Existence – David Brin

Strong: Remarkably-deep world-building, where the world is our world a few decades out, with trends extended. Weak: Many of the trends that are extended are from the earlier part of this century. Parts of this future already feel dated.

Strong: The philosophical core of the book is the Fermi paradox: If intelligent life is as widespread as number-crunching suggests, where is everyone? Brin takes this in two directions. The introspective direction focuses on our vulnerabilities. Maybe intelligent life is a crapshoot and the odds are bad. The external direction reverses the question: If intelligent life is widespread, why hasn’t Earth been colonized. Even given light-speed restrictions, there are so many ways that could happen.

Weak: Big Questions are allowed to get in the way of story-telling. There are too many point-of-view characters, and their stories are too fragmented. The PoV characters tend not to be likable, which makes what story there is harder to enjoy.

Bottom line: Too much big picture, not enough story. Half way through the very-long book, the book’s problem statement is still being developed. Recommended for readers for whom that’s a fair trade-of.f