baskerville_book_reviews's review
This book (set) raises interesting questions about what it means to be human. The AI refer to themselves as humans, which I fundamentally disagree with. If a true AI was created, it would be an artificial species. I did appreciate how the term AI was properly used. People seem to think AI means a supercomputer that is programmed and told what to think, how, etc. An AI would be its own person, so to speak. They’d likely be subjected to the same sorts of psychological manipulations and brainwashing as humans. Who can say for sure?
Something that I caught early on was the usage of the word “rewind” for a video. These stories are set in the far future, which makes that antiquated term even more obnoxious and out of place.
Beyond those thoughts, I have little else to say about these stories. I found them to be incredibly boring and slow. It felt like a procession of boring events, followed by a somewhat exciting event to push the story forward, followed by more boring events.
I’ve been listening to these stories for days and almost the entire time, I just wanted to be listening to anything else.
The narrator is one of those people who can’t pronounce the wh sound without saying hhwhite or hhhwhen, which is just all kinds of annoying on its own. Another word he mispronounced is gif. It’s not a brand of peanut butter, you don’t jive people jifts, it’s spelled with a g. Other than his insufferable speaking patterns, I didn’t have any complaints with his narration.
Overall, the stories aren’t poorly written in a lingual sense. They’re just exceptionally boring. I’ve been dragging this listen out longer than I wanted to because I’ve wanted nothing more than to be done with it. If you’re REALLY into SciFi or AI, then maybe these stories are for you. Otherwise, give them a hard pass.
NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.
Something that I caught early on was the usage of the word “rewind” for a video. These stories are set in the far future, which makes that antiquated term even more obnoxious and out of place.
Beyond those thoughts, I have little else to say about these stories. I found them to be incredibly boring and slow. It felt like a procession of boring events, followed by a somewhat exciting event to push the story forward, followed by more boring events.
I’ve been listening to these stories for days and almost the entire time, I just wanted to be listening to anything else.
The narrator is one of those people who can’t pronounce the wh sound without saying hhwhite or hhhwhen, which is just all kinds of annoying on its own. Another word he mispronounced is gif. It’s not a brand of peanut butter, you don’t jive people jifts, it’s spelled with a g. Other than his insufferable speaking patterns, I didn’t have any complaints with his narration.
Overall, the stories aren’t poorly written in a lingual sense. They’re just exceptionally boring. I’ve been dragging this listen out longer than I wanted to because I’ve wanted nothing more than to be done with it. If you’re REALLY into SciFi or AI, then maybe these stories are for you. Otherwise, give them a hard pass.
NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.
More...