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katyab's review against another edition
2.0
I enjoyed the ideas that Louise Carey wove through this book: corporations becoming states, residents being affiliated with and loyal to those corporations, augmented reality, mental programming... The future presented in the book seems entirely plausible and follows things that happen in the present to an extreme conclusion. I especially liked the idea of a conduit – someone who receives all the decisions of a board of directors through telepathy, basically, and then filters all those thoughts into one, so that no one board member takes responsibility for a decision. Corporate Wards who are trained since birth to be loyal to their corporation (and the moral implications of that). These ideas are mad but fascinating.
That said, I thought the book was okay. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm in the wrong headspace to be reading something that's quite heavy on the technical and intercorporate-relations jargon... There are a number of acronyms that I could not tell you the meaning of if you asked me! Anyway, it took me much longer to finish this book, and I reckon I only finished it because I took a whole morning to read the last quarter.
But I do think the story was not very engaging for me, at least until the last section when things started coming together, and even then I'm not sure I understood what was happening! In fact, I'm not sure what these corporations actually do. Sometimes a character was described as doing work, but I was never sure what that seemingly entailed other than "Sitting In My Office Doing Office-Worker Things In My Office-Worker-Suit". (Maybe I just haven't quite learned how corporations and their members think...)
The characters were fine, but not wholly rounded. I think that might have been a flaw in the setting, actually. Nothing operates outside of The Corporation, because it controls every aspect of life, so it doesn't feel like any of the characters do anything as hobbies. It doesn't feel like the kind of world where hobbies exist, and if they do, it's something done by background characters, while the main characters get busy with PLOT. Even the main character's partner felt shoved in for the purpose of making the main character a bit less robotic, but I didn't believe the partner was an independent person. The story ran a bit like a third-person video game sometimes.
I enjoyed the concepts, but the story and characters weren't very memorable to me.
That said, I thought the book was okay. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm in the wrong headspace to be reading something that's quite heavy on the technical and intercorporate-relations jargon... There are a number of acronyms that I could not tell you the meaning of if you asked me! Anyway, it took me much longer to finish this book, and I reckon I only finished it because I took a whole morning to read the last quarter.
But I do think the story was not very engaging for me, at least until the last section when things started coming together, and even then I'm not sure I understood what was happening! In fact, I'm not sure what these corporations actually do. Sometimes a character was described as doing work, but I was never sure what that seemingly entailed other than "Sitting In My Office Doing Office-Worker Things In My Office-Worker-Suit". (Maybe I just haven't quite learned how corporations and their members think...)
The characters were fine, but not wholly rounded. I think that might have been a flaw in the setting, actually. Nothing operates outside of The Corporation, because it controls every aspect of life, so it doesn't feel like any of the characters do anything as hobbies. It doesn't feel like the kind of world where hobbies exist, and if they do, it's something done by background characters, while the main characters get busy with PLOT. Even the main character's partner felt shoved in for the purpose of making the main character a bit less robotic, but I didn't believe the partner was an independent person. The story ran a bit like a third-person video game sometimes.
I enjoyed the concepts, but the story and characters weren't very memorable to me.
clemireads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-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
zare_i's review
4.0
This was a roller-coaster read for me.
Let me explain.
I bought this book because synopsis sounded very interesting - future, cyberpunk world (dystopia expected) and mega corporations fighting it between themselves. I was like, OK, lets go with it, cannot wait.
And then story started progressing as one of those YA novels (Hunger Games, Divergent etc) that I truly do not like to be honest (main reason being that for me they seem to be rather written by a recipe and [unfortunately] I outgrew the recipe). What I mean is following - you have two corporations and group of young and bright kids (yes, 17 years old still classifies person as a kid) living in a world without parents, living already in a long term relationships, in a sterile environments which are cross between above mentioned YA series, Westworld and Equilibrium. Yes there is kewl tech around and everyone is zooming around in ecologically friendly vehicles (slight throw up), even parts of society that live on the very edge of corporations are in pretty good shape, wont go into relationships in the book but this part is also (re)used so many times in last few years it became a cliche these days (lets say it is in time with latest social trends) - I started cooling off very very fast but said to myself, you started it me-friend, you better finish it!
And finally somewhere from the middle, novel becomes more serious. Author weaves a story about the faceless corporations (who exactly is controlling them?) that live in uneasy cohabitation between themselves. They would enjoy nothing more than to blast the opponents sky high but they do not want to lose their own gains. Conflicts are executed by groups of teens (and grown ups, there are grown ups here acting as controllers) that act as spies and shock troops and that are generally educated and [for lack of better word] grown by the corpo's themselves. I especially liked how author pointed to the differences between Cole's generation (40-ish in the novel timeline) and Tanta's (17 year olds), former knowing they are being exploited and fed corpo talk and slogans as part of the political indoctrination, latter totally loyal to their masters no matter what happens (you know those ever smiling faces saying - yeeee, hand grenade!).
Story has lots of action but accent is not on action itself. Author spent a lot of time on creating a background (world building) for what seems to be planned series of the books. Main twist is very interesting but author did not disclose who is actually behind the mayhem. Entire book has the feeling of a teaser pilot episode of thriller TV show with the message - if you like this one good enough there is more to come.
Could this book stand on its own? Definitely. I just hope that story does not get watered down to ensure 100 sequels in the future. I also hope author moves more in the way of realistic (more dirty, more gritty?) story (generally move more in the way of say Gavin Smith's Veteran, or Richard K Morgans Thirteen) than cleanly delimited corporation territories. All ingredients are in, I just wish story is more .... adult I guess.
All in all interesting read, will definitely follow how series ends up.
Recommended.
Let me explain.
I bought this book because synopsis sounded very interesting - future, cyberpunk world (dystopia expected) and mega corporations fighting it between themselves. I was like, OK, lets go with it, cannot wait.
And then story started progressing as one of those YA novels (Hunger Games, Divergent etc) that I truly do not like to be honest (main reason being that for me they seem to be rather written by a recipe and [unfortunately] I outgrew the recipe). What I mean is following - you have two corporations and group of young and bright kids (yes, 17 years old still classifies person as a kid) living in a world without parents, living already in a long term relationships, in a sterile environments which are cross between above mentioned YA series, Westworld and Equilibrium. Yes there is kewl tech around and everyone is zooming around in ecologically friendly vehicles (slight throw up), even parts of society that live on the very edge of corporations are in pretty good shape, wont go into relationships in the book but this part is also (re)used so many times in last few years it became a cliche these days (lets say it is in time with latest social trends) - I started cooling off very very fast but said to myself, you started it me-friend, you better finish it!
And finally somewhere from the middle, novel becomes more serious. Author weaves a story about the faceless corporations (who exactly is controlling them?) that live in uneasy cohabitation between themselves. They would enjoy nothing more than to blast the opponents sky high but they do not want to lose their own gains. Conflicts are executed by groups of teens (and grown ups, there are grown ups here acting as controllers) that act as spies and shock troops and that are generally educated and [for lack of better word] grown by the corpo's themselves. I especially liked how author pointed to the differences between Cole's generation (40-ish in the novel timeline) and Tanta's (17 year olds), former knowing they are being exploited and fed corpo talk and slogans as part of the political indoctrination, latter totally loyal to their masters no matter what happens (you know those ever smiling faces saying - yeeee, hand grenade!).
Story has lots of action but accent is not on action itself. Author spent a lot of time on creating a background (world building) for what seems to be planned series of the books. Main twist is very interesting but author did not disclose who is actually behind the mayhem. Entire book has the feeling of a teaser pilot episode of thriller TV show with the message - if you like this one good enough there is more to come.
Could this book stand on its own? Definitely. I just hope that story does not get watered down to ensure 100 sequels in the future. I also hope author moves more in the way of realistic (more dirty, more gritty?) story (generally move more in the way of say Gavin Smith's Veteran, or Richard K Morgans Thirteen) than cleanly delimited corporation territories. All ingredients are in, I just wish story is more .... adult I guess.
All in all interesting read, will definitely follow how series ends up.
Recommended.
matosapa's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
seang81's review
4.0
When I began reading this novel I wasn't sure it was for me - as this is a sci-fi future novel you have to be ready for some grand ideas right out of the box. After the first two chapters though, something clicked and I found myself rushing through and devouring the pages! The story is really good, with the idea of corporations ruling a city through AR technology and how the hierarchy of the residents evolved. Characters were well fleshed out, however, I felt at the beginning there was an information dump with the amount of characters introduced - maybe a little more space with this would have helped when beginning so keep this in mind when starting the novel. All in all, if you're looking for a dystopian future tech novel with some elements of a Bourne Identity spy story then you can't go wrong.
nickc777's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.25
This is a brilliantly engaging cyberpunk thriller. Carey balances suspense, intrigue, and horrifyingly plausible dystopian worldbuilding to keep you glued to the pages. I'll definitely be reading the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
shellc2013's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
smartymarty111's review
5.0
Loved this book, can't wait to read the next one in the series!
This is not my usual genre, I picked it up from my library's "New and Notable" section, but I'm so glad I discovered this.
The writing is descriptive without being dry, and the mystery is intriguing. My favorite by far is the description of the technology, which is plausible, making it all the more interesting.
This is not my usual genre, I picked it up from my library's "New and Notable" section, but I'm so glad I discovered this.
The writing is descriptive without being dry, and the mystery is intriguing. My favorite by far is the description of the technology, which is plausible, making it all the more interesting.
hauntedorchid's review
4.0
Tanta is a ward of the massive, all-pervasive InTech corporation, trained from birth to perform whatever tasks her company requires of her without question. But when she is tasked with the mission of discovering who leaked classified files from InTech's vaults, what she learns changes everything she thought she knew about her world, and her very sense of self.
This is an excellent, quick-paced thriller set in a fully-realised dystopian world that is nonetheless uncomfortably plausible. It tackles difficult concepts deftly and is filled with satisfying twists.
Inscape is the first in a series so don't expect the entire plot to wrap up in one book - it's clear there's more to come, and I look forward to reading the sequel.
This is an excellent, quick-paced thriller set in a fully-realised dystopian world that is nonetheless uncomfortably plausible. It tackles difficult concepts deftly and is filled with satisfying twists.
Inscape is the first in a series so don't expect the entire plot to wrap up in one book - it's clear there's more to come, and I look forward to reading the sequel.