The Freeze-Frame Revolution

Great stuff from Watts as always. This one is tough to rate because The Island, a short story set farther in the future in the same storyline, with Sunday also as the narrator, is much much better. It’s incredible. It won the Hugo. Because I read The Island first, FFR felt like a prequel to me, and I’m not the biggest fan of prequels.

That being said, FFR has great characters (although admittedly I lost track of who was who a bit by the end). Lian is fantastic. Sunday is a little boring but has great development. Again, she is even better in The Island. Shout out to having multiple characters with neopronouns. And shout out to batshit superintelligent women.

I changed my rating halfway through writing this because I remembered how good the worldbuilding is. It’s such a good concept and it’s executed in a style that mushed my brain around in the best way. The eighth note gimmick was fun, although not groundbreaking. I am eagerly looking forward to reading the rest of the series.