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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
not my favorite Suarez book, but a good yarn that is still very interesting. overall I'm waiting for Suarez to revisit the characters and universe he created in daemon
If you can get through those first few chapters, which are filled with iffy science mumbo jumbo flung into your eyeballs and a ridiculous speed, then this is actually a really good story.
This got pretty wacky in the beginning, but after the first few chapters I really started to dig it. It has a little of that "action-movie" feel that his last book, Kill Decision, had, but there's still plenty of serious sci fi in there. Definitely a fun read.
I added Influx to my reading list because I really enjoyed Daemon/Freedom(tm) and I wondered if Suarez' other work was as well executed. It is not.
Influx is a hollow shell of a science-fiction novel that feels driven by the author's need to publish more than it does the author's need to create. The premise is shaky from word one: suppose there exists a government bureaucracy that suppresses scientific discovery as a means of protecting social order. When you consider this, it's already difficult to maintain suspension of disbelief. The story quickly jumps off the rails in the early chapters where the protagonist makes his grand discovery: a gravity mirror. This concept is incredibly weak and suspension of disbelief is now stressed to its limit. The pseudo-scientific discussion that accompanies it is particularly tiresome drivel. Then comes the initial turn and this technology - along with its creator - is harvested by the monolithic Bureau of Technology Control.
The next 20% of the book is just torture. I don't mean that reading it was torture, I mean that's all that happens in the book. Torture. With tentacles (though don't take that to mean it's more interesting).
The protagonist is a savant genius who has succeeded because he simply "looks at the universe differently". He's got an interesting train - synaestheia - but this becomes unimportant and almost forgotten by the third act. He has a classical problem with agency. His discovery is essentially a side-effect of a literally unsharable worldview and he is presented as an unfathomable genius in that regard. Aside from his initial contribution (ridiculous as it is), he doesn't actually make decisions. Events happen to him.
The supporting cast of characters is impressive not because of how canned they are but because of Suarez's dedication to making them principal examples of cardinal characters. Among the antagonists, you've got the grizzled ex-special forces guy. He's gruff! There's the chief bureaucrat in charge of the BTC. He's conniving and, beneath the confident exterior he extrudes, he's truly a weak individual. The silliest character certainly has to be the primary female role. As far as love interest characters go, she earns a medal. She's genetically engineered to be the perfect human, but - more important to the story - the perfect woman. Her super power, if you will, is to emit pheromones. She can also punch really hard, which she does almost as often as she does the pheromone thing.
By the third act, the characters are "flying" around (really, free-falling in arbitrary directions) and beaming large chunks of Detroit into space (as if that city needed to get picked on).
This book isn't challenging or thought-provoking. I'm not even sure I'd agree it was enjoyable, on account of the significant portion of it dedicated to torturing its characters. I'll have to consider more carefully next time I look at a Suarez novel.
Influx is a hollow shell of a science-fiction novel that feels driven by the author's need to publish more than it does the author's need to create. The premise is shaky from word one: suppose there exists a government bureaucracy that suppresses scientific discovery as a means of protecting social order. When you consider this, it's already difficult to maintain suspension of disbelief. The story quickly jumps off the rails in the early chapters where the protagonist makes his grand discovery: a gravity mirror. This concept is incredibly weak and suspension of disbelief is now stressed to its limit. The pseudo-scientific discussion that accompanies it is particularly tiresome drivel. Then comes the initial turn and this technology - along with its creator - is harvested by the monolithic Bureau of Technology Control.
The next 20% of the book is just torture. I don't mean that reading it was torture, I mean that's all that happens in the book. Torture. With tentacles (though don't take that to mean it's more interesting).
The protagonist is a savant genius who has succeeded because he simply "looks at the universe differently". He's got an interesting train - synaestheia - but this becomes unimportant and almost forgotten by the third act. He has a classical problem with agency. His discovery is essentially a side-effect of a literally unsharable worldview and he is presented as an unfathomable genius in that regard. Aside from his initial contribution (ridiculous as it is), he doesn't actually make decisions. Events happen to him.
The supporting cast of characters is impressive not because of how canned they are but because of Suarez's dedication to making them principal examples of cardinal characters. Among the antagonists, you've got the grizzled ex-special forces guy. He's gruff! There's the chief bureaucrat in charge of the BTC. He's conniving and, beneath the confident exterior he extrudes, he's truly a weak individual. The silliest character certainly has to be the primary female role. As far as love interest characters go, she earns a medal. She's genetically engineered to be the perfect human, but - more important to the story - the perfect woman. Her super power, if you will, is to emit pheromones. She can also punch really hard, which she does almost as often as she does the pheromone thing.
By the third act, the characters are "flying" around (really, free-falling in arbitrary directions) and beaming large chunks of Detroit into space (as if that city needed to get picked on).
This book isn't challenging or thought-provoking. I'm not even sure I'd agree it was enjoyable, on account of the significant portion of it dedicated to torturing its characters. I'll have to consider more carefully next time I look at a Suarez novel.
A really unique and well written book that explores science fiction in a believable yet entirely alien way - a secret organisation hiding all advances in technology because humanity is not ready yet. The author has done an excellent job making the science feel accessible and combines this with some great main characters and a fun plot that goes along just fast enough to keep you reading.
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A