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jojo_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Car accident, Medical trauma, and Medical content
Moderate: Murder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, Death, War, and Infidelity
Minor: Racism, Ableism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Child death, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia
cold_boy's review
It started as a very cool premise, with a writing style that lent itself well to an audiobook - and I've gotta say, the audiobook narrators were fairly good. It's written almost entirely as transcripts of recorded interviews, and the dialogue is mostly pretty well written.
Part of me wanted to stick with it just in case a cool twist happened, but I honestly can't trust the author to write anything innovative or interesting after getting halfway through. My issues:
1. It pretty rapidly becomes that very specific brand of military propaganda in which individual soldiers are glorified but the government is evil. Think Marvel movies, or Transformers.
2. The author seems to have a child's understanding of science. Which is a bit of a problem when you're writing a science fiction book where one of your main characters is a physicist. I don't think I ever see her discuss anything related to physics. I don't even think the author knows what a physicist is. This becomes even more obvious whenwe get the explanation of what is written on the alien tablets. I can't suspend my disbelief when people have been studying this language for a decade and only just now realized that they're just basic math equations. The author really thought he did something when he revealed in a massive shock that it's written right to left and in base 8. It feels like something I would have written when I was 14 and thought myself incredibly clever for doing so. Also the idea that they can magically produce enough argon-37 to spray *the entire world* was ridiculous.
3. The author clearly wants to fuck one of his main characters. Kara the helicopter pilot is such a painfully cliche and borderline misogynistic caricature. Every time male characters talk about her, it comes back to their attraction towards her. It's really uncomfortable to read.
4. The point that I stopped at, a character is about to lose their legs after they're crushed by a car. The way the characters spoke about what life would be like for someone who has to rely on prostheses was nightmarishly ableist. He goes on a long tirade about how apparently people without legs can't take care of themselves and shit themselves constantly. It's really fucked up.
Part of me wanted to stick with it just in case a cool twist happened, but I honestly can't trust the author to write anything innovative or interesting after getting halfway through. My issues:
1. It pretty rapidly becomes that very specific brand of military propaganda in which individual soldiers are glorified but the government is evil. Think Marvel movies, or Transformers.
2. The author seems to have a child's understanding of science. Which is a bit of a problem when you're writing a science fiction book where one of your main characters is a physicist. I don't think I ever see her discuss anything related to physics. I don't even think the author knows what a physicist is. This becomes even more obvious when
3. The author clearly wants to fuck one of his main characters. Kara the helicopter pilot is such a painfully cliche and borderline misogynistic caricature. Every time male characters talk about her, it comes back to their attraction towards her. It's really uncomfortable to read.
4. The point that I stopped at,
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism and Violence
Minor: Misogyny
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