annelienvan's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting premise. the book really hit its stride and then just... stopped, sadly. I felt there was much more to the story that could have been fleshed out.
pharmdad2007's review against another edition
2.0
A couple of interesting things in this one, but mostly it just felt like it was trying to be a mash-up of other near-apocalyptic and dystopian ideas. Not my favorite.
julaun's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
olityr's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
ampersandread22's review against another edition
2.0
Read this and other reviews at Ampersand Read.
This book should have the sub-title: Social Media Gone Wild!
Not really, but that is essentially the concept here.
Social media has taken personality quizzes way too far in this dystopian tale. Once you take an assessment, it categorizes you as one of over twenty different affinities. You then have the option of attending meetings and even living with other people in that Affinity.
So of course the whole thing turns into a kind of class warfare. Because of course not everybody fits neatly and nicely into an affinity label. And the world Robert Charles Wilson sets his novel in is already fraying at the edges: Adam Fisk, our protagonist, witnesses a rather violent rally a few pages into the narrative.
Adam is your typical Aimless Youth before he joins an Affinity. His bond with his new fellow Taus quickly becomes all-consuming, until he’s drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid, so to speak, and believes Affinities should become more than just a social club to make new friends. Perhaps they should also take some political charge in the world at large.
The timeline gets a little jumpy. We go from Adam’s first meet-and-greet with the local Tau chapter to three years later, en route to a mysterious meeting. I would think the first year or two would be crucial! It’s Adam’s first foray into these huge new organizations, and the story just skips over it. It jumps, then info dumps to get you semi-caught up. It’s a book that I wish dwelled more on the details of its central conceit, instead of rushing past and glossing over some of the nitty gritty plot pieces that I feel would really flesh out the story and characters.
To start off with, what are the affinities? You get a broad brushstrokes overview of them: there are 22 of them and about 4 are considered “major” Affinities. But what makes them different? What on the assessment files people away into these all-consuming clubs? What made it worse for me is that you only get generalities of a couple of Affinities. Het, the Taus mortal enemies, are brutes, with personalities prone to violence. What makes a Tau a Tau? They smoke more marijuana than most. This point is brought up more than a few times, and as far as I can tell, that’s what sets the Taus apart. It’s not enough. For a story so focused on the tight-knit nature of these newly formed groups, I don’t ever truly understand what the groups are based on. This irked me the entire book.
Overall, it’s supposed to be a social science fiction book. That’s what the synopsis reads like to me. And I loved the idea. It took very little time between reading the book jacket on the hardcover in the store and deciding to buy it, full price. But what the book actually is is a political, broad picture image of a good but poorly executed concept. I read this book in about two days…but it was more because I was waiting for the book to dwell, to get to the good stuff. Not my cup of tea.
This book should have the sub-title: Social Media Gone Wild!
Not really, but that is essentially the concept here.
Social media has taken personality quizzes way too far in this dystopian tale. Once you take an assessment, it categorizes you as one of over twenty different affinities. You then have the option of attending meetings and even living with other people in that Affinity.
So of course the whole thing turns into a kind of class warfare. Because of course not everybody fits neatly and nicely into an affinity label. And the world Robert Charles Wilson sets his novel in is already fraying at the edges: Adam Fisk, our protagonist, witnesses a rather violent rally a few pages into the narrative.
Adam is your typical Aimless Youth before he joins an Affinity. His bond with his new fellow Taus quickly becomes all-consuming, until he’s drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid, so to speak, and believes Affinities should become more than just a social club to make new friends. Perhaps they should also take some political charge in the world at large.
The timeline gets a little jumpy. We go from Adam’s first meet-and-greet with the local Tau chapter to three years later, en route to a mysterious meeting. I would think the first year or two would be crucial! It’s Adam’s first foray into these huge new organizations, and the story just skips over it. It jumps, then info dumps to get you semi-caught up. It’s a book that I wish dwelled more on the details of its central conceit, instead of rushing past and glossing over some of the nitty gritty plot pieces that I feel would really flesh out the story and characters.
To start off with, what are the affinities? You get a broad brushstrokes overview of them: there are 22 of them and about 4 are considered “major” Affinities. But what makes them different? What on the assessment files people away into these all-consuming clubs? What made it worse for me is that you only get generalities of a couple of Affinities. Het, the Taus mortal enemies, are brutes, with personalities prone to violence. What makes a Tau a Tau? They smoke more marijuana than most. This point is brought up more than a few times, and as far as I can tell, that’s what sets the Taus apart. It’s not enough. For a story so focused on the tight-knit nature of these newly formed groups, I don’t ever truly understand what the groups are based on. This irked me the entire book.
Overall, it’s supposed to be a social science fiction book. That’s what the synopsis reads like to me. And I loved the idea. It took very little time between reading the book jacket on the hardcover in the store and deciding to buy it, full price. But what the book actually is is a political, broad picture image of a good but poorly executed concept. I read this book in about two days…but it was more because I was waiting for the book to dwell, to get to the good stuff. Not my cup of tea.
annaswan's review against another edition
3.0
Wilson's usual plot is "The world is utterly transformed through some alien intervention, and people cope in various ways." That was done beautifully in _Spin_ and less well in others. This new plot is "Psychometric classification enables a new tribalism to emerge, and it turns out that tribalism is dangerous." It kept me turning pages, and made me wonder how OKCupid's friend-finding algorithm was shaping up these days, and whether people at Hogwarts ever changed Houses.
stiricide's review against another edition
3.0
RCW could write an actual paper bag and I'd still love it.
nbub123's review against another edition
3.0
This novel had an interesting concept. I didn’t really connect it with what is happening with our own reality although I could see the idea being implemented eventually and having catastrophic consequences on a domestic but not global scale. 3 stars because it kept my interest and was an easy read. Not quite 4/5 star range because of its many holes in the plot and small details left out that I still had questions about after the end.
tp88's review against another edition
2.0
A bit conflicted on this one, book had a real nice flow and has a neat concept. Unfortunately, nothing particularly interesting ever occurs. I’ve experienced this in a few of RCW’s books now so it didn’t shock me. The story ended with a whimper, dropped from a 3 to a 2.
amynbell's review against another edition
3.0
This book is based on an interesting idea, but it's a snooze-fest. I hate to say that about a book by one of my favorite authors, but they can't all be home runs. A company has found a way to study people's brains and group people into categories with groups of people who get along well and think alike. Groups of these people have bonded together and created their own groups with ties stronger than their families. Eventually, the groups start fighting each other. I'm not really sure why. There are lots of general and political blah blahs in the middle which heads toward a so-so ending. It's just not anything special.