Although this book was far from perfect, it was definitely an enjoyable read. Elise, Quynn, and Bastion, while somewhat underdeveloped and flat characters, were all very likable and went on an intriguing adventure to retrieve A.I. Bastion’s stollen chip. While the plot was somewhat predictable, the world-building was beautiful. Arnone did a good job of creating an interesting world ruled by corporations that define all aspects of your life, and using corporate espionage—Elise’s job—was a great way to show off different aspects of that world-building.
There were, however, a couple things I didn’t like about this book. The characters were a little flat, but that’s pretty standard in plot-driven books like this. My biggest gripe was the sloppy writing in areas. I think that it could have definitely done with a little more polish in terms of word choice and sentence structure in these places. But the laziest part that comes to mind is during a part with an announcer that Arnone described as a boisterous voice. During the scene the voice was eventually referred to as just “boisterous” which made zero sense to me and just struck me as something sloppy a writer might do in a rough draft.
Other reviewers have complained about the use of different pronouns, which I found to be not so different than other books I’ve read in this genre recently (and in fact is nothing new in science fiction—see the award-winning work of Ursula Le Guin). I’ve also seen complaints of the “gay sex scenes” which aren’t graphic (they’re literally just something happening in the background as the main character is Ace) and make up a minuscule section of the overall book.
Overall, enjoyable and interesting, I just wish it had better editing.
There were, however, a couple things I didn’t like about this book. The characters were a little flat, but that’s pretty standard in plot-driven books like this. My biggest gripe was the sloppy writing in areas. I think that it could have definitely done with a little more polish in terms of word choice and sentence structure in these places. But the laziest part that comes to mind is during a part with an announcer that Arnone described as a boisterous voice. During the scene the voice was eventually referred to as just “boisterous” which made zero sense to me and just struck me as something sloppy a writer might do in a rough draft.
Other reviewers have complained about the use of different pronouns, which I found to be not so different than other books I’ve read in this genre recently (and in fact is nothing new in science fiction—see the award-winning work of Ursula Le Guin). I’ve also seen complaints of the “gay sex scenes” which aren’t graphic (they’re literally just something happening in the background as the main character is Ace) and make up a minuscule section of the overall book.
Overall, enjoyable and interesting, I just wish it had better editing.