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rogiercaprino's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-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
4.25
Big robot battles with a Sapphic piloting one !!! I love how fleshed out the pining and Romance feels in a 150 page novella. I'm mad at myself that I had hard reboot on my shelf unread for 3 years. This one is so fun
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Classism
abarnakwn_ourcolourfulpages's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Confinement
Moderate: Colonisation and Xenophobia
Minor: Slavery
harpoonholly's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Like other reviewers, I think this novella should have been a full novel in order to flesh out the politics, setting, the stakes, and especially the characters. And there was not nearly enough robot fights to justify the cool cover art.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood and Violence
Minor: Sexual content
qace90's review
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
For a subgenre I don’t typically read, I did enjoy this. It took me a while to get a feel for the world and language, but I was invested in mecha sapphics.
Kas comes to Earth on a research trip where she meets Zhi, a mecha pilot who’s deep in debt and tries to salvage everything by tricking Kas into a bet. When Zhi loses the warbot fight, she makes a run for it, but is followed by Kas. Zhi is working on another warbot from an earlier generation, and Kas ends up helping her make a plan to win enough money to cover her debt and get off Earth.
I tend to be more of a romance and fantasy reader, and the romance between Kas and Zhi worked really well for me. Or maybe not romance, but the relationship that develops between them while working on Alpha Zero’s code and spending time together. I liked how the cultural differences were shown because Zhi is used to living on Earth while Kas is from Sentinel where she has a neural interface that can communicate attraction and subtle clues across the net. Earth has a corrupted datasphere full of, basically, popup ads and malware, so Kas’ jacks can’t be used, which often leaves her floundering figuring out how to navigate Earth and interpersonal relationships.
This was definitely not something I would normally pick up but I’m a sucker for more sapphic stories, and this ended up being a pretty fun read. I think people who enjoy mecha and slightly heavier sci-fi books will get more out of it, but it was still a book I wouldn’t mind rereading or even seeing more set in this ‘verse.
Kas comes to Earth on a research trip where she meets Zhi, a mecha pilot who’s deep in debt and tries to salvage everything by tricking Kas into a bet. When Zhi loses the warbot fight, she makes a run for it, but is followed by Kas. Zhi is working on another warbot from an earlier generation, and Kas ends up helping her make a plan to win enough money to cover her debt and get off Earth.
I tend to be more of a romance and fantasy reader, and the romance between Kas and Zhi worked really well for me. Or maybe not romance, but the relationship that develops between them while working on Alpha Zero’s code and spending time together. I liked how the cultural differences were shown because Zhi is used to living on Earth while Kas is from Sentinel where she has a neural interface that can communicate attraction and subtle clues across the net. Earth has a corrupted datasphere full of, basically, popup ads and malware, so Kas’ jacks can’t be used, which often leaves her floundering figuring out how to navigate Earth and interpersonal relationships.
This was definitely not something I would normally pick up but I’m a sucker for more sapphic stories, and this ended up being a pretty fun read. I think people who enjoy mecha and slightly heavier sci-fi books will get more out of it, but it was still a book I wouldn’t mind rereading or even seeing more set in this ‘verse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Death and Gore
Minor: Ableism and Vomit
Alcohol consumption, gambling, debt, injury, anti-sex work, ace-spec exclusionary comment, shock
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