This book is criminally underrated and I need more people to read it so I have someone to talk about it with! Goddess in the Machine is a brilliant young adult sci-fi that kept me guessing in the best of ways. It's smart and funny, with some of the best worldbuilding and a cast of characters you'll adore.
I've wanted to read this since June 2019, and goodness Goddess in the Machine did not disappoint! This debut is gripping from the first sentence; I love the fast-pace and descriptive prose that paints a vivid picture in my mind. It's also got some biting humor that is right up my alley and made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion.
"So. You’re the last person I’ll ever speak to on Earth.
Don’t be so morbid."
Andra is just a normal and curvy teenager who wakes up from cryogenic sleep a little later than she should have in a dangerous, desert wasteland. Everyone she knew is long gone and she has no choice but to trust this roguish Zhade character who's obviously hiding something. And they won't stop calling her Goddess. I adore the banter between characters, which serves to lighten the tension of danger, but also kind of blurs what you think you know. I like complex characters with complicated motivations that the reader struggles to suss out, and then watching the conflicting emotions. If you like this too, you're in for a treat!
"She'd fallen asleep in one place and woken up across the universe."
Language changes over time, and I like that the author created a version of English that could evolve over the course of 1,000 years. I found the Linguistics element a fantastic addition to the worldbuilding and lands the reader in the same confused state as Andra. Some readers (obviously) may not enjoy this as much as I do, but I feel so invested in this story because of this - like I was there alongside her. It's understandable, but obviously different. The audiobook does a fantastic job providing audio to the new version of English. (Yes, I also bought the audiobook. What of it?)
But language isn't the only thing that's changed with humanity. The technological advances which Andra was accustomed to in her time remains in a society that does not understand them. Robots and nanotech are seen as magic and society is shaped around the mythology that's developed around it. It's interesting to consider how a society removed from the understandings of modern technology would seek to understand it.
There are a lot of twists, a few which I was able to guess early on but others that I never could have anticipated (yet are so clear to me now). Goddess in the Machine is plotted well, and while the dialect does slow down the narrative a bit and provide a bit of a learning curve, I found the book fast paced and difficult to put down once you get situated in the world.
Overall, I really enjoyed this debut sci-fi book and it's worldbuilding. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you enjoyed This Mortal Coil I think this is a book you will also enjoy. Please do me a solid and read this book: it's criminally underrated and I want to talk about it with people! I'm looking forward to the second book eagerly.
Representation: plus-sized main character, racially diverse world
Content warnings: death, depictions of blood, imprisonment, internal negative self-talk about weight & memories of diet culture, loss of loved ones, ritualistic killing
I've wanted to read this since June 2019, and goodness Goddess in the Machine did not disappoint! This debut is gripping from the first sentence; I love the fast-pace and descriptive prose that paints a vivid picture in my mind. It's also got some biting humor that is right up my alley and made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion.
"So. You’re the last person I’ll ever speak to on Earth.
Don’t be so morbid."
Andra is just a normal and curvy teenager who wakes up from cryogenic sleep a little later than she should have in a dangerous, desert wasteland. Everyone she knew is long gone and she has no choice but to trust this roguish Zhade character who's obviously hiding something. And they won't stop calling her Goddess. I adore the banter between characters, which serves to lighten the tension of danger, but also kind of blurs what you think you know. I like complex characters with complicated motivations that the reader struggles to suss out, and then watching the conflicting emotions. If you like this too, you're in for a treat!
"She'd fallen asleep in one place and woken up across the universe."
Language changes over time, and I like that the author created a version of English that could evolve over the course of 1,000 years. I found the Linguistics element a fantastic addition to the worldbuilding and lands the reader in the same confused state as Andra. Some readers (obviously) may not enjoy this as much as I do, but I feel so invested in this story because of this - like I was there alongside her. It's understandable, but obviously different. The audiobook does a fantastic job providing audio to the new version of English. (Yes, I also bought the audiobook. What of it?)
But language isn't the only thing that's changed with humanity. The technological advances which Andra was accustomed to in her time remains in a society that does not understand them. Robots and nanotech are seen as magic and society is shaped around the mythology that's developed around it. It's interesting to consider how a society removed from the understandings of modern technology would seek to understand it.
There are a lot of twists, a few which I was able to guess early on but others that I never could have anticipated (yet are so clear to me now). Goddess in the Machine is plotted well, and while the dialect does slow down the narrative a bit and provide a bit of a learning curve, I found the book fast paced and difficult to put down once you get situated in the world.
Overall, I really enjoyed this debut sci-fi book and it's worldbuilding. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you enjoyed This Mortal Coil I think this is a book you will also enjoy. Please do me a solid and read this book: it's criminally underrated and I want to talk about it with people! I'm looking forward to the second book eagerly.
Representation: plus-sized main character, racially diverse world
Content warnings: death, depictions of blood, imprisonment, internal negative self-talk about weight & memories of diet culture, loss of loved ones, ritualistic killing