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djdimond's review
4.0
I received a free audiobook copy of The Circuit for review. Honestly, at first I was not into it at all. It was a slow start, I had no investment in the characters and I really didn't understand what was going on. However, after the first few chapters, I was definitely hooked. A space opera set in the distant future, The Circuit will draw you in and make you genuinely care about these characters, root for them at different time periods, and realize that with few exceptions, most of them exist in grey areas far between exclusively good or exclusively bad. "War does not determine who is right — only who is left." Well written with an appropriately paced story-line, The Circuit is definitely worth a read.
samanthabean's review
1.0
Full disclosure: I only made it through the first book, so my review is really only of Executor Rising (not that I think the series gets better).
I have so many problems with this book, but by far the biggest is the treatment of the female characters.
The female protagonist has absolutely no agency, which is baffling given the fact that she is apparently a super-human spy. I guess she is supposed to be brainwashed by the theocracy? But that just makes her boring to read.
What’s worse is that, while clearly meant to be the “bad ass female lead,” she is written as anything but. The author continually describes her as “whimpering,” “sniveling,” “stumbling,” etc. Except for one scene in which she kills a gladiator (albeit with great difficulty) we never see her do anything remotely bad ass without the help of a man.
I could possibly dismiss this as merely clumsy writing, but the author’s clear disrespect for women is evident in other areas of the book, as well...
For example: while the world building in this novel leaves much to be desired, you can use context clues to understand the moon from which the male protagonist originates to be primarily a mining operation. We see no women miners and robots have apparently been given all of the food service jobs. So, despite the fact that sex work appears to be the best option for women to support themselves on this moon, the male protagonist’s distain for sex workers practically drips off the page.
His primary motivation is keeping his daughter from “having to go into” sex work. Not sure what he thinks her alternative is... unemployment, apparently.
I realize that it’s not only women who do sex work, and there are male sex workers mentioned in the book, but the only sex worker we actually meet is a woman whom the male protagonist finds irresistible but also detestable? So that’s confusing. The whorephobic language used by him to describe her is off-putting to say the very least.
I only finished this book because Jefferson Mays narrates the audiobook. So at least that made it pleasant to listen to. I will not continue with the series. Even Jefferson’s voice isn’t enough for me on this one.
I have so many problems with this book, but by far the biggest is the treatment of the female characters.
The female protagonist has absolutely no agency, which is baffling given the fact that she is apparently a super-human spy. I guess she is supposed to be brainwashed by the theocracy? But that just makes her boring to read.
What’s worse is that, while clearly meant to be the “bad ass female lead,” she is written as anything but. The author continually describes her as “whimpering,” “sniveling,” “stumbling,” etc. Except for one scene in which she kills a gladiator (albeit with great difficulty) we never see her do anything remotely bad ass without the help of a man.
I could possibly dismiss this as merely clumsy writing, but the author’s clear disrespect for women is evident in other areas of the book, as well...
For example: while the world building in this novel leaves much to be desired, you can use context clues to understand the moon from which the male protagonist originates to be primarily a mining operation. We see no women miners and robots have apparently been given all of the food service jobs. So, despite the fact that sex work appears to be the best option for women to support themselves on this moon, the male protagonist’s distain for sex workers practically drips off the page.
His primary motivation is keeping his daughter from “having to go into” sex work. Not sure what he thinks her alternative is... unemployment, apparently.
I realize that it’s not only women who do sex work, and there are male sex workers mentioned in the book, but the only sex worker we actually meet is a woman whom the male protagonist finds irresistible but also detestable? So that’s confusing. The whorephobic language used by him to describe her is off-putting to say the very least.
I only finished this book because Jefferson Mays narrates the audiobook. So at least that made it pleasant to listen to. I will not continue with the series. Even Jefferson’s voice isn’t enough for me on this one.
disobedientlib's review against another edition
2.0
Could not get into this. Made it about 100 pages in and was just not pulled in.
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