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tsharris's review
4.0
Well-written scifi novella that ultimately sheds harsh light on our deeply unequal world, in which technology perpetuates ever-greater inequality. Class stratification based on access to life extension as the logical extrapolation of the way we live now (and really, don't the rich already have access to life extension "technologies" that differentiate from the rest?). It's short, so not a comprehensive exercise in world building but still enough to make it a compulsively interesting read. Took about a day to read.
eastofthesunwestofthemoon's review
4.0
A strangely compelling tale - I can't say I enjoyed it, but it was worth reading and made me think.
_b_a_l_'s review
3.0
Cool concept but really more a short story than a novella, and I think it suffers for it.
The last part of the story feels cramped and unsatisfying compared to the great premise.
It was always somebody else's apocalypse. Until it wasn't. The end of the world was an endless dark tomorrow: always arriving but never actually here.
The last part of the story feels cramped and unsatisfying compared to the great premise.
It was always somebody else's apocalypse. Until it wasn't. The end of the world was an endless dark tomorrow: always arriving but never actually here.
danielwestheide's review
4.0
Time is one of the most valuable resources available. What does a society look like in which the wealthy can buy more time for themselves? This novella, more obviously than much other science fiction, is not so much about an imagined future, but about our present. Would love to see Laurie Penny write more fiction.
pixe1's review against another edition
4.0
Lacking somewhat in subtlety and original themes but overall I loved and devoured this.
alanahcw's review
4.0
I read this after watching the first season of Altered Carbon and it perfectly hit on the same themes and tone. It is sci-fi, but the social issues and social justice is real and present.
amysutton's review
1.0
I feel like the author tried cramming every social justice issue she could but then it mostly centered on hating white people... and yet all of her main characters with actual speaking lines were white people... so I don’t get it.
By the end of the book, I didn’t understand anything the rebels were talking about and actually sympathized more with the wealthy immortal people who were being attacked than with the slummy self righteous college kids who were fighting the man by killing people.
By the end of the book, I didn’t understand anything the rebels were talking about and actually sympathized more with the wealthy immortal people who were being attacked than with the slummy self righteous college kids who were fighting the man by killing people.
randyrasa's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting premise, but not much else. The characters, setting, plot, and writing just didn't do enough, for me.
misssusan's review
3.0
very contemporary book
i mean it's set like a hundred years in the future but the themes and issues feel very of the moment, the way activism is constituted and the use of some highly morally shady tactics by the police
also the rich benefitting off the limited use of resources that should fairly be available to all
(that one's less contemporary than timeless but then again that has been in the news quite a bit lately)
anyways props to laurie penny, who apparently can handle non-fiction and fiction with equal aplomb
3 stars
i mean it's set like a hundred years in the future but the themes and issues feel very of the moment, the way activism is constituted and the use of some highly morally shady tactics by the police
also the rich benefitting off the limited use of resources that should fairly be available to all
(that one's less contemporary than timeless but then again that has been in the news quite a bit lately)
anyways props to laurie penny, who apparently can handle non-fiction and fiction with equal aplomb
3 stars