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therafa's review against another edition
3.0
When I found out three days ago that the sequel for The Big Sheep was out, I went right to the Kindle store.
I did like this book but not as much as the first one. Yes, all the characters with their quirks are there, the story is fast paced and amusing, there are a lot of twists and turns, etc.
The difference is that everything in the last book was way blown over the top and that was it's charm. In The Last Iota, all the glamour, the villains, the plot itself is not as strange and amusing. To put it visually, it's colors are not as blindingly bright as its older brother's.
But still, it was a fun breeze of a read and a great way to top my 2017 reading challenge.
I did like this book but not as much as the first one. Yes, all the characters with their quirks are there, the story is fast paced and amusing, there are a lot of twists and turns, etc.
The difference is that everything in the last book was way blown over the top and that was it's charm. In The Last Iota, all the glamour, the villains, the plot itself is not as strange and amusing. To put it visually, it's colors are not as blindingly bright as its older brother's.
But still, it was a fun breeze of a read and a great way to top my 2017 reading challenge.
branch_c's review against another edition
3.0
An enjoyable follow-up to The Big Sheep, with similar cleverness in plotting and character interactions. Maybe too similar, since it didn't impress me quite as much this time around. The plot was fairly deep, to the point where the details actually seemed a bit tedious to me. The basis was the historical events surrounding the economic collapse, creation the LA Disincorporated Zone and the introduction of a cryptocurrency, and it felt rather dense. In fact, in contrast to the lighter narrative tone, it was also a bit dark, with emphasis on the lawlessness of the DZ and the conflict between paramilitary groups and armed gangs.
Nevertheless there were certainly some humorous parts, and Keane remains a fascinating character, eccentric enough that having Fowler as the point of view character makes a lot of sense. The satisfying ending made up for some of the convoluted plot details, and it was a fun read overall.
Nevertheless there were certainly some humorous parts, and Keane remains a fascinating character, eccentric enough that having Fowler as the point of view character makes a lot of sense. The satisfying ending made up for some of the convoluted plot details, and it was a fun read overall.
setteno's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
bookishactor's review against another edition
5.0
The Last Iota by Robert Kroese and read by P.J. Ochlan is a great follow-up to The Big Sheep. Picking up where the previous book left off, Kroese delivers another sci-fi mystery for Fowler and Keane to investigate, this time revolving around a cryptocurrency known as the Iota. The book ties up some loose ends from the previous installment, while leaving the door open for more. Ochlan did a good job narrating, although I am not generally a fan of audiobook series’ changing narrators from one book to another. Perhaps the most egregious shortcoming of this audiobook is that at least one name was pronounced differently in The Last Iota than in The Big Sheep. I consider a lack of continuity between installments in an audio series to be a cardinal sin in this medium, and I’m frustrated it has been committed here. If Kroese writes additional books in this saga, which I sincerely hope he will, I fervently wish that the publisher will hire Fred Berman or P.J. Ochlan for the remainder of the series, rather than changing narrators again. Overall, I enjoyed it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
wolfdaystar's review against another edition
3.0
Plot was less intriguing than the first book. But it could be my fault since I kept starting and stopping. On the other hand, the first book had a zany, orginal plot while this one felt contrived.
mcacev's review against another edition
4.0
The Last Iota is the second book in a series by Robert Kroese that started with The Big Sheep. I was a huge fan of the The Big Sheep; it was a fun, cyberpunk thriller in the vein of a science fiction Sherlock Holmes. This sequel is similar, but I will say that I liked it slightly less than The Big Sheep; it's still a good, fun, fast-paced book, but some of the character turns made it slightly less enjoyable.
I will try to not spoil anything from the plot of this book, but I can't avoid spoilers for the first, as the plot of The Last Iota follows directly from the events in The Big Sheep, so if you haven't read it, be warned.
In The Last Iota, Blake Fowler and Erasmus Keane are hired by Selah Fiore (who was a prominent antagonist in the first book) to find an iota; a physical representation of a virtual currency in the vein of XKreddits or bitcoins. At the same time, Blake is dealing with the reappearance of his ex-girlfriend Gwen, who had been hiding in the DMZ for the past 3 years.
Like its predecessor, the plot here too is very interesting and well researched. There's a lot of themes that are explored; currency, virtual currency, the global economy and even the economy of MMO-RPGs. Parts of this plot reminded me a lot of the plot of the second season of SAO, and some of the relationships were also pretty reminiscent of BBC Sherlock (unfortunately the 4th season, which as we all know, was critically acclaimed, just like SAO!) It was a blast to think about iotas and virtual currency, and there were a lot of references to programming, code and virtual reality, which are all things I'm very interested in. It made me think about aspects of the technology that exist in our world, and how with a little of tweaking we could potentially get to the place that LA has gotten to here. The explanations and reveals in The Last Iota are a little more grounded than the ones in The Big Sheep, which was nice as the plot of the previous book did get a little too far fetched towards the end.
The writing was excellent, though there were some things that I liked less. Kroese brings back his dry humor and commentary (especially as Blake is way less patient with Keane's BS this time around), but we have lines and even jokes (like the one about the LA freeway being a failed experiment like rap-metal) that were repeated verbatim from the first book. I accept that there needs to be some reminder of what happened in the previous book, but the second chapter is all essentially recap and not particularly well-written recap. There were some jokes that landed (like April calling the iota's 'Spectre rings'), but for the most part, this book takes itself a little more seriously than the first one.
As for the characters, that's where my biggest complaints were. Selah Fiore and Mag-Lev were great villains from the first book, but the new main villain here wasn't particularly interesting or memorable. Likewise he's barely in the book! The new female lead, Olivia pales in comparison to Fiore (if you've read the book, you know why this is funny), and Leila... well listen it's literary the reveal from Sherlock. Literary.
Keane is muted in this book; in the first he could be downright reprehensible and acted like the somewhat unhinged genius he was described as. Here he acts more or less like Sherlock, but is way less abrasive, and has less of a personality. I'm not saying she should be more of an asshole, but if the characters constantly point out how out of touch he is with human behaviors and emotions, then he should be a little more abrasive.
On the flip-side, Blake Fowler gets more of a personality, but he unfortunately makes some really stupid decisions. For example, he keeps getting texts from"Lila" who goads him into playing a game, but doesn't tell Keane? He constantly keeps secrets from Keane, mostly to spite him for Gwen, but why? Blake is presented as a smart person, slower than Keane for sure, but it seems unlike him that he would continuously refuse to confront Keane for lying about Melstrom and Gwen, and then turn around and lie back and hide things (all things that Keane will of course find out easily).
He does get a lot of time to show his training and military background which was nice. However emotionally I didn't really feel that he cared about Gwen as much as we were lead to believe in the first book. I feel like the plot really took a lot of the book, at the expense of the characters, and Keane deffinitely got the worst out of it. Additionally the cliffhanger at the end was also straight out of BBC Sherlock, and if the books follow the quality of the show... I dunno how much I should be looking forward to the next book.
I liked this book a lot, but it's not as good as the first one. However it's still a great, fun read, and I do recommend it especially as a book to get you out of a reading slump.
I will try to not spoil anything from the plot of this book, but I can't avoid spoilers for the first, as the plot of The Last Iota follows directly from the events in The Big Sheep, so if you haven't read it, be warned.
In The Last Iota, Blake Fowler and Erasmus Keane are hired by Selah Fiore (who was a prominent antagonist in the first book) to find an iota; a physical representation of a virtual currency in the vein of XKreddits or bitcoins. At the same time, Blake is dealing with the reappearance of his ex-girlfriend Gwen, who had been hiding in the DMZ for the past 3 years.
Like its predecessor, the plot here too is very interesting and well researched. There's a lot of themes that are explored; currency, virtual currency, the global economy and even the economy of MMO-RPGs. Parts of this plot reminded me a lot of the plot of the second season of SAO, and some of the relationships were also pretty reminiscent of BBC Sherlock (unfortunately the 4th season, which as we all know, was critically acclaimed, just like SAO!) It was a blast to think about iotas and virtual currency, and there were a lot of references to programming, code and virtual reality, which are all things I'm very interested in. It made me think about aspects of the technology that exist in our world, and how with a little of tweaking we could potentially get to the place that LA has gotten to here. The explanations and reveals in The Last Iota are a little more grounded than the ones in The Big Sheep, which was nice as the plot of the previous book did get a little too far fetched towards the end.
The writing was excellent, though there were some things that I liked less. Kroese brings back his dry humor and commentary (especially as Blake is way less patient with Keane's BS this time around), but we have lines and even jokes (like the one about the LA freeway being a failed experiment like rap-metal) that were repeated verbatim from the first book. I accept that there needs to be some reminder of what happened in the previous book, but the second chapter is all essentially recap and not particularly well-written recap. There were some jokes that landed (like April calling the iota's 'Spectre rings'), but for the most part, this book takes itself a little more seriously than the first one.
As for the characters, that's where my biggest complaints were. Selah Fiore and Mag-Lev were great villains from the first book, but the new main villain here wasn't particularly interesting or memorable. Likewise he's barely in the book! The new female lead, Olivia pales in comparison to Fiore (if you've read the book, you know why this is funny), and Leila... well listen it's literary the reveal from Sherlock. Literary.
Keane is muted in this book; in the first he could be downright reprehensible and acted like the somewhat unhinged genius he was described as. Here he acts more or less like Sherlock, but is way less abrasive, and has less of a personality. I'm not saying she should be more of an asshole, but if the characters constantly point out how out of touch he is with human behaviors and emotions, then he should be a little more abrasive.
On the flip-side, Blake Fowler gets more of a personality, but he unfortunately makes some really stupid decisions. For example, he keeps getting texts from"Lila" who goads him into playing a game, but doesn't tell Keane? He constantly keeps secrets from Keane, mostly to spite him for Gwen, but why? Blake is presented as a smart person, slower than Keane for sure, but it seems unlike him that he would continuously refuse to confront Keane for lying about Melstrom and Gwen, and then turn around and lie back and hide things (all things that Keane will of course find out easily).
He does get a lot of time to show his training and military background which was nice. However emotionally I didn't really feel that he cared about Gwen as much as we were lead to believe in the first book. I feel like the plot really took a lot of the book, at the expense of the characters, and Keane deffinitely got the worst out of it. Additionally the cliffhanger at the end was also straight out of BBC Sherlock, and if the books follow the quality of the show... I dunno how much I should be looking forward to the next book.
I liked this book a lot, but it's not as good as the first one. However it's still a great, fun read, and I do recommend it especially as a book to get you out of a reading slump.
lost_reader's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
tome15's review against another edition
4.0
Kroese, Robert. The Last Iota. Dunne, 2017.
The Last Iota is a close sequel to The Big Sheep. Once again, we have our mismatched pair of noir investigators involved with moguls, mobsters, and missing girlfriends in post-collapse Los Angeles. This time the tech issue involves a hunt for a missing coin that is the key to retrieving a bundle of cryptocurrency. If you enjoyed the first one, you will enjoy this one.
The Last Iota is a close sequel to The Big Sheep. Once again, we have our mismatched pair of noir investigators involved with moguls, mobsters, and missing girlfriends in post-collapse Los Angeles. This time the tech issue involves a hunt for a missing coin that is the key to retrieving a bundle of cryptocurrency. If you enjoyed the first one, you will enjoy this one.
arthur_of_camelot's review against another edition
4.0
This time, I'm satisfied with leaving four stars instead of four-and-a-half. The Last Iota is still good, but not as good as The Big Sheep, and in the beginning chapters with the obligatory recap of who Fowler is and why he's working for Keane, it literally copy-pastes 2-3 pages from the first book. Word for word. I almost tossed this book out on general principal just for that, but I needed something to read during holiday traveling, so I stuck with it. The rest of the book was good, I'm just shocked at the level of laziness and blatant disregard for readership that took.