highly specific audience.

A truly gripping read that I struggled to put down. The universe it is set in is interesting, as are the couple of planets we actually get detail of. The story is pretty unique and is not your typical sci-fi fair. There are 2 primary plot threads that are interwoven throughout and they were both equally enticing.The only thing that let's it down is the twist at the end. It comes out of nowhere and makes no sense. It isn't even hinted at beforehand.That said, I think the book is brilliant and there could very easily be a sequel or prequel that would fit nicely it it's universe and which I would immediately purchase and read.

I am shattered after reading this book. I wanted it to be brilliant but instead the first half seemed to plod on forever. The last 250 pages or so we're ok but nothing special... At least not as special as I hoped. I think this story would have maybe worked better with stronger editing...It felt too long and dragged in places unnecessarily. Some interesting ideas though

This is premier league SF. Well written with depth and sweep. The strands of the tale beautifully drawn together. Is there room for a sequel, I wonder? I'd love to know what's going down on the unnamed planet. Roger won't be pullin' teeth for much longer if he keeps this quality up!

I don't often give 5 stars (wish Amazon would switch to out of 10 stars) but I really enjoyed this - not perfect but I didn't want to put it down