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peresr's review
3.0
Tercer i últim llibre de la trilogia "Mecha Samurai Empire", me l'he llegit d'una revolada ja que té un ritme i argument ràpid, és entretingut i en certa mesura interessant, però la trama és insípida malgrat que la temàtica és un dels grans temes habitualment ignorats de la humanitat: perquè decidim lluitar i morir per unes certes conviccions? Com et pots oposar a una corrupció massiva del poder?
En Peter Tieryas en el seu afany de fer que cada un dels llibres de la trilogia puguin ser llegits individualment ha descartat, altre cop, els protagonistes del llibre anterior i s'ha centrat en uns de nous i amb una trama que connecta i passa més o menys en el mateix espai i temps que els altres dos llibres; una decisió molt arriscada ja que per tal de no perdre el lector cal fer una molt bona trama general i construir una nova empatia entre el lector i els nous protagonistes, fita que crec que és a l'abast de molts pocs escriptors. L'intent d'en Tieryas fracassa totalment malgrat que hagi posat uns quants "cameos" dels protagonistes dels altres llibres; aparicions que passen sense deixar cap tipus de petjada i que podrien haver sigut protagonitzats per nous personatges sense cap problema. Un fracàs absolut.
Deixant de banda aquest aspecte negatiu i tenint en compte les escasses referencies històriques, fan que sigui una novel·la més fàcil de digerir que les anteriors, més versemblant. De fet, llegint el llibre he tingut la sensació d'estar veient un anime, ple d'acció, de tecnologia futurista i també d'una crueltat que difícilment pots trobar en els productes occidentals; ha sigut entretingut i en certs moments he de dir que he gaudit de les batalles. Això si, l'arc argumental passa de puntetes per temes que són crucials en una trama com la descrita i molts cops ni tant sols adreça els punts que serien més interessants d'una novel·la de ciència ficció, fent que tingui la impressió final de que és llibre ple de forats i mancances.
Personalment, crec que en Tieryas ha fet més un guió per una sèrie anime de qualitat mitjana que no pas una novel·la de ciència ficció; és com si hagués anat abaixant el nivell d'autoexigència i s'hagués anat allunyant més i més de l'ideal d'autor emmirallat en Philip K. Dick del 1r llibre per convertir-se en un "simple" guionista d'un producte de consum massiu sense ambició.
Malgrat tot plegat, el llibre és entretingut i perfecte per llegir en poques hores d'un dia avorrit o mandrós.
En Peter Tieryas en el seu afany de fer que cada un dels llibres de la trilogia puguin ser llegits individualment ha descartat, altre cop, els protagonistes del llibre anterior i s'ha centrat en uns de nous i amb una trama que connecta i passa més o menys en el mateix espai i temps que els altres dos llibres; una decisió molt arriscada ja que per tal de no perdre el lector cal fer una molt bona trama general i construir una nova empatia entre el lector i els nous protagonistes, fita que crec que és a l'abast de molts pocs escriptors. L'intent d'en Tieryas fracassa totalment malgrat que hagi posat uns quants "cameos" dels protagonistes dels altres llibres; aparicions que passen sense deixar cap tipus de petjada i que podrien haver sigut protagonitzats per nous personatges sense cap problema. Un fracàs absolut.
Deixant de banda aquest aspecte negatiu i tenint en compte les escasses referencies històriques, fan que sigui una novel·la més fàcil de digerir que les anteriors, més versemblant. De fet, llegint el llibre he tingut la sensació d'estar veient un anime, ple d'acció, de tecnologia futurista i també d'una crueltat que difícilment pots trobar en els productes occidentals; ha sigut entretingut i en certs moments he de dir que he gaudit de les batalles. Això si, l'arc argumental passa de puntetes per temes que són crucials en una trama com la descrita i molts cops ni tant sols adreça els punts que serien més interessants d'una novel·la de ciència ficció, fent que tingui la impressió final de que és llibre ple de forats i mancances.
Personalment, crec que en Tieryas ha fet més un guió per una sèrie anime de qualitat mitjana que no pas una novel·la de ciència ficció; és com si hagués anat abaixant el nivell d'autoexigència i s'hagués anat allunyant més i més de l'ideal d'autor emmirallat en Philip K. Dick del 1r llibre per convertir-se en un "simple" guionista d'un producte de consum massiu sense ambició.
Malgrat tot plegat, el llibre és entretingut i perfecte per llegir en poques hores d'un dia avorrit o mandrós.
davidchanza's review against another edition
4.0
Tercera parte del universo de United States of Japan, esta vez la historia ya más centrada en la época actual, donde casi todo se centra en la lucha de poder dentro del estado, donde diferentes facciones quieren hacerse con el poder para diferentes objetivos y donde la corrupción y las venganzas están a la orden del día.
De nuevo los grandes protagonistas son los Mechas, mucho más que en otros libros y con esa sensación de estar leyendo algo épico.
Muy molona esta trilogía, y esperando a ver si algún día sale algo más dentro de este universo.
De nuevo los grandes protagonistas son los Mechas, mucho más que en otros libros y con esa sensación de estar leyendo algo épico.
Muy molona esta trilogía, y esperando a ver si algún día sale algo más dentro de este universo.
philibin's review against another edition
2.0
(2.25 Stars)
I really liked the 2nd book in this series, this one just didn't work for me. I just had a really hard time getting into it. I really liked the descriptions of the mechs but the characters that were in both books didn't really seem to act the same from last book to this one; they seemed very flat.
I really liked the 2nd book in this series, this one just didn't work for me. I just had a really hard time getting into it. I really liked the descriptions of the mechs but the characters that were in both books didn't really seem to act the same from last book to this one; they seemed very flat.
greenikat89's review against another edition
2.0
My friend bought this book for me based off all the positive reviews on GR and Amazon. I like sci-fi, I like mechs, I liked Pacific Rim and so my friend thought this would be a perfect book.
Even though this book is the third in a series, I wasn't missing anything and could follow along with the plot. The two stars are because there is no romance between the main characters and because there's a lot of female characters and racial diversity (even if it's written in the most ham-fisted clunky way to show it).
Most of this book I felt like I was in a fog. There were not a lot of concrete descriptions of the world to really build up settings or even scenes. Character emotions were just told (i.e. "she felt sad"), the sentence structures were simplistic, the fighting descriptions felt more like a script, the dialogue was awkward and almost everyone talked exactly the same except for one character.
Even the formatting of the book is just weird. The book is divided into part one and part two, there are no actual chapters but there are divisions to indicate if it's character A we're with or character B but they sound so similar that it doesn't matter. I don't even know why it needed to be divided like that.
As for the clunky diversity, I don't mean I hated that there was diversity. Most of the books I read are PoC centered because that's important to me, but the author just randomly dropped that knowledge when some characters were introduced and it was just an ethnicity label (This is X, they're half A and half B) and that was it. Not all characters introduced had an ethnic label so it was weird when it did happen, and there are other ways to show a reader that there's diverse characters other than a single sentence about a character and then never mentioned again.
This book needs a better editor both for some grammar mistakes but also to cut down on a lot of unnecessary "chapters" that added nothing to the story.
One other star because this book is unintentionally funny because of how bad it is. Here's one such excerpt from page 77. The context is one of the main "bad ass" characters has been taken captive by a nazi scientist and had just witnessed two people he knew were murdered right in front of him:
---
"Your shoelaces are untied," Bishop said.
"Excuse me?"
"Your shoelaces."
"You're a joker."
"I mean it."
Dr. Metzger looked down and saw that his right shoelace was untied. He signaled one of his underlings to tie for him
"You don't even know what awaits, do you?" Metzger said with a contemptuous laugh.
"Your scalpel?"
---
Hilarious.
Even though this book is the third in a series, I wasn't missing anything and could follow along with the plot. The two stars are because there is no romance between the main characters and because there's a lot of female characters and racial diversity (even if it's written in the most ham-fisted clunky way to show it).
Most of this book I felt like I was in a fog. There were not a lot of concrete descriptions of the world to really build up settings or even scenes. Character emotions were just told (i.e. "she felt sad"), the sentence structures were simplistic, the fighting descriptions felt more like a script, the dialogue was awkward and almost everyone talked exactly the same except for one character.
Even the formatting of the book is just weird. The book is divided into part one and part two, there are no actual chapters but there are divisions to indicate if it's character A we're with or character B but they sound so similar that it doesn't matter. I don't even know why it needed to be divided like that.
As for the clunky diversity, I don't mean I hated that there was diversity. Most of the books I read are PoC centered because that's important to me, but the author just randomly dropped that knowledge when some characters were introduced and it was just an ethnicity label (This is X, they're half A and half B) and that was it. Not all characters introduced had an ethnic label so it was weird when it did happen, and there are other ways to show a reader that there's diverse characters other than a single sentence about a character and then never mentioned again.
This book needs a better editor both for some grammar mistakes but also to cut down on a lot of unnecessary "chapters" that added nothing to the story.
One other star because this book is unintentionally funny because of how bad it is. Here's one such excerpt from page 77. The context is one of the main "bad ass" characters has been taken captive by a nazi scientist and had just witnessed two people he knew were murdered right in front of him:
---
"Your shoelaces are untied," Bishop said.
"Excuse me?"
"Your shoelaces."
"You're a joker."
"I mean it."
Dr. Metzger looked down and saw that his right shoelace was untied. He signaled one of his underlings to tie for him
"You don't even know what awaits, do you?" Metzger said with a contemptuous laugh.
"Your scalpel?"
---
Hilarious.
alejandro_montero's review against another edition
4.0
This series of books are always fun, reading about huge mechas destroying each other in a strange world is enjoyable and the messages behind it are great. Tieryas never disappoints, although I do wish we got to learn more about the world itself.
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