Izaak

Fantastic read! Perfect for fans of weird fiction, existential horror, and hard sci-fi. The jargon is great, the world building is wild, and ☝️ there are resurrected space vampires.

I really enjoy the discussion of the nature of sentience, transhumanism, and empathy. The protagonist is well-written with consideration for the circumstances of his... everything. With how weird the landscape is, his off-kilter attitude sets the pace for the world he inhabits, and you quickly forget just how odd he himself is in the first place. One incongruence here was Siri's sudden deeply bio-essentialist and sexist takes on a few topics, which could have (could they have?) been done more smoothly.

This is difficult to rate. A deeply frustrating and confusing read (via narrative necessity), but one that is well-executed on a story level. There is a pay-off. I imagine that this book is very good as a re-read.

I found myself decently visually challenged regarding characters in this novel; so many of them are described in mountainous quantities of superlative adjectives that a reader comes away with only a blinding aura of an idea of what they actually look like. Except G-Man, he's "normal," apparently. Locales and scenes are described in similar fashion, much akin to the "show but don't actually show just kinda describe the outline of it all"-not-tell worldbuilding that Muir has done well to corner.

A fascinating blend of weird-fiction and sci-fi. It feels unbound to pacing in the same way as many of the sci-fi novels of yore (1970's--> ), which is not a bad thing!

The philosophies of the different branches of humanity and the polises was really interesting to read through and think about!

But damn, what a sad ending.

Do not become a landlord lest ye be doomed to pass on your generational trauma.

Danny's right up there with Holden Caulfield: he's so close to getting it, understanding, but he again and again just cannot. He consistently leaves the problem half-finished, mistaking his own awareness for the real truth of the matter. He's a brilliantly written (youngest) child of immense privilege and no amount of empathy or self-awareness in his reading will cross over to him. Deeply introspective but incapable of seeing past his own silhouette. I feel like a good amount of his character is attributed to gender norms of the times, but he's simply self-centered to a fault. Frustrating! He is our protagonist.

This was a decent read; thoroughly moving, introspective, and sad. I can get behind a story of deep lows and perseverance through hardship; I wish only that the resolution didn't so sadly reflect the reality of such situations: that sometimes, things just end without a high note.