taylorhohulin's review
5.0
This was some of the most fun I've had reading in a while.
The Beam is a little light on story, but it's heavy on intrigue and mystery. Add in a great cast of characters and a really cool exploration of a simple concept, and you've got great reading. I'll be picking up season two very soon.
The Beam is a little light on story, but it's heavy on intrigue and mystery. Add in a great cast of characters and a really cool exploration of a simple concept, and you've got great reading. I'll be picking up season two very soon.
felinity's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars
Designed to work almost like a television series showing America's hyper-connected future, with multiple story arcs that must each resolve by the end, and it does seem to work, though the divisions and constant switching between characters made it seem like a really long book. If this were a TV show it would be on something like Fox and shown after 8pm (or after the watershed, for British viewers.)
Crammed with images of how our future could develop, it's sure to ignite your imagination, whether it's self-driving cars, downloadable skills, interactive surfaces to provide or body modifications that enable you to access every kind of information you might want, wherever you are.
There's so much in here it's hard to know what to mention. Lots of high-tech equipment, possibly surpassing any Philip K. Dick envisioning; extreme social divisions based on political choice (with echoes of Ben Franklin). I also caught connections to Marvel, Doctor Who, and the Hunger Games.
The backstory is revealed almost carelessly in a piecemeal fashion, as if unimportant. By the time I was a third in I realized there were only a couple of characters I actually cared about; I'm not sure if that was the authors' intention. I also caught a few editing errors too, both in misused words and factual inconsistencies within the book.
People may be annoyed by the repeated inappropriate use of the word "rape" when they really meant something more like "depredate".
Parental advisory:
I really wavered in picking a star rating. The vision was incredible, both in technology and politics, and I enjoyed discovering the history and how our existing technology might develop to allow better, more intuitive uses of our data. The future of American politics also felt realistic, taking party divisions to extremes, but some elements of the writing were quite irritating, and there was too much graphic description at points.
I finally settled on 3.5 stars rounded up, but I won't be reading Season Two.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Designed to work almost like a television series showing America's hyper-connected future, with multiple story arcs that must each resolve by the end, and it does seem to work, though the divisions and constant switching between characters made it seem like a really long book. If this were a TV show it would be on something like Fox and shown after 8pm (or after the watershed, for British viewers.)
Crammed with images of how our future could develop, it's sure to ignite your imagination, whether it's self-driving cars, downloadable skills, interactive surfaces to provide or body modifications that enable you to access every kind of information you might want, wherever you are.
There's so much in here it's hard to know what to mention. Lots of high-tech equipment, possibly surpassing any Philip K. Dick envisioning; extreme social divisions based on political choice (with echoes of Ben Franklin). I also caught connections to Marvel, Doctor Who, and the Hunger Games.
The backstory is revealed almost carelessly in a piecemeal fashion, as if unimportant. By the time I was a third in I realized there were only a couple of characters I actually cared about; I'm not sure if that was the authors' intention. I also caught a few editing errors too, both in misused words and factual inconsistencies within the book.
People may be annoyed by the repeated inappropriate use of the word "rape" when they really meant something more like "depredate".
Parental advisory:
Spoiler
There's a fair bit of cursing (though it's all the same) and a key character is a high-end prostitute with one detailed scene of how she kept her clients happy. It's not sexually graphic, but if you don't want to answer questions about why grownups might want to be spanked, this book isn't suitable. There is also an overly-graphic torture scene that went on far too long for me.I really wavered in picking a star rating. The vision was incredible, both in technology and politics, and I enjoyed discovering the history and how our existing technology might develop to allow better, more intuitive uses of our data. The future of American politics also felt realistic, taking party divisions to extremes, but some elements of the writing were quite irritating, and there was too much graphic description at points.
I finally settled on 3.5 stars rounded up, but I won't be reading Season Two.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
oscarhp's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
vailynst's review against another edition
4.0
*Need to Review
4.5 to 5 Stars - Will decide after I write review.
4.5 to 5 Stars - Will decide after I write review.
dtaylorbooks's review against another edition
3.0
There was a forward in this book that explained the Season One they have in the title. Thankfully. Because I had no idea what that was about. Not-so-thankfully when I actually read the reason. The authors basically wanted to write this book in the same manner that awesome TV shows are written, and likened it to Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, going on about how TV is in its prime. I sat there going uh . . . That seems to be aiming a bit high. Judging by the ratings on Goodreads they hit the mark with a lot of people. I was not one of them.
I didn’t hate it. In fact I didn’t mind what I was reading. I just wasn’t wowed by it and I’m not really compelled to read more. To make a similar comparison, this would be one of those TV shows that I liked enough to play it in the background while I dicked around on my iPad, but once I started missing episodes and truly stopped caring I would just remove it from my Watch List and never go back to it (sorry Sleepy Hollow and Agents of SHIELD). I would feel almost obligated to keep up with it for a time, but my interest would wane and I’d just stop watching.
So yeah. That’s THE BEAM for me.
I liked the world the authors created. Very poignant, which I’m sure was the point. At times a little too self-aware for my liking and it had its moments where is waxed a little too long on said poignant point where I tried to will it along a little. This is actually the kind of sci-fi I like. Not big on the space stuff, but technological advancement, yes. The over-use of the computer, yes. It’s light sci-fi and I don’t feel spun around by a ton of technical jargon inserted as a cheap way to world build. That didn’t happen here. And it kind of blew my mind because I’m reading about AIs here and then I read an article in the most recent edition of Vanity Fair where they spoke to Elon Musk about AIs and where they’re going and other big names in tech weighed in about nanos and I felt like I timed this read perfectly.
It annoyed me when today’s terms were used in a futuristic setting. Society has advanced this far but the term hipster is still used? These little pieces of current pop culture didn’t quite fit with the setting and it felt like the authors trying to ground it out in our reality while still creating their new one and it didn’t quite mesh for me. Or when certain people came into the plot who name-dropped all of our current pop culture stuff in a way that other characters should know it too but didn’t because they didn’t read X or whatever. Or mentioning movies like Terminator. Is that really what’s going to transcend time? Think back to the 1910s. How many popular books or, when they came onto the scene, silent films that were big at the time can still be named? Save for maybe Charlie Chaplin probably not many. But our current pop culture felt like a forced necessity in this world that was desperately trying to leave it all behind and I couldn’t tell if that was deliberate or just authorial insertion.
The only characters I didn’t like were Isaac and Miranda. Melissa? The singer, Isaac’s wife. Both of those individuals were just sniveling, reprehensible assholes and thankfully neither of them got too much page time. Everyone else, especially Kai and Leah, were pretty awesome and compelling and I wanted more time with them. And I did like how we got different points of view throughout the story from all walks of life. I especially liked Nicolai’s story and I wish there was more of him. Micah’s a fun one too. He’s one of those characters that are just delicious dickheads that you love to hate. Until they remain static and that shit gets old after, like, three seasons.
So . . . THE BEAM doesn’t have the staying power for me that Game of Thrones does (although I’m happy GoT is on its last season because I don’t know how much more rape and murder I can take) or Supernatural does (and to be fair I lost interest in TWD about three seasons ago or something like that). It’s interesting and it’s something I could keep reading if I had nothing else going on, but I’m not about to pick up Season Two any time soon. Maybe I’ll add it to my reading list and make my way to it eventually, but who knows when that’s going to be. Care to take a look at my Netflix watch list and see what’s been sitting on that forever now?
3
I didn’t hate it. In fact I didn’t mind what I was reading. I just wasn’t wowed by it and I’m not really compelled to read more. To make a similar comparison, this would be one of those TV shows that I liked enough to play it in the background while I dicked around on my iPad, but once I started missing episodes and truly stopped caring I would just remove it from my Watch List and never go back to it (sorry Sleepy Hollow and Agents of SHIELD). I would feel almost obligated to keep up with it for a time, but my interest would wane and I’d just stop watching.
So yeah. That’s THE BEAM for me.
I liked the world the authors created. Very poignant, which I’m sure was the point. At times a little too self-aware for my liking and it had its moments where is waxed a little too long on said poignant point where I tried to will it along a little. This is actually the kind of sci-fi I like. Not big on the space stuff, but technological advancement, yes. The over-use of the computer, yes. It’s light sci-fi and I don’t feel spun around by a ton of technical jargon inserted as a cheap way to world build. That didn’t happen here. And it kind of blew my mind because I’m reading about AIs here and then I read an article in the most recent edition of Vanity Fair where they spoke to Elon Musk about AIs and where they’re going and other big names in tech weighed in about nanos and I felt like I timed this read perfectly.
It annoyed me when today’s terms were used in a futuristic setting. Society has advanced this far but the term hipster is still used? These little pieces of current pop culture didn’t quite fit with the setting and it felt like the authors trying to ground it out in our reality while still creating their new one and it didn’t quite mesh for me. Or when certain people came into the plot who name-dropped all of our current pop culture stuff in a way that other characters should know it too but didn’t because they didn’t read X or whatever. Or mentioning movies like Terminator. Is that really what’s going to transcend time? Think back to the 1910s. How many popular books or, when they came onto the scene, silent films that were big at the time can still be named? Save for maybe Charlie Chaplin probably not many. But our current pop culture felt like a forced necessity in this world that was desperately trying to leave it all behind and I couldn’t tell if that was deliberate or just authorial insertion.
The only characters I didn’t like were Isaac and Miranda. Melissa? The singer, Isaac’s wife. Both of those individuals were just sniveling, reprehensible assholes and thankfully neither of them got too much page time. Everyone else, especially Kai and Leah, were pretty awesome and compelling and I wanted more time with them. And I did like how we got different points of view throughout the story from all walks of life. I especially liked Nicolai’s story and I wish there was more of him. Micah’s a fun one too. He’s one of those characters that are just delicious dickheads that you love to hate. Until they remain static and that shit gets old after, like, three seasons.
So . . . THE BEAM doesn’t have the staying power for me that Game of Thrones does (although I’m happy GoT is on its last season because I don’t know how much more rape and murder I can take) or Supernatural does (and to be fair I lost interest in TWD about three seasons ago or something like that). It’s interesting and it’s something I could keep reading if I had nothing else going on, but I’m not about to pick up Season Two any time soon. Maybe I’ll add it to my reading list and make my way to it eventually, but who knows when that’s going to be. Care to take a look at my Netflix watch list and see what’s been sitting on that forever now?
3
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