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Interesting Concepts

Revisado: 07-25-21

I was not turned off by the bizarre nature and behavior of the artificial people in this book. Some of those where fresh and original--even the primary event of the story that happens to the main character.

The characters are well written and loved the exploration of humanity between human characters and the artificial ones. I loved the artificial person's struggle with what is real feelings, emotions, and love and what is just part of the program.

But I didn't love the story. There where parts where I wondered if I was reading a dream sequence rather that was going to revert back to earlier parts of the story because of some things that transpired were frankly not very plausible. You know those parts in Blade Runner were you are confused if it is a dream or reality? Like that.

The ending was quite a surprise. That can be good and bad in that it presenting some interesting and original ideas, that reminded my of the original Ghost in the Shell work, but was so poorly stitched into the rest of the novel the conclusion could have been a short story on its own.

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Mixed Feelings but a worthy read

Revisado: 07-25-21

This book is an utter feast of futuristic concepts and perils that I hungrily dove into. It is all the more impressive that this work is 15 years old and its speculative matrix of ideas still holds up as possible futures for humanity. I can't give the writer enough praise for the ideas.

That said, the writing style is frustrating and annoying. At times relative simple stories are told with a complex word salad seeded extrodinary diverse and complex vocabulary. Either Stross is an utter savant with english the language or writes with a dictionary and thesaurus browser tabs open and uses them often. My reading comprehension and vocabulary is far above average and there must of been at least 30 words in this book that I have never heard used and had to look up. I have not had to look a up a word in the last 20 books i have read in contrast. I believe Stross goes for the deliberate use of esoteric words as part of his style. I'd prefer something a little more natural and modern.

Moreover Stross writes a story in such a way that you have to work hard to follow what is going on. Often we are left wondering what happened in the story because Stross does not tell us, just hints and and leaves us to try to work out what happened. All this is spite of a 1st person narration from the person that had things happen to them or did things. I want to hear the authors story and I don't need his help to help in my own creative process. I rewrite and interpret most stories I read in my head without this nonsense. It just comes across as lazy though rationally I know it was probably harder to write this way for him.

The characters are wooden. I never cared about them through the whole book or even understood them very well. This could be a feature of the format, an anthology of short stories, but with many of the same recurrent characters, I just could not bring myself to care about any of them and more than a few are just annoying.

Read this book for the futurism and not for its story. Perhaps Stross did something great and literary with this novel, but its not to me taste. I am going to try another book that clearly depends more on story.

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I should have known better

Revisado: 07-25-21

I really wanted this to be a decent book, because this was exactly the kind of sort of story I was in the mood for. But McFarlane lacks the craft to build characters and story, It was foolish wishful thinking on my part to hope that would materialize in the 2nd book. I stand by my earlier critique: The book reads like someone describing the story and panels of a comic book in text.

To be clear, it comes with no pretense that it means to be anything but a fun book. But even in that case I feel the author was unimaginative and did not fully exploit what he built for more dramatic and exciting conclusion. The book just sputters out at the end and the whole two novels of story building are closed with an anti climatic sigh and a shrug.

I won't be continue the series or the following the author.

The narrator is great, would listen to him again.

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Great Stand Alone Book

Revisado: 07-25-21

Great standalone book. I hope he leaves the story as it is and does not do a series. Except it would be fine to recycle the world building and background to a new story and characters in a later era.

It is a comfortable read and Taylor really shows off his ability to work in the story and characters rather than rely on a lot of flashy tech or epic space opera themes. I think he had this quality of writing in the Boberse series, but it had to compete with all the great tech and drama. After my recent long dry spell of mediocre works from other authors, this was a breath of fresh air.

If you liked the Bobverse series, you will like this.

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Lit-porn For Prepers

Revisado: 06-13-21

Bourne is a good writer. His characters come across as human are I find them relatable and interesting. But this book needs a more sophisticated treatment of the political themes. I could have forgiven a book being written like this in the 20th century when ideas of authoritarianism seemed simpler but the lesson of the 21st century is soft power. Just consider how much authoritarian states, an the like of Putin, and Xi in China allow dissent, so long as it is not politically effective. Instead in this book, the Federal government is diverting Sig Int Resources to find an eccentric hobo with a ham radio. Soft power is new specter of authoritarianism that walks the world and hard power FEMA camps, black vehicles/helicopters, summary executions ect. are are precision operations upon the few of people actually making a political splash. Fear Huxley over Orwell.

While I am a freedom loving American that believes in the 2nd, and loved watching Red Dawn as a kid, I have matured past the story this book has to offer. I probably would have loved it as a kid, but the world has changed and so have I.

The author also transmits a lack of understanding and distrust of technology from cybersecurity, to nuclear energy. The author did not lean heavily on these concepts to it did not kill the story, but it would have been easy enough to research the reality behind these story elements to it does not shatter the story for people that know better, or promote simply wrong ideas about these technologies to those that do not.

If you want a pretty good preper story with home grown insurgency against cartoon villains, its not a bad story. I knew I was getting a hefty dose of 'freedom' with this novel, and I like that, I was just hoping for something more sophisticated--along the lines of John Ringo novels. Read Ringo's Last Centurion for a much more sophisticated take on collapse and the world we live in.

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Graphic Novel/Screenplay Character Depth & Story.

Revisado: 06-08-21

It is not terrible, but it certainly lacks the depth that the best science fictions holds. As the headline suggests, the story and characters are developed with roughly the same depth of a graphic novel or movie. The same is true for the story elements such as presumptive technologies, aliens, and ect-- none of it is particular well thought out, developed, or convincing. The characters are wooden at times, or even corny, especially the lead character.

It is also not really the kind of story that I care for. Most things happen in the story outside the influence of the characters and all they seem to bring to the story is failure and a cocky attitude. They stumble through the book and just get lucky when the chips are down. The main character compares events in the story to the original Ghostbusters movie where the characters do a bunch of stupid stuff, say some good lines, and it all works out in the end. This could make an entertaining movie and I suspect that is the vibe the author is going for. But there is an essence to great books that can never be captured on the screen, and this novel is notably devoid of that stuff.

The best part of the book is the relationship between the main character and his rider (Symbiont) and choosing to write her as a hologram projected into his mind.

But there are also a lot of peeves. Such as the author refers to the aliens as parasites when many of them are symbionts. Claiming that there are "undiscovered elements" just expresses a lack of understanding of physics and molecular chemistry. And there are more quirks that demonstrate a lack of anchoring in known science or care to weave it into the story. This kind of precision matters in Science Fiction, but not so much in a comic book or movie.

By the time I was down to the last few hours of the book, I expected an anticlimactic and unsatisfying ending and that was the case. I finished the book and did not return it for a refund, but I don't see myself continuing with the series. It is a shame because this general theme written in a backdrop of hard sci and a relatable characters could have been fantastic.

The narrator does an exceptionally good job.

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Emotionally distant characters, technical issues

Revisado: 05-14-20

I liked the Wind up Girl (TWG). And it seems to me that Bacigalupi was trying to assemble that same chemistry from that previous dystopian novel, But The Water Knife suffers from problems that the first novel escaped by better written characters and emotionally relatable.

1. The characters where emotionally confusing. A previous review called them "stunted" and I think that's the perfect sentiment.

2. The depravity, disloyalty, and pure savagery of the characters make it a bitter read throughout and anyone with a hint of character and decency is powerless and or foolish, Character is not strictly a luxury of good times.

3. The book does not have a proper end, he just stops writing leaving major and immediate plot threads and questions unresolved. TWG did not leave such hefty loose end despite ending with some uncertainty.

4. Technical issues. The book puts a lot of mystique on the non fiction work, Cadillac Desert, written by Mark Reiser. Cadillac Desert rightfully has a lot of respect from water wonks, but the work is dated by the changing circumstances that Reisner could not predict, and problems he predicted that simply have not come to pass. And Reisner himself acknowledged that water issues in the West are driven not by drinking water but by agriculture.

When the CAP canal was complete in the mid-80's and Phoenix started taking water from the Colorado, the city was already large with just under 2M people, and even today Arizona only gets 36% of its water from the Colorado river Since then the population of phoenix has gone up dramatically but agriculture has gone down as homes replace farm fields. And despite drought, our aquifers, those not getting pumped for agriculture, have been rising because, compared agriculture, urban water use, even without conservation, is much less. And it is odd that there is no mention of the Salt River that flows through Phoenix and collects from a massive alpine mountain watershed in eastern Arizona. This is where most of phoenix's water comes from, and as I type this the Salt reservoir system is 98% full holding enough water to cover the entire state of Road Island in 3ft of water.

Water problems in Arizona's future are certain, There probably will not be enough water in the future to grow almond trees in the desert. but there will be plenty to drink. This is Particularly true if we close golf courses, man made lakes, and take on conservation practices. And this is true even with the expectation of drier conditions from climate change and continued drought.
Both the TWG and The Water Knife, seem to present a Malthusian world view on the part of Bacigalupi, but he managed to uphold that proposition better in the TWG while the The Water Knife seems to to march right into the primary malthusian fallacy that technology and innovation only creates bigger problems..

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Surprised at the high ratings

Revisado: 06-11-18

I picked this title out to find a new author based on the reviews and it was a disappointment.

From a hard sci-fi perspective it is very weak. (example from the start of the book: hull breach at start of story is a thing, but apparently space suits are not? Attackers don't have suits and no spare suits for crew? Why didn't the attacker just breech the hull if that was an option to clear the hallways?). Good hard Sci-Fi is the careful reasoned technical circumstances or features that affect the story.

The "voice" of the main character is tin. I kept trying to figure out where she was grounded or who she really is. You can do a third person narration and still expose great character depth with dialogue but these characters fall flat. She does a bunch of cool stuff but there is no continuity between her thoughts, actions, and success. I try to compare this to other stories I have read recently with female leads (Red Sparrow, Friday) and I am having trouble putting my finger on who those books are interesting and this one I would lose focus on while doing small chores or even setting on the couch--and normally that is not an issue for me.

There is some cool features and good ideas in the book, such as the Tanis' hacking her dress to make her appear calm, but it just can't carry the story. I gave it about 8 hours (half way) and decided life was too short to spend time on something that just does not speak to you. Clearly this novel is an accomplishment by the author. Its well put together as a matter of practical use of language and just getting a coherent story down is no small feet. I just can't get myself to feel like I know or care about any of the characters. YMMV.

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ad absurdum Plot and events

Revisado: 02-01-18

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

First of all I am not only a tech guy and gamer, but I work in infosec. And it was cool to read about the technologies I work with all the time. The book started out slow and not very ambitious, but speed up to offer some compelling and speculative uses of technology and set an interesting stage. But then rather than writing a reasonable novel based on things that could actually happen, he sped off continuing to add new twists complicating the plot and requiring the reader to swallow ever more implausible events and story elements.

Examples: (Minor spoilers):

Suarez continually reminds us that the antagonist in the story is a "weak AI", or basically a system of rules based automation, by only allowing characters to interact with it with yes or no questions. He even describes it as such and its never presented as learning and adapting machine Yet we are to believe that this automation bot/daemon is able to adapt to unpredictable changes over years while still remaining in Sky Net like control of everything it wants to. Thats not how this stuff works.

Its not that what he has described is impossible in the future by other elements, its impossible with the elements he presents as doing it. Imagine writing a sci fi book where the the main character drives his pickup truck to the moon. Sure a space ship could get them there, but, in the Suarez school of writing, it would be awesome if a mechanic was so good that he could make a truck to drive to the moon? Thats the level of disconnect with reality that is in this book.

Another ridiculous notion is the pack of two dozen sedans that take out a large contingent of special ops security forces. As if every secure facility in the world does not have vehicle barriers post 9/11 and as if the soldiers would stand out in an open parking lot to get run over. And then there was the death robot motorcycles that go into a building and methodically clear each room killing everyone with edged weapons....motorcycles....with swords....in a building. And the guy that takes down another spec ops unit, with their guns trained on him, with palms that flash bright light.

Why this book is so highly rated is completely beyond my understanding. Poorly written, ill conceived, and no effort to weave together a runaway inflation of plot elements. Awful.

What could Daniel Suarez have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Not have written it.

Have you listened to any of Jeff Gurner’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, he is just fine.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Daemon?

Rewrite starting just before or after the arrest of Detective Sebeck. Give the Daemon more believable goals and capabilities. Give readers a reason to trust you by tying some plot elements up. Its annoying to to have your protagonists just keep losing again and again without any victories to better understand the struggle. As it is it reads like an apocalyptic sci fi B rated movie from the cold war era were there is never any hope and in the end everyone turns into insects, cactus, or becomes alien hosts.

Any additional comments?

Only truly negative review I have ever written on a book on audible or Amazon.

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