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sawhands's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief
11corvus11's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars
One thing I can say for sure about Elly Bangs is that she is not short on creative and interesting ideas. Her first novel- Unity- is quite the showcase of these ideas. It is difficult to describe this book in a review without giving spoilers, but I am going to do my best. In the afterword of the book, Bangs tells us that she started Unity in high school 18 years ago and that the book kept evolving and transforming as her life did. I can see these kinds of themes throughout the book among the multiple, interconnecting elements. There were a lot of things in this book I had not seen or read before, or at least not in the way Bangs wrote them. There are cyberpunk, post apocalypse, dystopian, futurist, and many other science fiction subgenres that all meld together. This is a strength of the book. The story is interesting and full of twists and turns. Some of the bigger reveals towards the end are unique and multidimensional in ways that are engaging and entertaining. You can definitely see leftist political persuasions throughout (which I am all for, if that's not clear,) including diverging ways that certain leftist thoughts can become dangerous- particularly those that are authoritarian or pseudo-leftist power grabs.
Where I struggled with this book is that there were so many ideas that it sometimes felt as if none of them was fully fleshed out before the next was created. I can see how 18 years of different ideas ended up in the same book. It's not that all of the different things don't fit together- though there are times where I was left wondering why certain things survived apocalyptic collapse intact while others did not. It's more that I was often trying to figure out what was what up until the end. Since the book changes perspective between first person narratives of different characters to the occasional third person narrative, it is important that these characters be distinctive enough from each other. Their life experiences definitely are. But, there were many times where I found myself asking, "wait, who is talking right now?" and flipping back a couple of pages. Now, this could be because I happened to read this book during one of the more tumultuous times in my personal life leading me to have a flawed attention span. But, I do think that also, I often found it hard to tell the narratives and internal dialogues of Danae, Naoto, and Alexei in particular apart. These are very different characters who all sound very similar during their personal narratives. We learn more about "Borrower" as the story goes on, and it fits into how his narrative sets itself apart a bit more. Many of these characters are referred to by completely different names at different times which makes their distinctiveness more important.
We also have multiple villain or villain factions (3-4 depending on your perspective) in the story, all of which seek to capture or connect with Danae. Each one has an interesting premise, but again often feels unfinished. We learn more about them as the story progresses but they still remain a bit shallow to me. I would have loved to see this book take on fewer ideas and expand on each one a lot more. Or, to create a series of books where all of the ideas get to remain and be built upon over time.
During the last stretch of the book where various villains intentions and worldviews are revealed, there are a lot of interesting explorations of uniformity, power, authority, misanthropy, technological progress vs detriment, and the all around messiness of what it is to be human. I liked that two of the bigger reveals involve characters that represent two sides of the same coin, but for different reasons (I know this is very vague, but I don't want to spoil the most interesting parts.) Learning why all of these people were seeking Danae and the technology contained within her was interesting. The epilogue, though, was not my favorite. There is a moment with Danae and Alexei who once again are doing very similar things despite being very different, and there is a message that the author clearly wants to convey- about allowing humans to be flawed- that I think is an excellent message to end the book with. The vehicle for this message was what I really did not like, and the way it played out was another way in which a shallowness permeated something that could have been further developed into something very interesting.
I think that Elly Bangs is overall a good writer with fantastic amounts of creativity and imagination. I would definitely be interested in reading her next novel. I think this is a good start and I also think she can give us a lot more.
This was also posted to my blog.
One thing I can say for sure about Elly Bangs is that she is not short on creative and interesting ideas. Her first novel- Unity- is quite the showcase of these ideas. It is difficult to describe this book in a review without giving spoilers, but I am going to do my best. In the afterword of the book, Bangs tells us that she started Unity in high school 18 years ago and that the book kept evolving and transforming as her life did. I can see these kinds of themes throughout the book among the multiple, interconnecting elements. There were a lot of things in this book I had not seen or read before, or at least not in the way Bangs wrote them. There are cyberpunk, post apocalypse, dystopian, futurist, and many other science fiction subgenres that all meld together. This is a strength of the book. The story is interesting and full of twists and turns. Some of the bigger reveals towards the end are unique and multidimensional in ways that are engaging and entertaining. You can definitely see leftist political persuasions throughout (which I am all for, if that's not clear,) including diverging ways that certain leftist thoughts can become dangerous- particularly those that are authoritarian or pseudo-leftist power grabs.
Where I struggled with this book is that there were so many ideas that it sometimes felt as if none of them was fully fleshed out before the next was created. I can see how 18 years of different ideas ended up in the same book. It's not that all of the different things don't fit together- though there are times where I was left wondering why certain things survived apocalyptic collapse intact while others did not. It's more that I was often trying to figure out what was what up until the end. Since the book changes perspective between first person narratives of different characters to the occasional third person narrative, it is important that these characters be distinctive enough from each other. Their life experiences definitely are. But, there were many times where I found myself asking, "wait, who is talking right now?" and flipping back a couple of pages. Now, this could be because I happened to read this book during one of the more tumultuous times in my personal life leading me to have a flawed attention span. But, I do think that also, I often found it hard to tell the narratives and internal dialogues of Danae, Naoto, and Alexei in particular apart. These are very different characters who all sound very similar during their personal narratives. We learn more about "Borrower" as the story goes on, and it fits into how his narrative sets itself apart a bit more. Many of these characters are referred to by completely different names at different times which makes their distinctiveness more important.
We also have multiple villain or villain factions (3-4 depending on your perspective) in the story, all of which seek to capture or connect with Danae. Each one has an interesting premise, but again often feels unfinished. We learn more about them as the story progresses but they still remain a bit shallow to me. I would have loved to see this book take on fewer ideas and expand on each one a lot more. Or, to create a series of books where all of the ideas get to remain and be built upon over time.
During the last stretch of the book where various villains intentions and worldviews are revealed, there are a lot of interesting explorations of uniformity, power, authority, misanthropy, technological progress vs detriment, and the all around messiness of what it is to be human. I liked that two of the bigger reveals involve characters that represent two sides of the same coin, but for different reasons (I know this is very vague, but I don't want to spoil the most interesting parts.) Learning why all of these people were seeking Danae and the technology contained within her was interesting. The epilogue, though, was not my favorite. There is a moment with Danae and Alexei who once again are doing very similar things despite being very different, and there is a message that the author clearly wants to convey- about allowing humans to be flawed- that I think is an excellent message to end the book with. The vehicle for this message was what I really did not like, and the way it played out was another way in which a shallowness permeated something that could have been further developed into something very interesting.
I think that Elly Bangs is overall a good writer with fantastic amounts of creativity and imagination. I would definitely be interested in reading her next novel. I think this is a good start and I also think she can give us a lot more.
This was also posted to my blog.
febyidrus's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
saraupsidedown's review against another edition
4.0
Cool sci-fi update to a gestalt personality. Characters were compelling though I found it slightly difficult to untangle.
ecombs's review against another edition
3.0
I made it to the end of this book, but it was a really hard read for me. I liked the plot for the most part, but got lost in the technical terms and complicity of what was happening.
andrewmull2's review against another edition
4.0
Imaginative and interesting Sci fi ride. The setting and World building is easy imagine and jump into. I am not typically a fan of story told through different characters, but this novel does it well and each perspective is well developed and felt properly different. There are a few ex machinas which feel a little cheesy, but overall they do feel warranted by the story, which is the main positive of this book for me. There is a good balance between action sequences and slower chacter developments, making this a very easy novel to read
jugglingpup's review against another edition
2.0
To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.
I got an ARC of this book.
I didn’t finish this book. I got about half way through and realized I had no clue what was going on. Most of the conversations were so far above my head that I was finding myself skimming more than reading.
The sci-fi concepts were not explained or they weren’t explained well enough that I had any clue what was happening. I kept feeling like it was a survival horror video game that makes you explore to have all the details. Something like Silent Hill or Bioshock. All the real flavor of the plot is hidden around. You can get a basic story without finding any of those details, but it isn’t the story that made people fall in love with the series. That is how this book reads. I am getting a basic plot, but I am missing all of the flavor. How am I supposed to love a story when it feels like I am missing so much of it?
I didn’t know what a unity was or how it worked, yet the characters did. So I felt like I was being dragged along, but not wanted. I had no clue about the civil war or the grey. Every time there was conflict things never felt real, because some unexplained sci-fi element came in to save the day or make things worse. It felt like all the reasons I hate magic in books, but with nanobots instead.
The writing was lovely and the idea was one I really wanted to love, it just didn’t work for me. I either missed the parts that would have saved this book for me or they just weren’t there. It might work better for you, but it was a bit too sci-fi for me.
I got an ARC of this book.
I didn’t finish this book. I got about half way through and realized I had no clue what was going on. Most of the conversations were so far above my head that I was finding myself skimming more than reading.
The sci-fi concepts were not explained or they weren’t explained well enough that I had any clue what was happening. I kept feeling like it was a survival horror video game that makes you explore to have all the details. Something like Silent Hill or Bioshock. All the real flavor of the plot is hidden around. You can get a basic story without finding any of those details, but it isn’t the story that made people fall in love with the series. That is how this book reads. I am getting a basic plot, but I am missing all of the flavor. How am I supposed to love a story when it feels like I am missing so much of it?
I didn’t know what a unity was or how it worked, yet the characters did. So I felt like I was being dragged along, but not wanted. I had no clue about the civil war or the grey. Every time there was conflict things never felt real, because some unexplained sci-fi element came in to save the day or make things worse. It felt like all the reasons I hate magic in books, but with nanobots instead.
The writing was lovely and the idea was one I really wanted to love, it just didn’t work for me. I either missed the parts that would have saved this book for me or they just weren’t there. It might work better for you, but it was a bit too sci-fi for me.
sayshara's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jerseygrrrl's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book! For me, it was less Mad Max (as some have described it) and more about the gestalt. Really cool ideas that I haven't seen explored elsewhere and a fun, compelling read.
morcabre's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25