Status Updates From Dreamships

"Elvis Christ"
I'm dying over here from emotional whiplash in case anyone cares to know. Feels like the first time I read Gideon the Ninth, and in case you are unaware that's the highest compliment I can give a book.

Please don't go where I think this is going. I mean, yeah, it's the most interesting, most nuanced version of this story...but...JIAN DON'T BE AN IDIOT. NO DREAMPEACE. DON'T JOIN THEM. AI DOESN'T PASS THE TURING TEST AND YOU KNOW IT. AND DON'T YOU DARE THINK ABOUT YOUR BOSS THAT WAY AGAIN. NO. BAD. I am already dreading the fallout in the sequel and I don't even know for sure if this is going that way.

Anytime Alan Turing is mentioned in any kind of media I immediately know I'm going to love the conversations it's about to have, regardless of why his name is brought up (in this case regarding his machine vs human research).

JIAN NO

Jian no. Bad. Do I have to get out the kitty spray bottle? There are rules about not dating your boss for a lot of great reasons, but in this case the most important reason should be that she's been nothing but sus this entire time. Just cause she's hot doesn't mean you are allowed to lose all sense of reason.

This feels like a love letter to early space travel. There were at least 3 pages of navigating the hallways of a ship in anti-gravity, a couple more pages of descriptions of the cockpit and all its controls, and then the main character hooked into the controls and we got to see the navigation system from her perspective. THIS is what technology should be like.

Ok so when the lights are at 10 lumens, you can see fine. But suddenly now that you're on this new ship, it's so dark that you can't see much of anything? What is it now? 5 lumens? 3 lumens? I wish I had a light I could test this with. Too bad regular 60 watt bulbs are 800 lumens or I'd be able to test this...

They planet the main characters live on is called Persephone. I cannot help but laugh at myself every single time my brain tries to pronounce it like purse-a-phone. I blame PM

Manga exists in this world.

Ok so apparently landlords penalize you if you go in and out of your house too many times at night. So the main character uses the maintenance code instead of the normal code to get inside because otherwise she would get in trouble. Hate that

When the vr world is so highly integrated into the real world that the book has to specify when an object has actually been painted a certain color with actual, real, paint.
I swear I'm trying really hard to learn facts about these characters, but the author is spending most of her time on the world building details. And I am having a blast over here learning about paint. I want an entire novel about paint.

I know one fact about the main character and like 30 about how the advertising laws work. This is clearly not the sort of book I can read quickly. I'm going to have to take my time with it, so I don't get overloaded with world building information.

Never before in a book have I needed to know how many lumens are in a 60 watt bulb. It's 800 for anyone wondering.