Ben Saufley

There was a lot I really liked about this book but much more than any other Weeks book I've read, it spent way, way too much of its time musing on the breasts and bodies of its female characters. Weeks has definitely done some of this in other books and there's some level to which you can write this off as “we're seeing the world through the eyes of a young male character” or whatever, but it was just too much in this book. It dragged the book down a lot, to an extent that I almost DNF'ed.

Honestly the mystery wrapped up really nicely with nothing coming out of thin air and yet I didn't figure basically any of it out. A very satisfying mystery with what I think is a well-handled “trans!” twist that doesn't belittle the character, reduce her to the twist, or treat her as abnormal. But I'm an outsider there as a cis dude so maybe I'm off base.

I really enjoyed the first two books but this one took it to a whole new level and I loved it. A great end to the trilogy.

Picked up this book at a friend's recommendation years ago but put it down because it seemed grimdark. It isn't! It's not always totally light but it's a lot more intrigue and adventure and heist kind of stuff once you get past the intro. Great fun overall. Did not know where the book was taking me until it was over, but in this case that wasn't a bad thing. It wrapped up (mostly) well.

I really enjoyed this book and then it ... ended before it was over. I know there are sequels but it felt like all the POV stories that were told, each of which I really enjoyed and I loved how they were told so differently, were leading to something at the end that the book just doesn't provide. That's disappointing. I'll probably read at least one of the sequels in a while, but like ... it seems like at least the first sequel would just have to be a part of this book.

Totally serviceable genre book. The resolution was pretty obvious from pretty early on, but I didn't guess everything.

Someone would argue, and I'd agree, that this book isn't “for” me, so whether or not I appreciate it is irrelevant. But I kind of wonder who it is for. For 70% of the book it's a solidly formulaic YA novel and... then there's explicit sex. And I don't mean like, the characters have sex I mean it becomes an erotica novel, somewhat out of nowhere. Literary porn, although “literary” might give the wrong idea. It's not written poorly but it's also not written very well. Beyond the themes, the writing level of the whole novel feels very YA and the sex feels, to me, unnecessary, somewhat unexpected, and of an equal reading level except with more, you know, obscenity?

I definitely feel like I'm coming off a prude here and I don't feel like I am one, but the sex scenes feel written simply but with adults in mind and I guess that clashed, for me, with the tone and level of the rest of the book.

The main plot is formulaic but interesting enough, but there's not a lot else going on, and the weird horny stuff felt out of place and wasn't for me and I've said that about plenty of books written by men (looking at you Terry Goodkind) so I'm gonna skip the rest of this series.

I honestly couldn't tell you what the overall plot arc of this book was. I know how it started and ended and I know several things that happened it it but the focus of many characters for the whole book had little to do with what could be called the climax.

Oster's stance on COVID matters has been disappointing to uncover after making it most of the way through this book; but the book in general is a pretty level-headed and un-opinionated overview of data that I found helpful. I'm not taking anything in it as gospel, but it was at least a good high-level overview of a lot of topics, including some I didn't know I needed to know about.

Love Ruth Ware and her storytelling kept me in this till the end but it was disappointing overall—predictable almost from the start.

Really enjoyed this. Resolved the series well. Found that I had grown really attached to the characters by the end.

two spoiler things:First, dunno if it was this book or the last, but I wasn't up for the redemption of Tactus the rapist. I did not feel sad when he got his comeuppance.And second, I feel like the twist near the end here could easily have come off as Deus Ex Machina but I believe it was pretty well-executed. My only gripe is that at no point in the trilogy before that point had we seen such an unreliable narrator. Yes, Sevrus had swooped in a few times without warning, but it seemed like we saw real emotion from the protagonist when he “died,” which is more than withholding information. But still, even with that, I liked it. It was set up well and was a big moment of joy when it was revealed.

I enjoyed it but it's a little unsatisfying once it's all unfolded. basically: “oh no, they're gonna frame her—but they failed, the end”

Honestly I'd rate this book higher if it weren't for the weird side plot with the junior detective. She seems to be on the spectrum, but she's played as this weird, angry “kids these days only care about themselves” character that seems to have no purpose and amounts to nothing other than weird, hateful scorn. I'm probably missing some subtext but it felt very out of place.

Honestly I tend to enjoy Brent Weeks books and this was no exception but I have to knock it down a little because of several over-the-top “men writing women” bits and some implied or explicit sexual violence that really didn't need to be there.

Some really interesting stuff that, over and over, descends into silliness that is not just goofy in how it relates sci fi to real world tech, but extremely credulous or over-ambitious and not at all wary of the dangers of the things it's proposing. The actual, scientific, brain stuff is interesting. The “maybe we could recreate The Force from Star Wars” stuff feels amateurish and goofy.

This came highly recommended from a few people but it didn't do much for me. It was fine. I listened to it on audiobook and like six of the nine recurring characters are pendry/hendry/tendry or something? Why do that?

I think the resolution wasn't as strong as the setup but it was still very interesting. Really enjoyed the book overall. A lot of fascinating philosophical questions wrapped up in a sci-fi thriller. Good stuff.

I really like the science fiction stories and found myself fading out during the fantasy ones. It's a good read and I'd recommend it but I liked Paper Menagerie better

It's fine. Nothing special. And the very end of the book drives home how it's full of things that take you out of it and feel like author interference.

By the end I really liked this but the arc is kind of weird: it feels like it's still getting started and then very quickly it resolves and is over.

Most of my feelings about this one are wrapped up in how it ended. Spoilers are not specific but will tell you what to expect from the ending so read at your own risk. It's tough to read a lot of this book because it's a lot of people being relentlessly cruel to each other and a lot of “they don't know what we know” frustration, but while I spent a portion of the book worrying that this would be one of those “everybody loses” kind of dark reads, it wasn't, and because the ending was satisfying, I ended up liking the book.

It takes a long time to get interesting, but I'm interested enough that I'll pick up the next. It still feels a bit devoid of character, even with some big bombs near the end that seem like they should be shocking. But there's enough in there to keep me intrigued.

Bad copaganda. IA as cartoonish bad guy, right down to cartoonish names. I'm sure it's a product of its time. It could be worse, I suppose.

I enjoyed the book overall but I do think that the eventual revelation that the women were lying, while maybe necessary to keep the twists coming and reveal the big twist (which was an interesting if not entirely unpredictable one), wasn't really twisty itself and is obviously problematic. I spent a lot of the book wondering if the author would reveal their politics, and while I don't think the twist is an endorsement, it builds up these women to a real extent, somewhat intelligently presents all the things people tell themselves so as not to believe the victim, while presenting them in a way that seems to indicate it's not a great thing... and then says “yep that's right they weren't a victim” and that sucked

I enjoyed it but it suffers a bit from “book two” syndrome, where a clear purpose and arc to the plot is lacking, as characters kind of just maneuver around the board after the last book and setting up the next.