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A review by dtaylorbooks
The Beam: Season One by Johnny B. Truant, Sean Platt
3.0
There was a forward in this book that explained the Season One they have in the title. Thankfully. Because I had no idea what that was about. Not-so-thankfully when I actually read the reason. The authors basically wanted to write this book in the same manner that awesome TV shows are written, and likened it to Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, going on about how TV is in its prime. I sat there going uh . . . That seems to be aiming a bit high. Judging by the ratings on Goodreads they hit the mark with a lot of people. I was not one of them.
I didn’t hate it. In fact I didn’t mind what I was reading. I just wasn’t wowed by it and I’m not really compelled to read more. To make a similar comparison, this would be one of those TV shows that I liked enough to play it in the background while I dicked around on my iPad, but once I started missing episodes and truly stopped caring I would just remove it from my Watch List and never go back to it (sorry Sleepy Hollow and Agents of SHIELD). I would feel almost obligated to keep up with it for a time, but my interest would wane and I’d just stop watching.
So yeah. That’s THE BEAM for me.
I liked the world the authors created. Very poignant, which I’m sure was the point. At times a little too self-aware for my liking and it had its moments where is waxed a little too long on said poignant point where I tried to will it along a little. This is actually the kind of sci-fi I like. Not big on the space stuff, but technological advancement, yes. The over-use of the computer, yes. It’s light sci-fi and I don’t feel spun around by a ton of technical jargon inserted as a cheap way to world build. That didn’t happen here. And it kind of blew my mind because I’m reading about AIs here and then I read an article in the most recent edition of Vanity Fair where they spoke to Elon Musk about AIs and where they’re going and other big names in tech weighed in about nanos and I felt like I timed this read perfectly.
It annoyed me when today’s terms were used in a futuristic setting. Society has advanced this far but the term hipster is still used? These little pieces of current pop culture didn’t quite fit with the setting and it felt like the authors trying to ground it out in our reality while still creating their new one and it didn’t quite mesh for me. Or when certain people came into the plot who name-dropped all of our current pop culture stuff in a way that other characters should know it too but didn’t because they didn’t read X or whatever. Or mentioning movies like Terminator. Is that really what’s going to transcend time? Think back to the 1910s. How many popular books or, when they came onto the scene, silent films that were big at the time can still be named? Save for maybe Charlie Chaplin probably not many. But our current pop culture felt like a forced necessity in this world that was desperately trying to leave it all behind and I couldn’t tell if that was deliberate or just authorial insertion.
The only characters I didn’t like were Isaac and Miranda. Melissa? The singer, Isaac’s wife. Both of those individuals were just sniveling, reprehensible assholes and thankfully neither of them got too much page time. Everyone else, especially Kai and Leah, were pretty awesome and compelling and I wanted more time with them. And I did like how we got different points of view throughout the story from all walks of life. I especially liked Nicolai’s story and I wish there was more of him. Micah’s a fun one too. He’s one of those characters that are just delicious dickheads that you love to hate. Until they remain static and that shit gets old after, like, three seasons.
So . . . THE BEAM doesn’t have the staying power for me that Game of Thrones does (although I’m happy GoT is on its last season because I don’t know how much more rape and murder I can take) or Supernatural does (and to be fair I lost interest in TWD about three seasons ago or something like that). It’s interesting and it’s something I could keep reading if I had nothing else going on, but I’m not about to pick up Season Two any time soon. Maybe I’ll add it to my reading list and make my way to it eventually, but who knows when that’s going to be. Care to take a look at my Netflix watch list and see what’s been sitting on that forever now?
3
I didn’t hate it. In fact I didn’t mind what I was reading. I just wasn’t wowed by it and I’m not really compelled to read more. To make a similar comparison, this would be one of those TV shows that I liked enough to play it in the background while I dicked around on my iPad, but once I started missing episodes and truly stopped caring I would just remove it from my Watch List and never go back to it (sorry Sleepy Hollow and Agents of SHIELD). I would feel almost obligated to keep up with it for a time, but my interest would wane and I’d just stop watching.
So yeah. That’s THE BEAM for me.
I liked the world the authors created. Very poignant, which I’m sure was the point. At times a little too self-aware for my liking and it had its moments where is waxed a little too long on said poignant point where I tried to will it along a little. This is actually the kind of sci-fi I like. Not big on the space stuff, but technological advancement, yes. The over-use of the computer, yes. It’s light sci-fi and I don’t feel spun around by a ton of technical jargon inserted as a cheap way to world build. That didn’t happen here. And it kind of blew my mind because I’m reading about AIs here and then I read an article in the most recent edition of Vanity Fair where they spoke to Elon Musk about AIs and where they’re going and other big names in tech weighed in about nanos and I felt like I timed this read perfectly.
It annoyed me when today’s terms were used in a futuristic setting. Society has advanced this far but the term hipster is still used? These little pieces of current pop culture didn’t quite fit with the setting and it felt like the authors trying to ground it out in our reality while still creating their new one and it didn’t quite mesh for me. Or when certain people came into the plot who name-dropped all of our current pop culture stuff in a way that other characters should know it too but didn’t because they didn’t read X or whatever. Or mentioning movies like Terminator. Is that really what’s going to transcend time? Think back to the 1910s. How many popular books or, when they came onto the scene, silent films that were big at the time can still be named? Save for maybe Charlie Chaplin probably not many. But our current pop culture felt like a forced necessity in this world that was desperately trying to leave it all behind and I couldn’t tell if that was deliberate or just authorial insertion.
The only characters I didn’t like were Isaac and Miranda. Melissa? The singer, Isaac’s wife. Both of those individuals were just sniveling, reprehensible assholes and thankfully neither of them got too much page time. Everyone else, especially Kai and Leah, were pretty awesome and compelling and I wanted more time with them. And I did like how we got different points of view throughout the story from all walks of life. I especially liked Nicolai’s story and I wish there was more of him. Micah’s a fun one too. He’s one of those characters that are just delicious dickheads that you love to hate. Until they remain static and that shit gets old after, like, three seasons.
So . . . THE BEAM doesn’t have the staying power for me that Game of Thrones does (although I’m happy GoT is on its last season because I don’t know how much more rape and murder I can take) or Supernatural does (and to be fair I lost interest in TWD about three seasons ago or something like that). It’s interesting and it’s something I could keep reading if I had nothing else going on, but I’m not about to pick up Season Two any time soon. Maybe I’ll add it to my reading list and make my way to it eventually, but who knows when that’s going to be. Care to take a look at my Netflix watch list and see what’s been sitting on that forever now?
3