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egumeny's reviews
240 reviews
Pepe: homeless slum kid versus evil wired up president by Robby Charters
3.0
Young Adult fiction is usually not my bag, and the constant revisions to Pepe over the years raised a few red flags, but, that said, I found myself drawn into the world of Pepe in a way I (obviously) didn’t expect. Robby Charters set up a believably dystopian world, where the Haves have it all and the Have-Nots are stuck cleaning windshields so they don’t starve.
Set in the country of Cardovia in the 2040s or so, the story follows two young boys – Pepe and Raul – as they uncover hidden conspiracies and other, less terrible secrets. There is a surprising amount of complexity to the society of Cordovia, and I give Charters credit for touching on child trafficking and government corruption in what is otherwise a coming-of-age fantasy.
Some of the futuristic technologies, though, rang hollow. Booting password cracking software off a CD-ROM in a world with accessible VR and advanced robotics didn’t seem right. Even today, one would download that off the internet or have it on a flash drive. And calling out Flash Animation by name in the opening was jarring. Though not necessarily Charters’ fault - especially given that the first version of the book was copyrighted ten years ago - little hiccups like that made the technologically-advanced future less believable and immersive than it could have been. Meanwhile, there were detailed scenes about rewiring and scripting and interpreting wave patterns that seemed more accurate.
That, overall, was my largest problem with the book: Pepe felt uneven. Each chapter opened with a wonderful haiku, but the prose was sometimes inelegant, the dialogue wooden. Some characters were instantly recognizable and fully dimensional – Carlo, blind to the struggles of the downtrodden; Atsuko, world-weary and knowledgable – while other times I found myself confusing Pepe and Raul, as their voices and personalities (though obviously not their situations) felt so interchangeable.
Despite those flaws, though, I did enjoy the book. The pace was brisk, the topics broached were important and handled well, and the problems listed above weren’t so cumbersome that they couldn’t be overcome by the story.
I received a copy of Pepe from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Set in the country of Cardovia in the 2040s or so, the story follows two young boys – Pepe and Raul – as they uncover hidden conspiracies and other, less terrible secrets. There is a surprising amount of complexity to the society of Cordovia, and I give Charters credit for touching on child trafficking and government corruption in what is otherwise a coming-of-age fantasy.
Some of the futuristic technologies, though, rang hollow. Booting password cracking software off a CD-ROM in a world with accessible VR and advanced robotics didn’t seem right. Even today, one would download that off the internet or have it on a flash drive. And calling out Flash Animation by name in the opening was jarring. Though not necessarily Charters’ fault - especially given that the first version of the book was copyrighted ten years ago - little hiccups like that made the technologically-advanced future less believable and immersive than it could have been. Meanwhile, there were detailed scenes about rewiring and scripting and interpreting wave patterns that seemed more accurate.
That, overall, was my largest problem with the book: Pepe felt uneven. Each chapter opened with a wonderful haiku, but the prose was sometimes inelegant, the dialogue wooden. Some characters were instantly recognizable and fully dimensional – Carlo, blind to the struggles of the downtrodden; Atsuko, world-weary and knowledgable – while other times I found myself confusing Pepe and Raul, as their voices and personalities (though obviously not their situations) felt so interchangeable.
Despite those flaws, though, I did enjoy the book. The pace was brisk, the topics broached were important and handled well, and the problems listed above weren’t so cumbersome that they couldn’t be overcome by the story.
I received a copy of Pepe from the author in exchange for an honest review.
The Negative's Tale by R. Leib
3.0
R. Leib’s The Negative’s Tale is a unique combination of science fiction and murder mystery – several parallel stories wrapped together into a complex space opera. Bouncing back and forth between the now and then of Allon Wu, the story builds up secondary characters and drops subtle clues to the main mystery, with everything tying together nicely for the big reveal.
The Negative’s Tale definitely leans toward hard sci-fi, with all the tech jargon and (occasionally overwhelming) details that entails. I did sometimes get lost in the acronyms, especially in the beginning, but, for the most part, the story was able to overcome that.
The only other hiccup in the book is the occasionally muddied transitions, whether it was between points-of-view or flashbacks. I feel like those could have been a little clearer.
All-in-all, though, the plight of Allon Wu, a designer air salesman thrown into an outer space murder mystery, was more than enough to keep my attention and power through any minor issues the writing might have had.
I received a copy of The Negative’s Tale from the author in exchange for an honest review.
The Negative’s Tale definitely leans toward hard sci-fi, with all the tech jargon and (occasionally overwhelming) details that entails. I did sometimes get lost in the acronyms, especially in the beginning, but, for the most part, the story was able to overcome that.
The only other hiccup in the book is the occasionally muddied transitions, whether it was between points-of-view or flashbacks. I feel like those could have been a little clearer.
All-in-all, though, the plight of Allon Wu, a designer air salesman thrown into an outer space murder mystery, was more than enough to keep my attention and power through any minor issues the writing might have had.
I received a copy of The Negative’s Tale from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America by John Waters
4.0
I really enjoyed the good, bad, reality format -- though I will admit the first, "best" section felt a little repetitive towards the end.
I don't know if I'd say I was surprised Waters could write this well -- I love his movies -- but it was the first book by him I'd read and it definitely makes me want to seek out his others.
I don't know if I'd say I was surprised Waters could write this well -- I love his movies -- but it was the first book by him I'd read and it definitely makes me want to seek out his others.
High Voltage by Eirik Gumeny
4.0
So, in my ongoing revisitation of the older books while I finish the new book -- soon, I swear -- I finally got around to (more or less) objectively reading High Voltage. And... I liked it. The scavenger hunt plot was a nice change of pace, I liked the B plot possible more than the A plot, and I'm glad [redacted] made his return.
Definitely no writery baggage brought to this one, unlike Dead Presidents, so that's good -- I can just read the book for what it is. That said, HV doesn't stick with me the way the first book did, but I think that's because I didn't know what I was doing the first time around. Exponential Apocalypse was great because it wasn't written to be a book, and that manic, I'm-not-entirely-sure-this-is-going-to-work vibe comes through. That's probably not something I'll ever be able to recreate and I should probably come to terms with that.
Definitely no writery baggage brought to this one, unlike Dead Presidents, so that's good -- I can just read the book for what it is. That said, HV doesn't stick with me the way the first book did, but I think that's because I didn't know what I was doing the first time around. Exponential Apocalypse was great because it wasn't written to be a book, and that manic, I'm-not-entirely-sure-this-is-going-to-work vibe comes through. That's probably not something I'll ever be able to recreate and I should probably come to terms with that.