sologdin

Meh. Cool setting. But, yaknow, cyberpunk and hard-boiled.

Some weirdnesses, such as when certain traits are body specific, such as combat training, which strikes me as more a mental item. But, whatever, the psychology need not be laid out with complete precision, I suppose.

Some have pooh-poohed the book, alleging that descriptions of women are always sexualized. So I looked out for that: of 17 not insignificant female characters in the novel, five of them were expressly eroticized at some point (three had sex scenes with the protagonist). The rest appeared fairly neutral in description--though my gender critique could be lame and may therefore have missed something probative.

Appears to have an awareness of class politics, but it's difficult to discern if it's a leftwing perspective, or what Sloterdijk described as "enlightened false consciouness." At any rate, the master villains, such as they are, are wealthy assholes.

Best parts are the Quellist reflections and history, and the hints about a singularity of woe at a place, Innenin, a long time ago--it tries to set up this placename as a lodestone of haunted grief, and doesn't quite get it there--but it's still cool, as a backdrop for the narrator's perspective.

Items taken from Island of Dr. Moreau and, surprisingly, Farscape (rock-paper-scissors with a twin, really?).

Recommended for regime engineers, tech ninjas, and patchwork men.