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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This story/book is the most different from the ones that I've read so far (Change Agent & Kill Decision).
The amount of techno-babble (or actual science talk) in the book...almost was too much for me...but I trusted the author to make it worth my while, to just "go with it", so I did.
Some of what was done to Jon Grady was TRULY horrific. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to brush off the idea of Hibernity (the prison for intellectual geniuses). Ugh. The idea of constant and persistant questions AND what they did to memories...is too much. Much, too much.
An alternate storyline dealing with Alexa was VERY interesting...when thinking about Alexa and the frustration of being a beautiful woman and being smart. Is she effective because she is smart, or because she incapacitates everyone through he sheer beauty, making her doubly effective (ultimately distancing her from EVERYONE). It is a tragic story...that was well thought out and revealed within this story.
Also, the idea of corporations (or government agencies) guiding and managing what is acceptable for the general public (and what they can "handle" is scary as hell). We know a little of this happens, but what if it keep broadening from a little to a LOT (like a frog being lulled into complacency of cool water...while being slowly boiled). this IS happening, but I hope, NOT to this scale. Let this story be a warning and admonishment for the future.
We need to be able to be truthful and still strive for improvement. Not everyone will be able to understand the new frontier, but they should NEVER be left behind. The smarter, should always help those of lesser understanding to achieve and understand the future.
Loved the way the end this story. Well done. Cotton was a jerk, but there always has to a foe...but was it a wrong thing?
This was a great story. Going to be picking up my next Daniel Suarez book, soon. Three down, more to go.
The amount of techno-babble (or actual science talk) in the book...almost was too much for me...but I trusted the author to make it worth my while, to just "go with it", so I did.
Some of what was done to Jon Grady was TRULY horrific. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to brush off the idea of Hibernity (the prison for intellectual geniuses). Ugh. The idea of constant and persistant questions AND what they did to memories...is too much. Much, too much.
An alternate storyline dealing with Alexa was VERY interesting...when thinking about Alexa and the frustration of being a beautiful woman and being smart. Is she effective because she is smart, or because she incapacitates everyone through he sheer beauty, making her doubly effective (ultimately distancing her from EVERYONE). It is a tragic story...that was well thought out and revealed within this story.
Also, the idea of corporations (or government agencies) guiding and managing what is acceptable for the general public (and what they can "handle" is scary as hell). We know a little of this happens, but what if it keep broadening from a little to a LOT (like a frog being lulled into complacency of cool water...while being slowly boiled). this IS happening, but I hope, NOT to this scale. Let this story be a warning and admonishment for the future.
We need to be able to be truthful and still strive for improvement. Not everyone will be able to understand the new frontier, but they should NEVER be left behind. The smarter, should always help those of lesser understanding to achieve and understand the future.
Loved the way the end this story. Well done. Cotton was a jerk, but there always has to a foe...but was it a wrong thing?
This was a great story. Going to be picking up my next Daniel Suarez book, soon. Three down, more to go.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
Disappointing. Poorly written, poorly structured, poorly paced. There was one bit early on in which one character says something like - now your are just stringing scientific words together in a meaningless way, and I'm thinking exactly. But there were lots and lots (and lots) of interesting ideas and this book did eventually get going. But not well enough to rescue the book as a whole.
For whatever reason this book didn't grab me. I sometimes felt like I was trudging through the science and it seemed to take forever to get started. I wanted to like it more than I did. Good techno thriller and once it gets going it really takes off.
His worst work. It read almost like a Saturday morning cartoon with goofy incompetent, emotionally immature bad guys with comic relief (cloned) henchmen.
The story was very typical but the tech ideas were really cool and there were a few gutsy plot twists I didn't see coming * spoiler alert* I was sure that the FBI agent was going to be the love interest then she was killed.
The story was very typical but the tech ideas were really cool and there were a few gutsy plot twists I didn't see coming * spoiler alert* I was sure that the FBI agent was going to be the love interest then she was killed.
Well, it picked up considerably in the second half; it's a solid 3.5 stars in my opinion. Enjoyable, but won't blow you away or anything.
This is really a 1.5 stars rounded up to 2. What started brilliantly turned into a pile of mud, in my opinion. Influx has all the hallmarks of a book I'd like - interesting plot, snappy action, global conspiracies, plausible scientific advances, and technologies to change the world.
But halfway through, I felt the story stumbled, characters became less interesting, and time slowed to a crawl. I couldn't get to the end soon enough.
I'm off to reread Daemon to make sure I'm not misremembering how awesome it was.
But halfway through, I felt the story stumbled, characters became less interesting, and time slowed to a crawl. I couldn't get to the end soon enough.
I'm off to reread Daemon to make sure I'm not misremembering how awesome it was.
I’m not a SciFi reader but when I discovered the Prometheus Award, the Libertarian in me had to read this. The story itself is pretty good but the theme that innovation thrives in a free will society and that government bureaucracies become too powerful and don’t have its citizens best interests in mind was worth the read.
adventurous
informative
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No