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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was a fun dive into my favorite ‘verse. Loved the pace and multiple povs. Listened to it as an audiobook and the narration was excellent
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I'll give Rafał Kosik this much - he knows the tropes of the cyberpunk genre, down to every last blinking light and holographic dick pill advertisement.
This heist story has everything you'd expect: The haunted combat vet with mysterious memories, the visibly-organic stripper love interest, the ripperdoc with the heart of gold, the bored corpo office siren, the socially-uninclined teenage guy in the chair, and even the hot-headed gutter punk who sells everyone out the second he's in a speck of danger. No one gets enough time to shine, every character is one-note. It's got the mystery box, the attempt to transcend mortal flesh, the corporate plot to breach the wall keeping the net safe, and the smattering of unimportant video game characters who are nevertheless too important to kill off or develop further. It's got bizarre passages harping on fat people, it's got action scenes that seem like they would be way more fun to play in-game than read, and it's got the moment where one of the main women breaks down crying and admits to her boyfriend that she can't have kids, apropos of nothing.
The little praise I can give this book is a relatively neat ending, wrapping up most of the major characters' stories with mournful resignation to a broken, yet deadly system. Which, frankly, is also a cyberpunk genre trope. I also recognized quite a few story beats that made it into the television show Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, which Kosik also wrote for. The show does them better.
This heist story has everything you'd expect: The haunted combat vet with mysterious memories, the visibly-organic stripper love interest, the ripperdoc with the heart of gold, the bored corpo office siren, the socially-uninclined teenage guy in the chair, and even the hot-headed gutter punk who sells everyone out the second he's in a speck of danger. No one gets enough time to shine, every character is one-note. It's got the mystery box, the attempt to transcend mortal flesh, the corporate plot to breach the wall keeping the net safe, and the smattering of unimportant video game characters who are nevertheless too important to kill off or develop further. It's got bizarre passages harping on fat people, it's got action scenes that seem like they would be way more fun to play in-game than read, and it's got the moment where one of the main women breaks down crying and admits to her boyfriend that she can't have kids, apropos of nothing.
The little praise I can give this book is a relatively neat ending, wrapping up most of the major characters' stories with mournful resignation to a broken, yet deadly system. Which, frankly, is also a cyberpunk genre trope. I also recognized quite a few story beats that made it into the television show Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, which Kosik also wrote for. The show does them better.
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
