• Rottcodd@literature.cafe
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    1 year ago

    Finished The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. The ending was a bit too contrived, but it was solid all in all.

    Started and finished The Blind Spot by Michael Robertson. It’s a cyberpunk thriller set in a red-light district in a future metropolis - sort of reminiscent of George Alec Effinger’s Budayeen, but without the Middle Eastern flavor. It was a solid page-turner, but has a few shortcomings. The setting feels sort of Disneyfied - like a wholesomely superficial backdrop rather than an actual red-light district, with all that that entails, and the protagonist is an accurately rendered 16 year old, which is to say that she’s impulsive, impatient, over-confident and emotional. I can’t really fault Robertson for that - he did do a good job of writing a believable 16 year old. But that’s the problem - it was just sort of frustrating and exhausting watching her get all wound up and go rushing off too late to try to accomplish too many things in too little time.

    Started Prime City by Michael Robertson - the next book in the series of which The Blind Spot was the first. Marcie is still impulsive and frustrating, and the story hasn’t yet hooked me as well, but we’ll see how it goes.