Jake Wharton
A very slow burn that escalates and escalates. Definitely has some writing that is of its time, but otherwise it's a timeless story of a snowball's descent into an avalanche. I'm not sure what edition I was reading, but the 100 page epilogue very felt out of place. You can skip it, and read it later as a short story.
Starting with the review of the first one
The premise of the trilogy is fun, and the contrast of choices by all of the different authors is interesting. For me, the book became more depressing as it went on simply because you're exposed so rapidly to all these downfall scenarios. I also worry that it's too many stories such that when I get to their associated second and third parts in the next two books, I won't have a strong recollection of the characters or plot.
The first sentence remains true. Unlike the first book, this one is actually weirdly more hopeful and enjoyable. Despite being in the apocalyptic events, you get a lot of humans actually doing things. The last sentence remains true, it was very hard to remember the first part of most of the stories, especially when the characters and settings change but the only the world is shared. I expect the third book to continue this trend.
The premise of the trilogy is fun, and the contrast of choices by all of the different authors is interesting. For me, the book became more depressing as it went on simply because you're exposed so rapidly to all these downfall scenarios. I also worry that it's too many stories such that when I get to their associated second and third parts in the next two books, I won't have a strong recollection of the characters or plot.
Read this for the healthcare story, and it didn't disappoint. The other three shorts all are good, but the first two don't stick the landings very well and the final one which does is simply a bit generic overall. That said, this was my first exposure to the author and their writing and knowledge of technology will definitely have me looking at their other works in the future.
This book tries too hard to do too much. It ultimately is the story of a computer being built with typical exploitative labor practices and worst-practice management that's a case study for what not to do for its readers. It also is a character story, or rather, many character stories where the author dramatizes interactions and extrapolates on motivation to serve their narrative. Finally, the author is present in the story and feels compelled to wax philosophic and glamorize the character leads from their interactions in a way that is distracting. If you got rid of the things I disliked, the story would be more focused and probably boring as hell. I guess that's why you slap "Based on true events" on a movie and people come away thinking they had an accurate history lesson.
The entire book save for the first and last chapters is a flashback which caught me by surprise. It feels a bit forced since there's only a loose tie-in with the plot of the main storyline. Aside from that fact, the backstory itself is an entertaining and illuminating look into young Roland. Upon completing this entry in the series I actually found the parts of the main storyline which bookend the flashback to stand out as feeling forced and almost wish they concluded the previous book.
In impressive amount of detail and research on the exact series of events and locations of things. Ultimately the story has only surface level intrigue and the level of detail is what's captivating, or it requires you to separately imagine yourself in various scenarios. Sort of a weird mix of fiction and non-fiction. 1/3rd of the book is footnotes and citations, so a relatively quick read.
Contains spoilers
Read this after having seen the movie, and I prefer the movie's take. I didn't feel the book painted quite enough as much of a picture as the movie did. Of course many major points were shared, but the additions of the movie such as the tanker and the final shots in the woods as well as rhe younger G.H. and how he found out created more tension.
This novel-length entry in the series is very successful at what made the others great. Good mix of old favorites and new characters as the story continues from the previous works but expands even further. Ultimately I prefer the shorter lengths, but I'm sure once the series is done I will cherish the extra time with murderbot this one affords.
Like the first one, I started out annoyed by all the unexplained nomenclature. And then like the first, about halfway through I caught myself fully invested in the story and not noticing the strange words. Finally, like the first one, the ending doesn't feel as resonant as it should because when everything comes to a head I drown in the made up words which take over. Still quite enjoyable.
A tight 90-minute action movie in the form of a book. There's not a ton of room for character arcs or world-building, but the pace of the plot and its simple mystery makes this a fast, easy, and exciting read. I wanted it to be longer, but being so would surely take away from its effectiveness. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Very shallow on details of each system, focusing instead on breadth of those covered. Makes for an interesting flick-through, especially if you had an esoteric system at some point (Intellivision myself), but you probably won't return to it. The popular systems are given more details, but it still left me wanting.
A meandering tale devoid of clear plot. Definitely not a style that I enjoyed reading, and even after learning the reasoning in the afterward it did not improve my opinion. There certainly were elements that increased my interest at times, but I never engaged with the story and felt it mostly a chore to finish.
The execution of the storyline isn't done as well as Wool, but the choice to deviate from what would otherwise be the predictable next chapter absolutely is worth the payoff in the end. If you have the patience for the author's world building in this episode then the final book becomes all the more meaningful in its conclusion.
I felt somewhat lost in the overall plot for a large portion of the book not able to see why others lauded it so. Once the big picture snapped into place somewhere past the middle it was hard to put down. The breadth and depth of the world building always left me wanting more as it never felt implausible that this universe is far from what would actually happen given the events actually took place.
An all-around brilliant adventure whose writing keeps consistent plot development despite the life of the protagonist being repetitive and monotonous for most of the time period. Having seen the movie first, I would say the book is an unnecessary read. The movie does the book justice, and its omissions and additions are tasteful for its medium.
A decent premise brought down by the very questionable writing of the characters and the increasingly improbable events which lead to the climax. Still thoroughly enjoyed the pace and overall writing style which is very reminiscent of his other two works, but aside from being a palette cleanser between denser works, you're much better off elsewhere in his catalog.