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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Not as good as Daemon or Kill decision, but damn...will haunt my thoughts for a while.
The 1st half of the book is some of the best I've ever read. Pace is perfect.
2nd half is good but doesn't live up to how amazing the 1st half is. Though it did have that Leroy Jenkins line hahahaha.
Still, it's another win for Suarez!!
2nd half is good but doesn't live up to how amazing the 1st half is. Though it did have that Leroy Jenkins line hahahaha.
Still, it's another win for Suarez!!
After Daemon and Freedom, I was looking forward to Suarez' next book. After Kill Decision, I thought "well, everyone can have a bad day". Well, sadly, Influx wasn't much better.
As with all of Suarez' Novels, the premise is very interesting. But sadly, the execution is just plain lacking. What remains is a mediocre thriller with an interesting premise which cannot stand up to Daemon or Freedom.
As with all of Suarez' Novels, the premise is very interesting. But sadly, the execution is just plain lacking. What remains is a mediocre thriller with an interesting premise which cannot stand up to Daemon or Freedom.
It's a quick, fairly engaging read. A suitable vehicle to introduce and bounce around some fascinating and weighty science-y concepts.
spoilers
I was mildly disappointed that two predictions I'd made about the course of the story didn't pan out. That the Resistors were actually an expression of innovative singularity-level generalized artificial sentience. Hedrick's desire to create the creative mind without free will was ... counter intuitive. Disruption of the status quo requires the spirit of resistance displayed by Grady, which I was under the impression the AI was learning from. Thus, Archie and the Resistors, including Varuna, were manifestations of it having unlocked that singularity event.
The other was that Hibernity was on the Moon, and there were no guards, or other prisoners, just Grady. And just for the purpose of unlocking that creative AI. But I guess that's another book entirely.
I loved Daemon and Freedom, but this one disappointed me. The writing felt rushed, with any number of trite phrasings (e.g., whenever he wants to invoke quiet, Suarez references crickets). I was not convinced by the main character.
Still a good book, filled with astonishing ideas well presented. The book in many ways reminded me of old SF, where the characters are not much more than placeholders, placed in order to give voice to various points of view regarding some tech or some SF-type event. It's certainly no knock to be compared to Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov, but at the same time those guys are hardly famous for the depth of their characters.
Read the book. Suarez knows his stuff. He's consistently about five years out ahead. You'll be reading about some of these things as news, down the road.
Still a good book, filled with astonishing ideas well presented. The book in many ways reminded me of old SF, where the characters are not much more than placeholders, placed in order to give voice to various points of view regarding some tech or some SF-type event. It's certainly no knock to be compared to Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov, but at the same time those guys are hardly famous for the depth of their characters.
Read the book. Suarez knows his stuff. He's consistently about five years out ahead. You'll be reading about some of these things as news, down the road.
I loved the idea of this book, that these technologies are so close at hand and with a bit more innovation and a lot less commercial tampering we could reach our goals of fusion, curing cancer, antigravity, immortality, holography and so many other crazy wonderful ideas. However unlike his first two novels influx has a slower start in hibernity prison and eventually rolls into the more typical adventure as Grady the protagonist finds friends to help his cause. That lack of pace in portions is why I'm only giving it 4 out of 5.
The writing isn't Suarez' best. The plot and pacing were great, and I loved the sci-fi aspects overall. However, the characters were flat, and the dialogue oscillated between stilted and preachy. The similes were out of control; sometimes nested within one another.
There were several issues with the basic science of the book. I know it sounds like nitpicking, but when one scientists says to another "You and I both know that gravity is the most powerful force in the universe," it really takes me out of the story.
That being said, I typically put a book down if I'm not enjoying or appreciating it; and this one kept me entertained throughout.
There were several issues with the basic science of the book. I know it sounds like nitpicking, but when one scientists says to another "You and I both know that gravity is the most powerful force in the universe," it really takes me out of the story.
That being said, I typically put a book down if I'm not enjoying or appreciating it; and this one kept me entertained throughout.