Take a photo of a barcode or cover
latad_books 's review for:
The Death I Gave Him
by Em X. Liu
3.5 stars.
Hamlet was never one of my favourite of Shakespeare's plays. It was assigned reading in school, and I found it tedious and thoroughly irritating: by early into the play I was yelling at Hamlet for harming Ophelia and though I don't condone murder, I wanted Hamlet to just get on and kill his uncle.
But, much as I disliked Hammy, I was intrigued by Em X. Liu's take on this play. And it's good. Moving the setting into the future and creating a locked room mystery within a bio-engineering company doing some pretty esoteric work, Liu has Hayden/Hammy find his father's brutally murdered corpse. Hayden immediately secures their highly specialized research and a formula for a serum he and his father were developing to bring people back from the dead, before notifying others in the company about his father's murder.
Hayden's uncle orders the building's AI Horatio to lock down the facility, trapping everyone within and cutting off their access to the outside world while he attempts to determine who stole his brother's research after killing him. A highly placed official in the company and his daughter Felicia are also locked in, accidentally. Hayden's uncle, suspecting Hayden of something, has Felicia work with Hayden to find some answers. (Felicia and Hayden has a short relationship in the past, and Felicia left him when she realized that Hayden would always put his work at the company before anything else.)
Through a series of violent incidents and exposure of several lies, Felicia discovers what Hayden is protecting (the serum), as well as possible evidence of corporate espionage. Things don't end well for several characters.
Liu's change of setting to a research facility cut off from the outside world creates a nice sense of claustrophobia and tension, and it's pretty obvious that someone within murdered Hayden's father. (It's not a surprise if you've read the play, of course, as well as a secret motive that emerges as the story progresses.)
The author's Horatio is a wonderful character, utterly devoted to Hayden, even while Horatio questions Hayden's actions and motives. Artificial intelligence (AI) Horatio is a wonderful version of the character, having the personal strength and compassion that Hayden lacks, and serves as both lover and conscience to the scientist. Horatio is probably the one truly sympathetic character in the whole book.
Liu's Ophelia as Felicia is what I wanted from the original: a ferocious, smart woman, who even with the terrible shocks she experiences over the course of her investigation, doesn't crumple and give up. In fact, she takes no crap from anyone, most especially from Hayden. She figures out what is really happening at the company amongst its Executive, and isn't impressed. She also has a pretty clear idea of what she'll tolerate and what she won't, and makes sure she's dealt with fairly by everyone else. I loved her.
The prose dragged a little in parts, but this wasn't a big concern. Overall, I liked this, and look forward to what Liu does next.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Rebellion for this ARC in exchange for my review.
Hamlet was never one of my favourite of Shakespeare's plays. It was assigned reading in school, and I found it tedious and thoroughly irritating: by early into the play I was yelling at Hamlet for harming Ophelia and though I don't condone murder, I wanted Hamlet to just get on and kill his uncle.
But, much as I disliked Hammy, I was intrigued by Em X. Liu's take on this play. And it's good. Moving the setting into the future and creating a locked room mystery within a bio-engineering company doing some pretty esoteric work, Liu has Hayden/Hammy find his father's brutally murdered corpse. Hayden immediately secures their highly specialized research and a formula for a serum he and his father were developing to bring people back from the dead, before notifying others in the company about his father's murder.
Hayden's uncle orders the building's AI Horatio to lock down the facility, trapping everyone within and cutting off their access to the outside world while he attempts to determine who stole his brother's research after killing him. A highly placed official in the company and his daughter Felicia are also locked in, accidentally. Hayden's uncle, suspecting Hayden of something, has Felicia work with Hayden to find some answers. (Felicia and Hayden has a short relationship in the past, and Felicia left him when she realized that Hayden would always put his work at the company before anything else.)
Through a series of violent incidents and exposure of several lies, Felicia discovers what Hayden is protecting (the serum), as well as possible evidence of corporate espionage. Things don't end well for several characters.
Liu's change of setting to a research facility cut off from the outside world creates a nice sense of claustrophobia and tension, and it's pretty obvious that someone within murdered Hayden's father. (It's not a surprise if you've read the play, of course, as well as a secret motive that emerges as the story progresses.)
The author's Horatio is a wonderful character, utterly devoted to Hayden, even while Horatio questions Hayden's actions and motives. Artificial intelligence (AI) Horatio is a wonderful version of the character, having the personal strength and compassion that Hayden lacks, and serves as both lover and conscience to the scientist. Horatio is probably the one truly sympathetic character in the whole book.
Liu's Ophelia as Felicia is what I wanted from the original: a ferocious, smart woman, who even with the terrible shocks she experiences over the course of her investigation, doesn't crumple and give up. In fact, she takes no crap from anyone, most especially from Hayden. She figures out what is really happening at the company amongst its Executive, and isn't impressed. She also has a pretty clear idea of what she'll tolerate and what she won't, and makes sure she's dealt with fairly by everyone else. I loved her.
The prose dragged a little in parts, but this wasn't a big concern. Overall, I liked this, and look forward to what Liu does next.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Rebellion for this ARC in exchange for my review.