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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
I have no idea how I feel about this book, I only know I had trouble getting myself to pick up the book and read it.
Strange, confusing, difficult to understand at times, slow to pick up the pace. Not for me.
*edit*
Now I've had a day to seep it in, thought I would add some things.
I had no problems with the second person style of writing, and no problems with the Scottish dialect. But I found myself sitting with my Oxford English dictionary way too often. So the too difficult words, interrupted the flow of my reading, and I had trouble enjoying the writing.
I didn't like the characters, I didn't get invested in them. My favorite was Anwar, but I still find I have trouble expressing why. I found Liz irritating because it felt like her thoughts never got to fully form, and she always got interrupted, especially in the beginning of the book. And she was irritating and insecure. The Toymaker was an interesting choice, a paranoid psycho, but I never really got him.
I found the ending to come too fast, and leave some questions I had unanswered.
This is not the worst thing I've read, but one star was close. The book has some good qualities, and I got to the end, so that's why it got 2 stars.
Strange, confusing, difficult to understand at times, slow to pick up the pace. Not for me.
*edit*
Now I've had a day to seep it in, thought I would add some things.
Spoiler
I had no problems with the second person style of writing, and no problems with the Scottish dialect. But I found myself sitting with my Oxford English dictionary way too often. So the too difficult words, interrupted the flow of my reading, and I had trouble enjoying the writing.
I didn't like the characters, I didn't get invested in them. My favorite was Anwar, but I still find I have trouble expressing why. I found Liz irritating because it felt like her thoughts never got to fully form, and she always got interrupted, especially in the beginning of the book. And she was irritating and insecure. The Toymaker was an interesting choice, a paranoid psycho, but I never really got him.
I found the ending to come too fast, and leave some questions I had unanswered.
This is not the worst thing I've read, but one star was close. The book has some good qualities, and I got to the end, so that's why it got 2 stars.
An interesting story around one of the Internet's oldest 'rules'... Stross certainly has the gift of great storytelling as this was a page-turner... I did not put this book down till it was finished!
After reading Stross's excellent "Halting State" I was looking forward to reading this, the sequel. Instead I was deeply disappointed.
This book is another near future novel like Halting State. Unlike that novel I did not develop any sympathy for any of the characters, and the story did not engage me, and the ending is a lot more depressing. The writing is quite as good as anything else Stross has written, it was the characters and situations which put me off.
This book is another near future novel like Halting State. Unlike that novel I did not develop any sympathy for any of the characters, and the story did not engage me, and the ending is a lot more depressing. The writing is quite as good as anything else Stross has written, it was the characters and situations which put me off.
Great use of the police procedural within a vaguely cyberpunkish near future. With tea and oatcakes.
Overall, a generally enjoyable mystery novel with some viciously cutting humour. Unfortunately, I do feel that I have to mark it down for a largely disappointing ending and the use of the 2nd person perspective that just seems pretentious really.
“I didna want to spread this’un around, skipper, but it’s a two-wetsuit job. I don’ like to bug you, but I need a second opinion.”
“Wow, that’s something out of the ordinary. A two-wetsuit job means kinky beyond the call of duty.” (4).
And so Detective Liz Kavanaugh begins investigating a wave of murders that involve repurposed house hold appliances and criminals, seemingly petty and not, worldwide. She’s assigned to the Rule 34 squad, specializing in meme-crime – memes that may jump from the imagination into the real world to bloody or disturbing effects. And something’s jumped.
The first chapter’s titled “Red Pill, Blue Pill,” and it ends with the line “Keep taking the happy pills, Liz. It’s better than the alternative.” (16). Great recapitulation of the first world existential trauma problem.
The book’s disorienting in large part because it’s written relentlessly in the second person, with different persons to second, like a Chose Your Own Adventure book or certain ancient text based video games. The chapter titles helpfully clue us into whose perspective we’re watching, but even so, it’s tough going. The amount of information that goes past is staggering. Stross does a nice job of letting us live one of the problems of the Total Awareness Society from the standpoint of those trying to solve murders – *way* too much information. If Liz had figured out the connection between grey market medium for the ubiquitous 3-D printers and Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu’s enema machine, a lot of deaths might have . . . well, probably gone down exactly as they did, but she would have understood what was going on faster.
Not surprisingly for a book so titled, it has introduced me to a concept 1. that I never considered and 2. that is frelling terrifying. Are you ready?
The Spamularity.
I’m dead certain we’re not ready for that.
If I could, I'd give it a 2.5. I liked some parts, others were a slog for me and I didn't care for the ending.
I have no idea how I feel about this book, I only know I had trouble getting myself to pick up the book and read it.
Strange, confusing, difficult to understand at times, slow to pick up the pace. Not for me.
*edit*
Now I've had a day to seep it in, thought I would add some things.
I had no problems with the second person style of writing, and no problems with the Scottish dialect. But I found myself sitting with my Oxford English dictionary way too often. So the too difficult words, interrupted the flow of my reading, and I had trouble enjoying the writing.
I didn't like the characters, I didn't get invested in them. My favorite was Anwar, but I still find I have trouble expressing why. I found Liz irritating because it felt like her thoughts never got to fully form, and she always got interrupted, especially in the beginning of the book. And she was irritating and insecure. The Toymaker was an interesting choice, a paranoid psycho, but I never really got him.
I found the ending to come too fast, and leave some questions I had unanswered.
This is not the worst thing I've read, but one star was close. The book has some good qualities, and I got to the end, so that's why it got 2 stars.
Strange, confusing, difficult to understand at times, slow to pick up the pace. Not for me.
*edit*
Now I've had a day to seep it in, thought I would add some things.
Spoiler
I had no problems with the second person style of writing, and no problems with the Scottish dialect. But I found myself sitting with my Oxford English dictionary way too often. So the too difficult words, interrupted the flow of my reading, and I had trouble enjoying the writing.
I didn't like the characters, I didn't get invested in them. My favorite was Anwar, but I still find I have trouble expressing why. I found Liz irritating because it felt like her thoughts never got to fully form, and she always got interrupted, especially in the beginning of the book. And she was irritating and insecure. The Toymaker was an interesting choice, a paranoid psycho, but I never really got him.
I found the ending to come too fast, and leave some questions I had unanswered.
This is not the worst thing I've read, but one star was close. The book has some good qualities, and I got to the end, so that's why it got 2 stars.
It was technically feasible, but I never really got pulled into the story.