jerseygrrrl's review against another edition
3.0
This isn't a novel. It's a video game!
Pros:
* Strong female lead
* Interesting exploration of how tech might advance
* Lots of action
Cons:
* Logic takes a back seat to action. The reader has to make many cognitive leaps that make no sense, just because the characters have decided that they're right.
* The strong female lead makes *terrible* decisions constantly. Maybe she wasn't meant to be smart (or maybe she was supposed to have a cognitive disorder?). I was surprised by how badly she navigated the choices available to her. I found myself rolling my eyes and saying "really?"
* The writing style is choppy and the plotting is disjointed. But this is Teffeau's debut novel, so I'm sure this will improve.
* One more thing: I was shocked by how little she worried about her parents. I would have understood that more if there was some backstory (maybe they were terrible people?). But without explanation, it was just implausible how little she cared for people other than her love interest and one friend.
Pros:
* Strong female lead
* Interesting exploration of how tech might advance
* Lots of action
Cons:
* Logic takes a back seat to action. The reader has to make many cognitive leaps that make no sense, just because the characters have decided that they're right.
* The strong female lead makes *terrible* decisions constantly. Maybe she wasn't meant to be smart (or maybe she was supposed to have a cognitive disorder?). I was surprised by how badly she navigated the choices available to her. I found myself rolling my eyes and saying "really?"
* The writing style is choppy and the plotting is disjointed. But this is Teffeau's debut novel, so I'm sure this will improve.
* One more thing: I was shocked by how little she worried about her parents. I would have understood that more if there was some backstory (maybe they were terrible people?). But without explanation, it was just implausible how little she cared for people other than her love interest and one friend.
energyrae's review against another edition
5.0
It's a new world. People are living in a dome because life outside is impossible. Most people have an implant. It makes life easier, it's quick access to all the information you could need. Some people would even kill just to get one because it's starting to become a luxury for the elite.
But Emery is just a typical girl who really enjoys simulation, and video games. This is where she meets Rik, so to speak. They know each other so well in the game world. They can connect through their implants outside of it as well. But they've never actually met, despite the connection.
When Emery draws the attention of a courier service, she must learn a new way of life. And while she is learning valuable skills and adjusting to her new life, her old life gets left behind. Tasked with transporting important information, Emery gets herself into trouble. Who best to turn to when things get hard?
Implanted feels a bit dystopian to me, and I really love that aspect of the book. The entire genre is not something typical for me and I am so glad I read this book because Teffeau has done a great job with this. The characters are in-depth, they are fun, smart, and relatable. Each scene is written to make you feel like you're there. This was such a surprisingly fun read for me and while it didn't end on a cliffhanger, I do hope that the author plans to do a book 2 because I'm not ready to let Emery, Rik, or Tahir go.
But Emery is just a typical girl who really enjoys simulation, and video games. This is where she meets Rik, so to speak. They know each other so well in the game world. They can connect through their implants outside of it as well. But they've never actually met, despite the connection.
When Emery draws the attention of a courier service, she must learn a new way of life. And while she is learning valuable skills and adjusting to her new life, her old life gets left behind. Tasked with transporting important information, Emery gets herself into trouble. Who best to turn to when things get hard?
Implanted feels a bit dystopian to me, and I really love that aspect of the book. The entire genre is not something typical for me and I am so glad I read this book because Teffeau has done a great job with this. The characters are in-depth, they are fun, smart, and relatable. Each scene is written to make you feel like you're there. This was such a surprisingly fun read for me and while it didn't end on a cliffhanger, I do hope that the author plans to do a book 2 because I'm not ready to let Emery, Rik, or Tahir go.
intorilex's review against another edition
2.0
I DNFed 45 pages in, I couldnt relate to the characters or get immersed in the story
keyboardscoffee's review against another edition
4.0
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Pinky swear!
Yesssssss.
Implanted started off a little slow and weird. I was a tad confused by what was going on with Emery for the first chapter or so, although the backstory on what was going on did get explained later. You just get dropped into the story and it was a little jolting to begin with.
Once it picks up, it picks up. The plot is really interesting, if slightly predictable at times. I enjoyed the scienc-y/techie aspects a lot, I think they added an intriguing layer to the plot over all. The idea that you can have someone in your head all the time, whether that person is chosen or forced upon you, I thought was really cool. The technology and the environment – domed cities in a dystopian future because of course humanity has killed Mother Earth – speaks to a likely future, which I always find interesting to read about. It makes it more realistic, which can also make it a little more scary.
The side characters and relationships were also quite well done. Each relationship that Emery has is focused on in a different way, since she basically has to fake her death in order to become a courier and her new “friendships” aren’t exactly coming at a great time for her. Having to cut off her old friends and make new friends in a place she’s been blackmailed into becoming a part of was emotional to read about.
Her relationship with Rik didn’t exactly work out how I thought it would, which was good. I appreciated that it wasn’t completely straight-forward. Through their rollercoaster, I think we saw the most growth with Emery, even if some of the stuff she did regarding him annoyed me. Her lack of communication was somewhat warranted but it still got on my nerves. He was quite a softie and wasn’t at all what I was expecting when we were first introduced to him.
The best part for me was that Implanted read more like a movie than it did a book. I love books like that. I hope it gets optioned one day so I can see it on the big screen 🙂
Yesssssss.
Implanted started off a little slow and weird. I was a tad confused by what was going on with Emery for the first chapter or so, although the backstory on what was going on did get explained later. You just get dropped into the story and it was a little jolting to begin with.
Once it picks up, it picks up. The plot is really interesting, if slightly predictable at times. I enjoyed the scienc-y/techie aspects a lot, I think they added an intriguing layer to the plot over all. The idea that you can have someone in your head all the time, whether that person is chosen or forced upon you, I thought was really cool. The technology and the environment – domed cities in a dystopian future because of course humanity has killed Mother Earth – speaks to a likely future, which I always find interesting to read about. It makes it more realistic, which can also make it a little more scary.
The side characters and relationships were also quite well done. Each relationship that Emery has is focused on in a different way, since she basically has to fake her death in order to become a courier and her new “friendships” aren’t exactly coming at a great time for her. Having to cut off her old friends and make new friends in a place she’s been blackmailed into becoming a part of was emotional to read about.
Her relationship with Rik didn’t exactly work out how I thought it would, which was good. I appreciated that it wasn’t completely straight-forward. Through their rollercoaster, I think we saw the most growth with Emery, even if some of the stuff she did regarding him annoyed me. Her lack of communication was somewhat warranted but it still got on my nerves. He was quite a softie and wasn’t at all what I was expecting when we were first introduced to him.
The best part for me was that Implanted read more like a movie than it did a book. I love books like that. I hope it gets optioned one day so I can see it on the big screen 🙂
suncani's review against another edition
3.0
A girl is blackmailed into becoming a courier for data in her blood and discovers one of the secrets she transports is wanted by several different groups and is key to a government secret. Okay so this is not a bad book, it's going to sound like it is but it isn't. The MC is interesting enough and once the main plot gets going it's typical thriller territory - the government is lying, businesses are bad and are manipulating things to make money etc. However, I'm going to talk about the things that don't quite work for me. Firstly, the MC talks about how everything she does is for her family and her friends, and they're the things that keep her sane and that's what keeps her going whilst working for the company she dislikes. But. You never actually meet her family, they're talked about in abstract, but we just accept that they mean a lot without any fleshing out. Two. Almost half the book goes by before we actually hit the main plot of the book - her carrying the one particular secret that sets everything off. Now, yes some world building is needed but actually we don't know all that much even after all that. So overall it was okay, but I didn't care about anybody I was just along for the ride. It started to raise interesting questions about connectivity and how much we're blinded by being connected all the time but it didn't really do much with it, just insinuated and left the rest to the imagination.
barb4ry1's review against another edition
4.0
I’m new to Cyberpunk. Sure, I saw Johnny Mnemonic and read Altered Carbon but that’s basically it. Not much. I have no idea why as I enjoy fancy advanced technology mixed with dystopian elements. Well, on the bright side, I have a lot to discover.
Implanted hooked me with the premise and unique concept of the hemocryption - coding data in the blood cells. Not only it’s imaginative but also infinitely cool. Here’s the quote explaining the process.
Dope.
In the world of Implanted, people live under a glass dome that separates them from the hostile environment outside. New Worth, built on the battered foundations of Fort Worth, Texas, makes life difficult and demanding, especially for the underprivileged. Under the dome, everything comes to status, credit balances and career potential. Stratified society lacks common goals and a sense of solidarity. Emery Driscoll hopes to pursue a career in data curation. Unfortunately, her DNA has special traits that make her interesting to a clandestine security company. Soon, she finds herself blackmailed into being a blood-courier. She has to cut off any ties with her friends and family.
Officially, she dies.
For the most part, Implanted kept me glued to the pages. A dystopian world, a stratified society obsessed with technology and thought-provoking concepts make it an excellent read. Especially that Teffeau introduces everything accessibly. Her prose flows nicely and never gets in the way of the story.
Teffeau tells the story in the first-person present tense. As a result, the reader is experiencing the events of the book at the same time as the narrator. I would say this feeling of going through the plot together creates an instantly closer relationship. On top of that, Emery remains likeable throughout so rooting for her comes naturally. She’s a fully fleshed, three-dimensional heroine with an interesting back story that defines her choices. I find her admirable.
While we don’t get to know other characters so deeply, they all feel distinct and believable. They are fixated on technology and connectivity, and it allows for passages of interesting explanation. Emery’s point of view is saturated by technology because her perception is shaped by it. Like most people, she has an implant that allows her to constantly ping emotions and thoughts with her friends and family. She’s addicted to the neural implant, instant connectivity and resulting camaraderie. When she loses it, Emery goes through the feeling of mental amputation.
There’s a romance, but it develops slowly and convincingly.
Apart from things done right, Implanted has a few things going against it. In the second half of the book, the plot becomes a little unclear. Emery’s storyline intertwines with larger things, but the connection feels loose. For example, I still don’t know how corrupt is the government. Adding data about the world and things that actually happen there, would make the story more comprehensible. The ending scenes were bloodcurdling, but the last chapter felt too tidy and, as a result, anticlimactic.
Regardless of these issues, Teffeau paints a distressing and convincing picture of the future I wouldn’t like to experience.
In the realm of ratings, I’d say this landed pretty solidly in the lower-end of the I really like it. It was a solid book that read fast, kept me engaged, but didn’t really amaze me. Worth the read though.
Implanted hooked me with the premise and unique concept of the hemocryption - coding data in the blood cells. Not only it’s imaginative but also infinitely cool. Here’s the quote explaining the process.
Aventine employs a proprietary hemocryption process where data’s encoded onto the protein strands of your immune cells in your bloodstream. When you get an assignment, encoded blood’s injected into your body. When you arrive at the drop-off location, your blood needs to be scrubbed – essentially a type of dialysis where the encoded cells are separated out from the rest of your blood. The data encoding is geared to a specific HLA type that you and the other couriers have. In other words, you are immune, unaffected by the encoded blood, where people with different HLA types would become sick, with something akin to anaphylactic shock, if injected.
Dope.
In the world of Implanted, people live under a glass dome that separates them from the hostile environment outside. New Worth, built on the battered foundations of Fort Worth, Texas, makes life difficult and demanding, especially for the underprivileged. Under the dome, everything comes to status, credit balances and career potential. Stratified society lacks common goals and a sense of solidarity. Emery Driscoll hopes to pursue a career in data curation. Unfortunately, her DNA has special traits that make her interesting to a clandestine security company. Soon, she finds herself blackmailed into being a blood-courier. She has to cut off any ties with her friends and family.
Officially, she dies.
For the most part, Implanted kept me glued to the pages. A dystopian world, a stratified society obsessed with technology and thought-provoking concepts make it an excellent read. Especially that Teffeau introduces everything accessibly. Her prose flows nicely and never gets in the way of the story.
Teffeau tells the story in the first-person present tense. As a result, the reader is experiencing the events of the book at the same time as the narrator. I would say this feeling of going through the plot together creates an instantly closer relationship. On top of that, Emery remains likeable throughout so rooting for her comes naturally. She’s a fully fleshed, three-dimensional heroine with an interesting back story that defines her choices. I find her admirable.
While we don’t get to know other characters so deeply, they all feel distinct and believable. They are fixated on technology and connectivity, and it allows for passages of interesting explanation. Emery’s point of view is saturated by technology because her perception is shaped by it. Like most people, she has an implant that allows her to constantly ping emotions and thoughts with her friends and family. She’s addicted to the neural implant, instant connectivity and resulting camaraderie. When she loses it, Emery goes through the feeling of mental amputation.
There’s a romance, but it develops slowly and convincingly.
Apart from things done right, Implanted has a few things going against it. In the second half of the book, the plot becomes a little unclear. Emery’s storyline intertwines with larger things, but the connection feels loose. For example, I still don’t know how corrupt is the government. Adding data about the world and things that actually happen there, would make the story more comprehensible. The ending scenes were bloodcurdling, but the last chapter felt too tidy and, as a result, anticlimactic.
Regardless of these issues, Teffeau paints a distressing and convincing picture of the future I wouldn’t like to experience.
In the realm of ratings, I’d say this landed pretty solidly in the lower-end of the I really like it. It was a solid book that read fast, kept me engaged, but didn’t really amaze me. Worth the read though.
rosaza's review against another edition
4.0
**Note: You can find this review along with some art I made of the book over on my blog at http://elleloughran.blogspot.com/2018/07/review-implanted-by-lauren-teffeau.html **
Implanted is YA cyberpunk with a very interesting premise. Emery lives in a dome city called New Worth, built on the remains of Fort Worth after climate change made the outside world uninhabitable. The city is built hierarchically, with three vertically-stacked districts: the Terrestrial District, the Understory, and the Canopy. The rich and powerful live in the Canopy and get to see the light; the poor, in the Terrestrial District, live in perpetual twilight. Nearly everyone has an implant, or computer in their head, that lets them communicate with others silently, get directions, find out how near people are, etc.
The really interesting thing, though, is the idea of hemocryption. Emery is kidnapped and made work as a courier transporting top-secret information through the city in her blood, encoded in her blood cells. She was chosen because she's one of the rare few who can withstand hemocryption without their body rejecting the information-loaded cells. Hemocryption introduces some very original mechanics to the story, like how Aventine (the courier company) has the encoded cells set to release a toxin after a certain amount of time that builds up in the courier's blood until it induces the 'curdle', incapacitating them if they don't deliver the information (i.e. complete the drop) as promised, and so the couriers need to get their blood filtered and deliver the data as soon as possible ('scrubbing').
Art!
I drew some stuff from Implanted because the more I wrote of this review the more attached I grew to the book. At the top is the domed city where the book is set, and at the bottom are the main characters, Emery, Rik, Brita, Tahir and Kat.
[on the blog]
What I Liked
1. The idea of hemocryption - what an interesting mechanic! And it was cool how it introduced physical constraints to a world where transferring information would normally just be done digitally, which would be pretty boring to read about. People who really want to keep their secrets safe go for hemocryption so the information can't be hacked while it travels digitally.
2. The wholesome relationships between characters - while this book is a thriller, it still has loads of really wholesome relationships that made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Here are some cute Emery and Rik quotes:
'My world narrows, until there's only room for me and Rik and each step we take. >>Tell me what it's like outside.>> In case I don't get another chance to ask. In case I don't get fully scrubbed in time.'
'>> Haven't thrown up yet.>>
<
Her relationships with her handler and her friend Brita are super adorable as well. I guess I'm used to seeing everyone be completely treacherous in thrillers, so it was really nice to see this - that even when the world is dangerous, some people can stick by your side.
3(2b?). The romance is lovely. I don't usually care for romance in books, but this was so not insta-love. It was getting to know each other over a long time, growing to trust each other, trouble, hurting each other (but for important reasons, not just being angsty) and proving that they could depend on each other. I don't want to say too much because spoilers, but it was such a wholesome, gradual, compelling friendship-blossoming-into-romance and so I loved reading about it rather than mildly resenting it like I do with a lot of book romances. Also, it ran parallel to the plot rather than taking it over, which was good.
Oh, and no love triangle.
[Seriously, the relationships are so good!]
4. Representation! There were at least two gay couples very casually mentioned (like, 'her wife' or something) and it was cute. Also, Rik is a scientist like me! There was also what seemed like a lot of racial diversity going by the Hispanic-sounding surnames but I imagine that's quite common in Texas.
5. I was impressed by the approach Teffeau took when showing the technology. In a book whose first draft I wrote years ago, I had some similar things (for example, a main character was training to be a 'data curator', and so is Emery, which is probably because like me the author figured that'd be one of the main jobs remaining in an advanced technological society, and people communicate using implants except for some holdouts) so I felt a little scooped, but I have to give it to her - she did figure out how to make it work, how to make the technology powerful yet restrictive enough that it didn't swamp the plot.
For example, you could only use your implant to synch chat with people who accepted your request, and if you wanted to be really really close to someone you could 'calibrate' with them, which seems to let people feel things through you and feel your emotions. Like having your partner in your head at all times to comfort you - way more intimacy than we can get now.
6. The action was really exciting and entertaining. One of the features is a bunch of protests as unrest spreads through the city, and just reading about the chaos and commotion was a lot of fun. It'd make a good movie I think, especially with the structure of the city.
'Rik pales at the agitated crowds, and Charon and Denita exchange a panicked look. But for the first time today, I relax. As a courier, navigating the inevitable New Worth crowds is my bread and butter.
Time to go to work.'
7. Emery's backstory was great and I loved how much agency she took. And the role her handler later played in helping her deal with it [can't say much more because of spoilers!].
"What good's the word of a Canopy brat?"
I try not to react to the dislike radiating off her frame. "I lived down here until I was eighteen."
"Bet you couldn't wait to escape."
"No, I couldn't. The only things we have to sustain ourselves are the implants and thoughts of Emergence. Don't judge me for taking one of the few avenues available to me, and I won't judge you for refusing it."'
8. Some cool writing:
The writing style is an odd mix between utilitarian specfic style and the pretty prose of literary fiction, which felt strange at times, but mostly worked and gave us the story without too much interference but with some nice sentences like this one.
''Anticipation twines through me.'
What I Didn't Like
1. For a thriller, the plot was a little unclear. We're pulled through the book by our concern for Emery's safety and her friends mainly, but there are definitely other, larger things unfolding throughout society and intertwined with her story. While those things were interesting to read about (class struggles mainly), the connection between them didn't seem particularly tight and so I wasn't really clear about what they wanted or what would count as 'success' on the large scale. Similarly, there was a hint of government corruption, but it never really became clear how much there was.
I did feel quite nostalgic while reading it - it's the exact sort of genre I was into a few years ago, and it's a really good example of that genre. But I think now I would prefer a more expansive view of what happens to the world rather than just to the character, so I'd have preferred a bit more information on what was actually going on in the rest of the world.
2. The ending wrapped up very, very quickly and tidily. I'm very glad it's not a series (I love a good standalone), but I feel like Teffeau could have written a bit more to explain what happened and not have it end so suddenly.
3. I didn't get quite as into it as I have into my favourite books ever, like Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn and Way of Kings - so, for example, with Sanderson, I was completely crushed and couldn't read on for a while after a main character died, but with this I think I'd be OK - still sad, but able to keep things in proportion. Which is perhaps better(!)
That said, the book still got to me to an extreme degree - one night after reading it I woke up from a nightmare in which I'd been in the world of Implanted and had a huge amount of trouble convincing myself it wasn't real and I was just in my house in the present day. So it can definitely sneak into your dreams!
Overall
This was a really fun read. There were definitely some things that left me a little confused, but the reading experience in general was pure fun and the characters were lovely and well-rounded. The more I think about the characters the more I love them, actually. I recommend it if you're into science fiction or futuristic YA.
In short: Entertaining cyberpunk with new ideas and heartwarming character relationships. 4 stars.
★★★★☆
This book was provided to me for free in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC, and to Angry Robot Books for having me auto-approved to download and review your stuff!
Implanted is YA cyberpunk with a very interesting premise. Emery lives in a dome city called New Worth, built on the remains of Fort Worth after climate change made the outside world uninhabitable. The city is built hierarchically, with three vertically-stacked districts: the Terrestrial District, the Understory, and the Canopy. The rich and powerful live in the Canopy and get to see the light; the poor, in the Terrestrial District, live in perpetual twilight. Nearly everyone has an implant, or computer in their head, that lets them communicate with others silently, get directions, find out how near people are, etc.
The really interesting thing, though, is the idea of hemocryption. Emery is kidnapped and made work as a courier transporting top-secret information through the city in her blood, encoded in her blood cells. She was chosen because she's one of the rare few who can withstand hemocryption without their body rejecting the information-loaded cells. Hemocryption introduces some very original mechanics to the story, like how Aventine (the courier company) has the encoded cells set to release a toxin after a certain amount of time that builds up in the courier's blood until it induces the 'curdle', incapacitating them if they don't deliver the information (i.e. complete the drop) as promised, and so the couriers need to get their blood filtered and deliver the data as soon as possible ('scrubbing').
Art!
I drew some stuff from Implanted because the more I wrote of this review the more attached I grew to the book. At the top is the domed city where the book is set, and at the bottom are the main characters, Emery, Rik, Brita, Tahir and Kat.
[on the blog]
What I Liked
1. The idea of hemocryption - what an interesting mechanic! And it was cool how it introduced physical constraints to a world where transferring information would normally just be done digitally, which would be pretty boring to read about. People who really want to keep their secrets safe go for hemocryption so the information can't be hacked while it travels digitally.
2. The wholesome relationships between characters - while this book is a thriller, it still has loads of really wholesome relationships that made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Here are some cute Emery and Rik quotes:
'My world narrows, until there's only room for me and Rik and each step we take. >>Tell me what it's like outside.>> In case I don't get another chance to ask. In case I don't get fully scrubbed in time.'
'>> Haven't thrown up yet.>>
<
Her relationships with her handler and her friend Brita are super adorable as well. I guess I'm used to seeing everyone be completely treacherous in thrillers, so it was really nice to see this - that even when the world is dangerous, some people can stick by your side.
3(2b?). The romance is lovely. I don't usually care for romance in books, but this was so not insta-love. It was getting to know each other over a long time, growing to trust each other, trouble, hurting each other (but for important reasons, not just being angsty) and proving that they could depend on each other. I don't want to say too much because spoilers, but it was such a wholesome, gradual, compelling friendship-blossoming-into-romance and so I loved reading about it rather than mildly resenting it like I do with a lot of book romances. Also, it ran parallel to the plot rather than taking it over, which was good.
Oh, and no love triangle.
[Seriously, the relationships are so good!]
4. Representation! There were at least two gay couples very casually mentioned (like, 'her wife' or something) and it was cute. Also, Rik is a scientist like me! There was also what seemed like a lot of racial diversity going by the Hispanic-sounding surnames but I imagine that's quite common in Texas.
5. I was impressed by the approach Teffeau took when showing the technology. In a book whose first draft I wrote years ago, I had some similar things (for example, a main character was training to be a 'data curator', and so is Emery, which is probably because like me the author figured that'd be one of the main jobs remaining in an advanced technological society, and people communicate using implants except for some holdouts) so I felt a little scooped, but I have to give it to her - she did figure out how to make it work, how to make the technology powerful yet restrictive enough that it didn't swamp the plot.
For example, you could only use your implant to synch chat with people who accepted your request, and if you wanted to be really really close to someone you could 'calibrate' with them, which seems to let people feel things through you and feel your emotions. Like having your partner in your head at all times to comfort you - way more intimacy than we can get now.
6. The action was really exciting and entertaining. One of the features is a bunch of protests as unrest spreads through the city, and just reading about the chaos and commotion was a lot of fun. It'd make a good movie I think, especially with the structure of the city.
'Rik pales at the agitated crowds, and Charon and Denita exchange a panicked look. But for the first time today, I relax. As a courier, navigating the inevitable New Worth crowds is my bread and butter.
Time to go to work.'
7. Emery's backstory was great and I loved how much agency she took. And the role her handler later played in helping her deal with it [can't say much more because of spoilers!].
"What good's the word of a Canopy brat?"
I try not to react to the dislike radiating off her frame. "I lived down here until I was eighteen."
"Bet you couldn't wait to escape."
"No, I couldn't. The only things we have to sustain ourselves are the implants and thoughts of Emergence. Don't judge me for taking one of the few avenues available to me, and I won't judge you for refusing it."'
8. Some cool writing:
The writing style is an odd mix between utilitarian specfic style and the pretty prose of literary fiction, which felt strange at times, but mostly worked and gave us the story without too much interference but with some nice sentences like this one.
''Anticipation twines through me.'
What I Didn't Like
1. For a thriller, the plot was a little unclear. We're pulled through the book by our concern for Emery's safety and her friends mainly, but there are definitely other, larger things unfolding throughout society and intertwined with her story. While those things were interesting to read about (class struggles mainly), the connection between them didn't seem particularly tight and so I wasn't really clear about what they wanted or what would count as 'success' on the large scale. Similarly, there was a hint of government corruption, but it never really became clear how much there was.
I did feel quite nostalgic while reading it - it's the exact sort of genre I was into a few years ago, and it's a really good example of that genre. But I think now I would prefer a more expansive view of what happens to the world rather than just to the character, so I'd have preferred a bit more information on what was actually going on in the rest of the world.
2. The ending wrapped up very, very quickly and tidily. I'm very glad it's not a series (I love a good standalone), but I feel like Teffeau could have written a bit more to explain what happened and not have it end so suddenly.
3. I didn't get quite as into it as I have into my favourite books ever, like Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn and Way of Kings - so, for example, with Sanderson, I was completely crushed and couldn't read on for a while after a main character died, but with this I think I'd be OK - still sad, but able to keep things in proportion. Which is perhaps better(!)
That said, the book still got to me to an extreme degree - one night after reading it I woke up from a nightmare in which I'd been in the world of Implanted and had a huge amount of trouble convincing myself it wasn't real and I was just in my house in the present day. So it can definitely sneak into your dreams!
Overall
This was a really fun read. There were definitely some things that left me a little confused, but the reading experience in general was pure fun and the characters were lovely and well-rounded. The more I think about the characters the more I love them, actually. I recommend it if you're into science fiction or futuristic YA.
In short: Entertaining cyberpunk with new ideas and heartwarming character relationships. 4 stars.
★★★★☆
This book was provided to me for free in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC, and to Angry Robot Books for having me auto-approved to download and review your stuff!
frasersimons's review against another edition
4.0
The data stored in her blood can save a city on the brink… or destroy it, in this gripping cyberpunk thriller.
When college student Emery Driscoll is blackmailed into being a courier for a clandestine organisation, she’s cut off from the neural implant community which binds the domed city of New Worth together. Her new masters exploit her rare condition which allows her to carry encoded data in her blood, and train her to transport secrets throughout the troubled city. New Worth is on the brink of Emergence – freedom from the dome – but not everyone wants to leave. Then a data drop goes bad, and Emery is caught between factions: those who want her blood, and those who just want her dead.
Within a techno-thriller-like framework Implanted’s author, Lauren C. Teffeau, weaves solarpunk and cyberpunk themes into a rich setting. New Worth is structurally crafted to evoke a sense of the outside world after radical climate effects have occurred. The stratification of class is literalized, with the rich living high up, enjoying the sun and the best goods the city has to offer. The poor live in all but darkness and have society geared against them in that there’s more crime and the cleaning robots don’t come around that much in the lower levels, etc.. The layout of the entire city is meant to feel like a vertical urban sprawl with only the aesthetic or veneer of a green space, a neat take on an urban jungle.
Emery comes from the terrestrial district down below, with her parents working her ass off to get her in school and land a job that’ll eventually enable them to move up. She’s short, she’s brown, and she’s completely bought into the status quo. Almost. It’s immediately clear early on that she’s a trauma survivor who goes to a virtual reality arcade to hone her skills. A particular skill set that she uses to claw back some control or agency in her life by hunting down people who prey on marginalized people, usually women; removing their implants and selling them.
In her personal life, she’s closed off and secretive, slow to trust—focusing on her coming graduation and landing a decent, but boring job to help her family move up, literally! Of course, this isn’t to be. A corporation blackmails her into joining their ranks, cut her off from everyone, even faking her death, and trains her to be a courier. Porting important information around in her blood, co-opting her very body for their own agency.
“...humans are fallible. Fallible for putting all their trust into the network. Fallible for not believing what they see with their own eyes. And we at Aventine use that to our advantage.”
Importantly, she was close to fully synching with Rik, a person she plays the arcades with but has never actually met.
Implants are the heart of the high tech in this cyberpunk fiction. Everyone has one and it’s installed fairly early on, else they lose some of the higher functionality, apparently. It allows people to sync with one another, sharing their emotions and thoughts so long as they’re connected. All of society is built on this technology. Citizens’ identities and the way they interact is completely changed by their implants. Social structure and corporate structure is built on the idea that everyone has one. Except… not everybody does. The Disconnects are people who reject this idea, unwilling to trade their freedom and natural human interactions for a device that essentially keeps the populace under the city’s thumb. All the information that is disseminated from them is outright trusted. People no longer trust their own senses, they trust the information being fed them. Social interactions have gone “Online” even more, essentially.
“It's true connection has a cost...The messy infrastructure can barely keep pace with the demands of the implants place on it. Not to mention security risks., malware, and emotional bleed - the kind that incapacitates or breeds paranoia instead of bringing people together.
Drawbacks we blindly put up with in our search for efficiency and escape.”
Joining Aventine, the corporation that has blackmailed her, eradicated the one connection she was building toward having despite her trauma. It’s the ultimate way of letting someone into your life, as their presence would always be there with you.
Fast forward months later and a job goes wrong. The information she’s carrying turns out to be important enough that both the corps and the disconnects are after her and she has to risk finding and asking for Rik’s help, who thought her dead.
What ensues is a fairly typical technothriller structure. The slow lead up filled with infodumps and personal stakes followed by action as she has to use her knowledge of the city to navigate her way to any sense of freedom. It’s a cyclical and satisfying narrative that doesn’t feel bloated but does take a while to get going. Luckily, the whole thing is a fast read so it’s not a big deal.
There are some more interesting aspects to the story though, deviating from cyberpunk and the techno-thriller formula. The underlying feminism to the fiction was always nice, even if it made Rik kind of annoying sometimes. The agency of the story is always with Emery, which means when she screws up it’s on her; just as the bulk of the decisions are her own. Rik is a well-off white guy in the higher levels who is a fairly good blueprint for a good supporting character. He sympathizes with the disconnects and acts of as a lens to fill Emery in on the details of the New Worth she herself is unaware of. It works well. But he’s still a little wrapped up in his own privilege in the story, in my opinion. Which, I think is how it is meant to be.
“That takes me by surprise. To willingly give up your implant? They make modern life bearable.
"Don't look so shocked. Implants aren't everything. It's not a weakness to want to separate mind from machine."
Weakness maybe not, but definitely outside the norm.”
The story is all from Emery’s perspective. Usually, I don’t end up liking something written in this way but it’s pulled off nicely here. Emery is likable and well fleshed out and her voice, while very casual (the only meh part of it for me), ultimately culminates in good character work. There is less prose but the themes are worked in such that there’s a decent amount of emotional payout because of the perspective.
It’s also somewhat subversive. It’s less frenetic than traditional cyberpunk, which usually has new terminology and infodumps that take place during action that doesn’t relent much. This is decidedly more low-key, making it also more accessible.
It also feels solarpunk in that it’s not entirely nihilistic regarding technology or the future, in general, despite the ecological disaster. There are explorations of being responsible and not simply ignorant when trying to understand the outside world that this society looks forward to. Not doing so having real, lasting impact that’s detrimental to humanity. The characters have low points but even when the omnipresent corporations illicit very little hope, it’s disillusioned later. Emery isn’t looking to simply save herself, she has to consider what her actions will do to others; decidedly not traditional cyberpunk where the protagonists are anti-heroes. Which, I like a lot. This feels like a more relevant cyberpunk story because of this.
The city finding a new use for things is also present but… not in the way you’d expect. It’s a living, breathing thing aesthetically because it has technology to counteract the greenhouse effect of living under glass, but also has maintenance tunnels and spaces for sub-cultures that are used by her as a courier to get her job done, even when that job eventually becomes eluding everyone. It felt like a well-realized setting with a purpose beyond the overcapacity of humanity resulting, again, in a nihilistic narrative more indicative of cyberpunk.
She needs to integrate into a corporation. Dressing like them and doing as they say. There is not the normal freedom of expression found in cyberpunk here, that’s been taken from her and, though subtle, I thought was an interesting way to turn it around later when she’s running from the corporation using the tech and the clothes they gave her. Rather than cybernetics being the thing used to subvert power structures, it’s a more literalized repurposing. Pretty cool.
Implants are both good and bad. Therefore the “good”, the “bad”, and the morally grey are put squarely on the shoulders people. Which ends up getting rid of the technophobia trope, too.
“...humans are fallible. Fallible for putting all their trust into the network. Fallible for not believing what they see with their own eyes. And we at Aventine use that to our advantage.”
It’s also always great to read a female protagonist that isn’t sexualized. Her voice and thoughts make sense, both in just the case of being a believable character, but also in terms of being respectful of a trauma victim while not skirting the issue. She has internal things to work out as a result and the narrative is about that. It’s not only a blip of a character detail to make her sympathetic. It’s how you come to be able to empathize and understand her thoughts and decisions throughout the entire story.
Surprising, thoughtful, and good; Implanted, I hope, is the start of a distinctly feminist cyberpunk wave of literature striking out against the cyberpunk visual tropes pervasive in visual media today that people seem to be waiting for. People like me!
“Over-reliance on digital infrastructure. If you don't exist in the infrastructure, where do you exist?”
lostinabookbrb's review against another edition
4.0
Implanted is a post-apocalyptic novel with advance technology. The world building, especially around how the tech works, is pretty detailed. I think there was a lot put into this book and it could have, probably, been dolled out into two novels. However, I liked the plot and the characters.
I have a more in depth review here: https://thereturncart.com/2018/09/10/book-review-implanted-by-lauren-c-teffeau/
I have a more in depth review here: https://thereturncart.com/2018/09/10/book-review-implanted-by-lauren-c-teffeau/
lybrarie's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-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
3.75
I really struggled with what rating to give this book. It is somewhere in the range of 3.5 stars to 4 stars, so I just gave it 3.75 since that is right in the middle.
As with the vast majority of scifi books, this one took me a couple of chapters to get into whilst I was still learning about the world and the context of the story. However after those few chapters I was really enjoying the book. I thought the worldbuilding was really well done and I really loved Emery, the main character. The plot was really interesting me and I was often finding myself eager to pick up the book to find out what happens next.
Once I got to about half way to two thirds of the way through the book, something changed. I don't know whether I can put my finger on exactly what it was, but I wasn't quite enjoying the book as much as I previously had been. The worldbuilding and writing continued to be really good, but I was no longer liking the main character - in fact she was beginning to get on my nerves quite a lot. I think the plot points were good ones, but I don't know if they were executed as well as they had been earlier on in the book. Throughout the book there were several points where I didn't really understand what was going on at all, and some parts that just made me uncomfortable.
All that being said, I think my overall experience with this book was a good one and I would say that I enjoyed reading it. I definitely felt immersed in the world of New Worth and I was constantly interested to find out what happened to the characters and inhabitants of the city.
As with the vast majority of scifi books, this one took me a couple of chapters to get into whilst I was still learning about the world and the context of the story. However after those few chapters I was really enjoying the book. I thought the worldbuilding was really well done and I really loved Emery, the main character. The plot was really interesting me and I was often finding myself eager to pick up the book to find out what happens next.
Once I got to about half way to two thirds of the way through the book, something changed. I don't know whether I can put my finger on exactly what it was, but I wasn't quite enjoying the book as much as I previously had been. The worldbuilding and writing continued to be really good, but I was no longer liking the main character - in fact she was beginning to get on my nerves quite a lot. I think the plot points were good ones, but I don't know if they were executed as well as they had been earlier on in the book. Throughout the book there were several points where I didn't really understand what was going on at all, and some parts that just made me uncomfortable.
All that being said, I think my overall experience with this book was a good one and I would say that I enjoyed reading it. I definitely felt immersed in the world of New Worth and I was constantly interested to find out what happened to the characters and inhabitants of the city.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Violence