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3.2 AVERAGE
3.2 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
The writing is stiff and repetitive, the romantic subplot is dry and unconvincing, the answer to the mystery is fine.
But the last line?? "She'd simply left Christianity behind, and she'd replaced it with a new religion.
Law enforcement."
Be so fucking for real. I know I'm reading copaganda but at least make it GOOD. I almost threw the book across the room.
Law enforcement."
Be so fucking for real. I know I'm reading copaganda but at least make it GOOD. I almost threw the book across the room.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia
While well-written, the central question the novel asks is whether criminals can be rehabilitated by a combination of religion, beatings and severe torture over a period of many years.
A question it answers in the affirmative.
Our "heroes" conclude that this is better than the risk of them reoffending. Any reading whatsoever into the actual short and long-term effects of torture would show this to be deeply, deeply wrong. And even if it were correct, what is done to these people is clearly in the category of "crimes against humanity", which are by definition worse than anything the they've done (gruesome as some of their crimes are). The novel does question their humanity repeatedly, as if dehumanising them somehow makes it all better.
The only problem the novel shows with this approach is the effect on one of the jailers.
It left a deeply sour taste in my mouth, and I can not in good conscience recommend it to anyone.
A question it answers in the affirmative.
Our "heroes" conclude that this is better than the risk of them reoffending. Any reading whatsoever into the actual short and long-term effects of torture would show this to be deeply, deeply wrong. And even if it were correct, what is done to these people is clearly in the category of "crimes against humanity", which are by definition worse than anything the they've done (gruesome as some of their crimes are). The novel does question their humanity repeatedly, as if dehumanising them somehow makes it all better.
The only problem the novel shows with this approach is the effect on one of the jailers.
It left a deeply sour taste in my mouth, and I can not in good conscience recommend it to anyone.
I really wanted to like this more than I did - it's a cyberpunk murder mystery set in the near future, but the flatness of the characters kept me from enjoying it as much as I should have. The plot (with the exception of one very contrived plot point that was shoe-horned in to create a red herring and superficial tension between the protagonists) was engaging and original. But the characters were under-developed and the the dialog was seriously stilted. It was as if everyone was an AI rather than an actual human.
I also take issue with Amanda Bridgeman's rather black/white/no gray area approach to crime and criminal justice. As someone who has been a criminal defense attorney for over 30 years, I found that recurring theme and its treatment distasteful. It wasn't clear to me that it was supposed to have that affect on the reader; I think we were supposed to be more sympathetic to the police/community point of view than I ultimately was.
All that being said, I will probably read the sequel because while this wasn't great, it wasn't awful either. Mildly entertaining and a very quick read.
I also take issue with Amanda Bridgeman's rather black/white/no gray area approach to crime and criminal justice. As someone who has been a criminal defense attorney for over 30 years, I found that recurring theme and its treatment distasteful. It wasn't clear to me that it was supposed to have that affect on the reader; I think we were supposed to be more sympathetic to the police/community point of view than I ultimately was.
All that being said, I will probably read the sequel because while this wasn't great, it wasn't awful either. Mildly entertaining and a very quick read.
The writing was a little clunky - between some awkward dialogue, to a few typos that made it past copy editing, to the obsession with giving every person our characters meet a height/weight estimate, to a few problematic word choices (we'll get back to this later) - but what was really well done were the questions this story asked: about consent, about humanity, about rehabilitation, about mind control, about religion, about the line between privacy and security... There was a lot packed into this book.
That being said, it was a touch too long. By the time I got to the end, I was flying through it, but the first 150 pages were pretty slow. I think a lot of extraneous details could have been stripped out, though I did really like seeing how overwhelmed and confused Salvi was as the evidence kept pouring in without a clear suspect. There was an undesirable office romance (undesirable for me, but I can totally understand why it happened), a dark secret that took a very long time to come out, some of the side-character descriptions are not great (ie calling someone Asian instead of being more specific - because not all those of Asian descent look alike or even necessarily similar - even just to say "East-Asian" would have been preferable), there was also one point where a character refers to one of the Subjugates as being retarded (which, while we know the speaker is not a good person, our character just says "yeah" and keeps going - which is not okay; that kind of language needs to be immediately and vehemently opposed).
I think by the time we hit our stride and got to explore the world a bit more, I was hooked on the big existential questions that scifi/spec-fic is so good at bringing up. The plot hinges on this prison complex where violent prisoners can volunteer to be brain-trained into Serenes : nonviolent and supremely religious slaves with little to no affect (their baseline is so stable, they can't handle a crisis, for example). Even though these prisoners volunteer and were not the kind who could ever assimilate back into normal life - is it wrong to literally torture the sadism out of them, to completely rewire their brains? And then there's the surveillance state in the city versus the tech-repellent religious community - changing one shackle (technology) for another (very strict and pious religion).
I honestly am very excited to dive deeper into this world in book two. Thanks to Angry Robot for the complementary copy in exchange for my honest review; all thoughts are my own.
That being said, it was a touch too long. By the time I got to the end, I was flying through it, but the first 150 pages were pretty slow. I think a lot of extraneous details could have been stripped out, though I did really like seeing how overwhelmed and confused Salvi was as the evidence kept pouring in without a clear suspect. There was an undesirable office romance (undesirable for me, but I can totally understand why it happened), a dark secret that took a very long time to come out, some of the side-character descriptions are not great (ie calling someone Asian instead of being more specific - because not all those of Asian descent look alike or even necessarily similar - even just to say "East-Asian" would have been preferable), there was also one point where a character refers to one of the Subjugates as being retarded (which, while we know the speaker is not a good person, our character just says "yeah" and keeps going - which is not okay; that kind of language needs to be immediately and vehemently opposed).
I think by the time we hit our stride and got to explore the world a bit more, I was hooked on the big existential questions that scifi/spec-fic is so good at bringing up. The plot hinges on this prison complex where violent prisoners can volunteer to be brain-trained into Serenes : nonviolent and supremely religious slaves with little to no affect (their baseline is so stable, they can't handle a crisis, for example). Even though these prisoners volunteer and were not the kind who could ever assimilate back into normal life - is it wrong to literally torture the sadism out of them, to completely rewire their brains? And then there's the surveillance state in the city versus the tech-repellent religious community - changing one shackle (technology) for another (very strict and pious religion).
I honestly am very excited to dive deeper into this world in book two. Thanks to Angry Robot for the complementary copy in exchange for my honest review; all thoughts are my own.
I would round up to a 4.5!
What an amazing read. A great mixture of sci-fi and mystery this book took me into a world were technology and religion are almost at war with each other. When murders start to take place in a pull away religious town it is up to detectives from the bigger city to figure it out. I loved learning about the technologies that had developed in the world, and how things had taken a turn from the worst. The treatments for those who had committed crimes was an interesting twist to the books and added a lot to the story as a whole.
I did not guess the ending which for me is the first time in a while I hadn't guessed who had done it which was a refreshing change. This book kept me guessing and wondering the whole time which I loved!!!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions and review.
What an amazing read. A great mixture of sci-fi and mystery this book took me into a world were technology and religion are almost at war with each other. When murders start to take place in a pull away religious town it is up to detectives from the bigger city to figure it out. I loved learning about the technologies that had developed in the world, and how things had taken a turn from the worst. The treatments for those who had committed crimes was an interesting twist to the books and added a lot to the story as a whole.
I did not guess the ending which for me is the first time in a while I hadn't guessed who had done it which was a refreshing change. This book kept me guessing and wondering the whole time which I loved!!!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions and review.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Subjugate by Amanda Bridgeman is a science fiction crime novel and the first book of the author's that I've read. Although it has intrinsic science fiction elements, it felt a more like a crime book with most of the story revolving around a series of religiously-charged rape-and-murders of women.
This was very much a crime novel with the trappings of science fiction. Yes, some of the science fictional elements were essential parts of the plot, but the murder-solving part of the story would have worked just as well without them, with only minor tweaks. The premise of religiously-motivated murders in a small and insular religious town would have worked just as easily with an ordinary prison next door instead of a brain-washing facility. The idea of brain washing criminals to make them contributing members of society is an interesting one to explore, but I didn't feel that this book explored it in much depth. The impracticality of the system was only touched upon, ditto the morality. In the end it felt more like window-dressing than an integral part of the story.
When I was reading, I thought this book started out OK with a tolerably interesting premise an a seemingly rapid pace. But it wasn't long before I started to feel bogged down in the repetitive writing style (a lot of people spent a lot of time looking at things and each other in various ways) and not that interested in the plot. Sure, the murders needed to be solved and the culprit wasn't super obvious (there was a small pool of possibilities but it seemed like they all had roughly equal means and opportunity for much of the book), but the protagonist spent a lot of time being distracted by less likely possibilities and also her own past problems.
(Also, a thing that annoyed me quite a bit was that the author talked about AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) but then fixated on AR when it was quite clear from the story that VR was what was actually happening. And then there were the haptic VR suits which made no sense as described. The gory details of how they could even function as described were completely skipped over (and given how many other extraneous details we got, that seemed particularly egregious). The whole section with the detectives investigating in "AR" struck me as both sloppy writing and a bit gratuitous.)
As you can probably surmise from the rest of this review, I did not enjoy this book. By the end, it was a trial to finish. Even ignoring the plot and science fictional aspects I mentioned above, a stronger editorial hand would have made a big difference. I can't recommend this book, but I'm sure less picky readers who enjoy reading crime could find something to enjoy.
2.5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on
This was very much a crime novel with the trappings of science fiction. Yes, some of the science fictional elements were essential parts of the plot, but the murder-solving part of the story would have worked just as well without them, with only minor tweaks. The premise of religiously-motivated murders in a small and insular religious town would have worked just as easily with an ordinary prison next door instead of a brain-washing facility. The idea of brain washing criminals to make them contributing members of society is an interesting one to explore, but I didn't feel that this book explored it in much depth. The impracticality of the system was only touched upon, ditto the morality. In the end it felt more like window-dressing than an integral part of the story.
When I was reading, I thought this book started out OK with a tolerably interesting premise an a seemingly rapid pace. But it wasn't long before I started to feel bogged down in the repetitive writing style (a lot of people spent a lot of time looking at things and each other in various ways) and not that interested in the plot. Sure, the murders needed to be solved and the culprit wasn't super obvious (there was a small pool of possibilities but it seemed like they all had roughly equal means and opportunity for much of the book), but the protagonist spent a lot of time being distracted by less likely possibilities and also her own past problems.
(Also, a thing that annoyed me quite a bit was that the author talked about AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) but then fixated on AR when it was quite clear from the story that VR was what was actually happening. And then there were the haptic VR suits which made no sense as described. The gory details of how they could even function as described were completely skipped over (and given how many other extraneous details we got, that seemed particularly egregious). The whole section with the detectives investigating in "AR" struck me as both sloppy writing and a bit gratuitous.)
As you can probably surmise from the rest of this review, I did not enjoy this book. By the end, it was a trial to finish. Even ignoring the plot and science fictional aspects I mentioned above, a stronger editorial hand would have made a big difference. I can't recommend this book, but I'm sure less picky readers who enjoy reading crime could find something to enjoy.
2.5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on