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gordonwaddell's review against another edition
4.0
A very fun read, nice sci-fi with a bio twist. I really liked the motes and I felt the android tech was a little uneven. As with many sci-fi books it seems that wanton murder does not even bear police investigation? Just go with the flow.
cathepsut's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Set in 2144, in a world lacking affordable pharmaceuticals for the average person. Jack is a scientist pirating and reverse-engineering patented medicines and selling them on the black markets. One of her new products leads to mass addictions and s high death toll. It‘s not her pirated product though that is the problem, but the original. Nonetheless she is now hunted and decides that she has to set things right.
Other main characters are an agent chasing her and his indentured military robot.
I like the word of the bots that Newitz creates here. Paladin is a very likable and relatable character. I have never read about bot-human relationships quite like this before. That being said, the relationship between bot and human was fairly odd and unusual. I’m still trying to decide if I thought that was great or too weird.
I am actually not sure how much I like this book. I did like the story of Jack and how she got where she is in the present of the story. However, I lost interest a bit around the middle of the book and felt that the rest of the book was a bit all over the place. I liked the alternating chapters, but would’ve liked a stronger focus on Jack. I also did not really like how the central conflict of the book was resolved, it felt a bit pointless to me.
I have to think about this a bit more, I might come back to this review and amend it at a later point. For now 3 1/2 stars rounded down.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Torture, and Murder
_viscosity_'s review against another edition
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- 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
super_squirrel's review against another edition
1.0
By rights the premise of this book should have been a home run for me. Cyberpunk pirate on the run from government agents (human and robotic) while she tries to right a problem she was part of and out the corporation who want to cover it up at the same time. This felt like an even surer bet when two of the cover quotes were from kings of the genre and the first couple of chapters were really promising.
The problem is that after the first few chapters everything stalls and for me seemed to take a dive of a cliff. The story was slow despite the book being so short, and seemed to progress in a really matter of fact way. There was no excitement, even when the events in question should have felt exciting. They just sort of happened and then we move elsewhere.
Reading it felt like being lectured. In cyberpunk context of structures and world building can feel heavy in detail but it is usually necessary and adds to the reading experience. However in this story there is so much over explaining within character interactions that it feels like lessons which don't really fit the syllabus and in the end didn't really make the world building any better.
Relationships as seperate plot lines in sci-fi and fantasy are a personal bugbear for me and it did feel like this was a huge part of the book. However the relationships didn't feel real or organic, they just felt like vehicles for messages the author wanting to project.
I know that lots of people found this worth it but for me it felt like a political/cultural tract with a very loose storyline and cardboard characters.
Such promise unfulfilled.
The problem is that after the first few chapters everything stalls and for me seemed to take a dive of a cliff. The story was slow despite the book being so short, and seemed to progress in a really matter of fact way. There was no excitement, even when the events in question should have felt exciting. They just sort of happened and then we move elsewhere.
Reading it felt like being lectured. In cyberpunk context of structures and world building can feel heavy in detail but it is usually necessary and adds to the reading experience. However in this story there is so much over explaining within character interactions that it feels like lessons which don't really fit the syllabus and in the end didn't really make the world building any better.
Relationships as seperate plot lines in sci-fi and fantasy are a personal bugbear for me and it did feel like this was a huge part of the book. However the relationships didn't feel real or organic, they just felt like vehicles for messages the author wanting to project.
I know that lots of people found this worth it but for me it felt like a political/cultural tract with a very loose storyline and cardboard characters.
Such promise unfulfilled.
straylight's review against another edition
3.0
Listened to the audiobook version -- while I didn't find the story itself to be overly gripping (it was good, just not "oh my gosh I can't put this book down" good), the underlying exploration of what it means to own things, be they robots, people or patents, was more interesting to watch unfold. What if society returned to the idea of indentured servitude? How much can a robot who has gained new 'autonomy' trust that the emotions she's experiencing are not simply ghosts of the programming from which she has recently been freed?
... characters did not have the depth I was hoping to see, and interactions were not as complex as I could imagine them to have been.
It was by no means a 'bad' book, but it certainly was not as good as I had hoped.
... characters did not have the depth I was hoping to see, and interactions were not as complex as I could imagine them to have been.
It was by no means a 'bad' book, but it certainly was not as good as I had hoped.
cb613's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
3.5
moonenergy1897's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
dkppunk's review against another edition
3.0
I initially started this book last year and there was a part between Paladin and Eliasz at the shooting range that just kind of made me cringe a little bit. I had to put the book down, read a few different genres, then restarted it after reading a scifi romance novel. Not that this is a romance novel, but it helped by putting me in a slightly different frame of mind. It helped me realize, I just didn’t like Eliasz’s character or personality.
The second time around, I enjoyed it a lot more. The concepts and ideas are very thought provoking. Framing autonomy as an actual contract that may or may not have an end, is an interesting way to portray what can happen to humanity when our autonomy is taken away. There are discussion questions at the end of the book that would be great for group reads.
In the end, while there were a few parts that could have been better written, the overall message of the book is important and well thought out.
The second time around, I enjoyed it a lot more. The concepts and ideas are very thought provoking. Framing autonomy as an actual contract that may or may not have an end, is an interesting way to portray what can happen to humanity when our autonomy is taken away. There are discussion questions at the end of the book that would be great for group reads.
In the end, while there were a few parts that could have been better written, the overall message of the book is important and well thought out.
ashwestwrites's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-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
4.5