Excellent audio adaptation!

Really enjoyed this, it was a great listen and really captured the mind-bending horror of the novel.

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Really good

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, I thought the narrator in particular was very good.

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Very interesting and original

I liked it.
It was a interesting approach and after many books i found it refreshing.
A bit confusing at times, many open questions and i would have liked more.
Definitely worth a listen.

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an author with her own original ideas

it's not often I cant wait to finish a book so I can get to the ratings bit to comment. the narrator is not my taste but tells the story well. well done Nancy. the story itself. Wow. having read thousands of books I can normally predict the plot 9 out of 10 times. Not this one. Because it's so original I had no idea where it was going to end up. So impressed

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2 people found this helpful

Started to drag towards the end

I was really enjoying this story for about two-thirds. Then it started to drag and meander and I found it hard to follow. But I won’t give up on it. The concept is very cool.

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Truly Bad SciFi

What a huge disappointment. Easily one of the worst books I have had to endure for many years. Purile dialogue, superficial characters, it’s a ghastly attempt at wokeness using females as a blueprint.
Laughable.
Avoid at all costs…the brilliant narrator can’t save it.

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2 people found this helpful

Ideological twaddle

The premise of the story and the ideas it explores were interesting and I was looking forward to listening however it soon became clear that the author is more interested in glorifying her own ultra-progressive vision of the future than actually working with an intriguing premise and some genuinely novel technological concepts.

I got as far the part where the shape shifting being (an allegory for trans) deliberates over which pronouns it should use. Perhaps if I'd checked out the author beforehand, I could have saved myself the ordeal of cringing my own lower jaw off but sadly, i didn't think to do this. I'll be more wary the next time and try to find some books without the ideological propaganda (something that is getting increasingly difficult on Audible).

That being said, If you like your science fiction in the form of PR for Autistic Lesbian then this is the book for you.

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Meandering and boring story

The story was far too long and we spend far too much time inside the protagonist's head with her thoughts and worries that repeat and go on and on. Too many filler scenes, repetitive scenes that say things we've already been told. The central mystery about outside is not worth finding out about.

The voice acting kept me listening but honestly this was a slog to get through and I should have abandoned it

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I wanted to like it. A lot. Yet only 2½ stars.

Found this as a recommendation in Space Opera, and being a Sci-Fi buff I went for it straight away.

TLDR;

The good
+Good premise
+Interesting approach [non-standard protagonist]
+Space Opera with a Lovecraftian vibe, what's not to like
+RE-PRE-SEN-TA-TION! *applause*

The negative
-The protagonist is not teribbly nice.
-The girlfriend is too nice.
-Lovecraftian vibes end up just a bit boring

Plus and/or minus
The mental states of everyone gets dissected and opened like a frog in a biology lab. You either like it or don't.


I wanted to love this. So much about the premise is both rare and interesting. In an ableist society reading about a neuro-atypical protagonist would be empowering for all with any sort of non-standard qualities.

However, I don’t think it brought anything to the table that would make the story better or more relatable. That may be due simply to the fact that I am likely just too neurotypical.

Also, I shy away from religion in all shape or form. Thus presenting the 'Godlike A.I. overlords', who seem too cold and calculative aaand (surprise! surprise!) may not have humanitys best at heart, seems a bit too much of a space opera trope. One used a few times too many already.

Also, the neurodivergent dimension of so many important characters, seems simply to make them more...

...what's the word? ...not quite rude,
nor unlikable either.

But perhaps something along those lines.

The narrator is the great actress Nancy Wu. Somehow, here I found her performance somewhat off-putting, sometimes even a bit grating. I am not sure if it was the way she voiced the characters or the text. Most likely a combination of both.

Overall I felt slightly let down. The representative aspects are a big plus. The Lovecraftian spice could be interesting, but isn't and the narration doesn't help.

if I could, I would give it 2½ stars for a good try. Enough still to give the next volume in the series a try, I think.

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1 person found this helpful