497 pages
English language
Published May 1, 2011 by Tor.
Visible in the night sky the Argus Station, its twin smelting plants like glowing eyes, looks down on nightmare Earth. From Argus, the Committee keep an oppressive control: citizens are watched by cams systems and political officers, it's a world inhabited by shepherds, reader guns, razor birds and the brutal Inspectorate with its white tiled cells and pain inducers. Soon the Committee will have the power to edit human minds, but not yet, twelve billion human being need to die before Earth can be stabilized, but by turning large portions of Earth into concentration camps this is achievable, especially when the Argus satellite laser network comes fully online.
Started out good, but went bad about halfway through. Not many places to go when the author turns the hero into a superman halfway through the book. The author also hammers the message that big government == bad too much.
I wanted to like this book. I mean it has all I love about a good story. A cyberpunkish theme, space travel, robots explosions.. So how could I not love it?
Well, it lacks a good story, where I'd expect descriptions about life in this dystopia I find mostly action sequences and gore. Where I'd like to see a believable protagonist, I find an extremely flat character. Starting with the boring and overused amnesia plot device (seriously, there are better ways to create suspense), going to the action superhero who is faster, smarter and angrier than everyone else, who turns out to be a former autistic super scientist who refactoring himself, who also created an super ai, which surprise now is in his head making him to a super cyborg hacker... Gimme a break. I'd have preferred if the character was less super über cyber something, but instead would have …
I wanted to like this book. I mean it has all I love about a good story. A cyberpunkish theme, space travel, robots explosions.. So how could I not love it?
Well, it lacks a good story, where I'd expect descriptions about life in this dystopia I find mostly action sequences and gore. Where I'd like to see a believable protagonist, I find an extremely flat character. Starting with the boring and overused amnesia plot device (seriously, there are better ways to create suspense), going to the action superhero who is faster, smarter and angrier than everyone else, who turns out to be a former autistic super scientist who refactoring himself, who also created an super ai, which surprise now is in his head making him to a super cyborg hacker... Gimme a break. I'd have preferred if the character was less super über cyber something, but instead would have flaws, doubts, weaknesses, thoughts, dreams and motivations which develop through out the story.
The bad guys aren't much better. The token woman former love interest doctor he's dragging along doesn't save it either.
The second half of the book I had push myself hard to keep reading, simply because I was completely unable to relate in any way with the characters or story.
If you enjoy pointless orgies of picturesque violence as a read you might be able to find some entertainment in this book. I most certainly did not
Honestly, this is like a 1.5 star review. Characters feel millimeters thin and the government is so over the top evil while also being laughably incompetent, and the protagonist is an unstoppable superman with no room for self-doubt. His companion on his journey is a brilliant scientist who's primary role seems to marvel at him and serve as an external conscience. Many of their conversations seem to revolve around him explaining to her that her her concerns are irrational given the realities of the situation, which has a whole other connotation that I'm equally unhappy with.
On the whole, it's a simplistic plot driven novel with delusions of ethical introspection.
This series came so highly recommended to me that I started the second book as well to see if things get better, but I abandoned it within the first few chapters.
Fantastic book. There's no more to say, read it.
