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A review by bklassen
Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell
2.0
Author's note: There are probably some spoilers in this review, but at this point,I just don't care.
I was going to give this book a solid 3 stars until I had about 100 pages left. That's where it all started heading straight to hell.
To be clear, I've never read this kind of Sci-Fi before, but I have read other sci-fi before, such as Ender's Game, 1984, Douglas Adams, Minority Report, Slaughter House Five... those were all good books. This one was painfully mediocre, and that's putting it nicely. Powell does not exceed at character development, world building, suspense/tension or action scenes. There are many moments when the protagonist is conveniently saved by some other person/event. The characters lacked true personalities (yet somehow managed to be inconsistent), to the point where I could possibly boil them all down to one word, but couldn't add other words even if I tried: Victoria: brave? Julie: purple. Ack-Ack Macaque: rude. Merovech: uhh.... teenager. Also, there is nothing about Victoria for most of the novel that suggests she was once a journalist. She doesn't display any of snooping skills until MAYBE the last 50 pages, and even then she doesn't really dig up any information. She literally gets everything she knows from her hologram husband or from torturing a guy. She never does any research. The same goes with Merovech and Julie. They never act like teenagers, unless it's enough to have purple hair and purple nails (It's not). WE GET IT, SHE LIKES PURPLE. They don't talk or act like teenagers for about 97% of the book. Oh, and apologies, the prince is 20. Big deal. You still don't know enough at 20. I'm 21 and I don't know how to be an adult! Julie says "It'll be fine, my love." Right. Because that's how teenagers talk. Even in the future. Way to do your research. Also, proposing marriage at age 20-WHY??? They've been dating less than a year and he's proposing during a stressful situation having just learned traumatic and life-changing information about his past and his family? Good idea, man! That's the perfect time to ask your girlfriend of several months to marry you!
The premise of the book is built around the idea that France and England merged into one country in the 1940s, but why? At no point of the book is this background event relevant/plot-affecting, unless you consider people speaking French being a relevant plot point (Hint: it isn't. Powell could have just featured some people who are from France; there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing that.
Ah, the ending. Such cliche-ridden, stereotypical, convenient and nausea-inducing drivel. How wonderful that a plot to take over the world and reduce everyone to robot slaves is nicely wrapped up with minimal casualties (seriously, only one person dies, it's a minor character, and it actually ends up generously benefiting several of the main characters), the bad guys are all disposed of, and everyone gets a happy ending. Fantastic! Just how life works!
Which brings me to another point: Celeste and her evil company's evil plot to take over the world evilly and transform everyone to robot slaves? I could see how some people might like that. But to claim it's to start fresh without diseases, wars etc? No way. It's not consistent with the characters, and not a good enough reason to do this.
There were also plenty of plot holes in the book, only one of them being this: why transplant a personality into a new robot when you can just download and install a preset personality that works fits into your plans? That makes waaay more sense than using people's personalities. They're just going to rebel. And you know that even if you use overriding obedience commands, something's going to go haywire. BECAUSE THEY'RE SENTIENT, YOU JERK. Wait til you read the scene where Victoria meets her robot clone. I haven't rolled my eyes so much since I read the Bone Season!
Now, you might ask why I'm not giving this a 1 star rating. This is because, and I'm being generous here, I liked the cover art, Powell has actually written a strong female character who doesn't have a love story with anyone (no, I'm not including her cyber husband bc they don't say anything gushy to each other. In fact, she snipes at him and he makes sarcastic comments the entire time- they don't even seem like they love each other), and because it raises an interesting question of what it means to be human. However, the book never goes deeper than introducing the surface-level question. I should also add that the inclusion of the sporadic new stories were a nice addition, and the additional links to related stories was a really clever way of giving the reader background information of how the book's events were affecting the rest of the world, and how this world is different from our own.
I hope Powell seriously refines his skills. There was one scene that I was actually on the edge of my seat for, but that doesn't seem like enough to redeem an entire book. I suggest you read Ender's Game or anything written by Philip K Dick. Don't waste your time here.
I was going to give this book a solid 3 stars until I had about 100 pages left. That's where it all started heading straight to hell.
To be clear, I've never read this kind of Sci-Fi before, but I have read other sci-fi before, such as Ender's Game, 1984, Douglas Adams, Minority Report, Slaughter House Five... those were all good books. This one was painfully mediocre, and that's putting it nicely. Powell does not exceed at character development, world building, suspense/tension or action scenes. There are many moments when the protagonist is conveniently saved by some other person/event. The characters lacked true personalities (yet somehow managed to be inconsistent), to the point where I could possibly boil them all down to one word, but couldn't add other words even if I tried: Victoria: brave? Julie: purple. Ack-Ack Macaque: rude. Merovech: uhh.... teenager. Also, there is nothing about Victoria for most of the novel that suggests she was once a journalist. She doesn't display any of snooping skills until MAYBE the last 50 pages, and even then she doesn't really dig up any information. She literally gets everything she knows from her hologram husband or from torturing a guy. She never does any research. The same goes with Merovech and Julie. They never act like teenagers, unless it's enough to have purple hair and purple nails (It's not). WE GET IT, SHE LIKES PURPLE. They don't talk or act like teenagers for about 97% of the book. Oh, and apologies, the prince is 20. Big deal. You still don't know enough at 20. I'm 21 and I don't know how to be an adult! Julie says "It'll be fine, my love." Right. Because that's how teenagers talk. Even in the future. Way to do your research. Also, proposing marriage at age 20-WHY??? They've been dating less than a year and he's proposing during a stressful situation having just learned traumatic and life-changing information about his past and his family? Good idea, man! That's the perfect time to ask your girlfriend of several months to marry you!
The premise of the book is built around the idea that France and England merged into one country in the 1940s, but why? At no point of the book is this background event relevant/plot-affecting, unless you consider people speaking French being a relevant plot point (Hint: it isn't. Powell could have just featured some people who are from France; there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing that.
Ah, the ending. Such cliche-ridden, stereotypical, convenient and nausea-inducing drivel. How wonderful that a plot to take over the world and reduce everyone to robot slaves is nicely wrapped up with minimal casualties (seriously, only one person dies, it's a minor character, and it actually ends up generously benefiting several of the main characters), the bad guys are all disposed of, and everyone gets a happy ending. Fantastic! Just how life works!
Which brings me to another point: Celeste and her evil company's evil plot to take over the world evilly and transform everyone to robot slaves? I could see how some people might like that. But to claim it's to start fresh without diseases, wars etc? No way. It's not consistent with the characters, and not a good enough reason to do this.
There were also plenty of plot holes in the book, only one of them being this: why transplant a personality into a new robot when you can just download and install a preset personality that works fits into your plans? That makes waaay more sense than using people's personalities. They're just going to rebel. And you know that even if you use overriding obedience commands, something's going to go haywire. BECAUSE THEY'RE SENTIENT, YOU JERK. Wait til you read the scene where Victoria meets her robot clone. I haven't rolled my eyes so much since I read the Bone Season!
Now, you might ask why I'm not giving this a 1 star rating. This is because, and I'm being generous here, I liked the cover art, Powell has actually written a strong female character who doesn't have a love story with anyone (no, I'm not including her cyber husband bc they don't say anything gushy to each other. In fact, she snipes at him and he makes sarcastic comments the entire time- they don't even seem like they love each other), and because it raises an interesting question of what it means to be human. However, the book never goes deeper than introducing the surface-level question. I should also add that the inclusion of the sporadic new stories were a nice addition, and the additional links to related stories was a really clever way of giving the reader background information of how the book's events were affecting the rest of the world, and how this world is different from our own.
I hope Powell seriously refines his skills. There was one scene that I was actually on the edge of my seat for, but that doesn't seem like enough to redeem an entire book. I suggest you read Ender's Game or anything written by Philip K Dick. Don't waste your time here.