Reviews

Void Star by Zachary Mason

11corvus11's review against another edition

I was really enjoying the way this was written. But, I decided to give up about a third of the way through as I was listening to the audiobook. It was well performed but I kept missing key things and overall I think I'll enjoy reading it rather than listening to it. I'm going to revisit the written version.

yates9's review against another edition

2.0

I tried and tried again and its just not fun to read this. The ideas are interesting but the language and the action are hard to follow for no good reason.

the_lobrarian's review against another edition

"Even now we're in your memory," Philip says. "There behind your elegantly marred forehead." The daylight is gone, now, the guards on the street invisible, no sign of the outside but the drumming of the rain. The other tables have emptied and filled and in the candlelight everyone looks happy, like their lives are replete, and there's a woman, blonde and ripe, who will run to fat soon but is, for now, beautiful, standing in the doorway, smiling radiantly at someone inside, looking like she's just thought of something to say. 
"Like her," he says, "Look at her. It's never occurred to her to question that her story is the center of the narrative. But only this fragment of her life will survive."
"If you call it survival," she says, chin cupped on hand, contemplating her gin and tonic, which Philip has always called the blood of dead empire. "It's more like imprisonment, under glass, forever. Like Nimue and Merlin. Waters may rise, and cities crumble, but I'll always have this light on your face and the water running down the windows."
"I'm happy here," he says. "Let's never leave."
"Done," she says. "I'll always be here with you."
"Strange to think of the boy I was, still with you. I suppose you're there too, at least since you were twelve. How strange it must be for you, how your personal history is a crystalline museum, until the point where, I suppose, it must darken." 
She imagines the severe boy he'd been standing behind her in his second-hand pea coat torn at the shoulder, how he'd be moved by the light, disdainful of their consumption, how he'd stare in bemused dismay at the elegant man across from her. She takes a sip of wine.
"Yes?" he says.
She says, "You're standing right behind me, in judgement, and you have no mercy."
"I'd expect no less," he says, seeming pleased. "Tell him not to work so hard. Or maybe harder. Another drink?"
"It's different with me," she says. "I don't really have past selves. It's all one big present. There is nothing of me that fades."
"Nor suffers a sea change," he says. "But isn't that awful? Every little wound open forever?"
She smiles, makes a vague, expansive gesture, her hands tracing circles in the air.
He says, "I'd forgotten how rewarding it can be to get you drunk."
"I wish I could remember the future," she says, resting her forehead briefly on her palm, and if the other patrons see, well, let them, they'll barely remember it. "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards. I wish I could just slip up and down the timeline as I pleased. It's almost what I do anyway."
.... 
"I know," he says gently, and then, "But you'll never lose me. I'll always be right here."
A black wind rises and sweeps through the room, extinguishing the candles and swallowing the voices and the echoes and every particle of light and carrying them back down into her other memory's stillness, leaving her in silence and solitude and the blood-red dark behind her eyelids, and she's tempted to remain here in this peace, but then, with just the slightest exertion of her will, the candles are flickering again, and once again the restaurant is full, and there's Philip sitting across from her.
"Even now we're in your memory," Philip says. "There behind your elegantly marred forehead." The daylight is gone, now, the guards on the street invisible, no sign of the outside but the drumming of the rain. The other tables have emptied and filled and in the candlelight everyone looks happy, like their lives are replete, and there's a woman, blonde and ripe, who will run to fat soon but is, for now, beautiful, standing in the doorway, smiling radiantly at someone inside, looking like she's just thought of something to say. 
A hand on her wrist. She opens her eyes, finds their waiter, worried, looking down at her. The restaurant is empty, the candle a crater of cold wax. The waiter says he is sorry, may he call her a cab, is her boyfriend coming back, in any case they're closed. 
- p. 261-269 [eBook]

miskozverys's review against another edition

3.0

Really wanted to like this one, but couldn't. It's a tough and messy read. I kept forgetting who is who, what was going on two pages ago and constantly reread sentences. Some of them were beautiful, some try-hard or just plain annoying. 1/2 of the book is composed of visual episodes from mathematical, digital future; and the story deteriorates about 2/3's into it (if I'm being generous).

So what's good? World building and the fact that I've learned so many new fancy English words like 'perfunctory', 'efficacious' or 'consternation'.

60degreesn's review against another edition

4.0

Very Gibsonesque. Almost a follow up to neuromancer.

aiight's review against another edition

4.0

The prose and the vocabulary are the two biggest obstacles to reading and enjoying this book. It is dense and challenging at times. However, giving the book a chance and piercing through that, I think, one finds that the rhythm of the prose contributes to the tone and that they are inseparable. The vocabulary I could give or take. The world building is fantastic and immersive. Some characters are strong and well-built while others are shallow. The plot is clearly inspired by Neuromancer, if not completely derivative, but it doesn't suffer because of it. In some ways, I found this world more believable and thus more immersive than that of Neuromancer. Regardless, it is a good book and worth reading.

ashryn's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A bit cyberpunk, this is a story of emergent AI and the quest for longevity. The tone is reflective, the pace haphazard - aligning with the experience of the characters involved in the unfolding plot.

In this future, AI achieves consciousness via the ingestion of memories from people who have been fitted with an implant. The memories hold together as personas who work together to protect the AI from a rich man looking to live forever and control all the world’s resources.

pixe1's review against another edition

3.0

I took this out from the library a couple of months ago. It's been sitting on my shelf unread, having renewed it 3 times. The GR synopsis was not appealing to be, probably because the climate dystopia aspect is billed upfront and I've read a few too many books where that theme goes south.

Anyway, I was ready to return it to the library this week, when it turned up on the Tournament of Books longlist and I figured I should read it, instead of returning it and taking it out for 2 more months again.

I'm glad I read this. It's more highbrow than the plot summary led me to guess and for the first 2/3s, I could hear the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack. In fact, I felt it shared a lot of similarities with Blade Runner, including the dark atmosphere, near future dystopia, strong focus on character development, memory and humanity "vs." AIs.

Compared with last year's ToB, this book felt like a strong analogue for the spot that was filled by Version Control. Like that book (and like Blade Runner!) the plot for much of this book feels like a slow burn, and I kept hoping for the a-ha moment I felt reading last year's entry. But for the last 1/3 of the book, the story felt like nothing more than an updated version of Neuromancer. While that story may not have aged well, modernising it did not feel totally original. So a strong start was finished off by a bit of a let-down.

undermeyou's review against another edition

5.0

I loved this book and how some of the science fiction bordered on pure surrealism. My only complaint is that there were portions where I struggled to be entirely wrapped in the story because there was nothing tying the moment into reality. I’m the first 1/4 of the book, I had a very hard time putting myself in Thales’ story, especially, but by the end I was invested.

eowyns_helmet's review against another edition

2.0

Florid. DNF.