Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
I should like this book but I’m royally confused by it. I need some time to digest it before rating.
After a few days thinking I’m giving it 3 stars for overall premise. But I had a hard time getting through it. Maybe his writing style just isn’t for me.
After a few days thinking I’m giving it 3 stars for overall premise. But I had a hard time getting through it. Maybe his writing style just isn’t for me.
I enjoyed the creative, satiric setting of a fractured, franchised-sodden America. It has promising elements, and impressively captures the depressive slop heap of late stage capitalism.
For instance -
“Warning: The National Parks Service has declared this area to be a national sacrifice zone. The sacrifice zone program was developed to manage parcels of land whose clean-up cost exceeds their total future economic value.”
But I found the characters flat and uninteresting, the plot predictable, and the info dumps clunky and not creative. I also disliked how it’s narrated in present tense, it results in some very awkward syntax. This book dragged for me and I didn’t love the direction it took.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Like a neon-lit fever dream. Wildly prophetic, uproariously funny, great characters.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I think this book just isn't my type. I was intrigued during the first third, but after that I found the characters so under-developed and uninteresting that I stopped caring. Not to mention the plot was so complicated and jumbled that I had a hard time following it. And the corny catch phrases inserted every once in awhile I found totally ridiculous. With that said, maybe I'm just not much of a sci-fi lover...but I have a hard time chalking my dislike up to a genre preference.
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Amazing book. The writing is witty, sarcastic, and deeply humorous. Stephenson has a gift for looking at our current economic and political being and taking it to its 'logical' conclusion - a (hopefully) somewhat unlikely but immensely hilarious situation. I was pleased to discover that despite the strength and singularity of Stephenson's writing voice, the characters themselves also have strong voices, especially Y.T. It ended both a bit too slowly and a bit too soon for me, but otherwise it's quite the excellent book.
VERY entertaining read. Somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek take on cyberpunk, Stephenson's take on the inevitable progression of capitalism bites while it amuses. Dragged down a bit in the last third when the protagonist spends twenty pages lecturing about ancient Mesopotamian linguistics, prefaced with "We don't have much time, so I'll cut to the chase." Self-aware? Perhaps. Self-indulgent? Absolutely.
adventurous
challenging
reflective
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:
Complicated