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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
Very Gibson-esque in style, though a couple of decades on, and clearly set in Africa. Really didn't feel like it had that much of a plot, and the ending certainly left lots of open ends, facilitating a sequel, etc.
(2.5 Stars)
I really liked Zoo City, so I decided to go back and read This Author's back catalog. This is her earliest published book. I was not as impressed with it as I was with Zoo City.
The Good: This is a cool concept. It is very reminiscent of William Gibson's Sprawl, a cyber punk-ish dystopian hell-scape set in Cape Town, and packed with all the baggage that implies. The future-tech is believable enough to be scary, and the story is a well thought-out abstract.
The Bad: To be honest, I listened to this book as an audiobook, narrated by Nico Evers-Swindell. Maybe it was his accent, but I had a hard time differentiating between the characters. There was not much nuance between cadence, or tone, and even though the chapters start with who's story arc you are hearing it from, they all just melded together in my mind and I had to rewind several times to keep track. As far as the book itself, my only negative about it was that some parts of the story seemed to ramble, and my mind would drift. The story was interesting, but not very engaging. And the characters seemed a little flat.
I will read Lauren's next book, because this one was not bad, it was just not as good as Zoo City. I've already mentioned Gibson, his readers should like this book. Also readers of Rudy Rucker, and anyone who likes the cyberpunk/shadowrun/netrunner style of books. At it's heart, this book recognizes the embrace of technology, while not trusting it... especially in the hands of bad actors and powerful governments.
I really liked Zoo City, so I decided to go back and read This Author's back catalog. This is her earliest published book. I was not as impressed with it as I was with Zoo City.
The Good: This is a cool concept. It is very reminiscent of William Gibson's Sprawl, a cyber punk-ish dystopian hell-scape set in Cape Town, and packed with all the baggage that implies. The future-tech is believable enough to be scary, and the story is a well thought-out abstract.
The Bad: To be honest, I listened to this book as an audiobook, narrated by Nico Evers-Swindell. Maybe it was his accent, but I had a hard time differentiating between the characters. There was not much nuance between cadence, or tone, and even though the chapters start with who's story arc you are hearing it from, they all just melded together in my mind and I had to rewind several times to keep track. As far as the book itself, my only negative about it was that some parts of the story seemed to ramble, and my mind would drift. The story was interesting, but not very engaging. And the characters seemed a little flat.
I will read Lauren's next book, because this one was not bad, it was just not as good as Zoo City. I've already mentioned Gibson, his readers should like this book. Also readers of Rudy Rucker, and anyone who likes the cyberpunk/shadowrun/netrunner style of books. At it's heart, this book recognizes the embrace of technology, while not trusting it... especially in the hands of bad actors and powerful governments.
I'm very impressed by this novel. It creates a truly funky dystopia with Cape Town as a background. Somewhere between satire and science fiction.
Tahaks millegi yle kaevata, aga pole eriti millestki kinni hakata - lugu on huvitav, tehnoloogia areng on huvitav, tegelased ja kõik on nii hip, et kuna tegevus toimub Lõuna-Aafrikas, siis kyllap on loomulik, et tahaks kohe võrrelda Die Antwoordi videotega, mis on muidugi väga ägedad, aga kui neid natuke aega vaadata, siis pärast tahaks vanamemmedest lugeda või midagi.
Interesting and fast-moving near-future corporate dystopianism. Has some interesting ideas, and ties up nicely at the end, without being too cute.
Slick novel from ten years ago set ten years in the future (ie, approximately now) in south africa, told first person from the viewpoints of four characters. Something of a Charles Stross Halting State feel about it.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
I received this in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley
EDIT: I realize now that my review may be unfair, I went into this book influenced by reviews that compared it to and refered to it as dystopian. It is in a way technically dystopian. But when something is compared to 1984, I'm thinking heavy dystopia. This is more cyberpunk grudge kind, which is fine. But I was expecting something stronger, more opressive. The author never promised me this, the book's description didn't either. What this book is, is a character study of people trying to exist in this semi future world, whether they disagree with it, are apathetic or not challenged by it, or even accept it. This isn't some standard wake up and rebel, this is just people with little control trying to regain control, whatever that means to them. So, that being said, my rant below still stands as my immediate response but I think this book deserves a reread in the future with a clear and uninfluenced mind.
I really wish GoodReads would allow partial stars, cause honestly I'd probably give this a 2.5. I made a major mistake, I saw so many reviews just glowing with praises, so many 'scratched my 1984 itch' 'best dystopian since 1984' and coming off a reading high from finishing an amazing dystopian (we, which influenced 1984) I was... too excited for this book.
This for me didn't even remotely touch the 1984 itch, it wasn't even close. The closest it got was a few plot devices, which unfortunately became instantly predictable through character dialogue and people comparing it to 1984. This was a book of interesting ideas, little plan or direction and questionable execution. I kept giving it the excuse of 'I'm only #% of the way through," but once I was at 80% I realized.. oh, I just don't really like this book.
Moxyland follows a group of people living in a 'future' Cape Town (2018, but this was written 8 years ago). We follow (almost too many characters for me to feel anything for any of them) Kendra, stereotypical artist being a photographer cause she likes its flaws bleh, I can say this I'm an artist haha. Who is arguably the most likeable character, when the author isn't turning her into a weak willed cry baby randomly. She's a sponserbaby, injected with nano to make her beautiful and perfect and also have a glowing logo on her advertising a popular soft drink. She seems the most real, but also adds the least to the story. Toby, an all too real streamcast baby, living off his rich mum and vlogging. He's been cut off however and trying hard to actually make a vlog that people want to watch and earn money through games. He has a sort of self induced surveillance as he records and casts most everything. He has the strongest character development, going from a total garbage person to slightly lesser garbage person. Then we follow Lerato, aids baby, grew up in an orphanage which apparently in this world is the best thing to happen to someone because it gave her free education and a one way ticket into a cushy corporate job. However she comes off as unchallenged and just bored, hacking and sabatoging her company. Then finally Tendeka, rebel without a cause trying to start a revolution and blindly following another revolutionist, but I don't think he even know what against. And that is the problem with this book. To create a powerful, lasting story, especially dystopian, you have to give us something to want the characters to be free of. You have to give us a truly questionable society. She didn't, this world isn't future enough, it's not surveilanced enough, the worst thing is that everything, your money, id, access is all linked to your phone so a disconnect by the police is worse than jail time. That just feels like a statement about our world being to techy, I can work with that, but it's not tight enough it's not pushed far enough. The second bad thing is this 'ruling' corporate class, but that's barely explored, so the corporate class live a cushy life style... okay, but it's obvious that it's not excluding people, I mean an orphan has a cushy job, so it's not like they're forcing people to be stuck where they are. People are allowed to leave the country, the police are jerks but not crazy ones. It just wasn't a broken enough society for me to really care.
This led me to kinda hate the characters. Not only did they all have the same bad attitude and read like the same character with different names but I didn't understand what they were fighting for, they didn't seem to understand what they were fighting for. I felt like the old man at the end who called them idiots and talked about how they were in the wrong. Cause honestly it felt like they had personal opinions they were forcing on others and I would call them terrorists.
This has become a full rant, sorry. On top of this is that there was no clear story, Honestly the closest is if you only read Tendeka and Lerato's parts, Toby and Kendra are just kind of there, as if she came up with their concept and just stuck them in, they did little to advance the plot except as another vehicle to deliver the world building (which was weak so...) also they had the endings that I didn't remotely understand.
But here's where it gets weird for me, I didn't hate reading it, it was quick and interesting it just left me feeling unfufilled and wishing to see this concept redone.
also, personal issue, dear all editors, don't let authors reference real specific things, like tweeting, reddit, youtube. Instantly dates it, instantly makes it not timeless, as soon as those things aren't a thing anymore readers will skip over it and not get everything they could from it. Just keep it simple, generic, or make something up. /endrant
All in all, worth the read, but frustrating in that it just doesn't push itself far enough.
EDIT: I realize now that my review may be unfair, I went into this book influenced by reviews that compared it to and refered to it as dystopian. It is in a way technically dystopian. But when something is compared to 1984, I'm thinking heavy dystopia. This is more cyberpunk grudge kind, which is fine. But I was expecting something stronger, more opressive. The author never promised me this, the book's description didn't either. What this book is, is a character study of people trying to exist in this semi future world, whether they disagree with it, are apathetic or not challenged by it, or even accept it. This isn't some standard wake up and rebel, this is just people with little control trying to regain control, whatever that means to them. So, that being said, my rant below still stands as my immediate response but I think this book deserves a reread in the future with a clear and uninfluenced mind.
I really wish GoodReads would allow partial stars, cause honestly I'd probably give this a 2.5. I made a major mistake, I saw so many reviews just glowing with praises, so many 'scratched my 1984 itch' 'best dystopian since 1984' and coming off a reading high from finishing an amazing dystopian (we, which influenced 1984) I was... too excited for this book.
This for me didn't even remotely touch the 1984 itch, it wasn't even close. The closest it got was a few plot devices, which unfortunately became instantly predictable through character dialogue and people comparing it to 1984. This was a book of interesting ideas, little plan or direction and questionable execution. I kept giving it the excuse of 'I'm only #% of the way through," but once I was at 80% I realized.. oh, I just don't really like this book.
Moxyland follows a group of people living in a 'future' Cape Town (2018, but this was written 8 years ago). We follow (almost too many characters for me to feel anything for any of them) Kendra, stereotypical artist being a photographer cause she likes its flaws bleh, I can say this I'm an artist haha. Who is arguably the most likeable character, when the author isn't turning her into a weak willed cry baby randomly. She's a sponserbaby, injected with nano to make her beautiful and perfect and also have a glowing logo on her advertising a popular soft drink. She seems the most real, but also adds the least to the story. Toby, an all too real streamcast baby, living off his rich mum and vlogging. He's been cut off however and trying hard to actually make a vlog that people want to watch and earn money through games. He has a sort of self induced surveillance as he records and casts most everything. He has the strongest character development, going from a total garbage person to slightly lesser garbage person. Then we follow Lerato, aids baby, grew up in an orphanage which apparently in this world is the best thing to happen to someone because it gave her free education and a one way ticket into a cushy corporate job. However she comes off as unchallenged and just bored, hacking and sabatoging her company. Then finally Tendeka, rebel without a cause trying to start a revolution and blindly following another revolutionist, but I don't think he even know what against. And that is the problem with this book. To create a powerful, lasting story, especially dystopian, you have to give us something to want the characters to be free of. You have to give us a truly questionable society. She didn't, this world isn't future enough, it's not surveilanced enough, the worst thing is that everything, your money, id, access is all linked to your phone so a disconnect by the police is worse than jail time. That just feels like a statement about our world being to techy, I can work with that, but it's not tight enough it's not pushed far enough. The second bad thing is this 'ruling' corporate class, but that's barely explored, so the corporate class live a cushy life style... okay, but it's obvious that it's not excluding people, I mean an orphan has a cushy job, so it's not like they're forcing people to be stuck where they are. People are allowed to leave the country, the police are jerks but not crazy ones. It just wasn't a broken enough society for me to really care.
This led me to kinda hate the characters. Not only did they all have the same bad attitude and read like the same character with different names but I didn't understand what they were fighting for, they didn't seem to understand what they were fighting for. I felt like the old man at the end who called them idiots and talked about how they were in the wrong. Cause honestly it felt like they had personal opinions they were forcing on others and I would call them terrorists.
This has become a full rant, sorry. On top of this is that there was no clear story, Honestly the closest is if you only read Tendeka and Lerato's parts, Toby and Kendra are just kind of there, as if she came up with their concept and just stuck them in, they did little to advance the plot except as another vehicle to deliver the world building (which was weak so...) also they had the endings that I didn't remotely understand.
But here's where it gets weird for me, I didn't hate reading it, it was quick and interesting it just left me feeling unfufilled and wishing to see this concept redone.
also, personal issue, dear all editors, don't let authors reference real specific things, like tweeting, reddit, youtube. Instantly dates it, instantly makes it not timeless, as soon as those things aren't a thing anymore readers will skip over it and not get everything they could from it. Just keep it simple, generic, or make something up. /endrant
All in all, worth the read, but frustrating in that it just doesn't push itself far enough.
This novel was firts published in 2008 and yet it's amazingly relevant and on point for all kinds of current issues. The main characters come from quite different places and experiences but they end up intersecting and collaborating in the fight against a repressive system. Influencers are enrolled to be injected and to then advertise experimental nanotech, while video-gamers end up actually killing people. The futuristic technological devices embedded in everyday life and physically part of people's bodies are systematically exploited by the goverment/corporation to control and suppress dissenting voices, to the point of erasing identites and of spreading dangerous poisons to identify rioters. A neverending series of surprising objects, techniques and ideas is presented and deeply connected to the plot and the characters' lives. A whirlwind of devices and people and fast narration captures the reader and makes this a remarkable novel.