Paperback, 313 pages
Published Aug. 21, 2016 by Michael Joseph.
This is a very unique and a tad bizarre novel. I have to say that I enjoyed it very much. I liked the style (very different) as well as the plot and characters. I hope the next novel in the series is as good.
I was hooked on this book at the start but the feeling slowly dissipated. I can't pinpoint why, but I don't feel invested in the characters or world. I don't expect to continue this series.
Brilliant. Enough said, read this.
3.5
Very excited for the next book.
This was kind of brilliant.
The formatting--setting the whole novel up as a series of interview transcripts--added a layer of mystery to what was going on, since it quickly became clear that the interviewees don't always want to explain everything that is going on and that the interviewer has a crop of secrets of his own. The way it allows for perspective-shifting and hiding of motives is a lot of fun, and this would have probably been worth reading even without the giant metal robot body parts and their backstory.
Of course, giant metal robot body parts kind of make everything better.
This was also clever. Not just the writing itself, but I felt like I was actually dealing with characters that were not idiots. They actually read like people who are good at their jobs and good at solving problems, and that's often hard to find. I will …
This was kind of brilliant.
The formatting--setting the whole novel up as a series of interview transcripts--added a layer of mystery to what was going on, since it quickly became clear that the interviewees don't always want to explain everything that is going on and that the interviewer has a crop of secrets of his own. The way it allows for perspective-shifting and hiding of motives is a lot of fun, and this would have probably been worth reading even without the giant metal robot body parts and their backstory.
Of course, giant metal robot body parts kind of make everything better.
This was also clever. Not just the writing itself, but I felt like I was actually dealing with characters that were not idiots. They actually read like people who are good at their jobs and good at solving problems, and that's often hard to find. I will admit several of them started out feeling rather annoyingly arrogant (though not inappropriately arrogant, perhaps), but I was won over by almost everyone by the end.
Watching the plot play out, with layers of conspiracy and a faint but intriguing history that has almost been forgotten, was a genuine joy, and one I don't particularly want to spoil by saying too much--seeing all the unexpected bits come together was a large part of the charm of it.
I'll definitely be picking up the next book simply because I'm not sure where this is going, and I love that.
This book was provided to me for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
