3zekiel is an interesting read. I found the action slow and laborious but its first-contact methodology was innovative and conceivable. My only regret is that the book’s ending left my reading efforts unrewarded. The main character never does meet the aliens that intergalactically abducted him and his friends, although they were described to him by one of his fellow captives when he awakened from being cryonically frozen. Perhaps, the inevitable first-contact experience will be described in a 3zekiel (First Contact) sequel book. ( )

When Alastair Reynolds meets Jules Verne, what could possibly go wrong? ( )

3,5 stars, but I'm rounding up.

On one hand, I really, really liked the concepts and ideas in this book, so they were five stars across the board.

On the other hand, I found the main character a not so stellar choice for our narrator. I just didn't think he made a very believable person, let alone a teenage boy (from the way he spoke to the way he thought). I do appreciate a teenage protagonist who isn't the chosen one who saves the day, but I think the author took it too far. The main character kept repeating (in his thoughts) how he's just a teen in all this, and he was generally way more instrospective and perceptive than anyone without a psychology degree ought to be (to the point where he made pretty far fetched deductions about the reasons behind people's behaviour on several occasions).

There also weren't many female characters of much substance in the story, and those that occured were mothers/love interests/martyrs/damsels in distress. I don't think it was malicious in any way, it just came across like a pretty large oversight. I vastly prefer books where both men and women are depicted as humans with agency, warts and all.

Also, as I read this on March 3rd in 2022, I really could have done without the Evil Russians Threatening the Safety of Everyone on a Global Scale plot device.

Summa summarum; a book with great ideas, mediocre characters, not much emotional impact, yet a decent enough plot. ( )

Nice. Deserves much more readers, reviews and attention. In case you were very curious about the title, 3zekiel doesn't play a big part. Or at least not the 3 in 3zekiel.
But it doesn't matter, the story was great and it's fast paced and you'll love the characters.

"Books live and die based on the enthusiasm of readers.", Peter Cowdron said in the afterword. So come on, pick up a copy.

I've seen a bunch of reviews complaining that Russians are bad guys in this book. I guess the author could have easily avoided this cliche. But it's equally easy for the reader to do that too. Wherever you see the word Russians pretend it says Australians or whichever nation is the least typical villain in your view.

Cause their actions in the book are not cliche, on the contrary. So think Brazilians or whatever allows you to get past this small glitch, and enjoy the book.

I've listened to this book narrated out loud by Evie. Which makes a great book even better ( )

This was a really interesting first-contact story, different from all the others I have read. I'm pretty tired of the first encounter stories that are about domineering, conquering aliens; or about peaceful, unselfish aliens; or telepathic aliens who somehow have brains that connect directly to ours despite having no common ancestor with us. (And I'm especially tired of the dumb stories about aliens falling in love with humans.) This story is something different.

Maybe even aliens can't go faster than the speed of light. (Most science fiction to the contrary, there really is an excellent chance we will never transcend the speed of light. Science fiction that tries to deal honestly with the limits of relatively often goes in very different directions from the bulk of science fiction.) So what do you do when your homeworld is many light-years away from the place you want to investigate? Well, you can't realistically go yourself. You can't invade, even if you wanted to. And--will your probe be able to continue working flawlessly after thousands of years en route? Furthermore, the target may well have changed drastically since you first scouted it.

And when your probe arrives at some distant life-bearing planet, what should it do? The probe can't study the whole planet--it's too big. Where on the planet would it go? What would it do when it got there? Peter Cawdron has given us a well-thought-through story of what aliens really might do, and how the people on earth who don't understand their goals might realistically react.

The title of the book is based on the old idea (popularized by von Daeniken) that maybe those weird passages in the prophet Ezekiel about wheels within wheels and the blue glowing throne of God and so on are just the attempt of a confused person to describe something he actually saw that we might describe very differently today. But (unlike some others who ran with this idea) this story does not mock the naivete of those ancient writers, or their modern followers; one of the most likable and honorable people in the story is the priest who points all this out. ( )