Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang

7 reviews

yuna's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Tightly paced (mostly), good action, intriguing characters. The pacing fell off a bit for me toward the end, where it kind of got in the story's own way being so good earlier that it then tried to pull the same trick twice and made the actual finale feel a bit anticlimactic. 

Loved Checker and Rio, and I like how Tresting worked as a foil for Cas. As very much a not mathy person, I liked how the math was described here. She's got Sherlock vibes, only with numbers instead of hyper observation.

I wasn't as sold on how the Big Bad's telepathy worked, because it seemed contradictory in action than how it kept being described. More like mind reading + the power of suggestion, though the "rules" for the latter were stated as one thing but again, seemed different in practice. 

I'd read the next one, but I'm not sure how much patience I'll have for Cas's selective amnesia re: her backstory. It works in this book, but I'd hope for answers or enough of an answer to move forward rather than rehash old ground for an entire book.

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carolined314's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Action-packed, solo orphan special story with a tech twist.

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ginger95's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A fun, fast-paced read with many references to math/sciences that are cool and WILL send you down a Wilipedia rabbit hole. Also, some great characters and a really thrilling plot 

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krisawesome's review against another edition

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3.5

A heck of a page turner, but only if you can deal with a fair amount of casual violence (which is explicitly identified as a problem within the book, Arthur calls Cas out for seeing human life as cheap). Is it cheesy and over the top in spots? Sure! But this is basically an action film novelization, not literary fiction, and since that's exactly what I was expecting, I could let myself just enjoy seeing the action play out in my head as I read this, without thinking about it too hard.

Speaking of Cas, I found her interesting. Not exactly likable all the time, but I found her and her relationships with other characters compelling enough to want to read the next book in the series.

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eicart_reads's review against another edition

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

3.0

To me this book was a combination of engaging and meh. Several times I thought about DNFing it, but I kept going because it was entertaining, and I was waiting for the big payoff that never happened. Even after finishing, I remain strangely ambivalent. 
I did really enjoy the narrator and will certainly seek out more audiobooks read by her. I think if I wasn't so engaged by her performance I would definitely have quit this one.

This felt like an action movie that went from gunfight to explosion to car chase, with caricatures of people but no real substance. I wanted to love Cas, the main character with freaky math abilities that allow her to move and kill with superhuman speed and accuracy. (I half expected her to turn out to be part android.) But she remained an underdeveloped person and I just don't care enough to read the next two books to see what her story is. 

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simonamiller's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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herk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0


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