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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
3.5 stars. It's enjoyable read, a good vacation book as it is a quick, plot-driven book. I thought Mira went along with Chandra a little too easily, but overall thought the book had an interesting premise.
The concept of this book is super cool, but the MC Mira is almost unbearably unlikable. The way she treats her friends & family so poorly, by the end I almost didn't care that she was wrapped up in a crazy conspiracy. Luckily, Chandra was around to distract me from Mira. The science was silly, but this book is meant to be a lighter style of pop sci-fi & I did enjoy it for that. Quick read, but definitely YMMV.
A book I could not put down. Although the protagonist drove me to want to reach through the pages (er screen as ebook) and shake her on occasion, this was a great coming of age in this millenium story wrapped up in a fast paced scifi with some thrill to it. Woo! Fun.
You just need to read this insane technological adventure for yourself.
Full review at Crooked Prose.
Full review at Crooked Prose.
A decent addition to the genre of tech-related thrillers along the lines of Daemon, Spiral, and probably many others that I haven't read. With the "startup" atmosphere, it reminded me most of After On, although thankfully it didn't meander for nearly as many pages as that one did. The concept is interesting, though the execution comes across as a bit superficial, and anyway most of the focus is on the interpersonal relationships of the characters. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but for me, these characters are a bit uneven.
The protagonists are fairly interesting, including Mira and Chandra in particular, and some of the supporting cast is not bad either - the two Joes, for example. But others, including Mira's parents, and especially the antagonists, are a bit cardboard. It seems to me that Ben(ji) should have been one of the most important characters in the book, but instead he's barely present in the scenes that he's in, and since we never get a feeling of what he's really like, it's hard to make sense of Mira's mixed feelings toward him. I'd like to chalk that up to the effects of the technology at play here, but if that were the case I'd expect to see it spelled out at some point.
Anyway, the writing is solid, although Mira's voice is a bit too jokingly self-deprecating for me at times, and the ending is a bit rushed and not as satisfying as it could have been for me. While the story didn't blow me away, it's enough to hold the reader's interest.
The protagonists are fairly interesting, including Mira and Chandra in particular, and some of the supporting cast is not bad either - the two Joes, for example. But others, including Mira's parents, and especially the antagonists, are a bit cardboard. It seems to me that Ben(ji) should have been one of the most important characters in the book, but instead he's barely present in the scenes that he's in, and since we never get a feeling of what he's really like, it's hard to make sense of Mira's mixed feelings toward him. I'd like to chalk that up to the effects of the technology at play here, but if that were the case I'd expect to see it spelled out at some point.
Anyway, the writing is solid, although Mira's voice is a bit too jokingly self-deprecating for me at times, and the ending is a bit rushed and not as satisfying as it could have been for me. While the story didn't blow me away, it's enough to hold the reader's interest.
The style of writing in Revision was one that worked, for me. Sharp, clever, and amusing. Which meant I was entirely baffled at the stupid technology bits. Like a person who knows nothing about computers (and is a bit of a scatterbrain) figuring out how to hack into a system by just being told what commands she needed. As someone who has done years of tech support (involving even smart customers doing the opposite of the commands you tell them, even if you spell them out), I can tell you, this was ridiculous. Also, the ease in which covert secret locations were accessed, systems breached, and yet the breached systems are owned by a company so technologically advanced they're changing reality with their "wiki like" website? What? How were there no moments when Chandra wanted to give up out of sheer frustration? No, "oh crap, I'm running (operating system) so this command won't work"? No, "where do I put these commands?" Mind you, it wouldn't have helped, but the sheer ease of it all was annoying in its unbelievability.
But hey, if you can manage to not trip on the silly, it was, like I said, entertaining writing. I just wish she'd left the tech stuff out.
But hey, if you can manage to not trip on the silly, it was, like I said, entertaining writing. I just wish she'd left the tech stuff out.
Ill after NPR review. Rom com to sci fi, sign me up! Fact that it came all the way from Napa valley should have told me it was no good. Pacing was terrible, couldn't root for the listless main character, B-movie caliber writing, still don't get what was going on. Big waste of my time.
I inter-library loaned this after briefly reading an NPR review. A rom com that was also sci fi? Sign me up. The fact that the copy came all the way from Napa Valley should have been a sign that this book was no good. The pacing was terrible, driven by B-movie caliber writing. I couldn't root for the listless main character and still don't quite get what was going on. Felt like this was a big waste of my time.
I inter-library loaned this after briefly reading an NPR review. A rom com that was also sci fi? Sign me up. The fact that the copy came all the way from Napa Valley should have been a sign that this book was no good. The pacing was terrible, driven by B-movie caliber writing. I couldn't root for the listless main character and still don't quite get what was going on. Felt like this was a big waste of my time.
Great concept of a social media engine where a status update can bend reality, but it sort of falls off a bit in the later acts. The central character is amusing but she is so bereft of agency that it becomes annoying the more you read. The lack of agency isn't accidental, but it was still a barrier for me to become fully immersed in the story.
Ehh, this is a fine and fluffy update of a pretty standard trope.