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kireteiru's review
A good story, although there was some phrasing and stylistic choices that I personally found awkward. Also I was here for military SF, not a description of how the MC liked to get around.
d_swets's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
1.5
zoe_e_w's review
2.0
I bought all three books in the Cassandra Kresnov series a couple years back in Amsterdam, but kind of lost track of the books until this summer, when hubby read Crossover and the two sequels in the series back-to-back and declared them to be "really good." I think that for a great many of the "target market" males, nothing will seem off about the character Sandy Kresnov.
Except, she's a dude. In every aspect of her personality, the main character struck me as a male, and turning them and the other main characters into women didn't change the fact that they all thought like dudes. I got what the writer was trying to say about artificial people not being sexually selective, but then later "character development" reveals that Sandy's hyper-sexuality is unique even among her people. And...her sexuality is male. Possibly gay male, but really, given how poorly the author writes a sex scene, I would argue that this story might have been improved without making the heroine a "nymphomaniac."
There are sex scenes in this book that I wanted to end. Me, Miss "I love porn" was instead begging, "Please, make the bad sex scene stop." But it gets worse. The author cannot write a decent chase scene without messing it up. The author spends many, many pages on political lectures, and the biggest "plot twists" in the book are political plays. This book is so, so boring. This writer could make a blow job during a gunfight boring. There's really no help for someone who thinks they're writing "cool" and they are in fact ice cold and killing their story with way, way too many tangential details.
Feeling something for the "heroine's" starting predicament of being violently dismembered, I stuck with this in the hope that maybe there would be some fast-paced payoff for all this slow buildup, but there is nothing this writer touches here that they don't blow badly. This is not to say there aren't some neat ideas in the premise. There are. But when you start a book by ripping the heroine into little pieces, and then insist that she'll get over that a few days later, you've confused a man from an 80s action movie for a woman. In fact, if the main character were a dude in an 80s sci-fi movie, I'd be more likely to believe this ridiculous and contrived plot.
I'm sorry to get harpy, but this is my main point of complaint. Sandy is an artificial person with a human personality imprinted on an artificial brain. The story claims that she has a human sexuality because her brain is a copy of an organic human brain. BUT, Sandy's internal line of reasoning, her method of coping with stress, her hypersexuality and indiscreet need for physical contact; it's all male. Adding breasts, blonde hair, and blue eyes doesn't change this conflict of her character. I don't see a butch woman. I see a character made female simple to satisfy the writer's need for some lame sexual fantasy. After all, Sandy is the ultimate badass, AND she's indiscriminate with who she sleeps with. Dudes in the target audience are sure to love this combination. But to me, Sandy comes across as hugely fake, and I'd be willing to give back a star in my rating if Sandy had been Andrew instead. Because then the character would have been more realistic.
The same is true of the head of SWAT, Vannessa Rice, a character who's "short" "cute," and "considered fluffy" among her troops. This is all strictly male fantasies, and the women don't really behave like women except at very rare moments near the end of the book. The rest of the time, they act like men. So for me, the story just wasn't very believable.
There really wasn't much I liked about this story, and I find Sandy's reaction to trauma to be the first of many bad character development choices. It's strictly a by-the-numbers formula, and it never rises above a man's fantasy of how awesome women would be, if they only acted more like men.
I give Crossover two stars, and I'm sorely tempted to drop that to one. I can't say that I'd really recommend it to anyone, but as hubby liked it, I'll guess fans of military sci-will think it's "super." Mostly, I was bored to tears, and it's going to be a long time before I bother reading the other books in this series.
Except, she's a dude. In every aspect of her personality, the main character struck me as a male, and turning them and the other main characters into women didn't change the fact that they all thought like dudes. I got what the writer was trying to say about artificial people not being sexually selective, but then later "character development" reveals that Sandy's hyper-sexuality is unique even among her people. And...her sexuality is male. Possibly gay male, but really, given how poorly the author writes a sex scene, I would argue that this story might have been improved without making the heroine a "nymphomaniac."
There are sex scenes in this book that I wanted to end. Me, Miss "I love porn" was instead begging, "Please, make the bad sex scene stop." But it gets worse. The author cannot write a decent chase scene without messing it up. The author spends many, many pages on political lectures, and the biggest "plot twists" in the book are political plays. This book is so, so boring. This writer could make a blow job during a gunfight boring. There's really no help for someone who thinks they're writing "cool" and they are in fact ice cold and killing their story with way, way too many tangential details.
Feeling something for the "heroine's" starting predicament of being violently dismembered, I stuck with this in the hope that maybe there would be some fast-paced payoff for all this slow buildup, but there is nothing this writer touches here that they don't blow badly. This is not to say there aren't some neat ideas in the premise. There are. But when you start a book by ripping the heroine into little pieces, and then insist that she'll get over that a few days later, you've confused a man from an 80s action movie for a woman. In fact, if the main character were a dude in an 80s sci-fi movie, I'd be more likely to believe this ridiculous and contrived plot.
I'm sorry to get harpy, but this is my main point of complaint. Sandy is an artificial person with a human personality imprinted on an artificial brain. The story claims that she has a human sexuality because her brain is a copy of an organic human brain. BUT, Sandy's internal line of reasoning, her method of coping with stress, her hypersexuality and indiscreet need for physical contact; it's all male. Adding breasts, blonde hair, and blue eyes doesn't change this conflict of her character. I don't see a butch woman. I see a character made female simple to satisfy the writer's need for some lame sexual fantasy. After all, Sandy is the ultimate badass, AND she's indiscriminate with who she sleeps with. Dudes in the target audience are sure to love this combination. But to me, Sandy comes across as hugely fake, and I'd be willing to give back a star in my rating if Sandy had been Andrew instead. Because then the character would have been more realistic.
The same is true of the head of SWAT, Vannessa Rice, a character who's "short" "cute," and "considered fluffy" among her troops. This is all strictly male fantasies, and the women don't really behave like women except at very rare moments near the end of the book. The rest of the time, they act like men. So for me, the story just wasn't very believable.
There really wasn't much I liked about this story, and I find Sandy's reaction to trauma to be the first of many bad character development choices. It's strictly a by-the-numbers formula, and it never rises above a man's fantasy of how awesome women would be, if they only acted more like men.
I give Crossover two stars, and I'm sorely tempted to drop that to one. I can't say that I'd really recommend it to anyone, but as hubby liked it, I'll guess fans of military sci-will think it's "super." Mostly, I was bored to tears, and it's going to be a long time before I bother reading the other books in this series.
paradoxically's review
2.0
An interesting book, if pretty messy, Crossover centers around Cassandra, who is basically just trying to live a fulfilling life, only to get dragged into a mess load of trouble because, surprise, she's an android who went MIA from fighting on one side of an interstellar conflict (the League) to a world that is a member of the other side of the interstellar conflict (the Federation). She wants to be an ordinary citizen, but that's hard to do when you're a highly sophisticated android who was built to kill people.
For a pretty good chunk of the book I was a little confused about the League and the Federation and their ideologies as well as what role they had to play in Tanusha, which is where the book is centered. I managed to puzzle it out eventually, but I feel like it took a little too much time to do so since being inconveniently confused meant that a good portion of people's motivations baffled me. Or, you know, further confused me.
It's not even that difficult to understand when you get down to the nitty gritty of it (seriously: the League is all about advancement of humanity to the point where they want to erase anything they think is holding them back--be it one's history or culture and whatnot. They are all Science Is Everything, except they made Cassandra and they treat her less as a person and more as a thing. The Federation, on the other hand, is the conservative bunch who oppose the League. They're more connected with their roots and culture and are actually rather against the advancement of science [not that it stops them from trying to use it] and they hate the idea of Cassandra, but are willing to tolerate her [sorta. Or maybe that's just on Callay]).
Both sides suck and I have no idea why it was so difficult for me to grasp what each side wanted except for the messy storyline. The politics of the book? Not exactly my cup of tea. It wasn't really done in a way that held my attention and I actually disliked a fair amount of it.
Cassandra is interesting in of herself. I liked her, but I also wanted to bang my head against something sometimes when reading about her. I'm all for people being free and happy with their bodies and being comfortable with who you are and what you do, but do you really need her to be so focused on sex? If it's something for fun then do you have to mention it every other page? I laughed at first, and still continued to be amused by her mentions of sex, but it got to be too much. It's only a little part of her and who she is, why the great focus on it? It just made me a little annoyed at the end.
I feel like I enjoyed parts of this book a lot more than the whole. The characters were okay, but the plot wasn't as engaging as I hoped and the pacing was--well, the beginning was pretty slow. It sped up after a little bit, but it gets bogged down a lot by the politics, which some of you may or may not like. The ending was a bit better, but it was also fairly predictable and kind of melodramatic. 2 stars.
For a pretty good chunk of the book I was a little confused about the League and the Federation and their ideologies as well as what role they had to play in Tanusha, which is where the book is centered. I managed to puzzle it out eventually, but I feel like it took a little too much time to do so since being inconveniently confused meant that a good portion of people's motivations baffled me. Or, you know, further confused me.
It's not even that difficult to understand when you get down to the nitty gritty of it (seriously: the League is all about advancement of humanity to the point where they want to erase anything they think is holding them back--be it one's history or culture and whatnot. They are all Science Is Everything, except they made Cassandra and they treat her less as a person and more as a thing. The Federation, on the other hand, is the conservative bunch who oppose the League. They're more connected with their roots and culture and are actually rather against the advancement of science [not that it stops them from trying to use it] and they hate the idea of Cassandra, but are willing to tolerate her [sorta. Or maybe that's just on Callay]).
Both sides suck and I have no idea why it was so difficult for me to grasp what each side wanted except for the messy storyline. The politics of the book? Not exactly my cup of tea. It wasn't really done in a way that held my attention and I actually disliked a fair amount of it.
Cassandra is interesting in of herself. I liked her, but I also wanted to bang my head against something sometimes when reading about her. I'm all for people being free and happy with their bodies and being comfortable with who you are and what you do, but do you really need her to be so focused on sex? If it's something for fun then do you have to mention it every other page? I laughed at first, and still continued to be amused by her mentions of sex, but it got to be too much. It's only a little part of her and who she is, why the great focus on it? It just made me a little annoyed at the end.
I feel like I enjoyed parts of this book a lot more than the whole. The characters were okay, but the plot wasn't as engaging as I hoped and the pacing was--well, the beginning was pretty slow. It sped up after a little bit, but it gets bogged down a lot by the politics, which some of you may or may not like. The ending was a bit better, but it was also fairly predictable and kind of melodramatic. 2 stars.
imsam's review
5.0
Super fun sci-fi book, interesting plot with great characters. Had a lot of fun reading this.
maxed's review
2.0
Poor man's "Old Man's War" or "Saturn's Children". The story itself is nothing new, but the execution leaves much to be desired, compared to both Scalzi and Stross. Very long pauses in dialogues and action where the heroine remembers something or thinks about something are common, and while the action itself is written competently, the books leaves very "meh" overall impression.
sboard's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
bory's review
4.0
Realistically, probably a 3.5 stars.
This is an interesting world, filled with an interesting, if not entirely original, philosophical segregations between subsections of humanity - technological advancement with a disregard for historical and cultural restraint, versus historical and cultural preservation (with a have sprinkling of hypocrisy on both sides). The story is well-crafted, and really gripped me early on. For a science fiction book, I would categorize this is as "soft" science fiction. There is no in-depth look into the tech, even if the the tech is the core of the philosophical differences between the two major factions.
I will say, I like Cassandra as a character... most of the time. The whole killing machine that is pondering its place in the universe, and seeking a better life for itself aspect of her characterization if fine. Joel Shepherd, however (and I've read other books by him in the past - The "A Trial of Blood and Steel" series) has some weird quirks when writing his female protagonists. Cassandra is a tall, blonde, gorgeous bombshell who is so aggressively heterosexual that she will fuck anyone with a penis. So, even though in most other books I would interpret her developing relationship with Vanessa as heading towards romance, here? Nah. Too heterosexual for that. Cassandra's sexuality is not a huge part of the story, but, man, when she's talking about how her old GI team members would line up to have sex with her... I cringed, and not a little.
On the topic of Vanessa, she is great. I love her. More of her, please.
The action is well-written, though the narrative gets bogged down with too much unnecessary flowery description of the city-scape.
Overall, this is decent book with some prominent issues. It is, however, Joel Shepherd's first published work, so I'm willing to give some of it a pass. There is enough here I enjoyed that I will be continuing with the series.
This is an interesting world, filled with an interesting, if not entirely original, philosophical segregations between subsections of humanity - technological advancement with a disregard for historical and cultural restraint, versus historical and cultural preservation (with a have sprinkling of hypocrisy on both sides). The story is well-crafted, and really gripped me early on. For a science fiction book, I would categorize this is as "soft" science fiction. There is no in-depth look into the tech, even if the the tech is the core of the philosophical differences between the two major factions.
I will say, I like Cassandra as a character... most of the time. The whole killing machine that is pondering its place in the universe, and seeking a better life for itself aspect of her characterization if fine. Joel Shepherd, however (and I've read other books by him in the past - The "A Trial of Blood and Steel" series) has some weird quirks when writing his female protagonists. Cassandra is a tall, blonde, gorgeous bombshell who is so aggressively heterosexual that she will fuck anyone with a penis. So, even though in most other books I would interpret her developing relationship with Vanessa as heading towards romance, here? Nah. Too heterosexual for that. Cassandra's sexuality is not a huge part of the story, but, man, when she's talking about how her old GI team members would line up to have sex with her... I cringed, and not a little.
On the topic of Vanessa, she is great. I love her. More of her, please.
The action is well-written, though the narrative gets bogged down with too much unnecessary flowery description of the city-scape.
Overall, this is decent book with some prominent issues. It is, however, Joel Shepherd's first published work, so I'm willing to give some of it a pass. There is enough here I enjoyed that I will be continuing with the series.
trike's review
1.0
This book is nearly 500 pages long and it contains about 150 pages of content. A really good author could cover this material in less than 30.
There is a lot of weird sex that feels really out of place, waaaay too much droning about the politics of the two major factions involved, and endless repetition about how amazingly gifted the protagonist is. Despite the promise of the cover, there's precious little action in this book and what there is just isn't well done.
It feels like the author created his perfect fetish robot and then stuck her in the middle of UN subcommittee meeting and then remembered every once in a while she should have sex with everyone and then go into battle with others. I suppose someone versed in Australian politics would be able to parse who the various characters are supposed to be, but all I got from it was a lot of talking heads doing inexplicable things.
It was more boring than anything else, with the occasional eye roll at the cringeworthy sex scenes. I just didn't buy any of it, frankly, from the world building to the main character.
There is a lot of weird sex that feels really out of place, waaaay too much droning about the politics of the two major factions involved, and endless repetition about how amazingly gifted the protagonist is. Despite the promise of the cover, there's precious little action in this book and what there is just isn't well done.
It feels like the author created his perfect fetish robot and then stuck her in the middle of UN subcommittee meeting and then remembered every once in a while she should have sex with everyone and then go into battle with others. I suppose someone versed in Australian politics would be able to parse who the various characters are supposed to be, but all I got from it was a lot of talking heads doing inexplicable things.
It was more boring than anything else, with the occasional eye roll at the cringeworthy sex scenes. I just didn't buy any of it, frankly, from the world building to the main character.