Scott Hutchins

I won this book through the first-reads program.

If GoodReads allowed for half stars, I believe this book would be around a 3.5 for me. As it is, four stars will have to do - I've not the heart to round down, and really, some of my gripes with this book may be solved by reading something other than a proof copy of it.

I really liked this book, but I didn't love it, and a large part of that comes from my intense dislike of the main character. [a:Lev Grossman|142270|Lev Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235241496p2/142270.jpg]'s [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)|Lev Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg|6278977] was able to get into my favorites list in spite of my hate of Quentin Coldwater because of my love of his writing, the world, and the intrigue that other characters offered. I couldn't find that in [b:A Working Theory of Love|13588444|A Working Theory of Love|Scott Hutchins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1337712785s/13588444.jpg|18056739]. I found Livorno, Erin, Jenn, Rachel, and Laham about as despicable as I found Neill Jr. to be. At times I thought that maybe, just maybe, Neill would begin to change. Then he didn't.

The AI aspect of the book I greatly enjoyed. I found Neill's talks with his father fascinating, and the more it developed, the more interesting that it got. The ultimate reveal of 1976, however, I felt was a bit of a cop-out. The fact that Libby responded as she did to it also seemed a bit hollow to me. I wanted there to be more, but there just... wasn't. This was almost salvaged by Trevor, but then it didn't happen.

All of this, once more, could have been saved. The writing was solid, and the premise a great one. The setting worked, the plot worked, and the sci-fi aspect of it was brilliant. I had no complaints about that. The new age stuff, however, was troubling. Further troubling was the way that Neill just sacrificed some of his own beliefs for it. I question how and why he did this, and I wonder why Neill didn't a) change to believe more in it, or b) at least like the girl enough to sacrifice some of his own integrity to participate in it all.

Maybe someone wiser than me can explain some of these aspects of the books in a way that would help me understand it. Maybe I just need more coffee and will rewrite my review later. As it is, I would certainly read another book by [a:Scott Hutchins|5280934|Scott Hutchins|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1343776222p2/5280934.jpg] and as far as a debut novel goes, this one is well worth the four stars. I think this author is going to have quite the successful career.… (plus d'informations)