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_b_a_l_'s review against another edition
3.0
I read these as a series and am reviewing them as such (although I would like to say that this is a series I enjoyed less and less as I went along, ergo the dropping in stars as we progress).
There are some really great concepts here. Especially in the first book the way that drugs, nanotech and augmentations combine to create near-post-humans and post-humans is beautifully explored. The repercussions of this on society and the way in which people let fear of the unknown dictate their actions equally so. The touches of buddhism and meditation and how it relates to these altered states is interesting and enlightening. And there's some great action.
As it progresses though nothing new is really introduced. The buddhist references become repetitive and annoying, the action becomes frenetic and difficult to follow and the narrative generally fragments.
I'd recommend just reading the first book tbh.
There are some really great concepts here. Especially in the first book the way that drugs, nanotech and augmentations combine to create near-post-humans and post-humans is beautifully explored. The repercussions of this on society and the way in which people let fear of the unknown dictate their actions equally so. The touches of buddhism and meditation and how it relates to these altered states is interesting and enlightening. And there's some great action.
As it progresses though nothing new is really introduced. The buddhist references become repetitive and annoying, the action becomes frenetic and difficult to follow and the narrative generally fragments.
I'd recommend just reading the first book tbh.
eacolgan's review against another edition
2.0
Review courtesy of Plenty of Pages.
I seem to be one of the few people (according to Goodreads, at least) who didn't give this book an overwhelming 5 stars. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the book-- I did. But the niggling dissatisfaction I felt with Nexus was still present in Crux. There was just something off about it-- objectively I could see that it was a good story and pretty well written, but I never really felt it. There were only a few scenes where I found myself actually caring about what happened to the characters, and the ones I cared about were clearly not the ones the author was trying to get me to care about.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: characterization is my weak spot. If I can't get invested in the characters, a book is probably not going to keep my attention. I thought I might start to like Kade more as the series progressed, but I can't bring myself to have much sympathy for him, which makes it hard to get invested in the book. If you're the hero of your story and your clone sidekick is stealing the show, you know you've got problems.
Speaking of, can I just talk about Feng for a second here? I really, really love Feng. A Chinese supersoldier cloned as part of an experiment on hive-minds, he's got the worst best sense of humor ever and a relentlessly cheerful outlook on life that I couldn't help but love. He feels like a real person, which is unfortunately more than I can say for most of the main cast. He's pretty much my favorite character in the series. Also, being in possession of a terrible sense of humor myself, I laughed at most of his bad jokes way harder than I should have.
Naam also gets major points for the diversity of his casting, not only racial but otherwise. Besides a cast of every color and background, he includes not one but two openly queer characters. One is extremely minor and the other relatively so (he has his own POV chapters, but few of them, and let's just say I doubt he'll be returning for the third book in the series), but I was glad to see them. Is it unfortunate that none of the main characters were gay? Kind of. Did I still get a little squee realizing Sam's badass boss and mentor was (openly, textually) gay, or from reading the phrase "her wife" repeatedly in the text? Yeah. Which I guess speaks more to the lack of gay characters in sci-fi than anything else. Still-- props, Mr. Naam. I appreciate the representation.
Besides a lack of characterizational topography, there are some problems with Naam's plot progression. After awhile the entire thing started to feel like one Mass Effect boss fight after another, interrupted by scenes that had no sense of pacing-- some were so fast-moving I had to reread to process what had happened, some felt basically like filler. The Holtzmann plotline was both boring and unnecessary, and I would've really enjoyed more of Breece-- the part where Kade gets caught interfering in the hit man's plans was one of the only scenes that had my pulse racing while I was reading it. And the scene at Shiva's mansion was a hell of a climax, but it felt a bit like the end of Hot Fuzz-- intense and action packed, but with a lot of shooting into the air and going "Aaahh!"
Whether Naam knows he's playing into a lot of action cliches is debatable-- but if I'm being honest, neither that nor any of the other problems kept me from finishing the book, and wouldn't have even if I weren't intending to review it here. The evil government trope scratches a perpetual itch for me (I'm a sucker for conspiracies) and anything with technology that's based on current science trends can always be counted on to catch my interest. In this interview, Naam said of writing the series, "Throughout, my rules were that it had to be a compelling read that was hard to put down, that it had to say something interesting about technology, and the present day." Does he succeed? The latter, absolutely. The former... debatable.
In the same interview Naam says "I don’t really find most villains believable. Most people don’t think of themselves as bad guys and aren’t out to take over the world. People act from convictions that they think are moral." Which is undeniably true, and one of the things I really enjoy about this series is that there's no Good and Bad, just a bunch of people doing fucked-up things because they think they're right. But the way all those people intersect doesn't necessarily make a good story-- or, at least, Naam has some trouble getting past all the slick action tropes to tell it well.
I give Crux three stars, inching toward three and a half. It's not a book that will rock your world-- like I said in my review of Nexus, if you're looking for brain-bending cyberpunk, pick up Gibson's Neuromancer-- but it was quick and interesting and I'm not sorry I read it. If anything, it served to remind me how much I like cyberpunk as a genre, and how good it can be when it's really done well.
(You can read my review of Nexus here.)
I seem to be one of the few people (according to Goodreads, at least) who didn't give this book an overwhelming 5 stars. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the book-- I did. But the niggling dissatisfaction I felt with Nexus was still present in Crux. There was just something off about it-- objectively I could see that it was a good story and pretty well written, but I never really felt it. There were only a few scenes where I found myself actually caring about what happened to the characters, and the ones I cared about were clearly not the ones the author was trying to get me to care about.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: characterization is my weak spot. If I can't get invested in the characters, a book is probably not going to keep my attention. I thought I might start to like Kade more as the series progressed, but I can't bring myself to have much sympathy for him, which makes it hard to get invested in the book. If you're the hero of your story and your clone sidekick is stealing the show, you know you've got problems.
Speaking of, can I just talk about Feng for a second here? I really, really love Feng. A Chinese supersoldier cloned as part of an experiment on hive-minds, he's got the worst best sense of humor ever and a relentlessly cheerful outlook on life that I couldn't help but love. He feels like a real person, which is unfortunately more than I can say for most of the main cast. He's pretty much my favorite character in the series. Also, being in possession of a terrible sense of humor myself, I laughed at most of his bad jokes way harder than I should have.
Naam also gets major points for the diversity of his casting, not only racial but otherwise. Besides a cast of every color and background, he includes not one but two openly queer characters. One is extremely minor and the other relatively so (he has his own POV chapters, but few of them, and let's just say I doubt he'll be returning for the third book in the series), but I was glad to see them. Is it unfortunate that none of the main characters were gay? Kind of. Did I still get a little squee realizing Sam's badass boss and mentor was (openly, textually) gay, or from reading the phrase "her wife" repeatedly in the text? Yeah. Which I guess speaks more to the lack of gay characters in sci-fi than anything else. Still-- props, Mr. Naam. I appreciate the representation.
Besides a lack of characterizational topography, there are some problems with Naam's plot progression. After awhile the entire thing started to feel like one Mass Effect boss fight after another, interrupted by scenes that had no sense of pacing-- some were so fast-moving I had to reread to process what had happened, some felt basically like filler. The Holtzmann plotline was both boring and unnecessary, and I would've really enjoyed more of Breece-- the part where Kade gets caught interfering in the hit man's plans was one of the only scenes that had my pulse racing while I was reading it. And the scene at Shiva's mansion was a hell of a climax, but it felt a bit like the end of Hot Fuzz-- intense and action packed, but with a lot of shooting into the air and going "Aaahh!"
Whether Naam knows he's playing into a lot of action cliches is debatable-- but if I'm being honest, neither that nor any of the other problems kept me from finishing the book, and wouldn't have even if I weren't intending to review it here. The evil government trope scratches a perpetual itch for me (I'm a sucker for conspiracies) and anything with technology that's based on current science trends can always be counted on to catch my interest. In this interview, Naam said of writing the series, "Throughout, my rules were that it had to be a compelling read that was hard to put down, that it had to say something interesting about technology, and the present day." Does he succeed? The latter, absolutely. The former... debatable.
In the same interview Naam says "I don’t really find most villains believable. Most people don’t think of themselves as bad guys and aren’t out to take over the world. People act from convictions that they think are moral." Which is undeniably true, and one of the things I really enjoy about this series is that there's no Good and Bad, just a bunch of people doing fucked-up things because they think they're right. But the way all those people intersect doesn't necessarily make a good story-- or, at least, Naam has some trouble getting past all the slick action tropes to tell it well.
I give Crux three stars, inching toward three and a half. It's not a book that will rock your world-- like I said in my review of Nexus, if you're looking for brain-bending cyberpunk, pick up Gibson's Neuromancer-- but it was quick and interesting and I'm not sorry I read it. If anything, it served to remind me how much I like cyberpunk as a genre, and how good it can be when it's really done well.
(You can read my review of Nexus here.)
breenmachine's review against another edition
5.0
I liked it even better than the first book! Such a thrilling, fun, and fast plot.
boredpanda's review against another edition
4.0
Second Nexus book finished! Will there be a third?
I do enjoy these techno-thrillers, but the writing is a bit stale. That said, I'll continue to read these! Ramez can only get better. :)
lischa3000's review against another edition
4.0
Another excellent read, and a sound followup to the first book in the trilogy.
A "Bourne-style" action/fiction - I believe this this could easily be the future
A "Bourne-style" action/fiction - I believe this this could easily be the future
charlibirb's review against another edition
4.0
Awesome book 2 - which is often a sticking point. I've stayed engaged and excited to see what's going to happen next.
coltennis's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
jerseygrrrl's review against another edition
5.0
Page turning plot + solid writing + exploration of cool ideas = awesome book!
paulataua's review against another edition
3.0
The fast paced and action packed follow up to Nexus, Crux continues the story of the the uptake of Nexus and the Post-humanism versus Humanism debate. It is every bit as exciting as the first book in the series, and a good read, but the increase in the number of threads and dysfunctional characters, doesn't really add to the story. It only provides more opportunities for the almost infinite number of fight scenes. Most disappointing is the ending. Naam manages to tie all the story lines together at the end, but not in a very satisfying way.
titusfortner's review
4.0
Firstly, each of the 3 books had a different narrator for the audiobook. I found this narrator did the best job distinguishing the characters for me in a way that I could more easily follow. As for the content, there is plenty more interesting on a more global scale. The pace is good and the story interesting if incomplete at the end (for obvious trilogy reasons).