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sizrobe's review against another edition
4.0
Decent enough biopunk. I wish I could give it 3.5 stars. It's a relatively slow burn for a simple enough detective story about a new "five star" artificially designed rice variant that is mysteriously getting infected. It's set in the 2030's, where VR and augmented reality are fully enmeshed in everyday life, and fully artificial organisms that are programmed whole cloth from the DNA up are just beginning to exist.
It's relatively hard scifi, aside from a brief interlude involving nanites, which seems a bit optimistic for the 2030's. It's also relatively science-positive, depicting Luddite factions as largely backwards and misguided. It also features a memorable character named Kurokawa, whose quirks I won't spoil here.
It's relatively hard scifi, aside from a brief interlude involving nanites, which seems a bit optimistic for the 2030's. It's also relatively science-positive, depicting Luddite factions as largely backwards and misguided. It also features a memorable character named Kurokawa, whose quirks I won't spoil here.
markmtz's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating story pf near future tech and its implications. The ending feels a bit too idealistic, but perhaps I'm too much of a pessimist.
lamusadelils's review against another edition
3.0
La verdad la premisa me pareció bastante original e interesante y aunque en algunas partes se puso un poco técnico no cayó totalmente en info dump.
Desafortunadamente los personajes no están muy bien desarrollados y creo que hay un problema de traducción que da la sensación de acantonamiento a veces.
Me gustaría leer otros libros de realidad aumentada. Si saben de algo, no duden en recomendarmelo.
Desafortunadamente los personajes no están muy bien desarrollados y creo que hay un problema de traducción que da la sensación de acantonamiento a veces.
Me gustaría leer otros libros de realidad aumentada. Si saben de algo, no duden en recomendarmelo.
tregina's review against another edition
3.0
Four for the vision and cutting-edge science, but two for the characters and relationships, so it comes out in the middle. Really, read this for the gene science and the augmented reality and the neo-cyberpunk feel. It's pretty damn cool.
detailsandtales's review against another edition
4.0
This book took some time to catch my interest, but the further in I got, the more complex the story became, and the ending was both unexpected and satisfying.
tarabyt3's review against another edition
3.0
Solid 3 stars for this somewhat harder piece of SF. The idea was pretty interesting and the technology represented was really pretty cool. The plot was fairly typical and very straightforward. Unfortunately it suffered from a rather stiff translation, a HUGE range of stereotypical tropes, and too much info dumping to get higher than a 3 from me. Still, I'd probably read something else by him if anything else is translated.
whateverwalked's review
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
mnenomenon's review against another edition
5.0
Had a Snow Crash-of-biopunk-lite feel to it. Please let there be more of this.
amber_insight's review against another edition
3.0
This was sort of a teaser... almost touching on really fascinating potential future technology, but not quite. The tech and some of its practical applications were ntroduced, and then not delved into with any possible theories, not even of the made up variety. Disappointing. This would have been a four star if the author had even attempted to go a little deeper.
darameja's review
3.0
This vision of the near future is fascinating. It is one of these neo-cyberpunk books where biology is the new frontier for coders and hackers ("The Windup Girl" is another one that comes to mind).
But what I liked the best about this book is techno-optimism. It is one of the rare sci-fi books that trusts humanity.
But what I liked the best about this book is techno-optimism. It is one of the rare sci-fi books that trusts humanity.