Scan barcode
A review by tagra
Infoquake by David Louis Edelman
1.0
I'm going to abandon this one, which is unfortunate because I was excited about the premise. It's a sci-fi setting with a corporate board room twist which is unique enough that I really wanted to see it play out.
It starts off feeling a lot like Neal Stephenson which was a very good sign. There isn't a lot of over-explanation of concepts which was another very good sign. You're dumped into the world and the characters react to the world and its unique concepts as if it's completely normal, which is great, because for them it IS. None of the concepts are difficult to understand, you orient quickly, and it's interesting to watch the subtleties of the world unfold.
Then you meet Natch, who spends his entire introduction being a prick to everyone. And you think to yourself "Aha, this is probably the villain of the story. A shades-of-grey nuanced antagonist, perhaps?" But then the book does its damnedest to make you sympathize with him, and completely fails on all counts. You also spend a fair amount of time with one of his female underlings who has thoughts like "I hate him so much. I wish I wasn't so attracted to him!" And you think to yourself "..........."
To be fair, I bailed on it before the conclusion, but I couldn't give a single solitary shit about any of the characters. I was interested in their world, but I didn't care about them, I didn't care what they were doing, and I finally went a couple weeks with the book sitting untouched in my bag and then went "Welp. I may as well read something else." It wasn't the setting at all—I was really interested in the corporate angle, even though it means it's a slower pace than your typical sci-fi might be—but there was simply no one to root for and the characters felt forced.
It's too bad because it's a relatively unique approach to a plot and I'd like to see it thrive, but it really needs strong, relateable, characters to carry it. Instead, we have a jackass CEO that I'd like to see shot out of a cannon, while his underlings talk about how much they despise him but also how brilliant and amazing he is. Blurgh.
It starts off feeling a lot like Neal Stephenson which was a very good sign. There isn't a lot of over-explanation of concepts which was another very good sign. You're dumped into the world and the characters react to the world and its unique concepts as if it's completely normal, which is great, because for them it IS. None of the concepts are difficult to understand, you orient quickly, and it's interesting to watch the subtleties of the world unfold.
Then you meet Natch, who spends his entire introduction being a prick to everyone. And you think to yourself "Aha, this is probably the villain of the story. A shades-of-grey nuanced antagonist, perhaps?" But then the book does its damnedest to make you sympathize with him, and completely fails on all counts. You also spend a fair amount of time with one of his female underlings who has thoughts like "I hate him so much. I wish I wasn't so attracted to him!" And you think to yourself "..........."
To be fair, I bailed on it before the conclusion, but I couldn't give a single solitary shit about any of the characters. I was interested in their world, but I didn't care about them, I didn't care what they were doing, and I finally went a couple weeks with the book sitting untouched in my bag and then went "Welp. I may as well read something else." It wasn't the setting at all—I was really interested in the corporate angle, even though it means it's a slower pace than your typical sci-fi might be—but there was simply no one to root for and the characters felt forced.
It's too bad because it's a relatively unique approach to a plot and I'd like to see it thrive, but it really needs strong, relateable, characters to carry it. Instead, we have a jackass CEO that I'd like to see shot out of a cannon, while his underlings talk about how much they despise him but also how brilliant and amazing he is. Blurgh.