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frasersimons's review
2.0
This book is fairly enjoyable and I would have given it 3 stars but for a couple things. I'm just a regular white dude who likes cyberpunk fiction a lot. But it seems to me that the character while diverging from "normal' or classic cyberpunk fiction (which is great), is pretty uneven. She's badass but always somehow manages to come off 1 dimensional. She always refers to her friends as her "bitches", she pretty much doesn't give a crap about any man save one, and then it's a hyper sexual focus on just that one person. Being a guy, from my lens, this reads off to me. Bringing me to my next point. It's ironic the author even mentions this plot thread in this manner:
"There was an organization trying to pit Mormons and Muslims against each other? It sounded like the obvious plot of a shitty B movie."
I'm sure later on this is unraveled to not be the case. However at 76% percent, I stopped reading. Why? Even more of a reason this didn't get 3 stars though is the double slam against Muslim faith. I get that it's a hot topic right now, but this is the future. Why is it so hard for people to get that Muslim faith is not synonymous with suicide bombers. We already know these people are not following that faith, but in this future anytime Muslim faith is brought up, it's followed by either suicide bombers or talk about arms. At one point Sue Zay, the main protagonist, is talking with one of her friends who is Muslim, and she just happens to describe a gun in complete detail. When asked how she knows this about the weapon the response is, "I'm Muslim!" This was a what the actual fuck moment for me. Then later on there's talk about bombing and someone else says:
"It could happen." Caleb shrugged, "but they would have to physically put someone on the train to plug into the terminal. Even if they got past the armed guards in the engine room, it would be a suicide mission after the train crashed." He shrugged.
"Suicide isn't outside of Muslim beliefs," Emma said with a shrug.
Annnnd I'm done. Part of cyberpunk is extrapolating what these things look like in the future and if you're going to be making light of any faith, you ought to contextualize it. But especially this need for American writers to work in the Muslim terrorist angles is just old hat, and it does not fit in a futuristic world, and if you want it to, explain to me what these religions are like - what they've become - whatever.
To end on a positive note though, I don't have a problem with the writing. It's vulgar, it's fun. The protagonist is a bit flat but can't be slapped into an ordinary default of male author characters. It's a good time, and especially the parts about biker gangs and the use of Asian colloquial terms for them, was neat. I liked that it was an all girl team that kicked ass on their futuristic bikes and I liked the racing sequences a lot.
"Funakoshi and I floated across the freeway for a handful of agonizing seconds, and the world seemed to suddenly become silent. The cars weren't around me, the freeway wasn't under me, and Hogan wasn't yelling at me. It was just Dad and I riding through the Sierra Nevadas on the back of Funakoshi, laughing. I had my arms around his muscular stomach, and he would tell me to squeeze tighter so he could go faster. I buried my helmet into his back and giggled when I felt the engine roar underneath us. Damn it, Dad. Why did you die? Then everything caught and snapped forward."
But in the end the above stuff did made me stop reading it. And for a while actually pissed me off. Maybe things get better with the next books, who knows.
"There was an organization trying to pit Mormons and Muslims against each other? It sounded like the obvious plot of a shitty B movie."
I'm sure later on this is unraveled to not be the case. However at 76% percent, I stopped reading. Why? Even more of a reason this didn't get 3 stars though is the double slam against Muslim faith. I get that it's a hot topic right now, but this is the future. Why is it so hard for people to get that Muslim faith is not synonymous with suicide bombers. We already know these people are not following that faith, but in this future anytime Muslim faith is brought up, it's followed by either suicide bombers or talk about arms. At one point Sue Zay, the main protagonist, is talking with one of her friends who is Muslim, and she just happens to describe a gun in complete detail. When asked how she knows this about the weapon the response is, "I'm Muslim!" This was a what the actual fuck moment for me. Then later on there's talk about bombing and someone else says:
"It could happen." Caleb shrugged, "but they would have to physically put someone on the train to plug into the terminal. Even if they got past the armed guards in the engine room, it would be a suicide mission after the train crashed." He shrugged.
"Suicide isn't outside of Muslim beliefs," Emma said with a shrug.
Annnnd I'm done. Part of cyberpunk is extrapolating what these things look like in the future and if you're going to be making light of any faith, you ought to contextualize it. But especially this need for American writers to work in the Muslim terrorist angles is just old hat, and it does not fit in a futuristic world, and if you want it to, explain to me what these religions are like - what they've become - whatever.
To end on a positive note though, I don't have a problem with the writing. It's vulgar, it's fun. The protagonist is a bit flat but can't be slapped into an ordinary default of male author characters. It's a good time, and especially the parts about biker gangs and the use of Asian colloquial terms for them, was neat. I liked that it was an all girl team that kicked ass on their futuristic bikes and I liked the racing sequences a lot.
"Funakoshi and I floated across the freeway for a handful of agonizing seconds, and the world seemed to suddenly become silent. The cars weren't around me, the freeway wasn't under me, and Hogan wasn't yelling at me. It was just Dad and I riding through the Sierra Nevadas on the back of Funakoshi, laughing. I had my arms around his muscular stomach, and he would tell me to squeeze tighter so he could go faster. I buried my helmet into his back and giggled when I felt the engine roar underneath us. Damn it, Dad. Why did you die? Then everything caught and snapped forward."
But in the end the above stuff did made me stop reading it. And for a while actually pissed me off. Maybe things get better with the next books, who knows.
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