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kilroyPrint date: 2010 (20s: 1, 50s: 1, 60s: 4, 70s: 9, 80s: 7, 90s: 6, 00s: 17, 10s: 1)
My first thought on how to describe this book is "Neuromancer but tropical." It has that same used-future feeling, everything underlined by a sense of decay and despair. This world is ugly, practically destroyed by global warming and genetic engineering. There's strength and love in it as well, but the setting is literally inches away from being underwater for the whole book and you can feel it in the way people think. And it is a tragedy in the classical sense.
It's a hard book. The titular character is a genetically engineered servant who was programmed to obey like a dog and was abandoned to a life of prostitution by her former master. There's a lot of ethical exploration of her position, but rape is still hard to read about even when it does make a point. Most of the other characters are connivers scrambling to survive and being screwed over by circumstances and each other. The only ones with any moral quality end up either dead or damned. The end of the book is a monster choosing to burn the old world in favor of a new one because he can. So don't read this one if you want to be cheered up.
The world itself is fabulously developed, though. It's set it Thailand and the culture there feels authentic and complicated, not just the postcard version. The technology of a post-oil world is sensible but strange--which is always a plus for science fiction--and the social implications are well explored. It feels real, and it's definitely someplace I've never been before.
The verdict shouldn't be much of a surprise. It was worth visiting that world because it was a neat place and it made me think, but it's not somewhere I'd want to go again. Or someplace that I think anywhere else would want to stay.
Verdict: Worth reading once, will keep on Kindle because I might as well. (29.5/79)
Page count: 300 (16035 total)
Completed: 46 (20 female authors, 25 male authors, 1 anthology)
Rejected: 33 (20 male authors, 13 female authors)
Next book due: Thursday 4/14
My first thought on how to describe this book is "Neuromancer but tropical." It has that same used-future feeling, everything underlined by a sense of decay and despair. This world is ugly, practically destroyed by global warming and genetic engineering. There's strength and love in it as well, but the setting is literally inches away from being underwater for the whole book and you can feel it in the way people think. And it is a tragedy in the classical sense.
It's a hard book. The titular character is a genetically engineered servant who was programmed to obey like a dog and was abandoned to a life of prostitution by her former master. There's a lot of ethical exploration of her position, but rape is still hard to read about even when it does make a point. Most of the other characters are connivers scrambling to survive and being screwed over by circumstances and each other. The only ones with any moral quality end up either dead or damned. The end of the book is a monster choosing to burn the old world in favor of a new one because he can. So don't read this one if you want to be cheered up.
The world itself is fabulously developed, though. It's set it Thailand and the culture there feels authentic and complicated, not just the postcard version. The technology of a post-oil world is sensible but strange--which is always a plus for science fiction--and the social implications are well explored. It feels real, and it's definitely someplace I've never been before.
The verdict shouldn't be much of a surprise. It was worth visiting that world because it was a neat place and it made me think, but it's not somewhere I'd want to go again. Or someplace that I think anywhere else would want to stay.
Verdict: Worth reading once, will keep on Kindle because I might as well. (29.5/79)
Page count: 300 (16035 total)
Completed: 46 (20 female authors, 25 male authors, 1 anthology)
Rejected: 33 (20 male authors, 13 female authors)
Next book due: Thursday 4/14