A review by felinity
The Beam: Season One by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant
4.0
3.5 stars
Designed to work almost like a television series showing America's hyper-connected future, with multiple story arcs that must each resolve by the end, and it does seem to work, though the divisions and constant switching between characters made it seem like a really long book. If this were a TV show it would be on something like Fox and shown after 8pm (or after the watershed, for British viewers.)
Crammed with images of how our future could develop, it's sure to ignite your imagination, whether it's self-driving cars, downloadable skills, interactive surfaces to provide or body modifications that enable you to access every kind of information you might want, wherever you are.
There's so much in here it's hard to know what to mention. Lots of high-tech equipment, possibly surpassing any Philip K. Dick envisioning; extreme social divisions based on political choice (with echoes of Ben Franklin). I also caught connections to Marvel, Doctor Who, and the Hunger Games.
The backstory is revealed almost carelessly in a piecemeal fashion, as if unimportant. By the time I was a third in I realized there were only a couple of characters I actually cared about; I'm not sure if that was the authors' intention. I also caught a few editing errors too, both in misused words and factual inconsistencies within the book.
People may be annoyed by the repeated inappropriate use of the word "rape" when they really meant something more like "depredate".
Parental advisory:
I really wavered in picking a star rating. The vision was incredible, both in technology and politics, and I enjoyed discovering the history and how our existing technology might develop to allow better, more intuitive uses of our data. The future of American politics also felt realistic, taking party divisions to extremes, but some elements of the writing were quite irritating, and there was too much graphic description at points.
I finally settled on 3.5 stars rounded up, but I won't be reading Season Two.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Designed to work almost like a television series showing America's hyper-connected future, with multiple story arcs that must each resolve by the end, and it does seem to work, though the divisions and constant switching between characters made it seem like a really long book. If this were a TV show it would be on something like Fox and shown after 8pm (or after the watershed, for British viewers.)
Crammed with images of how our future could develop, it's sure to ignite your imagination, whether it's self-driving cars, downloadable skills, interactive surfaces to provide or body modifications that enable you to access every kind of information you might want, wherever you are.
There's so much in here it's hard to know what to mention. Lots of high-tech equipment, possibly surpassing any Philip K. Dick envisioning; extreme social divisions based on political choice (with echoes of Ben Franklin). I also caught connections to Marvel, Doctor Who, and the Hunger Games.
The backstory is revealed almost carelessly in a piecemeal fashion, as if unimportant. By the time I was a third in I realized there were only a couple of characters I actually cared about; I'm not sure if that was the authors' intention. I also caught a few editing errors too, both in misused words and factual inconsistencies within the book.
People may be annoyed by the repeated inappropriate use of the word "rape" when they really meant something more like "depredate".
Parental advisory:
Spoiler
There's a fair bit of cursing (though it's all the same) and a key character is a high-end prostitute with one detailed scene of how she kept her clients happy. It's not sexually graphic, but if you don't want to answer questions about why grownups might want to be spanked, this book isn't suitable. There is also an overly-graphic torture scene that went on far too long for me.I really wavered in picking a star rating. The vision was incredible, both in technology and politics, and I enjoyed discovering the history and how our existing technology might develop to allow better, more intuitive uses of our data. The future of American politics also felt realistic, taking party divisions to extremes, but some elements of the writing were quite irritating, and there was too much graphic description at points.
I finally settled on 3.5 stars rounded up, but I won't be reading Season Two.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.