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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
"You’re scared and alone in a big damn galaxy and you scream through the night. Great. Welcome to the party."
*******
"Gray stuck his hands into the plasma loop, drew them out cupped around golden fire, and drank the star; he glowed as he swallowed its light, and then, when he could fill himself no more, collapsed and belched and rolled, sweating diamond drops that clunked against the floor when they fell."
*******
"Was this what they called growing up? She’d thought that meant maturity, weathering, endurance. But instead you gathered one terror after another to yourself, until you were a skin-clad skeleton cradling a self made up of wounds."
*******
"She gulped the memories down one by one like coals, and lay there forever beneath the burning stars. When forever ended she pushed herself up."
A feminist Guardians of the Galaxy is not a bad description, but that's not what makes it so good. Spoiler - its how Mr Gladstone uses words.
*******
"Gray stuck his hands into the plasma loop, drew them out cupped around golden fire, and drank the star; he glowed as he swallowed its light, and then, when he could fill himself no more, collapsed and belched and rolled, sweating diamond drops that clunked against the floor when they fell."
*******
"Was this what they called growing up? She’d thought that meant maturity, weathering, endurance. But instead you gathered one terror after another to yourself, until you were a skin-clad skeleton cradling a self made up of wounds."
*******
"She gulped the memories down one by one like coals, and lay there forever beneath the burning stars. When forever ended she pushed herself up."
A feminist Guardians of the Galaxy is not a bad description, but that's not what makes it so good. Spoiler - its how Mr Gladstone uses words.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Too strange. I couldn't follow the action
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
Super disappointed.
There's two things that really annoyed me about this book. First there's the whiny melodramatic undertone of the writing. From the very beginning there's this feeling that you're supposed to be sorry for poor little rich Viv and her struggles. That tummy aching feely goody way of saying 'poor baby look at her, she might be a super rich genius but she's totally relatable and let's feel sorry for her'. It saps out the fun from the narration.
Then there's the giant technical problem of being factually incorrect. Yes this is a fiction novel but you can totally be factually incorrect as an author when you use trivial information that requires like a minimal giving a duck to get right. When you manage to cram two doozies in the first chapters, packed tightly between the tummy aching melodrama of the character, my suspension of disbelief throws in the towel.
So let's see, Viv, the mostest genialest genius who invented the AI singularity with her pinky toe and is now on the run from the government because of the monstrously big implications of this fact, is using a Windows progress bar. She programmed it herself and her progress bar STICKS TWICE. Sorry but this reflects poorly on her coding skills. It's wrong beyond belief and I'm not even a coder.
HER PROGRESS BAR STICKS!
I wanna die.
But more context. So she's presented doing this super dangerous infiltration -- where she and her only friend can lose their lives -- in order to deploy the code in all the world's computers. And the progress bar showing how much of the code is being uploaded sticks. What are they running on those servers, Windows Server Edition? Wouldn't she be leveraging a real time operating system (yes an RTOS is a thing, they use it in airplanes and telecom all the time, and Linux has real time too) in order to make sure 1) her progress bar doesn't stick and 2) that it gives her a realistic estimation of how much time is left? Apparently not. A Windows progress bar in a life or death and fate of the world situation will do just fine.
But wait there's more.
At some point it's said someone's tracking her, with the implication that if she gets caught it's the end of the code deployment -- and again possibly her life. But she smiles because she's faster so she won't get caught. How does she know she's faster? From the progress bar estimation. Like she didn't know it's not real time but just a psychological device Microsoft gave to users so they won't get impatient while waiting and has no bearing on the actual time needed to upload/compile. This isn't rocket science, it's a basic information everyone with a computer knows instinctively after the third time they saw their own progress bar sticking, even if they ignored the first time as an accident and the second time as an unfortunate coincidence. Computers are not exotic, they stopped being exotic in 1999.
Then to turn this into a total fail, it's said she doesn't know if the code can run if it's only 96% ready. Let's clarify this. No, it can't run if it's anything less than 100% ready. But Viv apparently is unclear on this topic. A code needs all those twiddly bits inside it to run or else they wouldn't be there. Unless you're a poor programmer who doesn't optimize and even so, those last percents are probably going to be the most necessary ones, including that last line that says 'execute'.
And then two pages later there's the other fail, equally evident.
Okay so fact is this term is used in the military. Why is it being said that scientists use it and why it's being said it's decision making "under stress" when none of those things are true? To embellish it and make it sound cooler than it is at the cost of looking like a fool to anyone who can google stuff.
Gets extra star because of weakness for the author. I've read his older magic stuff and it was super cool. Don't be disheartened Max, we still love you.
There's two things that really annoyed me about this book. First there's the whiny melodramatic undertone of the writing. From the very beginning there's this feeling that you're supposed to be sorry for poor little rich Viv and her struggles. That tummy aching feely goody way of saying 'poor baby look at her, she might be a super rich genius but she's totally relatable and let's feel sorry for her'. It saps out the fun from the narration.
Then there's the giant technical problem of being factually incorrect. Yes this is a fiction novel but you can totally be factually incorrect as an author when you use trivial information that requires like a minimal giving a duck to get right. When you manage to cram two doozies in the first chapters, packed tightly between the tummy aching melodrama of the character, my suspension of disbelief throws in the towel.
So let's see, Viv, the mostest genialest genius who invented the AI singularity with her pinky toe and is now on the run from the government because of the monstrously big implications of this fact, is using a Windows progress bar. She programmed it herself and her progress bar STICKS TWICE. Sorry but this reflects poorly on her coding skills. It's wrong beyond belief and I'm not even a coder.
HER PROGRESS BAR STICKS!
I wanna die.
But more context. So she's presented doing this super dangerous infiltration -- where she and her only friend can lose their lives -- in order to deploy the code in all the world's computers. And the progress bar showing how much of the code is being uploaded sticks. What are they running on those servers, Windows Server Edition? Wouldn't she be leveraging a real time operating system (yes an RTOS is a thing, they use it in airplanes and telecom all the time, and Linux has real time too) in order to make sure 1) her progress bar doesn't stick and 2) that it gives her a realistic estimation of how much time is left? Apparently not. A Windows progress bar in a life or death and fate of the world situation will do just fine.
But wait there's more.
At some point it's said someone's tracking her, with the implication that if she gets caught it's the end of the code deployment -- and again possibly her life. But she smiles because she's faster so she won't get caught. How does she know she's faster? From the progress bar estimation. Like she didn't know it's not real time but just a psychological device Microsoft gave to users so they won't get impatient while waiting and has no bearing on the actual time needed to upload/compile. This isn't rocket science, it's a basic information everyone with a computer knows instinctively after the third time they saw their own progress bar sticking, even if they ignored the first time as an accident and the second time as an unfortunate coincidence. Computers are not exotic, they stopped being exotic in 1999.
Then to turn this into a total fail, it's said she doesn't know if the code can run if it's only 96% ready. Let's clarify this. No, it can't run if it's anything less than 100% ready. But Viv apparently is unclear on this topic. A code needs all those twiddly bits inside it to run or else they wouldn't be there. Unless you're a poor programmer who doesn't optimize and even so, those last percents are probably going to be the most necessary ones, including that last line that says 'execute'.
And then two pages later there's the other fail, equally evident.
"Soldiers and scientists call the process of decision-making under stress the OODA loop: the subject first Observes their situation, then Orients themselves to it, Decides how to proceed, and finally, Acts."
Okay so fact is this term is used in the military. Why is it being said that scientists use it and why it's being said it's decision making "under stress" when none of those things are true? To embellish it and make it sound cooler than it is at the cost of looking like a fool to anyone who can google stuff.
Gets extra star because of weakness for the author. I've read his older magic stuff and it was super cool. Don't be disheartened Max, we still love you.
this book is just really delicious. it hits almost every trope i like in a science fiction/space opera work- the world is never too big for the reader to comprehend, there's the found family trope, a good balance of optimism and pessimism but even in the darkest parts you think 'well, there's still hope' that gets you to genuinely root for the characters... i started listening to this as an audiobook and finished it as an ebook simply because i wanted to devour the book faster. i think gladstone does a very good job of mixing fantasy elements into science fiction- technology appears like magic to us and to viv because of how far away it is from our present-day technology.
i also really liked that the book just beats the idea that you need other people into your head. like any time a person gets into a terrible mess, it's because they overextended themselves and tried to do something alone when they didn't have to -
the character design in the book is just very good as well- everyone is so badly flawed and all, in their own ways, deeply selfish in a way that prevents them from reaching out to others, and it's only after they lose badly that they recognize it and lean on one another. what better examples of how they grow than
i think this is the first book in a long time where i just loved the main ensemble and am genuinely upset to see them go- the story feels entirely self-contained, but i badly want to read more about the 'faith, where everyone goes after the smoke at the end clears... everything and anything.
i also really liked that the book just beats the idea that you need other people into your head. like any time a person gets into a terrible mess, it's because they overextended themselves and tried to do something alone when they didn't have to -
Spoiler
and the fact that vivian had become the empress because of her terrible loneliness and belief she had to do everything herself was the cherry on top. reading that the one difference, the one moment that changed everything was vivian relying on magda, saving her instead of the code, UGH. the empress made her own monster by never relying on anyone else and believing only she should have what she built...... poetic. delicious.the character design in the book is just very good as well- everyone is so badly flawed and all, in their own ways, deeply selfish in a way that prevents them from reaching out to others, and it's only after they lose badly that they recognize it and lean on one another. what better examples of how they grow than
Spoiler
how xiara chooses to occupy a mortal form again, how gray gives his family back their memories, how zanj allows her cybernetics to be destroyed to let viv win the fight, how hong becomes part of the cloud and therefore a part of everyone....i think this is the first book in a long time where i just loved the main ensemble and am genuinely upset to see them go- the story feels entirely self-contained, but i badly want to read more about the 'faith, where everyone goes after the smoke at the end clears... everything and anything.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Too plotty and too long, couldn't hold my attention. Not really my jam... maybe with more character focus it would have worked for me? Certainly will work for lots of folks, though!