Its a solid story of an AI uprising coming to destroy humanity. There were some good parts and some stuff that I couldn't just not enjoy, so overall I'd have to give it just under 4 stars. I've got a review that delves into the specifics, but contains spoilers past the jump.I'd like to first state that the narration was very good on this particular book. Mare Trevathan is not a narrator I've heard before, but she was able to do an excellent job portraying the different characters emotions and states throughout.
The Audio portion of this review gets a full 5 stars, so if you see she's a narrator do not fear that you'll end up with a flat telling of the story.
Non Spoiler Review:
Overall, the story flows very nicely. None of the characters acts in a way that seems far outside of what would be expected,and there are just a few sections that drag on a bit. The humor is good and appropriate in the places it gets used, although some of the jokes start to fall flat as the author uses the same bit fairly often for some of the side commentary. Which, is something a reader should be aware of, that the author projects a lot of his political philosophy as side jokes throughout the novel. The end epilogue was also a bit of a letdown for me, not really tying things up. However, the author's ability to really paint a picture with his words gets my praise. He describes the robots in great detail, and is adept at giving scene details that help add to the immersion in the story world.
Spoiler Review:
While my own politics tend to agree with Cole's, his repeated swipes at Social Justice types just get repetitive. I did not need to
be reminded basically once a chapter that we should have a healthy dis-dain for the stifling of ideas in an effort to control "wrong think."
It definitely did not add to the story after the fourth or fifth mention. The other slightly distracting bit was the small side stories the
characters engaged in while playing the "Mini Games." When Scarpa is for some reason having to battle Crocodiles and a Monkey Snake to
somehow re-engage the cloaking device in game, I tuned out a bit. Wouldn't the designers of one of the largest and most profitable MMOs fill their mini games in with Star Trek related games? Even today we have targeted games and Ads for sites, in a future where gaming has currency that trades as well as Dollars you'd think their would be less breaking folks from their illusion to play a game that had trivia about 1960s cars.
The end epilogue was also fairly flat I thought. It sort of stumbled over a few of the survivors stories, and I think it just ended up being a little too happy go lucky for the rest of the story, with Maura falling in love and having all of her disabilities instantly corrected. It would have been better served I felt if Cole had just left this ending a bit off.
I did truly enjoy the story though, and the workings of the AI to try to exterminate humanity before itself could be exterminated was very good.
The AI moved in a way that made good sense, but also showed an intelligence that was still growing and was not defeated by some random bit of luck,
as happens in far too many other dystopian novels. The other characters were in the same fashion well written. They displayed real tendencies and
followed incentives in the book instead of it feeling like they only did certain things because the plot called on them to do so.
Overall this was an enjoyable work, and I would likely look into Cole's other works the next time I need a book for a drive.
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