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A review by rumbledethumps
The Sentient by Nadia Afifi
2.0
Filled with some cool and interesting ideas, but just not executed in a compelling way. I was confused by the POV (I think it was 3rd-person limited, but still not sure), and there were so many sentences that did so much expository work. For example, at the beginning while the reader is still trying to figure out the world the protagonist lives in, we are given some sentences that work really hard, probably too hard.
"It was no surprise that D’Arcy, a top quantum programmer at the Academy who custom-made her own Third Eye, had placed well – but Pandora? The project was both unusually prestigious and clandestine, even by the standards of insular Aldwych." These two sentences so clunkily convey too much information meant as character development and setting.
And this, relayed by an instructor at the academy to the protagonist "'But to do research on one of the stations, especially the Osiris, is reserved for the seasoned and the true elite. Only the best in the world go into space, no matter how they score at Placement.'" Would she really not have known this?
Some of the themes were interesting, which is why I gave it 2 stars, but the writing was just too awkward for it to be an enjoyable read for me.
"It was no surprise that D’Arcy, a top quantum programmer at the Academy who custom-made her own Third Eye, had placed well – but Pandora? The project was both unusually prestigious and clandestine, even by the standards of insular Aldwych." These two sentences so clunkily convey too much information meant as character development and setting.
And this, relayed by an instructor at the academy to the protagonist "'But to do research on one of the stations, especially the Osiris, is reserved for the seasoned and the true elite. Only the best in the world go into space, no matter how they score at Placement.'" Would she really not have known this?
Some of the themes were interesting, which is why I gave it 2 stars, but the writing was just too awkward for it to be an enjoyable read for me.