sillypunk's review against another edition
5.0
ENJOYABLE: https://blogendorff.com/2022/01/17/book-review-activation-degradation/
wraskai's review against another edition
3.75
A quick and fun read! Took me a while to get attached to some of the characters, but once I did it was a fun ride. Recommend if you are in the mood for a quick sci-fi read!
bibliophilicjester's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The marketing on this one confuses me.
In a way, it makes sense: murderbot is a huge fan base, so if you say this book is like that one, tons of people will read it. However, this book is *nothing* like murderbot, so people who are friends with said mb fans might try this book if they didn't like mb.
The way it makes absolutely no sense: I probably would've found/been interested in this book without the comparison and very likely would've enjoyed it a lot more!
The MC is presented as a robot with organic parts, as we understand they are all grown. While secunits in the mb world have governor modules to keep them in check, these robots seem to just be expected to listen, I guess. This one defies orders from its handler and ends up running into another ship with a larger crew. Anyway, this robot ends up being very emotional, forming attachments to people and even having a (weirdly done) crush/love interest, and accepts a (human) name some ne else suggests to it. Again, weird.
There's some stuff about aliens vs humans, what is or isn't a human, etc. But honestly I've seen it done much better in other books and I didn't find it compelling here. The twists are very vaguely kind of like ..this is what the humans are up to. OR ARE THEY? No, it's this! These are humans! But wait! Who is alien? It's them! No, it's them! Or is it none? Or all? Haha who knows!! You do get answers by the end, but it's honestly exhausting. The doctor was the only character I remotely cared about. I remember no names except Ainsley bc it's dumb.
I think I have more to say, but I'm just kind of bitter about this one, so I'll end it. This book is about 1% similar to murderbot. It wasn't a terrible book to me, but I just didn't particularly enjoy it. Idk what to even say to go into this expecting, because it's just a blur of people and places I didn't care about and have since forgotten.
In a way, it makes sense: murderbot is a huge fan base, so if you say this book is like that one, tons of people will read it. However, this book is *nothing* like murderbot, so people who are friends with said mb fans might try this book if they didn't like mb.
The way it makes absolutely no sense: I probably would've found/been interested in this book without the comparison and very likely would've enjoyed it a lot more!
The MC is presented as a robot with organic parts, as we understand they are all grown. While secunits in the mb world have governor modules to keep them in check, these robots seem to just be expected to listen, I guess. This one defies orders from its handler and ends up running into another ship with a larger crew. Anyway, this robot ends up being very emotional, forming attachments to people and even having a (weirdly done) crush/love interest, and accepts a (human) name some ne else suggests to it. Again, weird.
There's some stuff about aliens vs humans, what is or isn't a human, etc. But honestly I've seen it done much better in other books and I didn't find it compelling here. The twists are very vaguely kind of like ..this is what the humans are up to. OR ARE THEY? No, it's this! These are humans! But wait! Who is alien? It's them! No, it's them! Or is it none? Or all? Haha who knows!! You do get answers by the end, but it's honestly exhausting. The doctor was the only character I remotely cared about. I remember no names except Ainsley bc it's dumb.
I think I have more to say, but I'm just kind of bitter about this one, so I'll end it. This book is about 1% similar to murderbot. It wasn't a terrible book to me, but I just didn't particularly enjoy it. Idk what to even say to go into this expecting, because it's just a blur of people and places I didn't care about and have since forgotten.
skylar2's review against another edition
5.0
Associating this with [b:Murderbot|32758901|All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)|Martha Wells|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631585309l/32758901._SY75_.jpg|53349516] does this book a disservice; while it superficially appears to be similar, it is its own story, and one only has to read a couple pages to realize that it is very different. It actually reminds me more of [b:A Psalm for the Wild-Built|40864002|A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)|Becky Chambers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1600789291l/40864002._SY75_.jpg|63655961] than Murderbot, but even that is not a direct comparison.
Activation Degradation is really a robot coming-of-age story, which is impressive given that the entire story takes place over the course of a matter of days. It addresses everything from agency and morality to friendship to love, gender, and sexuality. It's been a long time since I read a book in basically a day, but the story was compelling enough to suck me in.
Disclaimer: I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
Activation Degradation is really a robot coming-of-age story, which is impressive given that the entire story takes place over the course of a matter of days. It addresses everything from agency and morality to friendship to love, gender, and sexuality. It's been a long time since I read a book in basically a day, but the story was compelling enough to suck me in.
Disclaimer: I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
abookwormspov's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Violence, Genocide, Gaslighting, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Body horror, Suicide, Slavery, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Self harm, Physical abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders
elbow's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
What an amazing read. No wasted time, the reveals are delicious. Reminds me of the characters in Becky Chambers’ novels from the perspective of an outside entity.
pandaorb's review against another edition
3.0
To make a nod to the book, I'll say there were some aspects of it that I violently liked and some that I violently disliked. It averaged out to a three star rating in the end.
Things I violently liked:
- Action sequences. Holey moley, the start of this book in particular is spectacular, and the action you get plays out in such a way that the pages go flying by. Lostetter conveys the tension of these scenes incredibly well.
- Subversion. Telling this story from the perspective of Unit Four allowed for some great moments in which both the reader and Unit Four have the entire narrative turned on its head. I loved these twists and think they was the most successful thing about the book.
Things I violently disliked:
- Pronoun inconsistency. If you're going to be so overt about pronouns to the point that you get speeches from two separate characters about the selection of 'it' as a pronoun THEN BE CONSISTENT ABOUT THEM. Unit Four makes a point of sticking with 'it' because 'it' is the standard for all platform units. But guess what? It constantly refers to other platform units as its sisters and randomly will switch between calling any given unit either 'it' or 'them'. And that's not even to mention the magical moment that editing somehow missed where the narrative actually refers to Unit Four's voice as 'his' voice.
- Romance. There's a 'one look and I just knew' kind of romance subplot that plays out. It felt kind of silly and I thought my eyes would roll out of my head every time it was in focus.
- World building. There wasn't much world building - in fact, it was mostly what you'd expect except for MELASSANI'S CRYSTALS (in caps because the characters always yell this phrase), which felt added in solely so characters could have something to swear by.
Another note: Not sure why the publishing blurb compares this to Murderbot. Other than the main character being a bot with soft parts there's no relation. This story has got its own thing going on and it was done a disservice to be compared!
Things I violently liked:
- Action sequences. Holey moley, the start of this book in particular is spectacular, and the action you get plays out in such a way that the pages go flying by. Lostetter conveys the tension of these scenes incredibly well.
- Subversion. Telling this story from the perspective of Unit Four allowed for some great moments in which both the reader and Unit Four have the entire narrative turned on its head. I loved these twists and think they was the most successful thing about the book.
Things I violently disliked:
- Pronoun inconsistency. If you're going to be so overt about pronouns to the point that you get speeches from two separate characters about the selection of 'it' as a pronoun THEN BE CONSISTENT ABOUT THEM. Unit Four makes a point of sticking with 'it' because 'it' is the standard for all platform units. But guess what? It constantly refers to other platform units as its sisters and randomly will switch between calling any given unit either 'it' or 'them'. And that's not even to mention the magical moment that editing somehow missed where the narrative actually refers to Unit Four's voice as 'his' voice.
- Romance. There's a 'one look and I just knew' kind of romance subplot that plays out. It felt kind of silly and I thought my eyes would roll out of my head every time it was in focus.
- World building. There wasn't much world building - in fact, it was mostly what you'd expect except for MELASSANI'S CRYSTALS (in caps because the characters always yell this phrase), which felt added in solely so characters could have something to swear by.
Another note: Not sure why the publishing blurb compares this to Murderbot. Other than the main character being a bot with soft parts there's no relation. This story has got its own thing going on and it was done a disservice to be compared!
katleap's review against another edition
2.0
I ended up skimming most of the book.
The Murderbot Diaries is a big favorite of mine and so I was excited to see this book as something along those lines and it was. I just never got sucked into it. Unit Four and I never clicked. The plot is pretty intense but I kept getting bored and wandering off to something else.
I will admit that I started this book in not the best circumstances (airports are not great places to start something new). However when I came back to try it again I ran into the same issues. So this is a big skimmed/DNF for me.
The Murderbot Diaries is a big favorite of mine and so I was excited to see this book as something along those lines and it was. I just never got sucked into it. Unit Four and I never clicked. The plot is pretty intense but I kept getting bored and wandering off to something else.
I will admit that I started this book in not the best circumstances (airports are not great places to start something new). However when I came back to try it again I ran into the same issues. So this is a big skimmed/DNF for me.