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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
read this out loud to my friends on the way home from a road trip; definitely really fun and entertaining in that respect. this is really well written though and ellison does a good job at creating this gross and gruesome hellscape that is entirely relentless. noticing that i’m starting to really love older sci-fi and stories about our technology gone rogue/betraying us, and how we have dug ourselves a whole to big to crawl out of. older sci-fi definitely isn’t always perfect though, given the terrible treatment of women and super problematic protagonists
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
The story itself was… fine.
The concept of a godlike AI that hates humanity for creating it? Cool, sure.
The writer did a good job of creating the atmosphere for the creepy as shit setting, but other than that- eh.
Especially since half of the short story is just the narrator bitching and moaning about how the female crewmate is a whore (his words, not mine). Not to mention how misogynistic her story is. She was tame and sweet and bubbly and basically a virgin but the machine ruined her by making her into the crew’s sex toy, like EW.
Read it if you want, shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes- but it’s by not means the masterpiece people say it is.
The concept of a godlike AI that hates humanity for creating it? Cool, sure.
The writer did a good job of creating the atmosphere for the creepy as shit setting, but other than that- eh.
Especially since half of the short story is just the narrator bitching and moaning about how the female crewmate is a whore (his words, not mine). Not to mention how misogynistic her story is. She was tame and sweet and bubbly and basically a virgin but the machine ruined her by making her into the crew’s sex toy, like EW.
Read it if you want, shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes- but it’s by not means the masterpiece people say it is.
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
(read in the short story compilation "i have no mouth and i must scream")
insane concept and depressing as hell, yet having read stories inspired by this one kinda makes this less impactful. still really interested in playing the game, as this concept really has potential.
title line is still insane though
insane concept and depressing as hell, yet having read stories inspired by this one kinda makes this less impactful. still really interested in playing the game, as this concept really has potential.
title line is still insane though
Abandoned after the first story.
I was kinda excited for this. Surrealism and the author being called a ‘Prose Stylist’, I thought it might end up being a favourite. But no, it really wasn’t.
It was the kind of ugly, disturbing horror that I would really rather not read. I get that the story had a message and it was portrayed strongly, but for me it just isn’t an excuse to read a story like that.
And the prose, while it was a step up from normal writing style, all it did for me was show potential. Potential that I saw being wasted anyway. It was not anything ground-breaking, and I don’t think that I’ll read any more stories by Ellison to see if he did grow. We just seem to disagree in tastes, I suppose.
I was kinda excited for this. Surrealism and the author being called a ‘Prose Stylist’, I thought it might end up being a favourite. But no, it really wasn’t.
It was the kind of ugly, disturbing horror that I would really rather not read. I get that the story had a message and it was portrayed strongly, but for me it just isn’t an excuse to read a story like that.
And the prose, while it was a step up from normal writing style, all it did for me was show potential. Potential that I saw being wasted anyway. It was not anything ground-breaking, and I don’t think that I’ll read any more stories by Ellison to see if he did grow. We just seem to disagree in tastes, I suppose.
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix