Jimmy Brewster

I am always interested to read more women sci-fi authors and especially books that question gender & patriarchy, so I was interested in this book when I heard about it.

This book was a fairly quick read. Despite being over 300 pages, the pages are small and the chapters are very bite-sized.

I enjoyed the diverse cast of women and other characters. The book examines many ideas about gender and gives some insight into the ways that patriarchy shapes each characters views.

The sci-fi elements were interesting, though they are not explored to the fullest extent. There are just enough details to pique your interest but plenty of room for your imagination to fill in the details. The focus of the story is more on gender, patriarchy, and community, with the sci-fi elements being used to create interesting setting.

Overall, I think that fans of Ursula Le Guin's Hanish Cycle or the book I Who Haver Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman will find this book equally enjoyable.

I enjoyed this book for many of the reasons people dislike it; it is a pretentious slice of life story that can be confusing at times. I really like this author's style of writing. The world building is deep without ever being fully explained. The main character often accepts the illogicality of his situations without question which forces the reader to do the same. There are elements of magical realism, family drama, fascism, revolution, and philosophy. I am sure that I don't "get it" fully and I don't care.

This book is truly awful. Unlikable characters with dialogue and action scenes that seem like they are straight out of a low budget sci-fi movie. There's some kind of dystopian political situation written by someone with no understanding of politics. It's like if Philip Dick and Robert Heinlein combined and then wrote the worst book you can imagine. 

The only reason I finished it was because it's very easy to read and I was fascinated by how bad it was. At times it's so bad it's funny, but I don't think that was intentional. 

I wanted to like this book. I like parts of it like the themes of class and capitalism. I like the writing, there were moments where I thought the story was going to get interesting. But overall, the story never managed capture my interest and I had to force myself to finish the book.

If you like your books cliché and predictable, you might like this one.

Note: I stopped after the first book and I will most likely never go back for the rest.