Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
by David Wong
near future, science fiction
copyright 2015
read in January 2016
rated 6/10: read to pass the time
A good sense of humour, plenty of action and adventure. Young peasant girl turns out to be a princess. The plot builds nicely, to a satisfying conclusion.
The level of mindless violence is upsetting. Cartoonish, mostly, so it's not particularly disturbing. Until the climactic chapters, where it gets to be a bit unpleasant. However, no cats are harmed :-)
The view of the near future is enjoyable... Scary, perhaps, but enjoyable. I can't wait for Blink to be implemented !
The characters are... well... somewhat likeable. Perhaps sympathetic. I just don't like them enough, not enough to really care about them. Except, perhaps, the heroine... Though her suffering could just be unpleasant rather than unpleasant because I like her :-?
There are some laugh-out-loud passages. I enjoyed the story. The ending was quite satisfactory and the future was a lot of fun.
It just didn't grip me.
Read to pass the time. Perhaps it's a bit better than that. But it just didn't grip me.
1 comment:
Some additional thoughts:
Only 6 out of 10 ? Well... Yes, it's enjoyable. Yes, there are spots of chuckle-worthy humour. Yes, the characters are... Well... That, I think, is the problem.
The characters are okay -- but cardboard. Some hints of background but not enough depth to be engaging. Except for the heroine, who has extra depth. Yet she is very much the "girl next door" -- so much so that it is hard to get attached to her. So it's an enjoyable book. Fun to read. Nothing to make me want to get involved.
And on a different matter:
The Blink system -- an excellent idea :-) -- uses ubiquitous personal video cameras. Many of which are part of glasses (that is, spectacle type glasses). And just today -- I read in the paper that Google has dropped its Glass technology ! Oh no ! the book will need to be re-written... :-)
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