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purplejumping's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.25
The premise was creative but there were so many invented terms that I lost track of what was going on. The characters weren't compelling enough for me to care about them either. I forced myself to finish the book but I'm not sure if I got anything out of it.
maestro_cerrotorcido's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I went into this extremely excited knowing it involved linguistics and anarchism, but WOW did this book drag! It was insanely long-winded with periods of me questioning, "Was this really necessary to the story?" I think many authors feel longer is better. It came across as a book written to be a movie rather than to be a book. Large amounts of cheese, overly convenient chosen-one story, and it didn't even end up involving that much linguistics.
moholub's review against another edition
3.0
Entertained by the Sparkle Dungeon, music-based world building, but the plot lost me at alien punctuation marks. Everything from there on (so like ¾ of the book) was a downward plot spiral of absurdity. Love a little absurdity in a book, but Moore took it to a next level kind of absurdity where you aren't really sure what is happening anymore. What is trying to destroy earth? How is anyone becoming God? 2 out of 5 for spunky lesbian protagonists and letting Isobel keep that glittersteel jacket, but everything else...meh.
swamp_hag's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
adventurouspotato's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.25
An incoherent mess that has NOTHING to do with linguistics!!
The plot and writing is so vague and chaotic that i literally wasn't sure if the characters were flying around or standing on solid ground for the last half of the book. Is the airship inside the video game or is the video game inside the airship?? Is the multidimensional tower lying on its side, or is it standing upright so that the drones can see down to the subbasements through the elevator shaft?? And that's putting aside all the half-baked multidimensional stuff.
The characters are so boring that I frequently confused them with each other. They all talk the same and have confusing or nonsensical motives. Characters flippantly "switch sides" way too often in the middle part of the book. Problems frequently (and I mean frequently) come up only to be resolved on the next page through some random character coming to save the day or shake things up further. There are just TOO MANY things that happen in this book with nothing that coherently ties them together.
Thankfully this book at least didn't take itself too seriously. I have to admit I did literally laugh out loud atthe introduction of the interrobang cause it was just that absurd. I also liked the way the first teleportation sequence was described. Therefore, I will begrudgingly give out an extra quarter star.
The plot and writing is so vague and chaotic that i literally wasn't sure if the characters were flying around or standing on solid ground for the last half of the book. Is the airship inside the video game or is the video game inside the airship?? Is the multidimensional tower lying on its side, or is it standing upright so that the drones can see down to the subbasements through the elevator shaft?? And that's putting aside all the half-baked multidimensional stuff.
The characters are so boring that I frequently confused them with each other. They all talk the same and have confusing or nonsensical motives. Characters flippantly "switch sides" way too often in the middle part of the book. Problems frequently (and I mean frequently) come up only to be resolved on the next page through some random character coming to save the day or shake things up further. There are just TOO MANY things that happen in this book with nothing that coherently ties them together.
Thankfully this book at least didn't take itself too seriously. I have to admit I did literally laugh out loud at
pearlc's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This book was just fun. Are there things that don't make sense and relationships that seem to come out of nowhere and characters who disappear midway through the book? Yes. RIP Sir Trancelot, we knew next to nothing about you. But it was fun.
This was a book that swung for the metaphorical fences and hit more homeruns than it didn't. The sharp turn at about 20% comes out of nowhere and the book doesn't stop from there. It's a constant escalation of absurdity tied together with video game logic. Which is apt as half the book takes place inside a video game.
In addition to being fun this book is highly original. I don't think I've ever seen a twist quite like the one you get when the book dives into the main plot. From there it spirals in originality until the very end. There is friendship, found family, enemies to worse enemies, enemies to reluctant allies, and of course enemies to lovers.
I do think if this had been a duology some of the dropped plotlines and characters would've been handled better. As it stands they just didn't have the room with the pacing the book was laying down. It was nonstop and seemed to depend on you forgetting that these things were around than actually addressing them.
But again, it was so much fun.
This was a book that swung for the metaphorical fences and hit more homeruns than it didn't. The sharp turn at about 20% comes out of nowhere and the book doesn't stop from there. It's a constant escalation of absurdity tied together with video game logic. Which is apt as half the book takes place inside a video game.
In addition to being fun this book is highly original. I don't think I've ever seen a twist quite like the one you get when the book dives into the main plot. From there it spirals in originality until the very end. There is friendship, found family, enemies to worse enemies, enemies to reluctant allies, and of course enemies to lovers.
I do think if this had been a duology some of the dropped plotlines and characters would've been handled better. As it stands they just didn't have the room with the pacing the book was laying down. It was nonstop and seemed to depend on you forgetting that these things were around than actually addressing them.
But again, it was so much fun.
wastaz's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
spiritblossom's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
3.0
jrfbz's review against another edition
I tried very hard to get into this queer sci fi adventure about futuristic gaming, memetic aliens and their magical prescriptivist lexicon, I promise, I wanted to like it, but it reads like an unedited ripoff of Ready Player One by someone who heard of linguistics once but actually just wanted to retweet over-correcting liberal hot takes. Zero nuance, zero substance.