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A decent addition to the genre of tech-related thrillers along the lines of Daemon, Spiral, and probably many others that I haven't read. With the "startup" atmosphere, it reminded me most of After On, although thankfully it didn't meander for nearly as many pages as that one did. The concept is interesting, though the execution comes across as a bit superficial, and anyway most of the focus is on the interpersonal relationships of the characters. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but for me, these characters are a bit uneven.
The protagonists are fairly interesting, including Mira and Chandra in particular, and some of the supporting cast is not bad either - the two Joes, for example. But others, including Mira's parents, and especially the antagonists, are a bit cardboard. It seems to me that Ben(ji) should have been one of the most important characters in the book, but instead he's barely present in the scenes that he's in, and since we never get a feeling of what he's really like, it's hard to make sense of Mira's mixed feelings toward him. I'd like to chalk that up to the effects of the technology at play here, but if that were the case I'd expect to see it spelled out at some point.
Anyway, the writing is solid, although Mira's voice is a bit too jokingly self-deprecating for me at times, and the ending is a bit rushed and not as satisfying as it could have been for me. While the story didn't blow me away, it's enough to hold the reader's interest.
The protagonists are fairly interesting, including Mira and Chandra in particular, and some of the supporting cast is not bad either - the two Joes, for example. But others, including Mira's parents, and especially the antagonists, are a bit cardboard. It seems to me that Ben(ji) should have been one of the most important characters in the book, but instead he's barely present in the scenes that he's in, and since we never get a feeling of what he's really like, it's hard to make sense of Mira's mixed feelings toward him. I'd like to chalk that up to the effects of the technology at play here, but if that were the case I'd expect to see it spelled out at some point.
Anyway, the writing is solid, although Mira's voice is a bit too jokingly self-deprecating for me at times, and the ending is a bit rushed and not as satisfying as it could have been for me. While the story didn't blow me away, it's enough to hold the reader's interest.