Book Review - Fifth Man

Fifth Man by John B. Olson & Randy Ingermanson

Having been surprised to find the Fifth Man in e-book I devoured it in one day.


I love that John and Randy put their definition of High Concept in the back of the book.

It's quite different from the other definitions I've seen.

I liked the story and it was a page turner for me. I'm not sure that it was because of the High Concept.[even by their definition.]

It reminded me of the survivor and big brother reality shows.
I don't watch reality shows much.

But over all the interaction worked to keep my interest so I must not be averse.

I suppose that the finger pointing in both settings kept the excitement going but you'd have expected by this time they'd learned some lesson from the flight out in Oxygen.

[minor spoilers here and below]
Some of the more die-hard fans might raise a fuss about communication taking 40 min while the robots often appear to react too appropriate to the moment as though they are getting instructions instantaneously from long distances.

In most cases I could resolve it in my mind to mostly serendipity.

The excitement was a lot like the movie leviathan and It was perfect that they ended it mostly with rational explanations for almost everything.

I really did like it despite my apparent tone above and I can at least say that I read this from cover to cover without judging it by its cover or its blurb.

Which is something that can't be said about everyone.