If you’re like me and enjoy good Sci-Fi with a unique story, concepts that make you think, great writing that surprises, and characters you actually care about, then you DO NOT want this book.
If you instead are looking for a long listen and aren’t picky, or if you have very little experience with good Sci-Fi, then you may enjoy it.
Lozito has a single fun concept (human conscience transferred to cyber unit) which isn’t really all that unique. This concept is stretched very thin over a long and poorly executed storyline.
The writing is very predictable.
Characters usually do and say exactly what you’re guessing they will do and say. On the flip side, the writing also doesn’t describe the story with any detail. You’re left wondering about massively huge details that are key to the story but are just never described at all.
Character development is terrible.
Lozito consistently describes female characters in terms of their body, hair, eyes, and allure. It’s like reading something written by a teenage boy, for teenage boys. Male characters are so shallow, they might as well be cardboard cutouts. The rough and tough gruff characters always say rough and tough things you’ve heard 100 times. Characters just don’t act or behave with any depth, When characters are nearly killed, they shrug it off or laugh. There isn’t a single character that has any personality beyond superficial descriptions.
The writing is poor.
The single go-to concept is the protagonist’s ability to ‘jack their frame rate’ to slow down their sense of time. But the author repeatedly explains explicitly how this slows down their sense of time, like you don’t remember this from the DOZEN TIMES he’s repeated explained it before using the exact same words. It’s frustrating. Most of the writing explains things that feel obvious, but not even that well – lacking any depth or color.
The last huge problem I had with this series is all the times I had to say “STUPID” out loud about every 10 minutes to vent frustration in response to obvious concept or story gaps, idiotic programmed responses from characters, or science gaps. I just gave up expecting any sense of science to be included in the Sci-Fi.