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A review by sarainfantasyland
Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-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
4.25
My least favorite plot device in all of literature is memory loss and thats literally the premise of this entire book. I spent the entire time worrying about it and while its not as horrible as some other books (fuck you, Shatter Me), its still frustrating and stressful. As is Spensa herself to a large degree.
I expected to dislike this to some degree based off other reviews but it wasn't was much as I expected. I have many of the same critiques: barely any persense of the original characters, some confusing concepts and Spensa's rash decisions making, along with the memory plot line. Spensa is sort of being tempted with her "fantasy" life so to speak and has to decide between a world of only fun and adventure and the real one where life is difficult and painful but worth it. A good lesson for a YA book but its a personal issue of mine to have characters make the choice between abandoning their friends and family in order to "save" them. The ending I did have to go back and reread some bits to really understand what happened. It was rather high concept but that is something I'm used to with Sanderson books. I also struggle with attaching a reader to characters in the first book only to only give new characters as the main side characters in the subsequent ones. It makes it harder to care about the new characters because you want the old ones.
However, I did still, of course, enjoy this. Its action packed, fast paced and expands tremendously on the lore and questions you've had the entire series. The idea of Nowhere is fascinating but I'm still a bit skeptical/confused about its connection to AI and concerned for M-Bot.
Really looking forward to the final book because from what I can tell, we're back with everyone and ready to face down the Superiority. But Brandon is not always totally kind with his endings.
I haven't forgotten The Lost Metal, Brandon.
I expected to dislike this to some degree based off other reviews but it wasn't was much as I expected. I have many of the same critiques: barely any persense of the original characters, some confusing concepts and Spensa's rash decisions making, along with the memory plot line. Spensa is sort of being tempted with her "fantasy" life so to speak and has to decide between a world of only fun and adventure and the real one where life is difficult and painful but worth it. A good lesson for a YA book but its a personal issue of mine to have characters make the choice between abandoning their friends and family in order to "save" them. The ending I did have to go back and reread some bits to really understand what happened. It was rather high concept but that is something I'm used to with Sanderson books. I also struggle with attaching a reader to characters in the first book only to only give new characters as the main side characters in the subsequent ones. It makes it harder to care about the new characters because you want the old ones.
However, I did still, of course, enjoy this. Its action packed, fast paced and expands tremendously on the lore and questions you've had the entire series. The idea of Nowhere is fascinating but I'm still a bit skeptical/confused about its connection to AI and concerned for M-Bot.
Really looking forward to the final book because from what I can tell, we're back with everyone and ready to face down the Superiority. But Brandon is not always totally kind with his endings.
I haven't forgotten The Lost Metal, Brandon.