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2.62 AVERAGE
2.62 AVERAGE
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I read every page of The Cyborg Tinkerer. The only reason I will not 1-star this book is because it didn't offend me. It just bored and frustrated me. There was nothing damaging about this book purely because it's devoid of plot and character intrigue. There are 700 pages in my ebook and I didn't care about anything that happened on even one of them.
Every critical plot or character moment happened off page (Gwen waking up a cyborg, doing surgery, spying on Bastian). Gwen and Rora's relationship was the definition of quick and dirty in terms of development. I maintain that the entire relationship between them could have been saved if LaTorre gave them history. They dated in the past but life kept them apart. Boom. That would literally fix their dynamic and 83% of my problems with this book.
Bastian was fine. He was never a beast or beastly at any point. He was just fine.
Another 14% would have been fixed if this book was just set on one planet. The air/water/space ships would make more sense, the fact that every planet was human would make more sense, the culture/politics/economy would make more sense. There was absolutely no reason for any element of space in this book at all. Just make the planets and moons countries, and make the genre fantasy. Keep the steampunk even though it makes no sense at all because how can you have cybernetics and "portable mainframes" (aka computers) but no email (written letters are hand-delivered)? I didn't see any steam (as in literal water vapour). It's not really steampunk if it's cyberpunk. I wish LaTorre made this dieselpunk because I feel like that's a happy medium that doesn't get enough rep. You could balance your alt/grunge aesthetic and tech that way.
The last bit is the fairytale retelling element which was just nonsense. Remove that and I'm 3% happier.
I have and will judge the quality of the prose by the simple fact that the verb "strode" was used 53 times (64 times with the stride/striding equivalent). Not a single character walked anywhere. If they didn't "appear" or "materialise", they strode. Further, the amount of 'ing' verbs, filter words, weasel words, etc. had me rewriting the book as I read it in my head. If the reader has to do the job of your editor to make your book sound better, yikes. It's a MG book made adult because of the fucking language and bad smut.
I'm glad Meg LaTorre has returned to the public eye. Her book sucked but her content doesn't so I hope she can rebuild from this critical flop and find her voice again.
Every critical plot or character moment happened off page (Gwen waking up a cyborg, doing surgery, spying on Bastian). Gwen and Rora's relationship was the definition of quick and dirty in terms of development. I maintain that the entire relationship between them could have been saved if LaTorre gave them history. They dated in the past but life kept them apart. Boom. That would literally fix their dynamic and 83% of my problems with this book.
Bastian was fine. He was never a beast or beastly at any point. He was just fine.
Another 14% would have been fixed if this book was just set on one planet. The air/water/space ships would make more sense, the fact that every planet was human would make more sense, the culture/politics/economy would make more sense. There was absolutely no reason for any element of space in this book at all. Just make the planets and moons countries, and make the genre fantasy. Keep the steampunk even though it makes no sense at all because how can you have cybernetics and "portable mainframes" (aka computers) but no email (written letters are hand-delivered)? I didn't see any steam (as in literal water vapour). It's not really steampunk if it's cyberpunk. I wish LaTorre made this dieselpunk because I feel like that's a happy medium that doesn't get enough rep. You could balance your alt/grunge aesthetic and tech that way.
The last bit is the fairytale retelling element which was just nonsense. Remove that and I'm 3% happier.
I have and will judge the quality of the prose by the simple fact that the verb "strode" was used 53 times (64 times with the stride/striding equivalent). Not a single character walked anywhere. If they didn't "appear" or "materialise", they strode. Further, the amount of 'ing' verbs, filter words, weasel words, etc. had me rewriting the book as I read it in my head. If the reader has to do the job of your editor to make your book sound better, yikes. It's a MG book made adult because of the fucking language and bad smut.
I'm glad Meg LaTorre has returned to the public eye. Her book sucked but her content doesn't so I hope she can rebuild from this critical flop and find her voice again.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was recommended by a friend and I am seriously glad I picked it up. It was a lot of fun to read.
Ship's tinkerer (mechanic) Gwen is wrestling with her imminent mortality when Bastian Kabir, the mysterious Ringleader of the Cirque de Borge, offers her a new lease on life and a new job. Gwen's soon swept away by the excitement of the job and lusting after Rora, a beautiful acrobat with the cirque. But things change quickly and Gwen finds herself forced to become an expert in cyborg implants when the Cirque's Mistress pits the performers against each other in a brutal competition. Gwen soon realizes Bastian is an unexpected ally, and the lovely Rora is not as honest as she seems, but Gwen can't help falling for both of them.
Love the bisexual representation (YAY!)
Ship's tinkerer (mechanic) Gwen is wrestling with her imminent mortality when Bastian Kabir, the mysterious Ringleader of the Cirque de Borge, offers her a new lease on life and a new job. Gwen's soon swept away by the excitement of the job and lusting after Rora, a beautiful acrobat with the cirque. But things change quickly and Gwen finds herself forced to become an expert in cyborg implants when the Cirque's Mistress pits the performers against each other in a brutal competition. Gwen soon realizes Bastian is an unexpected ally, and the lovely Rora is not as honest as she seems, but Gwen can't help falling for both of them.
Love the bisexual representation (YAY!)
DISCLAIMER: I was given this as an ARC in exchanged for an honest review.
HOLY FUCK THIS WAS SOOO GOOD! At first I was apprehensive as Cyborgs and steampunk really isn’t my expertise but boyyyy. This took me on awhile ride of adventure and a bit of pleasurable romance! Gwen is a feisty woman that you don’t want to fuck with!!! I highly recommend this for folks who really like elements from other well known works (Cinder comes to mind when it comes to Cyborgs) and dragons! A freaking dragon! Ahhh 10/10 love!
HOLY FUCK THIS WAS SOOO GOOD! At first I was apprehensive as Cyborgs and steampunk really isn’t my expertise but boyyyy. This took me on awhile ride of adventure and a bit of pleasurable romance! Gwen is a feisty woman that you don’t want to fuck with!!! I highly recommend this for folks who really like elements from other well known works (Cinder comes to mind when it comes to Cyborgs) and dragons! A freaking dragon! Ahhh 10/10 love!
Eine sehr rasante Geschichte, es bleibt kaum Zeit zum Durchatmen. Jedoch merkt man auch deutlich den Hintergrund der Autorin, denn mir kam der erste Teil der Cyborg Tinkerer Reihe doch sehr technisch vor (schlechter Pun für manche). Sie ist lange Zeit Literaturagentin gewesen und weiß genau, was Verlage suchen. Auch wenn sie den Roman im Selfpublishing veröffentlich hat, merkt man das der Geschichte an. Schön ist das Maß an Diversität, aber für mich ist gerade das eine Beziehungskonstrukt nur schwer nachvollziehbar geschrieben. Die Repräsentation dieser Art von Liebe finde ich prinzipiell gut, aber es ging mir vor allem am Schluss einfach viel zu schnell.
Die Geschichte ist auch deftig, Meg LaTorre mag es, ihre Protagonistin Gwen fluchen zu lassen. Außerdem ist sie gefühlt dauerhorny, was ich manchmal als zu viel empfand.
Trotzdem: Die Ideen und die Zusammenhänge gefielen mir und ich werde einem zweiten Teil sicherlich eine Chance geben.
Die Geschichte ist auch deftig, Meg LaTorre mag es, ihre Protagonistin Gwen fluchen zu lassen. Außerdem ist sie gefühlt dauerhorny, was ich manchmal als zu viel empfand.
Trotzdem: Die Ideen und die Zusammenhänge gefielen mir und ich werde einem zweiten Teil sicherlich eine Chance geben.
I really loved this story. I got the audiobook and the kindle and read along with it. Very different characters all with very different motivations and relationships with each other, which I love. It's about the characters, and all the sci-fi, fantasy and steampunk just make it better. I am giving 4 instead of 5 stars because of a couple moments I had a problem with that I don't want to spoil for those reading, along with how the audiobook and text sometimes differed slightly in words for some reason, but mainly because the narrator of the audiobook mispronounced some words, one of the names, and didn't have the best British accent. She still did a good job overall, making very different voices for each character. I ended up liking the story so much, I bought a copy for a friend for Christmas.
A cool premise with two good main character, and some good action scenes. However the novel is held back by dialogue that is corny and cheesy.
I was definitely not the target audience for this book. The premise was promising but it turned out to be an average romance book.
The Cyborg Tinkerer takes place in space, more specifically the Crescent Star System. We are introduced to Gwen who is the main character and a ship tinkerer. Gwen is dying, she has but one chance at living. Become a Cyborg. Only problem? Cyborgs are banned.
It sounds interesting and the stakes are high however Gwen gets her treatment almost immediately, without any real effort, finds herself in the middle of a Hunger Games like completion and spends the rest of the book insta-loving and f*cking.
There are a lot of plot holes I had trouble ignoring and the character development was non-existing.
The mistress of the circus starts an insane competition pinning performers against each other and no one complains, resist, attempts to rebel or murder the mistress, escape ect. We never hear any character, other than Gwen, express an opinion on the matter. They all just take it. I understand that their situation is dire but it doesn’t make sense. When people feel their life is threatened they fight or flight, it’s human nature.
Also, the reason for this competition is flimsy at best. The mistress of the circus supposedly created this competition in order to harvest the cyborg parts her performers had and use them for her cyborg army without anyone being the wiser. My question is, why did she need to harvest them? The Cyborg army never played any significant role and the cyborgs were all under her control right from the beginning anyway. The moment the emperor invited the circus she could go straight to him with triple the force she ended up having. It makes no sense.
What really disappointed me was that the romance, which was the focal point, was bad. There was no build up, no reasoning, and no payoff. Gwen falls in love with an acrobat instantly, fantasizes about her, risks her life for her and professes love within like….what?...a week? Gwen knows nothing about her, she just lusts after her body. The other romance, because there’s a polyamorous relationship in this book, was a teensy-weensy bit more develop but still rushed and not believable. Not to mention that the polyamorous aspect was not explored at all, it was addressed and resolved in like…a paragraph? I was listening to the audiobook. None of the people involved needed a moment to think about it? Where both Gwen’s lovers so cool?
It feels like the author wanted to address a lot of serious issues but was afraid to get her hands dirty or explore the darkness.
The Cyborg Tinkerer takes place in space, more specifically the Crescent Star System. We are introduced to Gwen who is the main character and a ship tinkerer. Gwen is dying, she has but one chance at living. Become a Cyborg. Only problem? Cyborgs are banned.
It sounds interesting and the stakes are high however Gwen gets her treatment almost immediately, without any real effort, finds herself in the middle of a Hunger Games like completion and spends the rest of the book insta-loving and f*cking.
There are a lot of plot holes I had trouble ignoring and the character development was non-existing.
The mistress of the circus starts an insane competition pinning performers against each other and no one complains, resist, attempts to rebel or murder the mistress, escape ect. We never hear any character, other than Gwen, express an opinion on the matter. They all just take it. I understand that their situation is dire but it doesn’t make sense. When people feel their life is threatened they fight or flight, it’s human nature.
Also, the reason for this competition is flimsy at best. The mistress of the circus supposedly created this competition in order to harvest the cyborg parts her performers had and use them for her cyborg army without anyone being the wiser. My question is, why did she need to harvest them? The Cyborg army never played any significant role and the cyborgs were all under her control right from the beginning anyway. The moment the emperor invited the circus she could go straight to him with triple the force she ended up having. It makes no sense.
What really disappointed me was that the romance, which was the focal point, was bad. There was no build up, no reasoning, and no payoff. Gwen falls in love with an acrobat instantly, fantasizes about her, risks her life for her and professes love within like….what?...a week? Gwen knows nothing about her, she just lusts after her body. The other romance, because there’s a polyamorous relationship in this book, was a teensy-weensy bit more develop but still rushed and not believable. Not to mention that the polyamorous aspect was not explored at all, it was addressed and resolved in like…a paragraph? I was listening to the audiobook. None of the people involved needed a moment to think about it? Where both Gwen’s lovers so cool?
It feels like the author wanted to address a lot of serious issues but was afraid to get her hands dirty or explore the darkness.
I did receive an ARC from the Author way back, just got around to reading the book (deeply sorry)
Characters
Gwen - one of the POV we get to hear from and one of the plainest people. You don’t get to learn much about Gwen about she begins to forget her memories from becoming a cyborg. She is a ship tinker but is taken into the Cyborg Circus by the ringleader to be a cyborg tinker. She’s dying from a brain tumor. They make her into a cyborg to save her life (you are reminded about ten times that she is dying in the first chapter, in case you might forget) in return for her to be a tinker for the cyborgs in the circus.
Rora - the other POV and a member of the cyborg. She joined after messing up her wrist and wants to be the best performer. She hopes to perform for the Emperor one day. She plans on seducing Gwen into making her a new hand but falls in love instead. I feel like the only reason she was a POV was to get an inside look at the competition the performers have to go through.
Bastian - The POV I wish we got, he was the only completely well-rounded character (in my opinion) and I would have loved to see things from his eyes. He’s the ringleader and we really would have gotten an inside look at the interworkings of the circus. (The Author says in a video that she did have a third POV and moved one. I think it was Bastian and I really think that was a poor choice. I would rather read the whole book from his POV)
Plot
In the first few pages, you are reminded many times that Gwen is in fact dying and that she would love nothing more than a good fuck to take her mind off of the fact that OH YEAH SHE’S DYING, did you forget because I did the good thing she brings it up every page of Chapter One.
The word fuck is used far too much. It really takes you out of the story when it’s used on every page. I think it was meant to make Gwen edgy and cool because she’s the BEST tinker in the Crescent Star System (that’s a name) but it’s actually super jarring and really pulls you out of the story.
This book is listed as an adult. I don’t think this is an adult book. The writing reads like a mix of middle grade and young adult. I don’t think dropping the f-bomb every page and having two sex scenes automatically bumps it to an adult book. But I could be wrong.
The world-building was really not there, I honestly didn’t know if I was on a ship or not until thirty percent of the way into the book. That could just be my bad but everything is pretty vague. There is an Emperor and a Union. Thirteen planets and moon but I wouldn’t know the difference between them, it's not really described.
There are some terms that are explained many times (the Author seems to think the average reader I dumb) and others that never get mentioned. Like, What’s a skimmer? Gwen pulls her handmade skimmer out of her bag (noting that it’s illegal) and floats out a window. How big is this window? You know that Gwen is a tall woman. It’s especially pointed out when she and Rora dance and Gwen notes Rora’s breasts pressing into her WAIST. So, again, how big is said window? Speaking of illegal things. Cyborgs are supposed to be very illegal. Super illegal but somehow this circus with fifty or so performers plus however many workers and it’s still running with the Feds everywhere all the time? They haven’t been caught?
This book is mainly dominated by the awkward love triangle between Rora, Gwen, and Bastian. Rora and Gwen both noting in their POV that they would love to have sex with each other after the first meeting. Gwen makes a comment about not having had a c*ck for a while after some time talking with Bastian.
I don’t feel any of the chemistry between Rora and Gwen. It was all insta-love and them acting like they had known each other their whole life. Bastian and Gwen’s relationship grew normally and I could believe the attraction between the two of them.
This isn’t counting the number of people that just want Gwen for no reason. Everybody wants her and she seems to only think about sex all of the time. Random comments about sex in the middle of more serious scenes really bring you out of the story believe it or not.
I know that Author says in a video she wrote all of her favorite things from books into one book and it shows. I think this book is the perfect example of why you SHOULDN’T do this. They don’t mesh together well in my opinion.
All-in-all, I’m giving this book 1 star. I think it could have used much more time in the editing stage
Characters
Gwen - one of the POV we get to hear from and one of the plainest people. You don’t get to learn much about Gwen about she begins to forget her memories from becoming a cyborg. She is a ship tinker but is taken into the Cyborg Circus by the ringleader to be a cyborg tinker. She’s dying from a brain tumor. They make her into a cyborg to save her life (you are reminded about ten times that she is dying in the first chapter, in case you might forget) in return for her to be a tinker for the cyborgs in the circus.
Rora - the other POV and a member of the cyborg. She joined after messing up her wrist and wants to be the best performer. She hopes to perform for the Emperor one day. She plans on seducing Gwen into making her a new hand but falls in love instead. I feel like the only reason she was a POV was to get an inside look at the competition the performers have to go through.
Bastian - The POV I wish we got, he was the only completely well-rounded character (in my opinion) and I would have loved to see things from his eyes. He’s the ringleader and we really would have gotten an inside look at the interworkings of the circus. (The Author says in a video that she did have a third POV and moved one. I think it was Bastian and I really think that was a poor choice. I would rather read the whole book from his POV)
Plot
In the first few pages, you are reminded many times that Gwen is in fact dying and that she would love nothing more than a good fuck to take her mind off of the fact that OH YEAH SHE’S DYING, did you forget because I did the good thing she brings it up every page of Chapter One.
The word fuck is used far too much. It really takes you out of the story when it’s used on every page. I think it was meant to make Gwen edgy and cool because she’s the BEST tinker in the Crescent Star System (that’s a name) but it’s actually super jarring and really pulls you out of the story.
This book is listed as an adult. I don’t think this is an adult book. The writing reads like a mix of middle grade and young adult. I don’t think dropping the f-bomb every page and having two sex scenes automatically bumps it to an adult book. But I could be wrong.
The world-building was really not there, I honestly didn’t know if I was on a ship or not until thirty percent of the way into the book. That could just be my bad but everything is pretty vague. There is an Emperor and a Union. Thirteen planets and moon but I wouldn’t know the difference between them, it's not really described.
There are some terms that are explained many times (the Author seems to think the average reader I dumb) and others that never get mentioned. Like, What’s a skimmer? Gwen pulls her handmade skimmer out of her bag (noting that it’s illegal) and floats out a window. How big is this window? You know that Gwen is a tall woman. It’s especially pointed out when she and Rora dance and Gwen notes Rora’s breasts pressing into her WAIST. So, again, how big is said window? Speaking of illegal things. Cyborgs are supposed to be very illegal. Super illegal but somehow this circus with fifty or so performers plus however many workers and it’s still running with the Feds everywhere all the time? They haven’t been caught?
This book is mainly dominated by the awkward love triangle between Rora, Gwen, and Bastian. Rora and Gwen both noting in their POV that they would love to have sex with each other after the first meeting. Gwen makes a comment about not having had a c*ck for a while after some time talking with Bastian.
I don’t feel any of the chemistry between Rora and Gwen. It was all insta-love and them acting like they had known each other their whole life. Bastian and Gwen’s relationship grew normally and I could believe the attraction between the two of them.
This isn’t counting the number of people that just want Gwen for no reason. Everybody wants her and she seems to only think about sex all of the time. Random comments about sex in the middle of more serious scenes really bring you out of the story believe it or not.
I know that Author says in a video she wrote all of her favorite things from books into one book and it shows. I think this book is the perfect example of why you SHOULDN’T do this. They don’t mesh together well in my opinion.
All-in-all, I’m giving this book 1 star. I think it could have used much more time in the editing stage