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kaianicole 's review for:
Influx
by Daniel Suarez
Like The Heist, Influx read like watching a movie. It was flashy and cinematic. In fact, I think it would make a much better movie than a book. There are a few scenes that would be great on screen (because, anti-gravity).
I didn't enjoy reading this book, though. Influx was not particularly well-written. I know that this is a techno-thriller, so I wasn't expecting a lot of subtly, nuance, or well-developed characters. But if you were to consider the old writing adage of "show, don't tell," Suarez's rule seems to be "do a perfectly fine job of showing, but then tell it all as well just in case the reader didn't get it."
Also, characters reacted over-dramatically to lots of situations. The main character, Jon Grady, reminded me the most of caps-lock Harry from the 5th Harry Potter book. There are way too many instances of ALL CAPS SHOUTING in this book. And throwing things. People throw things in anger all the time.
Finally, because I've been reading a lot of women in STEM recently, I was very disappointed that there were no major female scientists at all. Would it have been that hard for one of the world-changing scientists with a speaking part to be female? Am I asking too much? In fact, there were no major female characters until halfway through the book (plenty of male scientists though).
Of the four major female characters, two have been created by men--one is the AI interface to a computer system and the other is a woman who has been genetically engineered and raised by the BTC to be a better human. In Alexa's case, better human in this case means super hot, sexy, designed to look permanently twenty-five, with overly strong pheromones. Oh, I guess she's super strong and smart too. Anyways, Alexa needs to find Rachel from Orphan Black andstart a support group for young, non-romantic, stunningly beautiful, well-dressed, genetically-engineered women who were raised by shady, powerful organizations and are really upset to discover they've been designed to be sterile.
It was an interesting story. If they make it into a movie, I'd probably go see it.
I didn't enjoy reading this book, though. Influx was not particularly well-written. I know that this is a techno-thriller, so I wasn't expecting a lot of subtly, nuance, or well-developed characters. But if you were to consider the old writing adage of "show, don't tell," Suarez's rule seems to be "do a perfectly fine job of showing, but then tell it all as well just in case the reader didn't get it."
Also, characters reacted over-dramatically to lots of situations. The main character, Jon Grady, reminded me the most of caps-lock Harry from the 5th Harry Potter book. There are way too many instances of ALL CAPS SHOUTING in this book. And throwing things. People throw things in anger all the time.
Finally, because I've been reading a lot of women in STEM recently, I was very disappointed that there were no major female scientists at all. Would it have been that hard for one of the world-changing scientists with a speaking part to be female? Am I asking too much? In fact, there were no major female characters until halfway through the book (plenty of male scientists though).
Of the four major female characters, two have been created by men--one is the AI interface to a computer system and the other is a woman who has been genetically engineered and raised by the BTC to be a better human. In Alexa's case, better human in this case means super hot, sexy, designed to look permanently twenty-five, with overly strong pheromones. Oh, I guess she's super strong and smart too. Anyways, Alexa needs to find Rachel from Orphan Black and
It was an interesting story. If they make it into a movie, I'd probably go see it.