I always intended for this review to undergo twenty-one edits; it's just that when I originally wrote it in 1977 we didn't have the technology.
I am tI always intended for this review to undergo twenty-one edits; it's just that when I originally wrote it in 1977 we didn't have the technology.
I am truly at a loss for how to judge this book. The fact that the author is a public online figure has influenced my judgments both positive and negative. I don't think I'm the only one struggling to give an objective review.
With the author going out of her way to be known for her writing advice (her bio on this very site currently stating that she "dominates" the YouTube writing advice community--modesty, very nice), that makes for some very specific expectations. Having a popular writing channel where she frequently brings up her supposed experiences creates even more expectations. The book is marketed as "new adult," and described as "dark," adding to the pile of expectations.
Expectations are then blown to the next eon with all the ferocity of an Interloper's fart, with the actual book reading like an unfinished draft for a mediocre YA novel. And let it be known that I went into this book with low expectations; I'd read reviews, and had come to expect something between "meh" and "ugh, that was a bad book." So the fact that the first few chapters blew me away with their juvenile, cliched writing and repetitive gimmicks should be telling. And like so many others, I was just flabbergasted by all the five-star reviews, and disturbed by how phony so many of them came off as.
A visit to FakeSpot finally confirmed what so many people believed about the number of raving reviews for this author's books.
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When readers have been lied to and cheated out of $15 by someone they'd admired, they get angry. And sometimes they take that anger out on the innocent book, who obviously didn't choose its mother and father.
The fact is, this book was far from the worst I'd ever read, and I can give you a laundry-list of things I liked in it, and things I think this author does well. But these things are lifeboats floating erratically in a storming sea of bland filler and WTF.
THE GOOD:
Take-charge lead, good female role model: Bland self-insert protagonists are like bland everyman Earthling captains on "Star Trek," so I let that one slide. I was pleasantly surprised by how active Eve Kingston was, initiating the start of her own story. No wise old mage or rich billionaire poofs into her shitty life to tell her she's the Chosen One or her talents are just what he needs for his next mission. Eve plots her own escape from her crappy life, and enters the story's conflict on her own choice when she sees a problem and realizes she can do something about it. She is also the strong, independent, heroine with a healthy romantic relationship that is needed now more than ever in a post-"Twlight" and post-"50 Shades" world. I will never stop applauding the author for that, at least.
Writing style is easy on the brain ... if extremely bland and cliched. But Christopher Paolini very literally redefined "bad" writing for me. If I'm not being pummeled with purple prose every other sentence, then I tend to be very lenient on writing style. This author's is far from good--it's very bland and very cliched, and is very similar to "Twilight's," but the trauma of "Eragon" has long since desensitized me to this type of thing. This author's writing style slides easily off the brain for the most part, though there are a few jarringly funny lines that weren't meant to be ("flawless chocolate skin....")
Descriptions are there. They're not the best written, but I don't care. So many authors (usually adult authors) snobbishly refuse to describe anything, for fear of looking "flowery," and it gives me the sense that they just don't care. Jenna Moreci's descriptions were plentiful, if not fantastically written. She clearly cared about her characters. Or at least what they looked like.
Good use of "show don't tell." I recall being impressed in the first few chapters at how the author conveyed this was the future by working little bits of information in here and there, no opening crawl needed. That was well done.
Names: I really liked the names in this book. Madison, Hayden, JJ, Sancho, Interloper, they were all just stereotypical enough to remember but unique enough to be enjoyable. And not once in 500 pages did I lose track of who was who, which is VERY rare for me, even in my favorite books.
Page-turning action: None of the fight scenes left a mark on me, all were quite forgettable; but I will admit they were page-turners, and I read through them fast. The violence was messy and believably done, with one exception (mentioned later).
Some fun characters: All of the characters are cliches and stereotypes, but this doesn't stop some of them from being fun anyway. JJ the goth hacker, Percy the posh gun nut, Percy's zainy mother, and cute crazy little Sancho, were all favorites of mine. The Mean Girls could also be great fun when used for comedy.
Here's a bit of sloppy fan art I drew while reading, back when I was still following the YouTube channel:
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Shares the spotlight: While Eve treads dangerously close to Mary Sue territory, the author does a good job and making sure Eve is not good at nor right about everything, and must rely on her friends for certain important things. The ending of the book also has a great moment for the supporting characters to shine.
Humor: While not laugh-out-loud hysterical, there were plenty of moments in this book that got an inner, and sometimes outer, chuckle from me. JJ's porn revenge, Percy's mother, and the lampshade to how phallic so many alien structures in movies tend to look.
Good scenes: There were also some well-rendered serious moments. Jason levitating glitter to create an artificial "starry night" for Eve, and the black-and-white ball were both enjoyable moments. And Eve's description of her abusive aunt, with just one sentence--"She would look at me like she was the victim"--was infinitely more powerful than all 500 pages of Nickelodeon bullying. (More on that later.)
Nifty cover art.
THE BAD:
Bland and cliche story, characters and writing: You probably noticed a pattern in the above section. Good or bad, this book's plot, characters, and writing style are overall quite bland and cliched. I tend to be rather forgiving of that sort of thing though, especially for a first book.
Chimeras are just better, and Eve's just the best Chimera. Chimeras all have super strength, speed and intelligence, with no drawbacks other than not being able to get drunk and being hated by everyone. I personally prefer when superpowers come with a price, and when individuals have different abilities. (One thing "Twilight" does noticeably better than this book.)
Oh, and Eve is the strongest Chimera in the world.
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This is actually very limiting IMO, for a book set to have sequels. Why not leave it opened for Eve to meet a stronger Chimera for her to train with, or battle against? It also makes little sense. The excuse for her being the strongest Chimera is her powers awakening so early, with the trauma of her parents' death by a drunk driver; but what about all the small children in third-world countries, living in a living Hell from birth? There should be a lot of Chimeras whose powers awakened earlier than Eve's, unless this future is a "Star Trek"-esque utopia free of war and murder.
Victim complex? The prejudice and bullying Eve faces is so over-the-top, it reads like a parody at times. It ends up coming off like a Pureflix movie. In early chapters we kept meeting people who seemed like average, flawed college kids, only for them to abruptly morph into the most exaggerated evil caricatures, like something out of Doug Funny's paranoid fantasies, or a nightmare one of the Rugratz would have.
The characterization of the Mean Girls in particular makes this book come off like it was written by a middle schooler whose boyfriend had just dumped her for a blonde popular girl, and then sat down at her computer fuming, to write:
"There once was a plain looking but very speshul girl who everyone hated and was an outcast, because she was secretly way more powerful and speshul than the rest of them. And the blonde girl was a STUPID BIMBO and a SLUT and ann EVIL popular princess queen bee with an army of brainless minions who was really stupid and really evil and she was also a sluttly skant skank slut whore. But Jason saw right through her fake boobs and knew Eve was the girl with the better personality and brain. And the girl who kept asking Eve questions she didn't like was doing it because she was a NOSY GOSSPI BITCH who couldn't mind her own business, nad just wanted to spread rumors!! And that jerk in gym class is also pissing me off, so I think I'll make him a rapist and Eve kicks him to the moon!"
Oh, yeah. About that near-rape scene....
Big Lipped Attempted Alligator Rape!
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Yes, I will bring this up every time. Yes, I need to get over it. No, I never will.
Because right in the middle of this book--right after a the touching and believable scene with Eve telling Jason about her cruel aunt, where the book was suddenly getting worlds better--"Dimple Chin," or whatever his name is, attempts to gang-rape Eve with his friends. This character was merely a dumb jock up until that point, making crude sexual jokes. (This is the most blatant example of a character going from a flawed individual to a warped evil caricature.) Eve kicks all their asses and escapes....
...and the attempted rape is never mentioned again. Even though she still sees Chin Dimple on a regular basis. Oh, it comes up that he injured her, and Jason is pissed; but the attempted sexual assault is not only never mentioned in dialogue, but Eve never even seems to think about it again. It's as if the author forgot she had that scene in there.
And yet she insisted this book had received a professional edit.
The Flashback Dream... ....was a cheap and cliched gimmick the first time it was used. When I saw it a second time I got confused, and backtracked several pages to see if I'd accidentally re-read a chapter I'd already been through. Eve dreams clear, coherent "flashbacks" of her traumatic childhood six full times within the first half of the book. All of them are unecessary, things we could easily have inferred from dialogue or shorter bursts of bad memories. "Poor Eve!" was forced down our throats very unnecessarily.
And as someone else pointed out, all of these flashbacks appeared in chronological order. This is meant to be a part of her PTSD. I am no expert on this disorder, but I've never heard of chronic biography dream mini-series plaguing the victim with a new episode of the chronological story over the course of a few months. I infer that this is simply a unique condition that occurs to female Chimeras when they're on their periods.
(Actually, this could work well into the plot; if Chimeras have super-intelligence, I'd buy that their brains somehow replay the most important aspects of their pasts at repeated cycles, as a survival trait. If this is revealed to be the case in the next book, I will forgive those flashbacks.)
Filler: Knowing that editors charge by the word, I'm stunned this book had so much needless filler. I'm personally trying to edit down my story as much as I can before looking for an editor, specifically for this reason. When you're paying a pro by the word, no word should be wasted. But if this author really felt the six dream flashbacks showing us that Eve was bullied, pages and pages of filler, and the Big Lipped Alligator Rape, were crucial to her story, then it's by all means her prerogative to fork over the cash to that editor. Fortunately, it seems the editor was a large hairy fellow named Harvey who likely requested his pay in carrots, so no great revenue was lost.
Did I mention the Big Lipped Alligator Rape?
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Prejudice is when popular people with money are mean to poor misfits, right? This book's portrayal of "prejudice" is so flat and exaggerated it seems to have no clue what prejudice even is, and encourages it against the rich and people who like mainstream fashion. None of the bigots in the book have a reason for hating Chimeras; they seem to attack Eve purely for fun, "smiling in triumph" and such.
The one believable reason for people to fear Chimeras--their powers being deadly when out-of-control--isn't addressed. Eve accidentally kills a man when she's six years old, but conveniently he was a drunk driver who killed her parents and threatened to kill the six-year-old if she told anyone, so no need to feel bad for that guy. After that, Eve conveniently never has to live with having unintentionally hurt any innocents, and never has to face a bigot in tears over their little brother being killed by a Chiemra. And of course there are no Chiemra extremists out there giving the group a bad name.
In short, "Prejudice" just seems to be an excuse to supply emotional torture porn for poor, poor Eve.
The book also encourages prejudice against "preppy" girls (do kids still say "preppy?"). I write this as a scruffy artsy nerd who had an unlikely friendship with a "preppy" girl in high school. We became best friends. We just had dinner at Huhot yesterday. I would not have become friends with her if a family friend hadn't warned me, before I entered high school, not to let my bad experiences influence how I judged others, and not to assume someone would be a bitch just because she liked makeup and fashion. How many other youngsters miss out on friendships like mine and my high school BFFs, because no one is telling them to check their own prejudices?
Most baffling of all is that Jenna Moreci was a professional model, and looks glamorous in her videos. Why encourage a prejudice she herself must be on the receiving end of?
Minor nitpick here, but... ONE death looked like it had been written by my edgy Emo friend in high school. I'm talking about the guy nailed to the X-shaped cross with nails in his eyes. It felt like someone trying really hard to be "gruesome" without actually having the balls to split skulls or spill guts or do anything truly chilling. I must point out though that this was an isolated incident, and the rest of the violence in the book, if memory serves, was fittingly gritty and messy.
Where'd the Internet go? Another minor nitpick, since this plothole is only relevant at the very beginning. Eve gets cheated out of tons of money when pawning her stuff to survive, because she's a Chimera; but why can't she just anonymously sell her stuff online? Ebay? Amazon? What happened to those sites? Are Chimeras legally banned from using computers? Did the Internet collapse sometime before this story takes place? It's particularly odd that this plot hole would exist in a book that is sold primarily over the Internet, by an author whose entire author persona is Internet based. Like I said though, minor nitpick, as the pawning isn't exactly a major plotpoint.
They were just redshirts: I assume it's not a spoiler to say that the Interlopers kill a f*ck-ton of people. But their deaths are only ever treated as plot-points. I'm not asking for the grieving families to get their own subplots, but some acknowledgement that these were real people who lost their lives would be nice. Especially in the case of (view spoiler)[Hayden, whose death should completely change how Eve sees her. The girl bullying Eve all year was not the real Hayden; Hayden was an innocent, meek young girl who died a slow horrible death ("she suffered greatly"), and then had her skin and identity stolen by her murderer to commit more atrocities while wearing her face and name. (hide spoiler)] Yet Eve's only reaction is "Ah-ha, so that's what's been going on!"
...and now for a bonus section....
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"EVE THE AWAKENING" v "TWILIGHT:"
Believe it or not, I am not just doing the "Twilight" comparison to be a smartass. We all know by now that "Twilight" isn't the worst book ever. "50 Shades" has stolen that title, and I've made it clear that for me personally the Golden Turkey Award goes to Paolini. I thought Twilight was okay, and noticed enough similarities between it and this book to compile this very necessary list.
* Same generic, bland, cliche, but not-too-purple-prose-ridden-thank-god, writing style, that only occasionally has a laughable sentence ("You're like heroine to me," "His flawless chocolate skin")
* Both filled with needless filler
* Generic, self-insert, everygirl protagonist who doesn't fit in, and lands herself a buff rich hot popular guy whose posse are the saving grace of the story's cast; Eve is an infinitely better role model and more likable character than Bella, though. Point for "Eve."
* Female sidekick with a funky style and quirky personality (Alice, JJ)
* A race of superhumans feared by everyone else. Moreci's don't sparkle and aren't all "beautiful," so point to "Eve;" however, Meyer's vampires each have unique powers and backstories, have a unique secret society, and are overall vastly more interesting. Point to "Twilight."
* Fail completely at the book's main theme. "Twilight" is supposed to be about "true love," but tries to pass off shallow infatuation and arguably abusive relationships as "love;" "Eve the Awakening" is supposed to be about prejudice, but tries to pass off victimization-porn as 'prejudice" while encouraging the real thing against girls who like make-up and fashion.
* Plenty of people, young and old, enjoy it for entertainment, and accept that it's neither Shakespeare nor was trying to be.
To make a long story short....
(I know, "too late")
This book isn't truly horrible, but it isn't truly a book either. It's pretty obviously an un-edited draft hastily sent to a proof-reader for spelling and grammatical errors, marketed with methods that range from questionable to possibly illegal.
BUT plenty of young people and even some adults enjoy this book, for legitimate reasons. The young person I sold my copy to told me she was loving it so far, right within the first few chapters. By no means should the book's flaws or sketchy marketing deter you from reading it if you're curious (though I personally hesitate to give this author any more of my money, at least until a trio of ghosts pays her a visit some Christmas about those sock-puppet reviews).
Anyone who says cyberpunk is dead has been living under a rock. Not only is cyberpunk alive and kicking, but this book does exactly what true cyberpunAnyone who says cyberpunk is dead has been living under a rock. Not only is cyberpunk alive and kicking, but this book does exactly what true cyberpunk is meant to; takes current technology and shows us what dark or insane paths it might lead us down. (Don't get me wrong, I love genre throwbacks; but in order for a genre to stay alive, someone has to keep pushing it forward.)
This book was a page-turner, start to finish. The story moved quickly, the world building was well done without infodumps, and each of the characters had their own believable energy. There was plenty of action, though more of the keeping-you-on-your-toes kind than the showy action-movie kind (I personally prefer the latter but anyway).
The one possible downside is the portrayal of religious people. This book is NOT for the easily offended. In the world of "The Uploaded," everyone is an atheist except for "NeoChristians," who are extreme walking stereotypes of Christian evangelicals. But even so, the NeoChristians are portrayed sympathetically, if stereotypically, and the alliance between them and the atheist rebels against the corrupt government sends a much needed message about people from radically different belief systems working together. ...more
Possibly my favorite of the "Bridge" trilogy. Chevette and Barry return, changed but still very much themselves. The characters we meet throughout thePossibly my favorite of the "Bridge" trilogy. Chevette and Barry return, changed but still very much themselves. The characters we meet throughout the book are interesting, except Laney, who took bland to new levels. The plot was easier to follow, though I'm hard-pressed to remember it. (I'll give this review a re-write after I re-read the book.) This is a great prequel, bridging (har har) the modern (well, '80s) world and the future of "Neuromancer." ...more
It was another "Count Zero." A bland filler with bland leads, that had a few good side characters and moments. As with the "Sprawl" trilogy, the "BridIt was another "Count Zero." A bland filler with bland leads, that had a few good side characters and moments. As with the "Sprawl" trilogy, the "Bridge" trilogy's good books are 1 and 3. Most frustrating about this book was the fact that its premise was really interesting, and felt shoved into the background (the rock star wanting to marry the fictional character). I did kind of like Chia Pet Mackenzi, but in the same way I like Marley from "Count Zero" and Bella Swan in the pre-Edward chapters of "Twilight;" just a generic enough heroine who I felt was relatable in a brain-melting kind of way, until I realized she just lacked a personality. Luckily book 3 is far better. ...more
I thought I reviewed this but I guess not. This is a fun cyberpunk novel I re-read frequently. It contains one of my favorite characters in the subgenI thought I reviewed this but I guess not. This is a fun cyberpunk novel I re-read frequently. It contains one of my favorite characters in the subgenre, Avalon. Unfortunately, Avalon ends up being a villain, and the two protagonists are a bit less than compelling to put it mildly. The book keeps introducing interesting and sympathetic characters, only to kill them or turn them evil to make way for really bland ones to take the spotlight.
I also take some issue with the portrayal of women, and that is not something I usually am offended by (I'm a fan of Frank Miller if that tells you anything). Of the important female characters, all but one of the villains (Avalon) is a source of blatant fan service. Avalon and the female lead are both in love with the protagonist, for literally no given reason (I can't even say "It's because he's hot" because at no point is Cray Alden ever given any hint of a description, or even an age). The other female, a computer program, is overly seductive for, again, no given reason. Lea Prism was so gratuitous and so perfect by the end that she put me off reading the sequel for a while, but her character actually improves drastically in "Prodigal."
It is highly likely I will rewrite this review the next time I read "Hammerjack." For now, I'll say that if you need a cyberpunk fix, this should do it. But I strongly advice going on to read "Prodigal," especially if you want more of Avalon....more
Written in the 1990s, Greg Bear envisioned a twenty-first century in which Disney would produce porn, intellectuals would give lectures on sex, and a Written in the 1990s, Greg Bear envisioned a twenty-first century in which Disney would produce porn, intellectuals would give lectures on sex, and a creepy old man hitting on a 20-something-year-old waitress results in the girl being taken aback, because no old guy has EVER hit on her at her job before, and gleefully has sex with him that very night. Yuck.
This book had some characters I liked and some interesting ideas, but it was overshadowed by what the author seems to have been doing with his free hand while typing this story with the other. Look, I'm not squeamish about sex: I'm a fan of porn parodies. But this book was supposed to be serious, and every other scene was either someone having sex, or someone giving a lecture on sex, or people talking about sex, or the narrator comparing something to a private part or something else I'd rather not mention. Oh, and minus a star for that creepy-as-hell Gary Stu Giffy (I think his name was?).
Okay I have to admit, looking back on this book, it's pretty hilarious. But it was a lot less funny when I was pushing through 300 + pages of lifeless, humorless porn. I'll stick to Seduction Cinemas thank you very much....more
The painfully slow start made it hard to get into this book, but the rich environment kept me going, and keeps me coming back. "The Diamond Age" is baThe painfully slow start made it hard to get into this book, but the rich environment kept me going, and keeps me coming back. "The Diamond Age" is basically a Dickensien novel set in the future. "The Diamond Age" in particular demonstrates Stephenson's strength for writing female characters, something male authors often struggle with. Most of his heroines are great, and his best is in "Snow Crash," but "The Diamond Age" is the best demonstrator of how well Stephensons understands us of the fairer sex. The friendship between the three Primer students is a highlight of the book for me, and I love seeing the different direction that Nell, Elizabeth and Fionna's lives took after they grew up. ...more
Extremely disappointing. A few of the supporting characters were likable and vaguely interesting, so that was the saving grace. I was also very impresExtremely disappointing. A few of the supporting characters were likable and vaguely interesting, so that was the saving grace. I was also very impressed that none of the female characters were "sexy" or anyone's love interest. But the story was not engaging. The profanity was just awkward (I love swearing when done right, as in "Neuromancer" or "Pineapple Express" or "South Park," but this author just seemed to shoe-horn the F-bomb into every other sentence awkwardly).
Most disappointing of all was the setting. Advertised as a cyberpunk book, "Electric Church" contains almost no sci-fi elements at all outside generic robots, generic ESP, and generic "body augmentation;" in other words, tropes so overdone and so flatly used here that they weren't even noticeable.
If you're starving for something cyberpunk, skip "Electric Church." It'll be like trying to satisfy a pizza craving with Tombstone....more
I was so starved for a new sci-fi from Gibson, and this satisfied for the most part. My only complaint is that the setting just isn't as full and alivI was so starved for a new sci-fi from Gibson, and this satisfied for the most part. My only complaint is that the setting just isn't as full and alive as the world of the Sprawl, or the Bridge. (It seems he's been toning his worlds down gradually with each new saga.) But the story was interesting, the characters were memorable, and there was absolutely a mood to the book. This isn't the grungy "Neuromancer" Gibson, but more of the darkly serene "Mona Lisa Overdrive" Gibson.
By far the highlight for me was Ash, the Goth scientist with split irises and moving body art. (Suspiciously "Diamond Age"-esque, actually.) Also interesting was seeing a transexual character who isn't treated as comic relief or a serial killer.
Highly recommend to any Gibson fans, but beware; many reviews warn that you won't have any hope of knowing what's going on until about halfway through the story, and they're right. You have to just stick with it. ...more
Loved it. The world, characters and writing style were all-Gibson, but the plot was much more clear and easy to follow than any in the Sprawl series. Loved it. The world, characters and writing style were all-Gibson, but the plot was much more clear and easy to follow than any in the Sprawl series. I'm not sure if this is because I've finally learned how to decipher a Gibson novel, or if it's because the author realized how confusing his earlier works were and toned it down for this one. But either way, "Virtual Light" was a much quicker and easier read than any William Gibson book I've read yet.
I particularly loved the female lead, Chevette Washington, who was a perfect balance of relatable and fantastical, likable and flawed. And the setting, the world of the Bridge, is unforgettable. Not quite as good as the world of his Sprawl stories, but certainly close.
Only complaints are a bland male lead (as usual) and a torturously bland third lead who had nothing to do with the story, and seemed only there to make the book have three "protagonists" and have an obligatory Japanese character. ...more
Every time I re-read the Sprawl trilogy, I speed through "Neuromancer" and, when I get to it, "Mona Lisa Overdrive;" but "Count Zero" usually holds meEvery time I re-read the Sprawl trilogy, I speed through "Neuromancer" and, when I get to it, "Mona Lisa Overdrive;" but "Count Zero" usually holds me up for a month at least. This time it held me up for about five months (granted, I've been busy with various personal projects, work, and wasting time online). Whatever. Gibson is one of my all-time favorite writers, I worship the keys he types on (be they computer or typewriter); but reading "Count Zero" is like trying to run through knee-high mud with a baby killer whale under each arm--and some very intriguing scenery off in the distance.
The plot is confusing to the point of seeming nonexistent, and when I finally did get it figured out, it didn't thrill me, chill me or fullfill me.
This book is Gibson's first experiment with multiple protagonists. I LOVE this model of storytelling, but none of these three really do it for me. Turner and Marley mostly bore me; Bobby feels alive, but I had some gripes with his character. Where Case was a dark new spin on the hacker archtype, Bobby is an '80s cliche (lives with his mother, owns porn, desperate to run with the cool crowd). On top of that, Bobby for some reason has to do or experience something disgusting at least once a chapter, for the first two thirds of the book. BUT, to be fair, Bobby does grow on you, and he's the only of the protagonists who feels alive from start to finish. He also delivers the most hilarious eulogy in all of fiction: "He was, he was a dude." On the other hand, Turner and Marley are wall-bangingly bland; maybe if the same characters appeared by another author, I wouldn't think so, but compared to Gibson's usually amazing characters, Turner and Marley are like slabs of cardboard for most of the book. Turner's chapters also involve some rather uncomfortable peodphilic moments when he's with Angie Mitchell.
But speaking of Angie Mitchell, the supporting cast of "Count Zero" is the reason to read it. Angie Mitchell, the teenage girl whose scientist father put a matrix-linked implant in her brain, is going to be a great lead character in the final book, "Mona Lisa Overdrive." Then there's Jackie, the voodoo priestess hacker with computer chips in her cornrows; Rez, the butch pilot with the rose boob tattoo; Jaylene Slide; and the FINN. The Finn's sceen is the highlight of the book, and the one thing about "Count Zero" that I would call truly great. Jaylene Slide and her henchman Bunny, who fly in to save the day right the f**k out of nowhere within the last few chapters, are possibly THE most blatant example of a deus ex machina in all of fiction, but they're fittingly weird and badass so I don't mind at all. Granted, the fact that I'd completely stopped caring by the time they showed up helped.
Which brings me to one of the main problems with this book. With two out of the three protagonists boring me to tears for the first two thirds of the book, it took until this re-read (which must be read number I've-honestly-lost-count) for me to notice that they both become more alive and sympathetic in the last few chapters. Marley's final chapters are beautifully surreal. I applaud Gibson for conveying these characters being dead inside for most of the book, and then "waking up" so to speak at the end; but the problem is that with them being so "dead" for so long, I'd usually given up before their chapters got good, on most reads.
Finally, the writing style. For the most part, it's still Gibson's usual fantastic prose. Even at its most boring, "Count Zero" can be a serene and compelling read, just from the unique way Gibson words things. His descriptions of Turner's short dreams really stick in my mind (especially the line about how he "dreamed of running water;" for some reason I love that). But the atmosphere from "Neuromancer" is sadly lacking in this book, but a bit of it is still there, especially in the last few chapters.
My final complaint is that Gibson's usually clever vocabulary has taken a hit in this book. In "Neuromancer" we had "the Sprawl," "punching deck," "joeboys," "wintermute," and "Freeside;" here in "Count Zero," we have "Gothicks" and "Kasuals" (spelled exactly like that), "Big Playground," and "hot-doggers." Again, if this were another author, I wouldn't think as much of it. But this is Gibson, man! Luckily he dumps the '80s corn in "Mona Lisa Overdrive."
The book isn't bad by any means, it's okay. But the supporting characters really make me mourn for the far more interesting book that could have been. Why not let Angie and the Voodoo hackers be the center of the story? THAT would be a book I'd read the crap out of....more
You'll need help understanding the book, but it's very much worth it.
What "Neuromancer" lacks in an understandable plot, it 100% compensates in atmosYou'll need help understanding the book, but it's very much worth it.
What "Neuromancer" lacks in an understandable plot, it 100% compensates in atmosphere, attitude, intriguing characters, and a fun story (the parts of it you can understand anyway). The polt, in a nutshell, is that a deadbeat hacker and a cyborg female mercenary are hired for a secret mission, and decide to investigate who their mysterious boss really is; turns out, they're working for a sentient computer program, who is sending them to these various missions as part of a plan to become more powerful. Being crooked antiheroes however, they don't entirely mind...until the mission starts taking freaky turns.
SETTING/ATMOSPHERE
William Gibson is a master of this. If you like futures like "Blade Runner," "Brazil" or "Ghost in the Shell," this should be right up your alley. Every page comes with a powerful emotion that's hard to pin, but this book absolutely makes you feel that you're "there." And the "there" is one of the most fascinating and immersing worlds in fiction.
The book is rather dated, to the point that it's nowadays better read as an Alternate History than a straightforward sci-fi. You sort of have to just take it as a strange parallel universe where the 1980s never ended. In my humble opinion, this makes the world even more intriguing. It frees the reader from having to ponder if any of these things could plausibly come true in our near future, and Gibson's slick writing helps you flow right with it.
On a final note, if you want a lesson on how to write a convincing dream or hallucination scene, William Gibson is your man. Unlike so many authors, who write dreams or surreal moments as one would describe a movie scene, Gibson aims to describe a real feeling. Case's dreams are like actual dreams you and I would have, rather than the corny, coherent gimmicks of Hollywood.
CHARACTERS
Another one of Gibson's fortes. These characters are at once larger than life and yet far more realistic than most. The only comparisons I can draw are Neal Stephenson and Quentin Tarantino. William Gibson's antiheroes take on AIs and mega-corporations with crazy cyborg upgrades, but they do it while dressed casually, and spend their down time talking about pop culture and complaining about work over coffee. Even in the littlest ways--little quirks and habits we all see in people we know, but rarely see on a TV screen or in a book--make the characters come to life.
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Most of the characters are great, but I have to give honorable mention to two. Molly Millions (later known as Sally Shears in Mona Lisa Overdrive), the hired "street samurai" with mirror shades fused over her eye sockets and razor claws under her fingernails, is credited as being the inspiration for Trinity, Major Kusanagi, and a whole sleuth of ass-kicking cyberbabes known to dorks as "razor girls." But Molly is far less cliched and sexualized than most of her successors. I am really intriuged by how Molly is such a sexual person without being a very sexual character; she is Case's friend with benefits, and has a history as a prostitute; yet she dresses and speaks like a regular person, men are not throwing themselves at her, and she is never forced to disguise as a hooker "for the mission." Many male writers get this completely bass-ackwards, casting gratuitous wet fantasies as their female leads while constantly assuring us "but she isn't a slut! She was only doing it for the mission! Honest!" Molly also breaks stereotypes by being a tough woman with a more "masculine" personality, who still has fun with her fashion and dates.
And then there's the Finn, Molly's fence friend. Unlike most hustler types in fiction, the Finn isn't just a plot device to be killed off after getting the heroes what they need. He's been in this business for decades, and is properly paranoid. He's probably also the only person in creation who could get away with calling Molly "sweatmeat" and not get his eyes clawed out. Their beauty-and-the-beast friendship is great fun to read, and one of my favorite platonic friendships in all of fiction.
WRITING STYLE:
If you're an aspiring writer, I highly recommend reading at least a few paragraphs of Gibson, even if you can't entirely follow what he's saying. Nowhere in a William Gibson story will you see the phrases "His eyes bore into hers," "She studied him like a book," or "like a ton of bricks." Gibson finds a perfect balance between picking words that directly describe the scene or character, while still rolling off the page with style.
ALL IN ALL I highly recommend this book to any fan of cyberpunk. If you're a fan of the dystopian genre, general science fiction, or the surreal, you may also give this book a shot.
Not as exciting as "Neuromancer," but absolutely on par in terms of atmosphere and characters. There are sections of narration that IA beautiful book.
Not as exciting as "Neuromancer," but absolutely on par in terms of atmosphere and characters. There are sections of narration that I enjoy reading just on their own, like Kumiko's dreams about the neon cranes "sailing the moonscape of her mother's madness," and especially Mona's "silver walks." It's also great to see Molly and the Finn (in a sense) again, and the way Gibson develops his returning characters fifteen or so years after "Neuromancer" is done fantastically.
This time, Gibson gives us no less than four protagonists, each wonderfully relatable and developed. Angie Mitchell, the cyber-brained teen we met in "Count Zero," is now the world's most famous stim star, but is secretly working to solve the mystery of the implant in her brain and the whereabouts of her ex-boyfriend Bobby Newmark--also from "Count Zero," and here far more likable and interesting. We also meet a young, naive prostitute named Mona, who everyone says is a dead-ringer for the famous Angie, and she and Angie begin to cross paths a la "A Tale of Two Cities." Then there's Silck Henry, the brain-fried mechanic who lives in the Dog Solitude with his eccentric roommate Gentry, whose routine is thrown off when they're forced to "put up" a strange comatose man on a stretcher linked to cyberspace, and his sassy nurse. And finally, there's Kumiko Yanaka, the teenage Yakuza princess, sent to London while her father fights a mafia war, and protected by a mirror-eyed woman named "Sally Shears."
In my opinion, the character who shines the most is "Sally," who of course is really Molly Millions of "Neuromancer."
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Molly is back, now going by Sally Shears, and developed brilliantly. We see more sides of her character, and learn that she's grown a bit weary of being a badass; but that doesn't stop her from taking matters into her own hands when she smells a rat. As with "Neuromancer," we never hear the story from Molly's POV, which is something you might have to be told to realize, because we've gottne to know her so well through the eyes of Johnny Mneumonic, Case, and now Kumiko Yanaka, the young mafia princess who Molly protects and mentors in "Mona Lisa Overdrive."
And as with all of Gibson's novels, the more times you read it, the more you get. Only on this re-read did I catch the fact that Molly/Sally had retired from ass-kicking to run a casino, which is a fantastic image; Molly becomes a sort of female, mirror-eyed Rick Blaine from "Casablanca," suddenly yanked back into the fight--but in this case, it's not out of patriotism, but blackmail. Determined to save the innocents she's being "hired" to help kidnap and kill, and free herself of this contract, Molly lays down her own set of schemes much as she did in "Neuromancer" to make sure she's one step ahead of her boss.
The atmosphere that was missing from "Count Zero" is also back full-throttle, though it's different. Quieter. We don't see much of the loud, hustling sides of any of the cities. We see run-down future London in the snow, a ghost of Molly's old Sprawl, and two men living in a deserted factory in an eerie miles-long junkyard called the Dog Solitude. Gibson's descriptions of these places coupled with the characters' emotions in them is brilliantly rendered. And if you like Gibson's surrealism-- his descriptions of cyberspace, drug-highs and believably-written dreams, you should enjoy this book.
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Pardon if this next statement is a tad sexist, but I suspect female readers will enjoy this last installment more than males. As I said, MLO is low on action, but very high on character development, atmosphere and emotion. (Males seem more drawn to "Count Zero," which does a far better job with action, but in all the other areas I mentioned, fails miserably. )
The only time this book falls somewhat flat for me is when it changes writing styles; in one instance, an overheard conversation is needlessly presented in script format, and a few other moments are told in present tense, for the sake of seeming "surreal." Gibson has never needed any gimmicks to make you feel "in the moment," so these changes have the opposite of their intended effect. Apart from that, my only other complaint is that Molly, while going as Sally Shears of all things, never shows her claws "onscreen" so to speak.
If you loved "Neruomancer" but wasn't enthralled with "Count Zero," don't give up on the series; "Mona Lisa Overdrive" more than compensates for all the atmosphere and intrigue that CZ missed....more
I hesitated to read "Prodigal" because I'd really come to hate Lea Prism by the end of "Hammerjack," and wasn't keen on reading a seqBig improvement!
I hesitated to read "Prodigal" because I'd really come to hate Lea Prism by the end of "Hammerjack," and wasn't keen on reading a sequel with her as the lead. I wound up reading "Prodigal" just to get more of Avalon; but within the first few pages, I was pleasantly stunned to find I actually liked this new Lea Prism as well! Avalon also shines wonderfully, though sadly still underdeveloped.
Unfortunately the intriguing new storyline is hampered by a subplot about a cast of bland characters on Mars, that ends up making no sense at all. Also, Giller seems to have taken criticism that "Hammerjack" was too descriptive to another extreme, so now he won't describe ANYTHING. I had no idea what any of the characters looked like except returning ones from "Hammerjack;" in the opening scene I still, after multiple re-reads, don't know if the characters are journeying on wheels or hovering crafts, because he wouldn't tell us anything about the futuristic vehicles they were driving; and worst of all, (view spoiler)[ we finally get a look at Avalon's human eyes....and Giller won't even mention what color they are. Oh, and the ending brings that bland-ass Cray back to life. Whyyyy. (hide spoiler)]
I don't honestly know if I'm hoping for Giller to write a third book. I'd like to see more of the good stuff, but I really don't want to read any more of Cray and Lea, unless he plans to improve the former's character as he did the latter....more
My all-time favorite book. Perfect combination of fun and thought-provoking, just as sci-fi should be. I first read this for a sci-fi class in high scMy all-time favorite book. Perfect combination of fun and thought-provoking, just as sci-fi should be. I first read this for a sci-fi class in high school and have tried to re-read it once a year ever since.
I have favorite scenes from this book just like I do with movies, and often just re-read passeges or sections of the book when I'm not re-reading the whole thing. This book just does (almost) everything right.
WRITING STYLE: The narration is just as entertaining as the story itself. Stephenson doesn't use cliched phrases, instead opting for his own unique way to describe things that actually give you a real idea of what's going on, often in a very clever or hilarious manner. Neal Stephenson has been a massive influence on my own writing style.
PLOT: No prophecies, no rich crime lords telling a slacker he's "perfect for the job I need," no orphans with mysterious fathers. A unique plot that doesn't need a Dark Lord to be epic, "Snow Crash" plays out one twist after another, starting with a computer virus that turns out to be deadly and ending up in a worldwide conspiracy.
CHARACTERS: Some of the most memorable in fiction. Hiro Protagonist (yes, that's his name) defies basically every protagonist cliche some of us hate, most importantly by being as unique as his supporting characters. An army brat of mixed African-American/Korean-Japanese heritage who is a master hacker that helped build the Internet of tomorrow, while also being quite skilled with samurai swords to boot, the best thing about Hiro Protagonist is that he doesn't need to be an orphan or have someone else to tell him he's "speshul" to be a hero or the protagonist.
Then there's his sidekick Y.T. A thrill-seeking teenage tomboy who gets around town by harpooning cards with a magnetic cable and riding behind on her skateboard, it's no secret why Y.T. is Neal Stephenson's most popular character. As a female reader I particularly love how she doesn't fall into a lot of stereotypes a lot of male writers would have been suckered in by: she's a tomboy, but doesn't hate dresses; she's got female advice for Hiro, without having to be "feminine;" and she's attractive in her own way (just to teenage readers, I hope), without being a sex symbol.
The rest of the cast is just as memorable. You'll meet Raven, the biker hitman who carries a nuclear missile in his sidecar and slaughters with glass knives and bamboo spears; Uncle Enzo, the Mafia boss who controls all pizza delivery in future-America; Fisheye, the perpetually irritable gangster; Suchi-K, the rapper with hair that could only exist in the future; Lagos, the "gargoyle" agent who wears his computer gear like a suit of armor; and Juanita Marquez, Hiro's brainy ex-girlfriend who manages to be eccentric in her own way while being the one normal character in the book.
SETTING: One of the best in sci-fi by far. A near-future where America has fallen into anarchy and is now run by corporations isn't the most original idea in cyberpunk, but the way Stephenson paints it--with humor, and even a dash of realism--is. Stephenson's future--America is spiced up by examples of trends that could come true in a lawless future: pizza delivery is a life-and-death matter, and is run exclusively by the Mafia; a new denomination of Christianity that re-imagines the Trinity as Jesus, Elvis, and its founder Reverend Wayne; and a new method of travel, whereby skateboarders harpoon random cars with magnetic cables and ride behind like water skiers. And then there's the Metaverse, the future-version of the Internet. Imagine the Matrix, if everyone entered the virtual reality willingly, and looked like literally whatever they wanted (within certain height and budget limits).
OVERALL: Amazing book for nerds with a gonzo sense of humor who want something both exhilarating and thought-provoking....more
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