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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
medium-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
Book reads like conservative satire of a liberal future, which is sad because I think the author is entirely earnest. Giving things like robots and animals personhood would be far more interesting if they weren't just humans in other bodies. I can't think of a good way to include a train/cat romance subplot either... By the end I was reading it for laughs.
It was okay. I just slowed down in my pace and didn’t get through it before I needed to take it back to the library
hopeful
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
Super disappointing. Honestly, I don't get why everyone is saying the world building / technology was so great. I mean, most of it makes no sense whatsoever. Somehow, in this world, you have various animals or machine hybrids like a moose that flies, dogs and naked mole rats, walking around interacting with people and... I don't know what. It felt like a bizarre cartoon landscape, a fantasy with no sense of believability. In the first section they're inside an active volcanic mountain, where there's an entire city, somehow growing food via sunlight through skylights that are hidden by technology so that the outside world can't detect it. And being that close to lava flows, even traveling over them in a hovercraft, people and things are not burnt to a crisp. Sure.
But the thing that rang most false was the idea that these characters lived hundreds or thousands of years. Because this wasn't even discussed as a thing that would impact their experience of life. At any rate, I couldn't be bothered to finish and did not get past the first section, but it sounds like I would have been highly annoyed to push through only to get to an abrupt timeline change.
But the thing that rang most false was the idea that these characters lived hundreds or thousands of years. Because this wasn't even discussed as a thing that would impact their experience of life. At any rate, I couldn't be bothered to finish and did not get past the first section, but it sounds like I would have been highly annoyed to push through only to get to an abrupt timeline change.
I truly wanted to like this book because I loved the concept, but the execution was so heavy handed and devoid of nuance. Moreover, it was dull, exhausting, and unnecessarily horny. A couple parts were ridiculous, but like not ridiculous in a fun way. What I’m saying is, a sentient train fucked a robot cat and I still didn’t have a good time!! it’s just not fair!!! also, I didn’t enjoy the narrator
I can honestly say that I’ve never read a book with some of the ideas contained in this one. Ultimately, a book that could have been a 5 fell short for me due to a lack of surprises.
The story didn’t really interest me, I didn’t find the characters at all compelling, and I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. It also didn’t help that I did not like the audiobook narrator’s voice.
adventurous
fast-paced
I really loved a lot of the ideas and characters in this! “What does it mean to be a person?” etc. For that matter, I liked how the book slowly built on the idea of non-human people before invoking that idea more directly in the last section. I also loved how little influences from previous characters popped up in small ways.
The ending wasn’t quiteeee what I had hoped, and I found the third segment a bit heavy-handed (although I do agree with all its ideas!), but all in all really enjoyed this book.
The ending wasn’t quiteeee what I had hoped, and I found the third segment a bit heavy-handed (although I do agree with all its ideas!), but all in all really enjoyed this book.
Felt a bit heavy handed with messaging at times but I loved the premise and the links throughout the timespan. Felt both epic and very personal all at once