A solid rating of five!!! ( )

Amy Lane mi piace molto come autrice: perfetta per quando vuoi prendere le tue emozioni e dar loro una bella scrollata. Infatti, anche questa volta non sono rimasta delusa: la parte emotiva del romanzo funzionava benissimo. Ciò che mi ha lasciata perplessa è stata l'ambientazione e gli ologrammi.

Per quanto riguarda l'ambientazione, stiamo parlando di un romanzo di fantascienza che si svolge in un pianeta al di fuori del sistema solare. Ergo, il lettore si sarebbe aspettato qualche spiegazione al riguardo. Invece, niente. O meglio, Amy Lane dà per scontato che il lettore sappia in quale ambiente si muovano i suoi personaggi.

Ora, io sono una fan del mostrare a scapito del descrivere, ma un autore non può pensare di catapultare il suo lettore su un altro pianeta senza dargli uno straccio di spiegazione. Il lettore avverte un certo vuoto mentre legge: non sono mai riuscita a visualizzare i luoghi frequentati dai personaggi. Tutto è rimasto sfuocato.

L'altro elemento di perplessità sono stati gli ologrammi. Nel mondo creato dalla Lane, gli ologrammi aiutano gli esseri umani in vari lavori e sono considerati cose inanimate. Uno dei protagonisti – Anderson –, costretto per molti anni a stare da solo su una navicella spaziale, riesce a creare ologrammi senzienti che gli tengano compagnia durante il viaggio.

Molto bene. Come ha fatto? Come sono fatti questi ologrammi? Come l'ambiente circostante, anche gli ologrammi mi sono apparsi sfuocati, e questo è stato davvero un problema, visto il ruolo centrale che rivestono nel romanzo. Ogni volta che facevano la loro apparizione, pensavo: “Ma come funzionano di preciso?”. Non pretendevo una disquisizione sui linguaggi informatici o qualunque altra cosa serva a creare ologrammi, ma un minimo si spiegazione l'avrei apprezzata. ( )

I have some small quibbles with the sf aspects of this amazing story, but mostly I am just impressed as all get out at how Lane managed to take several science fiction tropes and sculpt and layer in humor and emotion, actions and consequences, and what it means to shatter, and how hard it is to reassemble a mind. I cut my teeth on sf, but a lot of the fiction lacks emotional depth, and the older I get the colder that is, and the better I appreciate the one tenet of Romance: the happy ending.

There are several graphic sex scenes. There is sexual violence (never between the love interests). Parts of the story are rather dark, and the resolution takes a lot of time. But throughout, how Anderson survived and how C.J. and friends help him is backed by vivid imagery and a solid cast of characters, and I still don't like the title - that's why I hadn't read this sooner - but it makes sense.

I got to borrow this from my library. ( )

I wanted to like this one; I really did. The concept really intrigued me. If you live alone among a group of AI holograms, does that make your connections with them any less real than with people? Especially if it's all you know? That's exactly what happens for Anderson, and when he ends up finding civilization again, his world needs to be reconciled with that of "real" people.

The author tried to insert some psychological elements in here that just didn't quite hit the mark for me. Some of the hologram characters seemed wholly unnecessary. And Anderson's "recovery" seemed really rushed at some points.

[Content warning: abusive relationships, discussion of sexual assault] ( )

And what a Pity Fest it was!
I am adding a pity-fest shelf just for this book.



There was NO BDSM, at least not that I've noticed, skimming through the last chapters.

For those who have shelves for it, there was Artificial Intelligence for the majority of the book.

****

Nothing made sense to me - why people did things or did not.


- Why Julio, who almost came in his pants when he learned about the holos, didn't back up their programs? How did he get a patent for holos for Anderson without documentation (specs/algorithms on the mentioned holos)? Hey, I can get a patent for a holodeck amusement park right now! Gimmi it!

- Why did Anderson stand for an *airquote* hour and forty seven minutes *airquote* talking to Alpha instead of just pushing the damn delete buttons right off the bat?

- There is another issue - killing off holos and convincing Anderson and the readers that it was "OK". Not from where I stand, it's not! Don't tell me you watched Star Trek TNG & Voyager and felt it was the right thing to do. No. Frigging. Way.

Once again, what was there to talk about with your victim if you were going to kill them at any moment anyway? Answer that, Anderson! See where it lead? Now you're a mass murderer.



- Who put CJ and his meddling sis in charge of viewing the shuttle surveillance instead of Jensen, the best shrink in The Known Universe? That part of the book left me feel disgusted, like I was a peeping Tom. Not the best way to submerge your readers into the world of pain and misery, and feel compassion for the MC. It distanced me instead. It felt dirty and wrong.

******

To tell you the truth, I liked the first part of the book, right up until Anderson docked his shuttle. Then it was 60 percent of pity and self pity and self loathing and drinking and the like. And then.... the-en-n... the most saccharine chapters I've ever read followed. Rainbows, lollipops and glitter and hearts and stars. You name it, it was there. Gross and Yuck....



Эми Лэйн надо писать народное страдальческое. Пропадает талант. Пара-па-да-ет.



The drama. The Drah-mah!!!

( )