Book Review: Hammered, Elizabeth Bear
Jul. 14th, 2005 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asaelWow, been awhile since I've used this.
This is a science fiction, near-future book. I'd almost call it cyberpunk, although it's not exactly. It does deal with the Dark Future, though, which I always enjoy.
The main character is an ex-army veteran with numerous body modifications including a metal arm (and yes, my brain totally went "FMA!"). She's... well, pretty badass. I like female characters who take no shit and can be awesome all on their own. It helps that she's not gorgeous, and that she's pushing fifty. (Older woman badass character? SWEET.)
I have no desire to give away the plot, so... I won't. But suffice to say it involves crazy new technology, conspiracies, facing Dark Past, and other exciting... y'know... stuff. It's not really anything out of the ordinary, when you get right down to it, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless. Her prose flowed very well and managed to pull me in, which is good because a couple other books I've read recently failed to do that.
Some things I didn't like: The tendency to switch from viewpoint to viewpoint was nice and gives you lots of useful information about the characters, but sometimes I'd skim over the (bolded thick and black, my eyes don't like that) text describing where and when a scene was set, and then realize that the scene is in fact set 25 years BEFORE the current storyline, after some confusion.
The tendency of the characters to speak in French sometimes. It's a nice touch, but dude... I don't speak French. I have NO IDEA what they're saying, and while I trust that anything in French wasn't vital to the plot/characterizations (because that would be dumb), I still feel like I'm missing out on things. And I don't like that. It's like when fanfic writers have their characters speak in Japanese. There's no reason, when they can speak English and make much more sense.
But I enjoyed it enough that I'm going to read the sequel, and that's what really counts. ^_^
Gayness Quotient (because it makes me laugh, and because I know some of you like to know these things): Low. One lesbian kiss.
This is a science fiction, near-future book. I'd almost call it cyberpunk, although it's not exactly. It does deal with the Dark Future, though, which I always enjoy.
The main character is an ex-army veteran with numerous body modifications including a metal arm (and yes, my brain totally went "FMA!"). She's... well, pretty badass. I like female characters who take no shit and can be awesome all on their own. It helps that she's not gorgeous, and that she's pushing fifty. (Older woman badass character? SWEET.)
I have no desire to give away the plot, so... I won't. But suffice to say it involves crazy new technology, conspiracies, facing Dark Past, and other exciting... y'know... stuff. It's not really anything out of the ordinary, when you get right down to it, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless. Her prose flowed very well and managed to pull me in, which is good because a couple other books I've read recently failed to do that.
Some things I didn't like: The tendency to switch from viewpoint to viewpoint was nice and gives you lots of useful information about the characters, but sometimes I'd skim over the (bolded thick and black, my eyes don't like that) text describing where and when a scene was set, and then realize that the scene is in fact set 25 years BEFORE the current storyline, after some confusion.
The tendency of the characters to speak in French sometimes. It's a nice touch, but dude... I don't speak French. I have NO IDEA what they're saying, and while I trust that anything in French wasn't vital to the plot/characterizations (because that would be dumb), I still feel like I'm missing out on things. And I don't like that. It's like when fanfic writers have their characters speak in Japanese. There's no reason, when they can speak English and make much more sense.
But I enjoyed it enough that I'm going to read the sequel, and that's what really counts. ^_^
Gayness Quotient (because it makes me laugh, and because I know some of you like to know these things): Low. One lesbian kiss.
