altlovesbooks
"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean."
Read this book as a physical/ebook copy, if you can. I listened to it as an audiobook, and without the text, didn't have the big clue needed to understand what was going on until the very end. I still greatly enjoyed the mystery and the reveal, but would have gotten there sooner with an actual book in my hands. This is admittedly way more fiction drama than it is sci-fi, but it's hard to discount the core sci-fi element propping the whole structure up. If you're looking for something more clearly sci-fi, you may be disappointed.
This book is really two(ish) stories wrapped in one. We have the friendship of Rafi Young and Todd Keane, two very different kids brought together through a love of strategy. Chess brought them together, but Go was where their true friendship lay and what laid the groundwork for their futures. Todd went on to become a tech billionaire developing AI projects, while Rafi went on to live on a tiny island in the Pacific, Makatea. They both withdrew from each other's lives, for various reasons.
We also have the story of Makatea, told mostly through the eyes of its inhabitants, an island poised to become the latest tech venture, the manufacturing point for offshore seasteading. The inhabitants are divided on whether this is a good thing or not, and are being offered the chance to vote on whether or not the company gets to proceed.
I'm gonna let you know right up front that there's an awful lot of family (in the loose friend group sense) drama in this book. I was drawn into the unlikely friendship between Todd and Rafi, which had its predictable ups and downs. Todd's chapters, clearly a bit into the future looking backward at a friendship gone to time were especially sad, knowing he was fighting a neurological condition. But even as I was following along with this family drama, I couldn't figure out how any of this linked to Maktaea. I also spent a lot of the book wondering where the AI was in this book that mentions AI in the description. It comes up within the first third of the book, but from the description, I expected it to be a bit more prominent.
And then the last 20 pages happened.
Major ending/story spoilers ahead. I kept having this nagging feeling throughout especially the second half of the book after Rafi and Todd have their falling out that facts dropped between the two stories (and Evie's as well) weren't lining up. I thought maybe I was just missing something, listening to the whole story as an audiobook, but then larger pieces started not lining up, and I started wondering. The big reveal about large parts of the story being made up by Todd's AI using Todd's memories as a "playground" of sorts for his dementia-ridden mind to finally have a "happy" ending drew an audible "ohhhhhhhhh" out of me while getting ready for work. Eveything that's not written in italics in the book is AI-generated for Todd's benefit, while everything in italics is the "real life" story. Rafi dies early, Evie dies after her book was written evidently, and Ina is on the island, sans kids. The last 20 pages or so really hit hard, when I realized what had been going on the entire time.
I really was into everything this book was telling me. I was drawn into the friend group drama, stayed for the fate of Makatea, and had an audible reaction to the ending of the book. Just everything in such a great package.
"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean."
Read this book as a physical/ebook copy, if you can. I listened to it as an audiobook, and without the text, didn't have the big clue needed to understand what was going on until the very end. I still greatly enjoyed the mystery and the reveal, but would have gotten there sooner with an actual book in my hands. This is admittedly way more fiction drama than it is sci-fi, but it's hard to discount the core sci-fi element propping the whole structure up. If you're looking for something more clearly sci-fi, you may be disappointed.
This book is really two(ish) stories wrapped in one. We have the friendship of Rafi Young and Todd Keane, two very different kids brought together through a love of strategy. Chess brought them together, but Go was where their true friendship lay and what laid the groundwork for their futures. Todd went on to become a tech billionaire developing AI projects, while Rafi went on to live on a tiny island in the Pacific, Makatea. They both withdrew from each other's lives, for various reasons.
We also have the story of Makatea, told mostly through the eyes of its inhabitants, an island poised to become the latest tech venture, the manufacturing point for offshore seasteading. The inhabitants are divided on whether this is a good thing or not, and are being offered the chance to vote on whether or not the company gets to proceed.
I'm gonna let you know right up front that there's an awful lot of family (in the loose friend group sense) drama in this book. I was drawn into the unlikely friendship between Todd and Rafi, which had its predictable ups and downs. Todd's chapters, clearly a bit into the future looking backward at a friendship gone to time were especially sad, knowing he was fighting a neurological condition. But even as I was following along with this family drama, I couldn't figure out how any of this linked to Maktaea. I also spent a lot of the book wondering where the AI was in this book that mentions AI in the description. It comes up within the first third of the book, but from the description, I expected it to be a bit more prominent.
And then the last 20 pages happened.
Major ending/story spoilers ahead. I kept having this nagging feeling throughout especially the second half of the book after Rafi and Todd have their falling out that facts dropped between the two stories (and Evie's as well) weren't lining up. I thought maybe I was just missing something, listening to the whole story as an audiobook, but then larger pieces started not lining up, and I started wondering. The big reveal about large parts of the story being made up by Todd's AI using Todd's memories as a "playground" of sorts for his dementia-ridden mind to finally have a "happy" ending drew an audible "ohhhhhhhhh" out of me while getting ready for work. Eveything that's not written in italics in the book is AI-generated for Todd's benefit, while everything in italics is the "real life" story. Rafi dies early, Evie dies after her book was written evidently, and Ina is on the island, sans kids. The last 20 pages or so really hit hard, when I realized what had been going on the entire time.
I really was into everything this book was telling me. I was drawn into the friend group drama, stayed for the fate of Makatea, and had an audible reaction to the ending of the book. Just everything in such a great package.