This gave me strong Twilight Mirage vibes, which is why having a dominatrix character using knife play and like… mental fisting? as an interrogation technique gave me such whiplash.

A fine sci-fi piece but I did not care for the character dynamics and generally prefer books without explicit sex scenes.

Content Warnings

dicefinity's review

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

An action-adventure packed cyber/sci fi book with all the questions of cyborging up and a cute romance.

Loved the new view of cyberpunk, the dysion sphere and all the cyber and punk effects
I like smut as much as the next person, this book didn't need it and/or it wasn't implemented in touch with the story

readerbot_lu's review

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dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

Did I like it? Yes
Do I recommend it? Yes

Favorite Quote

“Imagine if you lived in a world in which the definition of humanity comes with prerequisites. That, to count as truly human—and to be accorded the dignities and advantages of such—you must undergo a process in which you share your self with another, to experience gross injuries and endure countless assaults upon your intellect and senses. Only after this torture will you be admitted to human society. Would you say that is right? Would you accept it and say, yes, this is how things ought to be and they shall never change?" (Seung Ngo, 67%)

Positives

This story had really fleshed out world building for being a novella. I also found the character backgrounds intriguing and the the politics on AI-human relationships.

Negatives

The characters definitely needed to be fleshed out more and a lot felt like it was crammed in at the end.

lesbrarycard's review

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challenging mysterious fast-paced

4.0

el0ise's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense 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

4.25

this book packs a punch. the world is just completely immersive and super unique, meanwhile, the characters are fully fleshed out and interesting. the main relationship is so complex and compelling as well.

franklywrites's review against another edition

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challenging

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

No rating, as I'm unsure on this one. I initially found the premise and the setting very interesting and depicted in beautiful detail, but I certainly lost track of everything towards the end. There were some unexpectedly graphic sex scenes that would have been fine, I guess, but I barely detected any chemistry between the characters (other than being told they had shacked up in the past). The two main characters initially felt very different, but later on where it started flipping between their PoVs (sometimes I swear in the middle of scenes), I could barely tell the difference. I think the main reason I didn't get what was going on towards the end is because I never realised the viewpoint had changed until about two or three pages into the change.

Content Warnings

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Reviews

And Shall Machines Surrender, by Benjanun Sriduangkaew

sannesbookshelf's review

doddyaboutbooks's review

thestarman's review against another edition

ylvalovisa's review

ril_amber's review against another edition

dicefinity's review

readerbot_lu's review

Favorite Quote

Positives

Negatives

lesbrarycard's review

el0ise's review

franklywrites's review against another edition