Darren Vincent's Reviews > 7th Sigma

This was a good enough book, just not the book I was expecting.

What do you mean?
Well, I will tell you. First, I saw a spine with Steven Gould's name on it. Being a fan of the 'Jumper' series (and movie-not embarrassed to admit), and having not read this particular novel, I was intrigued. I pull the book out and see a mechanical bug on the front and was pretty much sold right there, but I went ahead and read the jacket anyway (I don't always read the jackets of authors I enjoy). Nothing in the jacket dissuaded me from continuing my journey so I checked it out. But that is where that particular journey ended.

Most of the book has nothing to do with the bugs themselves. They are present but it is their presence that shapes the environment and the characters in that environment. Just know that they are constantly there and that you have to be eternally vigilant. But as the story moved on, it didn't really bother me as much as it did at first because the story I was given was very interesting.

Each chapter or cluster of chapters, told a mini story about these people who have to survive in the west without the use of any metal. The chapters were easy to read and enjoyable and if I take the book based on that alone, it was an upper 3-star, possibly a low 4-star book. But only when you get to the end do you realize that when you look back on the chapters as a whole book, that it is lacking an overarching story arc. There is no resolution to an overall conflict, just an interesting slice of time in one characters life. There are hints of a broader plot in the background with the evolution of the bugs but nothing concrete. If this was a movie, you would call this book the origin story with hints of the future villain being shown at the conclusion of the movie. This is probably the main reason it stays at 3-stars. I wanted more bugs and less of a western.

And what does '7th Sigma' mean?
I don't know. Either it references something very obvious that I am just oblivious to or it is just a really cool sounding name cooked up by the author because I don't think it was touched on in the book.

When closing the cover and seeing that robotic bug again, I felt like I was the victim of a bait-and-switch. I was promised $10 and instead got $5 cash and a $5 gift card to an out of town restaurant I really like.

For those that are looking for what this book promised, I would read Daniel H. Wilson's Robopacalypse and Robogenesis.