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A review by asterope
The City Inside by Samit Basu
challenging
sad
- Strong character development? No
3.75
This terrifyingly imminent dystopian Delhi was a lot to take in. I loved the concept of this book. I want more South Asian sci-fi/fantasy please! But the concept was weighed down by the writing, and not able to truly flourish with such a vague plot.
The first two chapters were a confusing infodump. Very intriguing, but messily executed. The author seemed too determined to cram every last atrocious and outlandish detail of this dystopia into each chapter. The sentences were too overloaded with detail for me to fully process the emotions of it all.
You can certainly see how our current situation could lead to this hellish reality. Underneath all the convoluted wordiness you can see the shiny quality of…something. But the book should have been edited a lot more to get right down to that.
Things pick up once we switch POVs from main character Joey to Rudra. His thoughts are more focused on the current scene, rather than meandering exposition. The plot gains some direction. The pace is still odd though. At what I thought was halfway through the book, I was actually 75% of the way in.
Once I got past the first two chapters of infodump, I was thoroughly enjoying all the cyberpunk intrigue. The character work could have been better though. There's something weirdly detached about how these characters are written, especially Rudra. I can't quite put my finger on why. They seem robotic at times, and I don't think it was intentional.
The ending is way too open-ended. Just as plot was picking up! It only starts working towards something tangible at around 75% in. I was hoping we'd get something to indicate Joey’s plan, and it would all come together with some kind of hint or twist. But it just ends with Joey smiling to herself while the other characters are away doing the things I actually want to see. How strange. I get what the author is saying, but we could have gotten so much more from this book. I'd certainly read another book in this setting, even if it doesn't pick up where this one left off.
The first two chapters were a confusing infodump. Very intriguing, but messily executed. The author seemed too determined to cram every last atrocious and outlandish detail of this dystopia into each chapter. The sentences were too overloaded with detail for me to fully process the emotions of it all.
You can certainly see how our current situation could lead to this hellish reality. Underneath all the convoluted wordiness you can see the shiny quality of…something. But the book should have been edited a lot more to get right down to that.
Things pick up once we switch POVs from main character Joey to Rudra. His thoughts are more focused on the current scene, rather than meandering exposition. The plot gains some direction. The pace is still odd though. At what I thought was halfway through the book, I was actually 75% of the way in.
Once I got past the first two chapters of infodump, I was thoroughly enjoying all the cyberpunk intrigue. The character work could have been better though. There's something weirdly detached about how these characters are written, especially Rudra. I can't quite put my finger on why. They seem robotic at times, and I don't think it was intentional.
The ending is way too open-ended. Just as plot was picking up! It only starts working towards something tangible at around 75% in. I was hoping we'd get something to indicate Joey’s plan, and it would all come together with some kind of hint or twist. But it just ends with Joey smiling to herself while the other characters are away doing the things I actually want to see. How strange. I get what the author is saying, but we could have gotten so much more from this book. I'd certainly read another book in this setting, even if it doesn't pick up where this one left off.