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grid's review
4.0
This was intense and a anxiety inducing. There were parts that I loved and parts that I definitely could have done without. There are aspects of this future that I question, but I love a lot of it. (And it’s not like there aren’t plenty of aspects of our actual non-fiction reality that are equally absurd and illogical.)
Anyway, it wrapped up nice in the end and I will definitely seek out whatever this author writes next without hesitation.
Anyway, it wrapped up nice in the end and I will definitely seek out whatever this author writes next without hesitation.
enbyglitch's review
5.0
Another thrilling adventure in the endlessly fascinating future Beckett has envisioned! A little slow at first (hard to avoid with the sheer amount of recap and introductions necessary), in the end I finished the final third of Dealbreaker in a single sitting.
Love the characters and references (Locked Tomb and WeRateDogs stood out ^^), love the alien politics and universal fight for rights. The villains felt like a copy-paste out of Gamechanger, but since they continue to represent a lot of real world issues I don't hold that against the book.
Looking forward to see what comes next!
Love the characters and references (Locked Tomb and WeRateDogs stood out ^^), love the alien politics and universal fight for rights. The villains felt like a copy-paste out of Gamechanger, but since they continue to represent a lot of real world issues I don't hold that against the book.
Looking forward to see what comes next!
lbelow's review against another edition
I'm really enjoying this book but I am just too tense for a thriller right now. Going to put it down and come back to it!
wordnerdy's review
3.0
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2021/01/2021-book-9.html
The sequel to Gamechanger is set twenty years later, and primarily focuses on Frankie (the little girl from the first book), now an experimental space pilot, along with one of her spouses. This one felt like it moved a little faster, and I liked Frankie and her cohort and all the AIs, but the villains here are waaaaay over the top. They’re like the cartoonish zombies in the games the characters play. Just gross stuff. That made the book a lot less effective and fun for me. B/B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on January 26th.
The sequel to Gamechanger is set twenty years later, and primarily focuses on Frankie (the little girl from the first book), now an experimental space pilot, along with one of her spouses. This one felt like it moved a little faster, and I liked Frankie and her cohort and all the AIs, but the villains here are waaaaay over the top. They’re like the cartoonish zombies in the games the characters play. Just gross stuff. That made the book a lot less effective and fun for me. B/B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on January 26th.
katbond's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-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? It's complicated
4.0
tome15's review
4.0
Beckett, L. X. Dealbreaker. The Bounceback No. 2. Tor, 2020.
Set 20 years after Gamechanger, Dealbreaker stars Frankie, who was a child in the earlier novel. Much of the action involving her takes place on alien space stations humans call Sneezy and The Dumpster. Humanity has moved out into the solar system and through some borrowed alien technology into the edges of an interstellar culture. But most daily life is carried on in a systemwide holographic environment called the Sensorium. There are artificial intelligences, uploaded consciousness, and people whose consciousnesses have been downloaded into printed bodies. Some people are “botomies,” who have no will of their own. There are also several alien cultures, some of whom have rigid ideas about intellectual property rights. It is quite a world, but I am not sure I always followed the story that was set in it. It was sometimes hard to tell whether events were happening in meat space, in the sensorium, or in some other virtual environment. The problem was compounded because characters might have different instantiations of themselves. Finally, I have never read a story so full of pop technobabble. It is all very imaginative but often hard to follow, and it was annoying to have so many words associated with a hashtag or trademark symbol. To make it work, Beckett would have to be as good a stylist as Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange. As it stands, the book was a bit of a slog. It gets a B-. 3.5 stars rounded up for effort.
Set 20 years after Gamechanger, Dealbreaker stars Frankie, who was a child in the earlier novel. Much of the action involving her takes place on alien space stations humans call Sneezy and The Dumpster. Humanity has moved out into the solar system and through some borrowed alien technology into the edges of an interstellar culture. But most daily life is carried on in a systemwide holographic environment called the Sensorium. There are artificial intelligences, uploaded consciousness, and people whose consciousnesses have been downloaded into printed bodies. Some people are “botomies,” who have no will of their own. There are also several alien cultures, some of whom have rigid ideas about intellectual property rights. It is quite a world, but I am not sure I always followed the story that was set in it. It was sometimes hard to tell whether events were happening in meat space, in the sensorium, or in some other virtual environment. The problem was compounded because characters might have different instantiations of themselves. Finally, I have never read a story so full of pop technobabble. It is all very imaginative but often hard to follow, and it was annoying to have so many words associated with a hashtag or trademark symbol. To make it work, Beckett would have to be as good a stylist as Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange. As it stands, the book was a bit of a slog. It gets a B-. 3.5 stars rounded up for effort.
falinter's review
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
3.0
Not as fun as the first book but it had its moments. I hope the series continues.
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