Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I liked it, but I was always waiting for it to get better, which it did not.
Starts strong, tapers off, and never regains its momentum. Its two main parts (the game and the real world) never meshed, and I would've rather had one or the other. Its grasp on its own in-universe politics and our real-world politics leaves something to be desired. Its depiction & commentary is not surface-level but it's not deep either. I liked the characters well enough but I probably won't think about them ever again.
About the worldbuilding, the MC's goal & methods are not feasible if you think about it too long, along with certain plotpoints. She wants to free the (formerly) child supersoldiers but this will not help her situation or anyone else's, and trying makes things worse for a lot of people, which makes this whole ordeal feel pointless. (And she only does that, it seems, because of an obsession with one of the supersoldiers. Would she have cared as much otherwise?) This is perhaps crass but I didn't give a damn about those operatives, not with everything else going on, and the novel doesn't really invite you to. You're meant to care becare the MC cares, which isn't the same as building empathy for them.
Last few points: the MC's presence is almost redundant within her own story after a while. It's adult but it feels YA. The plot simply runs into the MC at convenient times. There are cool concepts that I wish were more extrapolated. The writing could've been tighter. Also, this book could've been either a novella and a series, but not what it currently is.
Starts strong, tapers off, and never regains its momentum. Its two main parts (the game and the real world) never meshed, and I would've rather had one or the other. Its grasp on its own in-universe politics and our real-world politics leaves something to be desired. Its depiction & commentary is not surface-level but it's not deep either. I liked the characters well enough but I probably won't think about them ever again.
About the worldbuilding, the MC's goal & methods are not feasible if you think about it too long, along with certain plotpoints. She wants to free the (formerly) child supersoldiers but this will not help her situation or anyone else's, and trying makes things worse for a lot of people, which makes this whole ordeal feel pointless. (And she only does that, it seems, because of an obsession with one of the supersoldiers. Would she have cared as much otherwise?) This is perhaps crass but I didn't give a damn about those operatives, not with everything else going on, and the novel doesn't really invite you to. You're meant to care becare the MC cares, which isn't the same as building empathy for them.
Last few points: the MC's presence is almost redundant within her own story after a while. It's adult but it feels YA. The plot simply runs into the MC at convenient times. There are cool concepts that I wish were more extrapolated. The writing could've been tighter. Also, this book could've been either a novella and a series, but not what it currently is.