A review by futuriana
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress
2.0
The pace is fast and sweeps you along, and since I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories I mostly enjoyed the basic set up of the Survivors and the Grab.
Everything else I found less satisfying. Very few of the details bear much scrutiny, from the nearly magical algorithm to the mysterious forces behind most of the major plot points. And for once I found the male characters to be bare stereotypes; our main one running around with a nearly constant boner (yeah, okay, he's fifteen but why does he react that way to the lingerie mannequin in the store? He has zero context for frilly underthings).
Add in a heavy handed MESSAGE ending (which was telegraphed from the start, and therefore looming annoyingly over the proceedings) and my eyes were rolling.
Possibly a decent outline to a better thought-out novel.
Everything else I found less satisfying. Very few of the details bear much scrutiny, from the nearly magical algorithm to the mysterious forces behind most of the major plot points. And for once I found the male characters to be bare stereotypes; our main one running around with a nearly constant boner (yeah, okay, he's fifteen but why does he react that way to the lingerie mannequin in the store? He has zero context for frilly underthings).
Add in a heavy handed MESSAGE ending (which was telegraphed from the start, and therefore looming annoyingly over the proceedings) and my eyes were rolling.
Possibly a decent outline to a better thought-out novel.