elsamcam

I'm deeply divided on this book. It's a very colorful story; it blazes through the mind with ideas you will likely never forget. On the downside, most of the ideas are crap. An armored, jet-powered pizza-delivery car? Pirate movie stars? Guy with a pet nuke? At one point, one of the characters says: "Look at this! It's an ancient Sumerian pictogram showing a guy with a rod and a hoop! That's a one and a zero! Don't you see? The Sumerians had binary! They were the first assembly-language programmers!" Authors, listen to me: Just because your novel is about the future, that does not mean you're exempt from making sense. The author was irritating in other ways as well, including a clumsy swipe at the Scientologists (yes, they're a creepy cult; no, name-calling still makes you look stupid) and several ten-page visits from Exposition Man with irrelevant rantings about the Sumerians. On the other hand, I read the book in one or two sittings, and I still remember most of the plot, so it can't have been all bad. Right?

2023-07-04 17:40