Category: Cyberpunk
Ghost in the Shell — James Swallow
Basically, it’s just the film in writing. Which, if you’re just wanting to read what happens in the film, then great, but personally i feel that this is just totally lazy on the part of the writer: or maybe this is all they were told to do by the rights holder???
The great thing about books, as opposed to film, is that you don’t have to pay for the sets, the extra cameras, the costumes, etc.. In a book the writer is simply limited by their own imagination and language skills, whereas in a film the director/writers are totally and absolutely constrained by finite resources such as finances, but also logistics, cgi limitations, the human elements of everyone involved (remember the pandemic and the disruption that caused to films and tv shows?) and many other things besides. So to sit down and write a novel based upon a film, one would think a really good writer would have a fucking field day with it, but, with Ghost in the Shell, they didn’t.
Like is say, maybe this was the brief, and when someone throws a bag of money in the direction of writers and tells them what they want writing i would imagine they’ll get plenty of writers clamouring to take on such an easy task as this “novelisation” must have been.
At less than 2300 Kindle Loc points you’re pushing it to label this as a novel anyway. At this length you’re seriously riding the boundaries between novella and novel.
I suppose they didn’t want to upset the film fans who only have attention spans of two hours.
So yeah, sadly, a total let down. There could have been so much more background and detail that could have really added to the story. A seriously wasted opportunity.
James’ Page
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Electronic Gods — Seth Rain
Private Universe — Seth Rain
And so we finally come to the end of this rather enjoyable series.
It’s been pretty much full gas all the way and all the way through you really don’t get much of an idea who is on whose side and what their actual agendas really are until they suddenly reveal themselves and off we go again in a completely new direction. It’s certainly been an interesting roller coaster ride.
And what a lovely ending, Seth isn’t afraid to kill lots of people that we like along with the ones we don’t: which we always like, don’t we?
I’m certainly looking forward to reading more from Seth in the future. 10 out of 10.
Seth’s Page
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Android State — Seth Rain
We begin immediately after the events of Messiah Online with Cardinal, having declared the UK an android state, telling all humans to leave the country or die.
Our protagonists, Blake (The Postman) and Lola, are determined to stop him, but how? Has Cardinal become too powerful?
Once again, super good stuff and it’ll keep you reading until the end and, like me, you’ll go jumping straight into the last book in the tetralogy, Private Universe.
Seth’s Page
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Messiah Online — Seth Rain
And so we continue where we left of with Spectrum Worlds, the pacing doesn’t slow down at all and The Postman still has no idea who to trust and, even as a reader with my god like view of things, i still have no idea who is being honest and what their real agendas are in these books: which is what makes them so good. Eventually things will come out in the wash and we’ll find out who is really pulling whose strings.
If you enjoyed the first book, you’ll enjoy this just as much.
But, between this and the last book in the series, there’s the penultimate book, Android State, which begins with all humans being told that they’ve got about 3 weeks to all get out of the United Kingdom or they’ll be killed on sight: should be fun.
Seth’s Page
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Spectrum Worlds — Seth Rain
The first book in The Cyberpunk Uploads series.
Having just been put through the ultimate in tedious and pointless interruptions to story flow and action scenes when i read The Heartstrikers series, to sit and read this book was an absolute pleasure. Yes folks, if you really like a high paced, non-stop, story line then this just might be what you’re looking for.
On top of the fast flowing story it’s also a rather good story. We essentially have a battle royale going between three groups: androids who hate humans and want to eradicate and/or enslave them, humans who want to do the same to androids, and then there’s the odd-ball androids and humans out in left field who think we can all live peacefully and happily together ever after. Centre it all in the London of the future, known as Lundun, and shove our main protagonist, The Postman, right in the middle of all this is.
The most astute reader will get to realise by the end of the book that there really isn’t anyone The Postman can trust, android or human, everyone seems to have agendas and secrets and i’m really looking forward to learning more in the next book, Messiah Online, which i dove straight into without any hesitation.
Seth’s Page
#scifi #cyberpunk #sethrain
The Trust — Michael Campling
Finding Faded Light — Jarrett Rush
Voice of the Whirlwind — Walter Jon Williams
The third instalment in the Hardwired Series.
A super good story and certainly no complaints on that aspect of the book, but the telling of it leaves a bit to be desired. As in Hardwired, we are told a tale without any explanation as to the background, only for that to be revealed later on.
At 6% i found myself suddenly realising what’s happening in this vagueness that i’d been reading which left me with no choice but to go back to the very beginning and begin again. Why Walter can’t just tell you what you need to know before you read it instead of sometime afterwards i have no idea. There’s a few other places in the book that i was left feeling like i’m going back and forward in time and feeling like i’m not quite sure where i am any more.
It is rather annoying because he is certainly a great crafter of story, with great characters and world building, but then goes and lets it all down by writing things out of sequence and all over the place.
But, it is worth putting up with this downside to enjoy a really good story.
And this officially ends the trilogy, although i believe that Aristoi is kind of set in the same universe with a fair few references to Nero, one of our favourite characters from Solip:System: so i may just have to dive into that in the not too distant future.