Deigge

I read "The Ophiuchi Hotline" right before this book so I'll talk about both of them for a bit. While they are both part of the Eight Worlds series, they are not connected in any way besides sharing some common ideas of the world. The author also clarified that there isn't any consistency and you can't put these books in a chronicle order. If you read any kind of Eight Worlds book before this is kind of an important information. Personally I was put off my the inconsistency at first until you throw out the whole concept of these books being connected. The good thing about this, you can choose the books you find interesting without missing anything. Ophiuchi Hotline and Steel Beach are different kind of books, personally I liked Steel Beach way more than Ophi Hotline. Do you like a faster paced book with a bit more action and "higher" scifi? Choose Ophi Hotline. Rather want to read a slow burning book which is more focused on thoughts and emotions and living on Luna? Choose Steel Bach.

Now to the book itself. It is confusing. At least at first. I think it takes around 100 pages until you actually get into the story and feel like you can follow. Some of this makes sense later but I also think the author just likes to give you the feeling that you just zapped into a tv show mid season. There also isn't a clear "goal" or story path early on. The book plants ideas, thoughts and problems but the story doesn't just focus on fixing things or overall progress with these things. A lot of times the journey is the reward. In my opinion The Ophiuchi Hotline had very thin world building which made me sad since I thought the world is pretty interesting. Well, this book is full of world building! And I love it.

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with this book. I love the style of it, how the whole story is told through emails. And how the book is able to work with very little overall informations about the characters but still doesn't feel empty. I liked Leo more than Emma. Emma felt really annoying sometimes and it felt like she was more “wrong” (spoilerfree, vague description) than Leo overall.
Now the things that I really didn't like include spoilers.
I personally found the line towards virtual/emotional cheating was crossed too fast and too easily. When I read around 1/3 of the book I already thought that if I found this kind of conversation in my partners inbox I would consider it cheating. Or at least would be hurt that my partner didn't shut it down right away. Thats the next thing, there is so much said but no one really asks the question “Is this cheating?”. Leo does take a few jabs at it but overall he is fine with the thought. Which doesn't make sense since his ex girlffriend cheated on him!On top of that the book doesn't do a good job at displaying cheating as something bad. Everything is so... soft. Emmas husband discovers her emails and his reaction is to basically go on his knees and beg Leo to have sex with his wife. What the fuck?! And there aren't any consequenses overall. Leo isn't a saint but I feel like he was better at assessing the whole situation and realizing that he has to back off at some point. But Emma was in full on cheating mode and got sensitive when Leo would point that out. Emma was also really focused on the looks of people.

Best non fiction book I read in a while. Sarah does a really good job at conveying her thoughts and emotions at that point in her life and makes the book feel like a smooth roller coaster. But the roller coaster is going down hill all the time. At the end you spend a lot of time shaking your head and thinking “this can't be real”.
Overall it is such an interesting topic and a good view inside the company behind Facebook.

I really liked the idea of the story but for me the pacing just feels off somehow. But it definitely is not a boring read. Also the book doesn't answer anything and just creates question after question. I don't like the characters or the story enough to continue with the next book, so I'll be left without answers I guess.

Personally I found that the book only got good in the second half. The first half was kind of slow and lacked a bit of a goal for the whole story.
Also it is one of these sci-fi books that just throw all kind of concepts and vocabulary at you from this imaginary world and it takes a long time to slowly understand how the world functions.
The overall worldbuilding feels rather thin and mostly focused on explaining some bits here and there that are useful to the story but not beyond that.
Since the book is rather short it is definitely an enjoyable story and a really nice sci-fi world!