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willrefuge's review
2.0
2 / 5 ✪
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2020/02/21/randomize-by-andy-weir-review/
A short heist thriller, from The Martian author Andy Weir, aims to deliver both suspense and drama for an morning commute or afternoon tea. Sadly, this story falls well short of anything thrilling—instead managing only to fill that afternoon with mild disappointment. And tea.
Nick Chen has an problem. IT Manager for the Babylon Casino in Vegas, his job is safe as long as his boss’s money is. So far, the random number generator running the casino’s keno system has done what it does best: randomly generate numbers. But with the release of quantum computers, that’s no longer the case. Now the numbers can be tracked and predicted, so long as the someone has the money, equipment and expertise to do so. It may seem like long odds, but Nick prefers no odds to long ones. Fortunately, Nick has a solution. And all it’ll take is approval from his boss, Edwin Rutledge. That, and a ton of money.
Sumi Signh has a problem. A genius of epic proportions, she married down—but fell in love. Despite her faith in her husband Prashant’s business, they’re a bit empty on funds, a bit lacking in space, and a bit out of time. They need money—and they need it now. Luckily, Sumi has a plan. And all it’ll take is a quantum computer, a prescribed set of numbers, and a certain casino. And she can already smell the success.
So, a short story, built upon a heist like Ocean’s 11. Too bad it’s so short.
Randomize tells a complete story in a small package. Only 28 pages, or 48 minutes in audio form. It wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t very interesting. After an incredibly quick setup, Weir skips right to the suspense. Except there really isn’t any. It’s a thriller that didn’t thrill. It’s fairly tepid, really. With the quick build, there wasn’t a sense of conflict, nor a chance to bond with or care about any of the characters. Now the characters seemed legitimately interesting. But then everything’s wrapped up and the story ends. I find it difficult to care about anything that takes half the time trying to explain the technology that makes the story coherent only to later wrap everything up in half a damn page.
TL;DR
Imagine a 10 minute version of Ocean’s 11. How would one inject such a thing with all the action, all the suspense, all the drama into a piece so short? Well, as it turns out, one wouldn’t. Randomize is a thriller that doesn’t thrill. A way to spend your commute or your afternoon if you don’t care about substance, excitement or plot. It’s not the worst thing that you could read, but even if you think it might be—then it’s over. If you got it free (like I did), and you’ve some time to kill: knock yourself out. Otherwise, skip it.
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2020/02/21/randomize-by-andy-weir-review/
A short heist thriller, from The Martian author Andy Weir, aims to deliver both suspense and drama for an morning commute or afternoon tea. Sadly, this story falls well short of anything thrilling—instead managing only to fill that afternoon with mild disappointment. And tea.
Nick Chen has an problem. IT Manager for the Babylon Casino in Vegas, his job is safe as long as his boss’s money is. So far, the random number generator running the casino’s keno system has done what it does best: randomly generate numbers. But with the release of quantum computers, that’s no longer the case. Now the numbers can be tracked and predicted, so long as the someone has the money, equipment and expertise to do so. It may seem like long odds, but Nick prefers no odds to long ones. Fortunately, Nick has a solution. And all it’ll take is approval from his boss, Edwin Rutledge. That, and a ton of money.
Sumi Signh has a problem. A genius of epic proportions, she married down—but fell in love. Despite her faith in her husband Prashant’s business, they’re a bit empty on funds, a bit lacking in space, and a bit out of time. They need money—and they need it now. Luckily, Sumi has a plan. And all it’ll take is a quantum computer, a prescribed set of numbers, and a certain casino. And she can already smell the success.
So, a short story, built upon a heist like Ocean’s 11. Too bad it’s so short.
Randomize tells a complete story in a small package. Only 28 pages, or 48 minutes in audio form. It wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t very interesting. After an incredibly quick setup, Weir skips right to the suspense. Except there really isn’t any. It’s a thriller that didn’t thrill. It’s fairly tepid, really. With the quick build, there wasn’t a sense of conflict, nor a chance to bond with or care about any of the characters. Now the characters seemed legitimately interesting. But then everything’s wrapped up and the story ends. I find it difficult to care about anything that takes half the time trying to explain the technology that makes the story coherent only to later wrap everything up in half a damn page.
TL;DR
Imagine a 10 minute version of Ocean’s 11. How would one inject such a thing with all the action, all the suspense, all the drama into a piece so short? Well, as it turns out, one wouldn’t. Randomize is a thriller that doesn’t thrill. A way to spend your commute or your afternoon if you don’t care about substance, excitement or plot. It’s not the worst thing that you could read, but even if you think it might be—then it’s over. If you got it free (like I did), and you’ve some time to kill: knock yourself out. Otherwise, skip it.
maggiebook's review
3.0
This is the last short story in the Forward series. A very quick read and a pretty good story.
kmwolff's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
pranjuli's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
Weird quantum shit, neither interesting nor well-explained. So much info-dump on every page. Characters not developed at all. Random sentences thrown in at places to create an illusion of a character, but in actual, you can not picture a person at all. Just words.
Dialogues are mainly expository. Things are told, not shown. Plot is obvious and easy to guess. I wasn't even interested to know what happened to any of them or to the story at the end. Just words thrown in like - randomize, quant, qbits. Without these words this story is legit 5 sentences long. That's it.
Andy Weir wasn't interested in this.
Dialogues are mainly expository. Things are told, not shown. Plot is obvious and easy to guess. I wasn't even interested to know what happened to any of them or to the story at the end. Just words thrown in like - randomize, quant, qbits. Without these words this story is legit 5 sentences long. That's it.
Andy Weir wasn't interested in this.
fedak's review
2.0
A Vegas heist where the culprits engages in some quantum entanglement shenanigans. The premise of the heist was interesting. Everything else about it stretched plausibility.
A casino IT admin would not be knowledgeable about cutting edge quantum computing. The first viable quantum computers would go to major world governments for encryption breaking efforts and won’t be available for corporate purchase.
The casino exec would be interested in the deal that ends the book.
A casino IT admin would not be knowledgeable about cutting edge quantum computing. The first viable quantum computers would go to major world governments for encryption breaking efforts and won’t be available for corporate purchase.
The casino exec would be interested in the deal that ends the book.
bookgraphy's review against another edition
3.5
I was scared going into this, considering all the negative reviews and while I also agree the plot was weak and we didn't have time to connect with the characters because of all the science talk. I have to admit that I actually quite liked this, it was very interesting to read some more about quantum physics and how it's used in quantum computers, not only that but how this kind of tech will most likely replace regular computers in different areas such as a casino/gambling and the implications and consequences this change could have.
rustbeltredux's review
3.0
Owww… my brain literally hurts from the amount of computer science jargon crammed into this one little short. It had potential, and I’m a sucker for a good heist, but this just didn’t do it for me.
Final takeaway from reading the entire series: two were pretty good, one was great, the rest are filler.
Final takeaway from reading the entire series: two were pretty good, one was great, the rest are filler.
kayalilyhayes's review
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
wiltar4evr's review
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
zea_d_writing's review
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I read this story sixth and last in my read through of the Forward collection.
When I read ‘Project Hail Mary’ earlier this year I had two complaints: one was a legitimate issue with the book and the other was just something that annoyed me but was ultimately harmless. The one legitimate issue was that all of the non-MC characters were essentially nothing more than caricatures of their races/nationalities. The Chinese astronauts was stoic and terse. The Russian astronaut was constantly drinking vodka and oversharing about her sex life.
But it was a smaller detail and Weir is such a loved author that I was pretty excited to get to his story in this collection.
Why was the billionaire the victim/good guy (ish) of this story? Why did the tech security have to be coded as Asian? Why was the stealing criminal/the bad guy (I guess) a brown woman? Why was the Indian woman, who was apparently a genius with multiple PhDs to her name in things like mathematics and astrophysics, working so hard to…scam a Las Vegas casino?
I can understand the desire to show an incredibly smart and capable woman in a story. I can also understand the desire to not have that woman be the usual white woman who lives in a very western context that is so often used in stories such as this. But having this woman’s introduction focus so heavily on the fact that she’s making her husband his lunch and serving him, that she’s happily in an arranged marriage while living in the US, that she prefers to wear saris instead of the clothing western women wear…it all felt less like a well written, complex, fully fleshed out Indian woman and more like the author jumping up and down being like “see? See?! I wrote A Woman and she’s A Brown Woman! See?! Give me kudos while ignoring the fact that I promptly make her the criminal antagonist”.
Also…the way he wrote her playing up her Indian accent and wearing even more traditional clothing and everything while trying to pull off the scam just felt…icky.
But beyond all the highly questionable character decisions made in this story…
The entire premise of the Forward collection is to look at the future of technology and where that technology might take the human race moving forward. The other stories are about humans surviving the end of the world, sometimes even thriving afterwards. We have stories about how advanced technologies can be used and abused and complicated our lives. All of the stories before this one felt like they had a point to them. They were far reaching and yet very much grounded in our present reality.
And then there is this story…which essentially boils down to: we may get quantum computers but we’ll still just use them to support capitalism, billionaires, and try to get rich.
It felt both icky and also short sighted. Especially in comparison to the rest of the series.
I’ll be reading The Martian by Weir because it’s already on my shelves. But I don’t think I’ll be buying anything more from him beyond that. Unfortunate.
When I read ‘Project Hail Mary’ earlier this year I had two complaints: one was a legitimate issue with the book and the other was just something that annoyed me but was ultimately harmless. The one legitimate issue was that all of the non-MC characters were essentially nothing more than caricatures of their races/nationalities. The Chinese astronauts was stoic and terse. The Russian astronaut was constantly drinking vodka and oversharing about her sex life.
But it was a smaller detail and Weir is such a loved author that I was pretty excited to get to his story in this collection.
Why was the billionaire the victim/good guy (ish) of this story? Why did the tech security have to be coded as Asian? Why was the stealing criminal/the bad guy (I guess) a brown woman? Why was the Indian woman, who was apparently a genius with multiple PhDs to her name in things like mathematics and astrophysics, working so hard to…scam a Las Vegas casino?
I can understand the desire to show an incredibly smart and capable woman in a story. I can also understand the desire to not have that woman be the usual white woman who lives in a very western context that is so often used in stories such as this. But having this woman’s introduction focus so heavily on the fact that she’s making her husband his lunch and serving him, that she’s happily in an arranged marriage while living in the US, that she prefers to wear saris instead of the clothing western women wear…it all felt less like a well written, complex, fully fleshed out Indian woman and more like the author jumping up and down being like “see? See?! I wrote A Woman and she’s A Brown Woman! See?! Give me kudos while ignoring the fact that I promptly make her the criminal antagonist”.
Also…the way he wrote her playing up her Indian accent and wearing even more traditional clothing and everything while trying to pull off the scam just felt…icky.
But beyond all the highly questionable character decisions made in this story…
The entire premise of the Forward collection is to look at the future of technology and where that technology might take the human race moving forward. The other stories are about humans surviving the end of the world, sometimes even thriving afterwards. We have stories about how advanced technologies can be used and abused and complicated our lives. All of the stories before this one felt like they had a point to them. They were far reaching and yet very much grounded in our present reality.
And then there is this story…which essentially boils down to: we may get quantum computers but we’ll still just use them to support capitalism, billionaires, and try to get rich.
It felt both icky and also short sighted. Especially in comparison to the rest of the series.
I’ll be reading The Martian by Weir because it’s already on my shelves. But I don’t think I’ll be buying anything more from him beyond that. Unfortunate.