sarahjanejudson's review against another edition
3.0
Overall the series was okay. I wasn't as into it as I was his Gone series (every book 5 stars!!!) but it is what it is. I can't believe how much killing goes on in this book but honestly after a while it felt like he was killing people off to get to the end faster. I know towards 3/4 the book I was anxious for it to just end. Once it did it felt flat....not exciting, no twist I didn't think of...like it just ended. I hope he writes more in the future bc Grant has an amazing imagination, but if it's sci fi I'll probably pass. I enjoy his other stuff much more than his sci fi.
albon's review against another edition
2014 review:
Good ending to a very intense and intriguing series.
Good ending to a very intense and intriguing series.
READING PROGRESS
January 14, 2014 – Shelved as: to-read
January 14, 2014 – Shelved
August 28, 2014 – Started Reading
August 28, 2014 –
page 80 17.86%
page 80 17.86%
September 3, 2014 –
page 201 44.87%
page 201 44.87%
September 4, 2014 –
page 258 57.59%
page 258 57.59%
September 5, 2014 –
page 340 75.89% "Noooooo Noah :'("
page 340 75.89% "Noooooo Noah :'("
September 6, 2014 – Shelved as: completed-series
September 6, 2014 – Shelved as: read-in-english
September 6, 2014 – Shelved as: read-in-2014
September 6, 2014 – Finished Reading
fredicia's review against another edition
5.0
"I'm not a serial killer, I'm just a writer."
The amount of research gone into this is mind blowing. And Mr.Grant has a very... vivid imagination.
No, but really, the way death happens in this book is practically an art form.
Keats or Plath was destined to die, it was the only realistic scenario. To be honest, I expected both to go mad, because the worst scenario is the most likely in this series. "Death or Madness" was stressed multiple times throughout. After the last book, when Plath started to investigate Lear, I predicted that Lear was going to be a villain as well, because the dude's moral principles are skewed, especially with Caligula enforcing his decisions.
I did not expect Lear to not be dude.
That surprised the fuck out of me. Even when she was introduced, up until the point when she was offering Bug that choice, I still thought she was some new character. Or a higher up in BZRK. Not the mastermind.
But then...
"And Lear smiled."
I also did not expect Vincent to be wired. Or for Jin to do the wiring. Because I figured Vincent would know if he's thinking wrong, and because Jin is the heart and not that adept at wiring people.
I feel like this book is a perfect metaphor for war. Both sides are wrong in different ways, both are considered lunatics. No one wins in the end, and the ones that suffer the most are the soldiers on the front lines. Both sides are hypocrites, even Keats and Plath. Didn't they kill a bunch of people in the Tulip, even as they were trying to prevent the destruction of the building?
I think this quote sums it up nicely:
"Funny, funny to think that in the end it would not be a race between destruction and salvation for humanity, but a race between two different lunatics, Benjamin and Lear, both bend on annihilation."
molly_s_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
jubaju's review against another edition
3.0
Everyone gets what was coming for them, we wrap up in a hurry, people die in gruesome ways. Weird happy ending. All the books in this series follow the same pattern, and I can’t give any of them more than 3 stars because of that.
Also, this author is extremely horny. A lot of he descriptions were overly sexual (even in situations that weren’t sexual in the slightest), and a lot of gratuitous sex scenes were peppered here and there, when they did nothing for the plot or general development.
In war, there are of course many horrors, and they can usually be categorised into main boxes (death, gore, madness, rape...), but Michael Grant took it too far. Burnovsky being aroused every time he thinks about shooting his daughter? Too far, too explicit, too descriptive, brought up too many times, as if it were something the author enjoyed writing about. We got shown how even the good guys did terrible things, questionable things, but some stuff only needs to be written about once, if done well. How many times will we read about a man jacking off to his daughter’s murder before we start the question the author’s motives? Burnovsky was wired to enjoy it, the readers were not. The author seemed to be, though. Grey morality is a fascinating thing to read about, humans making terrible decisions in war is something that needs to be discussed, but there needs to be a sense of condemnation coming from, if not the author himself, at least through the characters. In this case, it came across as a sexual thing, not psychological warfare, something to enjoy reading about.
The deaths of the main cast seemed pointless, thrown in for shock value, something for Sadie to be sad about and ruminate over after she’s settled down in the future and rebuilt her life. The romance seemed secondary, until it served the plot for it not to be. Everything was jumbled, minor things blown out of proportion to further development, important points pushed back when they became too much of a hindrance.
As usual, we got an info dump of science facts once new things were added to the plot, written as though explained to an illiterate child, and repeated over and over throughout the book. It made the world building exhausting, frustrating, and way too long winded.
I did enjoy Lear’s genius, her madness, the discussion over good and bad, how you can spiral from one side to the other, the descent into madness, putting on a facade to hide the crazy. She was a very good character to talk about morality, but she was only brought in in the last book, then dumped unceremoniously in favor of Sadie’s heartbreak. She was not built with the series, we weren’t given the chance to unmask her as the plot progressed in previous books, and the fact that she had 400 pages to be developed, descend into madness, then defeated made that plot feel like a rushed afterthought.
Overall, good writing, meh characters, and a study on sanity that felt superficial and immature.
Also, this author is extremely horny. A lot of he descriptions were overly sexual (even in situations that weren’t sexual in the slightest), and a lot of gratuitous sex scenes were peppered here and there, when they did nothing for the plot or general development.
In war, there are of course many horrors, and they can usually be categorised into main boxes (death, gore, madness, rape...), but Michael Grant took it too far. Burnovsky being aroused every time he thinks about shooting his daughter? Too far, too explicit, too descriptive, brought up too many times, as if it were something the author enjoyed writing about. We got shown how even the good guys did terrible things, questionable things, but some stuff only needs to be written about once, if done well. How many times will we read about a man jacking off to his daughter’s murder before we start the question the author’s motives? Burnovsky was wired to enjoy it, the readers were not. The author seemed to be, though. Grey morality is a fascinating thing to read about, humans making terrible decisions in war is something that needs to be discussed, but there needs to be a sense of condemnation coming from, if not the author himself, at least through the characters. In this case, it came across as a sexual thing, not psychological warfare, something to enjoy reading about.
The deaths of the main cast seemed pointless, thrown in for shock value, something for Sadie to be sad about and ruminate over after she’s settled down in the future and rebuilt her life. The romance seemed secondary, until it served the plot for it not to be. Everything was jumbled, minor things blown out of proportion to further development, important points pushed back when they became too much of a hindrance.
As usual, we got an info dump of science facts once new things were added to the plot, written as though explained to an illiterate child, and repeated over and over throughout the book. It made the world building exhausting, frustrating, and way too long winded.
I did enjoy Lear’s genius, her madness, the discussion over good and bad, how you can spiral from one side to the other, the descent into madness, putting on a facade to hide the crazy. She was a very good character to talk about morality, but she was only brought in in the last book, then dumped unceremoniously in favor of Sadie’s heartbreak. She was not built with the series, we weren’t given the chance to unmask her as the plot progressed in previous books, and the fact that she had 400 pages to be developed, descend into madness, then defeated made that plot feel like a rushed afterthought.
Overall, good writing, meh characters, and a study on sanity that felt superficial and immature.
delaneybull's review against another edition
3.0
Wasn't as huge a fan of this one. I think the transition from BZRK being the "noble but questionable" organization into this corrupt, morally horrible organization within like 20 pages was too abrupt, and the Lear reveal happening totally in the third book was off-putting. The tone of the whole book differed from the previous two, and Lear's reason behind the chaos and madness (apocalypse, hence the title) was never fully explained. It wasn't horrible, but it was a total world destruction with not a ton of logic behind it. Also, the focus totally shifting from the Armstrong brothers to Lear didn't make a whole lot of sense since at the end of the previous book, they were all gung ho to take down the Armstrongs, so I think a gradual shift (or perhaps a fourth book after this one) to smooth the transition into the setting of Apocalypse would have been more helpful.
aira_reads's review against another edition
5.0
How do you come up with such brilliant descriptions damnit ! Love the series, love the author, love/hated the ending. It's war. People die, I get it
Like
Her brain floated like a giant sponge, the sponge crisscrossed with throbbing arteries and veins like the tangle of rivers in tributaries in a delta
------
She was aiming for the hippocampus, a deep structure, and part of the evolving brain. It was the router of the mind.
------
She was circling the blue, around the eye that twitched beneath her, making all the minute adjustments that eyes must do. She skimmed the edge of her iris-serried ranks of gristly Russell Phiber waiting to react to light, opening and closing the dark, deep hole of her pupil.
----
She was in the land of muscle bundles now, massive cables seemingly fused into the melting ice of the eyeball and ascending into the dark
Spoiler
But Nijinsky and Noah are baeLike
Her brain floated like a giant sponge, the sponge crisscrossed with throbbing arteries and veins like the tangle of rivers in tributaries in a delta
------
She was aiming for the hippocampus, a deep structure, and part of the evolving brain. It was the router of the mind.
------
She was circling the blue, around the eye that twitched beneath her, making all the minute adjustments that eyes must do. She skimmed the edge of her iris-serried ranks of gristly Russell Phiber waiting to react to light, opening and closing the dark, deep hole of her pupil.
----
She was in the land of muscle bundles now, massive cables seemingly fused into the melting ice of the eyeball and ascending into the dark
scostner's review against another edition
3.0
For those who have read the first two books in the trilogy, this is the grand finale. The Armstrong Twins and AFGC, Lear and Caligula, BZRK, Burnofsky, the Bug Man, Plath and Keats... Everyone is in it for the endgame. What will cause the end of the world? The gray goo? The nanobots? The biots? Nuclear destruction caused by personnel driven insane by bots in their brains? Or perhaps the good buys will be able to stop it in time. Who are the good guys? Just when you think you might have it figured out, another layer gets peeled back and another player ups the ante.
If you haven't read the first two books, there are many references to previous events and many of the characters' motives are linked to those earlier actions and their repercussions. It might be too complicated to come in at this point and fully enjoy the story without that background knowledge. I would recommend reading the books in order. The original foundation of the story will explain how the nanobots and biots were first developed, how something meant as a medical intervention could become a means of terrorism, and the demons driving all the key players to try and remake the world as they wish.
Those who enjoy techno-thrillers, techno-apocalyptic stories, and sci-fi set in the present or very near future will probably want to read the series and try to figure out who the bad guys are for themselves.
I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
If you haven't read the first two books, there are many references to previous events and many of the characters' motives are linked to those earlier actions and their repercussions. It might be too complicated to come in at this point and fully enjoy the story without that background knowledge. I would recommend reading the books in order. The original foundation of the story will explain how the nanobots and biots were first developed, how something meant as a medical intervention could become a means of terrorism, and the demons driving all the key players to try and remake the world as they wish.
Those who enjoy techno-thrillers, techno-apocalyptic stories, and sci-fi set in the present or very near future will probably want to read the series and try to figure out who the bad guys are for themselves.
I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.