ronpayne's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A biopunk story set in a future where performance enhancing drugs and gene modifications are allowed in baseball and the teams are owned by big pharma. We follow a washed up baseball player/scout who is buried in medical debt from his playing career as he tries to solve the murder of his superstar slugger brother. I think it went a bit over the top with the world building (think Snow Crash), but it does it in the service of a fun story, and is very on point with its themes.
millennialbookreview's review
2.0
I don’t know how to feel overall about The Body Scout. The author did a good job with the characters, and making the conflicts between them interesting. Some of the ideas he had about the world worked really well and posed interesting questions to the reader. At the same time, the world didn’t really fully realized. The plot was pretty average, but a good section of it was centered around the wrong thing. The writing was fine, but was tonally all over the place. I think this is a novel that someone people will really love, but others will have very mixed feelings about.
My full review can be found here
My full review can be found here
jakobitz's review against another edition
5.0
Think Blade Runner meets Money Ball… and Deckard’s a baseball scout for a pharmaceutical company. The Body Scout, a cyberpunk detective noir, is beautifully written, full of interesting characters and clever world-building. The story reads like a noir mystery, but the strength of the novel lies in the journey you take through this near future world, and less on solving a mystery (although that was well executed as well). Maybe it’s just a case of reading the right book at the right time, but this was a fun smart sci-fi read that was truly enjoyable (and if you are an audiobook reader, the performance was excellent and enhanced the story).
cyberbb's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
mariposaazul21's review against another edition
3.0
There are two ways to judge this story. The first is simply as a novel. Seen through this lens, I would say it was good not great. The world building didn't do a lot for me. It felt a lot like a cyber punk Harry Potter. The main character was not particularly like able but not overly unlikable. Overall the as a story it was just *meh*.
The second way is as an indictment of modern politics, technology and finance. In this aspect, I found the treatment to be a bit ham fisted. This lens too was simply *meh*.
In summary, I don't regret having read this but I'm not sure I'd recommend it.
The second way is as an indictment of modern politics, technology and finance. In this aspect, I found the treatment to be a bit ham fisted. This lens too was simply *meh*.
In summary, I don't regret having read this but I'm not sure I'd recommend it.
jeremyanderberg's review
4.0
This was a fun ride! Baseball, murder mystery, organ transplants and body upgrades — what a unique combination of subjects. The characters were done well enough but not terribly memorable; it's the storyline itself — which got better as the book went on — that brought it up from a 3.5 to a 4 for me.
jaydoncornell's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
jhbandcats's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
There were so many great ideas in this book but I felt the author was trying too hard, trying to include every single thing he could think of to add to the world building or plot but without really adding any depth. It seemed superficial and like he was checking off a list of what sounded good.
It was hard to like any of the characters; the main character wasn’t particularly sympathetic and other important characters seemed likable up until they really weren’t. The only really sympathetic character was Lila and she wasn’t fully developed.
The whole feeling was of smarminess. I know this was intentional but it didn’t make it enjoyable. I’m very liberal but this was just too strong an analogy of how the white conservatives are stifling and crushing anything non-white and non-conservative. More subtlety would have been more effective.
I found the issue of cloning better developed in Richard K Morgan’s book Altered Carbon, and body swapping more creatively shown in Kathryn Bigelow’s movie Strange Days. As I said, lots of good ideas here but I didn’t care for the presentation.
It was hard to like any of the characters; the main character wasn’t particularly sympathetic and other important characters seemed likable up until they really weren’t. The only really sympathetic character was Lila and she wasn’t fully developed.
The whole feeling was of smarminess. I know this was intentional but it didn’t make it enjoyable. I’m very liberal but this was just too strong an analogy of how the white conservatives are stifling and crushing anything non-white and non-conservative. More subtlety would have been more effective.
I found the issue of cloning better developed in Richard K Morgan’s book Altered Carbon, and body swapping more creatively shown in Kathryn Bigelow’s movie Strange Days. As I said, lots of good ideas here but I didn’t care for the presentation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Abandonment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Religious bigotry, Body horror, and Classism