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thistlechaser's review against another edition
2.0
Sometimes it's hard to review a book honestly. On his website the author wrote about how he wants to give up his day job and support his family on his writing alone. I'd love to be able to tell everyone to go buy this book now and support him, but man, it had so many issues.
The story opened with five men standing on a farm. They had no idea how they got there, who they were, where the farm was, or anything. I loved that. They were nearly complete blank slates, other than some mild personality traits. I love stories like that.
The problem was with where the story went from there. As more and more of their personalities came out, I disliked all of the characters. As characters are usually why I enjoy stories, that was a big issue. Every single character, from main to minor, was completely unlikable.
As more of the story unfolded, I believed it less and less. The logic of the story made so little sense, and I really didn't believe most of the characters' actions.
There was another issue that is harder to explain. The story felt more like a "male fantasy" than something female readers could enjoy as well. It was so action movie-ish at times (not that women can't enjoy those) and the two minor female characters were literally only there for the enjoyment of the men. Literally. That's why they existed in the world. There was one throw-away line about the women enjoying themselves in the kitchen while the men played games. Sure, what woman wouldn't have fun cooking snacks and serving drinks to men while they played? They were also the only female characters in the whole book. (Edit: Most of the AI interfaces were sexy woman. As in "sexiest woman the main character ever saw" and they fell instantly into "lust" with them. Those AIs were, of course, there to serve the men as well.)
By the last 10% of the book, I was just skimming. I just didn't believe the plot enough, I just wanted it to be finished.
While edited better than average for a self-published book, there were still a number of typos, spelling errors, grammar issues, etc. Not enough for me to stop reading, but enough to be noticeable.
I went from loving it in the beginning to hating it by the end, so I averaged the rating out to okay. I'm tempted to go with disliked instead, but I really had enjoyed the beginning a lot.
The story opened with five men standing on a farm. They had no idea how they got there, who they were, where the farm was, or anything. I loved that. They were nearly complete blank slates, other than some mild personality traits. I love stories like that.
The problem was with where the story went from there. As more and more of their personalities came out, I disliked all of the characters. As characters are usually why I enjoy stories, that was a big issue. Every single character, from main to minor, was completely unlikable.
As more of the story unfolded, I believed it less and less. The logic of the story made so little sense, and I really didn't believe most of the characters' actions.
There was another issue that is harder to explain. The story felt more like a "male fantasy" than something female readers could enjoy as well. It was so action movie-ish at times (not that women can't enjoy those) and the two minor female characters were literally only there for the enjoyment of the men. Literally. That's why they existed in the world. There was one throw-away line about the women enjoying themselves in the kitchen while the men played games. Sure, what woman wouldn't have fun cooking snacks and serving drinks to men while they played? They were also the only female characters in the whole book. (Edit: Most of the AI interfaces were sexy woman. As in "sexiest woman the main character ever saw" and they fell instantly into "lust" with them. Those AIs were, of course, there to serve the men as well.)
By the last 10% of the book, I was just skimming. I just didn't believe the plot enough, I just wanted it to be finished.
While edited better than average for a self-published book, there were still a number of typos, spelling errors, grammar issues, etc. Not enough for me to stop reading, but enough to be noticeable.
I went from loving it in the beginning to hating it by the end, so I averaged the rating out to okay. I'm tempted to go with disliked instead, but I really had enjoyed the beginning a lot.
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