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A review by timinbc
Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam
3.0
This is a hard one to rate. There aren't many books about a not-too-far-future world that is only halfway into dystopia.
The setting is interesting, and each little story is OK, and I don't have a problem with the idea of showing us a set of vignettes across time. Especially when each one presents a different aspect of what's happening and what decisions our hero has to make.
Maybe I wasn't able to engage with the sketchy presentation of the situation. Made me think of that kind of art where three brush strokes can represent a cat or the Empire State Building. The whole thing left me feeling as if I had skipped the first story, the one that would have told me about what was happening. It's a perfectly valid technique for a writer to use, but I don't much care for it.
Perhaps it's just that this is almost a mainstream story.
The setting is interesting, and each little story is OK, and I don't have a problem with the idea of showing us a set of vignettes across time. Especially when each one presents a different aspect of what's happening and what decisions our hero has to make.
Maybe I wasn't able to engage with the sketchy presentation of the situation. Made me think of that kind of art where three brush strokes can represent a cat or the Empire State Building. The whole thing left me feeling as if I had skipped the first story, the one that would have told me about what was happening. It's a perfectly valid technique for a writer to use, but I don't much care for it.
Perhaps it's just that this is almost a mainstream story.