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alli_the_bookaholic13's review
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
DNF @25% 1.5/5 stars.
Unfortunately this story just wasn't for me. I really struggled to make it as far as I did. For about the first 30 pages it's a big info-dump about the world and the ways that it has changed to get to the point where the book is actually taking place. Along with this info-dump, it was a really slow start and I'm still not sure of the actual plot.
I also really struggled with the writing style. Because it's written as the main character writing a document to (presumably) future people who would discover this, I found that there was more telling than showing me what was happening. The writing style didn't work for me, but the author had a really good way of describing the setting, and it read as if it was meant to be some sort of scholarly text.
Although this story didn't work out for me, I thought the premise was interesting. I'd recommend checking this one out if sci-fi and dystopian are your favourite kinds of books to read.
DNF @25% 1.5/5 stars.
Unfortunately this story just wasn't for me. I really struggled to make it as far as I did. For about the first 30 pages it's a big info-dump about the world and the ways that it has changed to get to the point where the book is actually taking place. Along with this info-dump, it was a really slow start and I'm still not sure of the actual plot.
I also really struggled with the writing style. Because it's written as the main character writing a document to (presumably) future people who would discover this, I found that there was more telling than showing me what was happening. The writing style didn't work for me, but the author had a really good way of describing the setting, and it read as if it was meant to be some sort of scholarly text.
Although this story didn't work out for me, I thought the premise was interesting. I'd recommend checking this one out if sci-fi and dystopian are your favourite kinds of books to read.
daisyheadmaesie's review
dark
sad
slow-paced
2.5
Beall is a young 20-somethings living what could be the extinction of mankind. Well, humans as we know them. Poplar Corp. is the sole entity responsible for everything in the Metropolis: government, entertainment, employment, each of your essential needs. Poplar Corp. takes care of it all. Tether yourself to the Poplar Corp. system and live in unity with the Metropolis, or be exiled from society. Beall is just that: an exile. What’s unity if it means complacency? His farming community outside of Metropolis 1 is about to witness the final update of the Poplar Corp. technology... One that will wipe out all who oppose it.
This was an incredibly ambitious concept. Oftentimes in hi-techpocalypses, just like in plotlines that revolve around time travel, the complexity of the science makes it difficult for the writer to follow their own rules. In the first half of ALT•4•1, rules were being broken that made this horrific technology less believable. Sadly, I felt the ending had some rule bending, too, which was disappointing.
The pacing until midway was way too slow for me. But once I got to the actual plot, I was very into it, and didn’t stop until I got to the last page.
One thing’s for certain: Occhionero is an intelligent writer. This wasn’t just a sci-fi thrill ride, this was a profound reflection on free will, and I really appreciated that.
Big thanks to AOS Publishing for this free copy in exchange for an honest review!
This was an incredibly ambitious concept. Oftentimes in hi-techpocalypses, just like in plotlines that revolve around time travel, the complexity of the science makes it difficult for the writer to follow their own rules. In the first half of ALT•4•1, rules were being broken that made this horrific technology less believable. Sadly, I felt the ending had some rule bending, too, which was disappointing.
The pacing until midway was way too slow for me. But once I got to the actual plot, I was very into it, and didn’t stop until I got to the last page.
One thing’s for certain: Occhionero is an intelligent writer. This wasn’t just a sci-fi thrill ride, this was a profound reflection on free will, and I really appreciated that.
Big thanks to AOS Publishing for this free copy in exchange for an honest review!
youfoundmarina's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.5
Reminiscent of the warnings sent to us by George Orwell and Ray Bradbury, Michael Occhionero’s ALT•4•1 tells an unnerving tale of some of humankind’s greatest flaws. It is an ambitious and intelligent exploration of humanity.
ALT•4•1 is set in the year 2099, a not too distant dystopia, and there are some striking similarities to life and technology today. These similarities are what make this story so chilling. It is all entirely possible to imagine, and it feels eerily familiar. The dominating establishment in this world is Popular Corp. It has taken away what makes us human in the name of progress, marking those traits as weaknesses and the very roadblock to success. Popular Corp.’s creation ALT•4•1 will not cease its advance on humankind until there is no humanity left.
ALT•4•1’s main character Beall, an anarchist, attempts to be objective in his retelling of events, assuming an air of separation for most of the story. But, like all humans, Beall is a flawed man, filled with emotion and the desire to learn and to love. It is no wonder he sees the madness in a technology like ALT•4•1. Beall is the voice of our present selves, lamenting our dependence on cellphones, the internet, on artificial intelligence. His life in a world dominated by Popular Corp. is one full of juxtapositions. Freedom of thought is a thing of the past in the Metropolis—even though it was that very implementation of thought that made ALT•4•1 possible.
Through Beall, Occhionero creates a successful commentary on good and evil; when the hero becomes the villain; when progress becomes as flawed and blind as the human who instigated it. We hear one of ALT•4•1’s main characters, Dr. Mulligan, explain that “Technology is man’s way of bypassing limitations, and so becoming more efficient… misinterpreting harmony as dominance.” Humankind is obsessed with this progress, but at what point does progress end? What does that finality look like? Enlightenment? Simply the end?
At its heart, ALT•4•1 is an Icarian allegory. It reads like a captain’s log of a dystopian world that seeks utopia. ALT•4•1 reads with a dissonance that is characteristic to Beall’s voice, but Occhionero still manages to be atmospheric and evoke questions from his readers that challenge us to examine our very nature and our human ideals. Occhionero asks his readers to question progress and to shift our viewpoint on technology. As a human race, how far can we progress before we make ourselves obsolete?
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