A review by invisible_universes
Influx by Daniel Suarez

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Not a genre I'm hugely familiar with the conventions of, which makes it hard to evaluate how well done it is from like a technical standpoint. It reads well though, the science is interesting, the moral questions strong and the answers stronger. The action is consistently solid but not amazing, while the spy/heist/secrecy plots vacillated wildly between hugely impressive and bit 'meh'. A handful of the characters were very compelling, but several others, including a key player, fell a bit flat. The hint of a romantic subplot was disappointing and I think a little reductive, but it had one moment that was beautiful so I can't complain too much.

Overall, it was interesting. Like, I don't think I could read a thousand of these in a row, I'm not the target audience. But like... I do get it. I see the appeal. I understand how this could be someone's passion. It's got interesting ideas and it plays with them at speed. That's pretty fun.