Scan barcode
sdramsey's review against another edition
4.0
*Note: I received an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
This fast-paced book pulls the reader through space, time, and the complexities of inner space with its multiple settings, viewpoints, and ideas. I didn't realize when I started it that it was the first in a series, so don't look for everything to be nicely tied up at the end--there's obviously a lot more story to come.
The three viewpoint characters offer very divergent views on life and society, which keeps the book interesting, although it does exact a bit of a price in that I didn't feel I connected with any of the main characters as strongly as I might have liked to. That said, it's a compelling story that kept me reading to see what was going to happen next, with intriguing glimpses into other worlds, cultures, and future technologies. Recommended if you like fast action, futuristic settings, and deep conspiracies.
This fast-paced book pulls the reader through space, time, and the complexities of inner space with its multiple settings, viewpoints, and ideas. I didn't realize when I started it that it was the first in a series, so don't look for everything to be nicely tied up at the end--there's obviously a lot more story to come.
The three viewpoint characters offer very divergent views on life and society, which keeps the book interesting, although it does exact a bit of a price in that I didn't feel I connected with any of the main characters as strongly as I might have liked to. That said, it's a compelling story that kept me reading to see what was going to happen next, with intriguing glimpses into other worlds, cultures, and future technologies. Recommended if you like fast action, futuristic settings, and deep conspiracies.
colossal's review against another edition
1.0
A handful of good ideas wrapped in an incoherent, poorly executed mess of a book.
Fleeing from an attempted rape by her step-father Simara crash-lands on a desert planet and is rescued by a local boy. There's a romance and then Simara leads her new "husband" Zen into space. After a trumped up legal charge they then crashland (again) on a different planet where they become a news item.
The first third of the book is quite interesting. We have a literal "digital native", cyberlinked to an impressive extent to an omnipresent network, but crashlanded on a planet where solar radiation prevents the existence of such a network. Simara is very much the fish-out-of-water amid the planetary culture she finds herself in and the culture itself is quite interesting. That being said, the writing here is quite ridiculous and tone-deaf, with a rape-survivor alternately being quite ok with some violations, but reacting violently to others, and a local legal system that seems to indicate unmarried females as fair game.
But that's nothing compared to the complete ridiculous of the book once they leave the planet. If the first section from Simara's point of view is a ridiculous and tone-deaf kind-of-romance, the second section is an inane adventure with some truly stupid dialogue. Then the book changes again in the final part, giving us the single most clueless reporter and conspiracy scheme I've ever heard of, and an even lower depth of dialogue.
It's like an editor or whoever bought the book did so based on the first third and then gave the rest of it to a 14-year old to finish off after canvassing his or her English class for science-fictional ideas to include.
A truly awful book.
Fleeing from an attempted rape by her step-father Simara crash-lands on a desert planet and is rescued by a local boy. There's a romance and then Simara leads her new "husband" Zen into space. After a trumped up legal charge they then crashland (again) on a different planet where they become a news item.
The first third of the book is quite interesting. We have a literal "digital native", cyberlinked to an impressive extent to an omnipresent network, but crashlanded on a planet where solar radiation prevents the existence of such a network. Simara is very much the fish-out-of-water amid the planetary culture she finds herself in and the culture itself is quite interesting. That being said, the writing here is quite ridiculous and tone-deaf, with a rape-survivor alternately being quite ok with some violations, but reacting violently to others, and a local legal system that seems to indicate unmarried females as fair game.
But that's nothing compared to the complete ridiculous of the book once they leave the planet. If the first section from Simara's point of view is a ridiculous and tone-deaf kind-of-romance, the second section is an inane adventure with some truly stupid dialogue. Then the book changes again in the final part, giving us the single most clueless reporter and conspiracy scheme I've ever heard of, and an even lower depth of dialogue.
It's like an editor or whoever bought the book did so based on the first third and then gave the rest of it to a 14-year old to finish off after canvassing his or her English class for science-fictional ideas to include.
A truly awful book.
debbiesilkserif's review against another edition
3.0
Received from ECWPress in exchange for an completely unbiased review.
Also posted on Silk & Serif
Simara has spent her entire life in space living with a sexually abusive stepfather. Before the death of her mother Simara only experienced her stepfather’s abuse from afar, but now without her mother she becomes the primary target of his wrath. One day the abuse becomes too much and the naive girl who has ever lived in space flees to the Dark Zone; a planet where no digital signal can penetrate to the planet’s surface. There she meets Zen and uncovers a plot against special children like her who have a special connection to the virtual world’s AI “Mother”.
Zen, a strong, damaged and weary boy is on a routine salvage run when he finds an unconscious girl in one of the space ships that fall from the sky. He brings her home and nurses her back to health in hopes that perhaps this one will live – he will not have to bury another stranger. Samara isn’t what he expects and after saving her life a second time he is forced to leave his home planet, the only place he has ever known, and travel into the wide abyss of space with Simara as his guide. Unfortunately, it appears the authorities have been waiting for Simara’s return and Zen’s new found loyalty to the little star child will be pushed to its limits before the young couple can finally be free of Simara’s dark past.
I struggled with writing a review for Freenet. On the one hand Freenet had an interesting plot, fantastic twists and interesting cultures. What if our society was in space, deprived of all of Earth’s sense inspiring beauty and the only out was a virtual world called the ‘Freenet”? Could a virtual net of digital information become sentient? How corrupt could humanity get? Simara’s story is one of greed, corruption, sadness and human triumph over environmental circumstances. Freenet had all the workings of an amazing story, a fantastic science fiction novel that could take your breath away at it’s implications..but it missed the mark.
I didn’t particularly like any of the characters. There was a lot of “tell not show” kind of writing and a feeling of remoteness from the events unfolding. The language used just didn’t engage me in the way I wanted for a young adult science fiction novel because it felt more like a classical science fiction novel. I am totally fine with the classical tones of sci-fi, but in this instance I felt like the novel was unable to decide which genre it wanted to be. It was unusual – not terrible, but a bit jarring whenever I’d take a break and come back.
On top of that the summary doesn’t do the true story any justice with a promise of a wide scoping novel of awe inspiring societal upheaval when really this is a tale about a girl and a boy who fall for one another, save one another and a deep secret in Simara’s beloved Freenet. I expected something entirely different from what I got, thanks to the summary, but Im not complaining because I liked Simara and Zen’s story more than what the summary promised.
Finally, I hated Simara. I get shes a naive and weak space walker who has been largely sheltered from the realities of life. She takes her life in her own hands, and having been in that kind of situation, it takes a special kind of courage to go against someone who controls you so ultimately. So, when Simara consistently forced Zen to save her, her “uncontrollable” anger issues and the fact that she happily told everyone about how her stepfather abused and raped her..well her character fell apart for me. She literally tells Zen in her second line she’d been raped. She just met this boy, she has no idea what kind of person he is, and she reveals her biggest secret and weakness to him. I don’t know. She repeatedly does things that give people power over her, becomes abusive like her stepfather and makes herself into the victim far too often to make her character likable.
In short, I liked Freenet for its plot twists, the ending and the interesting cultures Stanton created on Zen’s planet. I definitely enjoyed seeing how Stanton tackled the issues of low-stimulation in long term space flight and the long term segregation of generations of people in the Dead Zone. It delivered on the science fiction front in a way that I found highly satisfying, but on the young adult spectrum I couldn’t relate. The character of Simara was frustrating and Zen’s lack of sexual loyalty to his ‘wife’ bothered me on so many levels.
This book will appeal to readers who enjoy staunch science fiction, novels about virtual reality and are comfortable with issues such as rape and cheating. I definitely don’t suggest this novel to young adult fans since this novel is lacking some of the fundamental emotional elements and the novel deals with some adult issues. I would probably suggest this book to lovers of NA.
Also posted on Silk & Serif
Simara has spent her entire life in space living with a sexually abusive stepfather. Before the death of her mother Simara only experienced her stepfather’s abuse from afar, but now without her mother she becomes the primary target of his wrath. One day the abuse becomes too much and the naive girl who has ever lived in space flees to the Dark Zone; a planet where no digital signal can penetrate to the planet’s surface. There she meets Zen and uncovers a plot against special children like her who have a special connection to the virtual world’s AI “Mother”.
Zen, a strong, damaged and weary boy is on a routine salvage run when he finds an unconscious girl in one of the space ships that fall from the sky. He brings her home and nurses her back to health in hopes that perhaps this one will live – he will not have to bury another stranger. Samara isn’t what he expects and after saving her life a second time he is forced to leave his home planet, the only place he has ever known, and travel into the wide abyss of space with Simara as his guide. Unfortunately, it appears the authorities have been waiting for Simara’s return and Zen’s new found loyalty to the little star child will be pushed to its limits before the young couple can finally be free of Simara’s dark past.
I struggled with writing a review for Freenet. On the one hand Freenet had an interesting plot, fantastic twists and interesting cultures. What if our society was in space, deprived of all of Earth’s sense inspiring beauty and the only out was a virtual world called the ‘Freenet”? Could a virtual net of digital information become sentient? How corrupt could humanity get? Simara’s story is one of greed, corruption, sadness and human triumph over environmental circumstances. Freenet had all the workings of an amazing story, a fantastic science fiction novel that could take your breath away at it’s implications..but it missed the mark.
This novel was a mixed bag of genius and frustrating character inconsistency and as a result, my opinion is a complete mixed bag as well!
I didn’t particularly like any of the characters. There was a lot of “tell not show” kind of writing and a feeling of remoteness from the events unfolding. The language used just didn’t engage me in the way I wanted for a young adult science fiction novel because it felt more like a classical science fiction novel. I am totally fine with the classical tones of sci-fi, but in this instance I felt like the novel was unable to decide which genre it wanted to be. It was unusual – not terrible, but a bit jarring whenever I’d take a break and come back.
On top of that the summary doesn’t do the true story any justice with a promise of a wide scoping novel of awe inspiring societal upheaval when really this is a tale about a girl and a boy who fall for one another, save one another and a deep secret in Simara’s beloved Freenet. I expected something entirely different from what I got, thanks to the summary, but Im not complaining because I liked Simara and Zen’s story more than what the summary promised.
Finally, I hated Simara. I get shes a naive and weak space walker who has been largely sheltered from the realities of life. She takes her life in her own hands, and having been in that kind of situation, it takes a special kind of courage to go against someone who controls you so ultimately. So, when Simara consistently forced Zen to save her, her “uncontrollable” anger issues and the fact that she happily told everyone about how her stepfather abused and raped her..well her character fell apart for me. She literally tells Zen in her second line she’d been raped. She just met this boy, she has no idea what kind of person he is, and she reveals her biggest secret and weakness to him. I don’t know. She repeatedly does things that give people power over her, becomes abusive like her stepfather and makes herself into the victim far too often to make her character likable.
I’m not putting down victims of abuse; I just really wanted Simara to be as bad ass as the girl from the beginning of the novel.
In short, I liked Freenet for its plot twists, the ending and the interesting cultures Stanton created on Zen’s planet. I definitely enjoyed seeing how Stanton tackled the issues of low-stimulation in long term space flight and the long term segregation of generations of people in the Dead Zone. It delivered on the science fiction front in a way that I found highly satisfying, but on the young adult spectrum I couldn’t relate. The character of Simara was frustrating and Zen’s lack of sexual loyalty to his ‘wife’ bothered me on so many levels.
This book will appeal to readers who enjoy staunch science fiction, novels about virtual reality and are comfortable with issues such as rape and cheating. I definitely don’t suggest this novel to young adult fans since this novel is lacking some of the fundamental emotional elements and the novel deals with some adult issues. I would probably suggest this book to lovers of NA.
librarylandlisa's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 Stars. This intergalactic novel was pretty awesome. I really like d the relationship between Zen and Simara and I was really quite surprised by the last third of the novel.
I would suggest this to folks that enjoy scifi and this idea that we will transition to an alternative digital world or landscape. This was pretty neat and I read it in two sittings. I still am not sure about the ending but it did bring me hours of enjoyment reading the story.
I received an egalley for review from NetGally and ECW Press, Thanks!
I would suggest this to folks that enjoy scifi and this idea that we will transition to an alternative digital world or landscape. This was pretty neat and I read it in two sittings. I still am not sure about the ending but it did bring me hours of enjoyment reading the story.
I received an egalley for review from NetGally and ECW Press, Thanks!
debbiesilkserif's review
3.0
Received from ECWPress in exchange for an completely unbiased review.
Also posted on Silk & Serif
Simara has spent her entire life in space living with a sexually abusive stepfather. Before the death of her mother Simara only experienced her stepfather’s abuse from afar, but now without her mother she becomes the primary target of his wrath. One day the abuse becomes too much and the naive girl who has ever lived in space flees to the Dark Zone; a planet where no digital signal can penetrate to the planet’s surface. There she meets Zen and uncovers a plot against special children like her who have a special connection to the virtual world’s AI “Mother”.
Zen, a strong, damaged and weary boy is on a routine salvage run when he finds an unconscious girl in one of the space ships that fall from the sky. He brings her home and nurses her back to health in hopes that perhaps this one will live – he will not have to bury another stranger. Samara isn’t what he expects and after saving her life a second time he is forced to leave his home planet, the only place he has ever known, and travel into the wide abyss of space with Simara as his guide. Unfortunately, it appears the authorities have been waiting for Simara’s return and Zen’s new found loyalty to the little star child will be pushed to its limits before the young couple can finally be free of Simara’s dark past.
I struggled with writing a review for Freenet. On the one hand Freenet had an interesting plot, fantastic twists and interesting cultures. What if our society was in space, deprived of all of Earth’s sense inspiring beauty and the only out was a virtual world called the ‘Freenet”? Could a virtual net of digital information become sentient? How corrupt could humanity get? Simara’s story is one of greed, corruption, sadness and human triumph over environmental circumstances. Freenet had all the workings of an amazing story, a fantastic science fiction novel that could take your breath away at it’s implications..but it missed the mark.
I didn’t particularly like any of the characters. There was a lot of “tell not show” kind of writing and a feeling of remoteness from the events unfolding. The language used just didn’t engage me in the way I wanted for a young adult science fiction novel because it felt more like a classical science fiction novel. I am totally fine with the classical tones of sci-fi, but in this instance I felt like the novel was unable to decide which genre it wanted to be. It was unusual – not terrible, but a bit jarring whenever I’d take a break and come back.
On top of that the summary doesn’t do the true story any justice with a promise of a wide scoping novel of awe inspiring societal upheaval when really this is a tale about a girl and a boy who fall for one another, save one another and a deep secret in Simara’s beloved Freenet. I expected something entirely different from what I got, thanks to the summary, but Im not complaining because I liked Simara and Zen’s story more than what the summary promised.
Finally, I hated Simara. I get shes a naive and weak space walker who has been largely sheltered from the realities of life. She takes her life in her own hands, and having been in that kind of situation, it takes a special kind of courage to go against someone who controls you so ultimately. So, when Simara consistently forced Zen to save her, her “uncontrollable” anger issues and the fact that she happily told everyone about how her stepfather abused and raped her..well her character fell apart for me. She literally tells Zen in her second line she’d been raped. She just met this boy, she has no idea what kind of person he is, and she reveals her biggest secret and weakness to him. I don’t know. She repeatedly does things that give people power over her, becomes abusive like her stepfather and makes herself into the victim far too often to make her character likable.
In short, I liked Freenet for its plot twists, the ending and the interesting cultures Stanton created on Zen’s planet. I definitely enjoyed seeing how Stanton tackled the issues of low-stimulation in long term space flight and the long term segregation of generations of people in the Dead Zone. It delivered on the science fiction front in a way that I found highly satisfying, but on the young adult spectrum I couldn’t relate. The character of Simara was frustrating and Zen’s lack of sexual loyalty to his ‘wife’ bothered me on so many levels.
This book will appeal to readers who enjoy staunch science fiction, novels about virtual reality and are comfortable with issues such as rape and cheating. I definitely don’t suggest this novel to young adult fans since this novel is lacking some of the fundamental emotional elements and the novel deals with some adult issues. I would probably suggest this book to lovers of NA.
Also posted on Silk & Serif
Simara has spent her entire life in space living with a sexually abusive stepfather. Before the death of her mother Simara only experienced her stepfather’s abuse from afar, but now without her mother she becomes the primary target of his wrath. One day the abuse becomes too much and the naive girl who has ever lived in space flees to the Dark Zone; a planet where no digital signal can penetrate to the planet’s surface. There she meets Zen and uncovers a plot against special children like her who have a special connection to the virtual world’s AI “Mother”.
Zen, a strong, damaged and weary boy is on a routine salvage run when he finds an unconscious girl in one of the space ships that fall from the sky. He brings her home and nurses her back to health in hopes that perhaps this one will live – he will not have to bury another stranger. Samara isn’t what he expects and after saving her life a second time he is forced to leave his home planet, the only place he has ever known, and travel into the wide abyss of space with Simara as his guide. Unfortunately, it appears the authorities have been waiting for Simara’s return and Zen’s new found loyalty to the little star child will be pushed to its limits before the young couple can finally be free of Simara’s dark past.
I struggled with writing a review for Freenet. On the one hand Freenet had an interesting plot, fantastic twists and interesting cultures. What if our society was in space, deprived of all of Earth’s sense inspiring beauty and the only out was a virtual world called the ‘Freenet”? Could a virtual net of digital information become sentient? How corrupt could humanity get? Simara’s story is one of greed, corruption, sadness and human triumph over environmental circumstances. Freenet had all the workings of an amazing story, a fantastic science fiction novel that could take your breath away at it’s implications..but it missed the mark.
This novel was a mixed bag of genius and frustrating character inconsistency and as a result, my opinion is a complete mixed bag as well!
I didn’t particularly like any of the characters. There was a lot of “tell not show” kind of writing and a feeling of remoteness from the events unfolding. The language used just didn’t engage me in the way I wanted for a young adult science fiction novel because it felt more like a classical science fiction novel. I am totally fine with the classical tones of sci-fi, but in this instance I felt like the novel was unable to decide which genre it wanted to be. It was unusual – not terrible, but a bit jarring whenever I’d take a break and come back.
On top of that the summary doesn’t do the true story any justice with a promise of a wide scoping novel of awe inspiring societal upheaval when really this is a tale about a girl and a boy who fall for one another, save one another and a deep secret in Simara’s beloved Freenet. I expected something entirely different from what I got, thanks to the summary, but Im not complaining because I liked Simara and Zen’s story more than what the summary promised.
Finally, I hated Simara. I get shes a naive and weak space walker who has been largely sheltered from the realities of life. She takes her life in her own hands, and having been in that kind of situation, it takes a special kind of courage to go against someone who controls you so ultimately. So, when Simara consistently forced Zen to save her, her “uncontrollable” anger issues and the fact that she happily told everyone about how her stepfather abused and raped her..well her character fell apart for me. She literally tells Zen in her second line she’d been raped. She just met this boy, she has no idea what kind of person he is, and she reveals her biggest secret and weakness to him. I don’t know. She repeatedly does things that give people power over her, becomes abusive like her stepfather and makes herself into the victim far too often to make her character likable.
I’m not putting down victims of abuse; I just really wanted Simara to be as bad ass as the girl from the beginning of the novel.
In short, I liked Freenet for its plot twists, the ending and the interesting cultures Stanton created on Zen’s planet. I definitely enjoyed seeing how Stanton tackled the issues of low-stimulation in long term space flight and the long term segregation of generations of people in the Dead Zone. It delivered on the science fiction front in a way that I found highly satisfying, but on the young adult spectrum I couldn’t relate. The character of Simara was frustrating and Zen’s lack of sexual loyalty to his ‘wife’ bothered me on so many levels.
This book will appeal to readers who enjoy staunch science fiction, novels about virtual reality and are comfortable with issues such as rape and cheating. I definitely don’t suggest this novel to young adult fans since this novel is lacking some of the fundamental emotional elements and the novel deals with some adult issues. I would probably suggest this book to lovers of NA.
More...