Reviews and Comments

I can't finish this one. I tried for a month but I'm still halfway through and I'm bored. It's too long for its own good and all moves at a snail's pace. The concept was cool but everything else wasn't.

I really enjoyed it. The stories are short speculative/science fiction with interesting concepts. Some of them are kind of unsettling, like "Cripes, does anyone remember Google People?" but all of them are very thought-provoking. I can’t wait to try qntm's other stories.

I didn't finish it at 100 pages. I quite enjoyed the first book but this one felt strange, the protagonist (Din) turned into a promiscuous, bitter young man whose sexual exploits didn't interest me in the slightest. It was like I was reading about someone else. The case and the setting were interesting enough but couldn't save it, it felt kinda repetitive to be honest. All in all, it was an uncomfortable read for me.

I read half the book until the senseless swearing started and I just couldn't continue.

This book contains four separate novellas: - Unauthorized Bread (my favorite) - Model Minority - Radicalized - The Masque of Red Death

The stories started out very promising but they kind of deflated halfway through. They could have been shorter too (specially the first one), and there wasn't a lot more to tell. I expected more, to be honest. I feel it doesn't deliver anything new. For the most part I felt that each of them ended without providing a satisfying ending.

When this book was first published on 2019 I guess the themes and concepts within it would have been more impactful but right now, as I write this in 2025, reality has surpassed fiction in all fronts and few things surprise me anymore.

I give it 3 stars because they're well written pieces of fiction and I'm sure people getting started with science fiction or those who don't read a lot of it can definitely enjoy these stories.