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So far reminds me of a mashup of Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells and An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Kaaro definitely fits into the cyberpunk main character archetype - objectively a bad person, a thief but not because he needs to be, casually misogynistic but not violently so, just indifferent to women, a good for nothing, self centered man child. Case from Neuromancer would be proud.

"There are souls who's umblicus has never been cut, they never got weaned from the universe, they do not understand death as an enemy, they look forward to rotting and turning into humus."

"They preserved autonomy of conscience, even at the cost of becoming eccentric."

The ending is so obvious it almost feels pointless to keep reading, but I'll let her finish.

Only 1/4 of the way through, but she's described things as "milky", "buttery", and "creamy" probably a dozen times. Enough with the dairy comparisons!

Perhaps the most unbelievable thing about this book is that the group of settlers couldn't figure out on their own that they shot kill the fucking raiders, especially after the assaults, thefts, r*pes and murders.

Seems to owe a lot to Margaret Atwoods Maddaddam trilogy, but maybe that's just because the themes across all distopian/post apocalyptic novels are so similar.

Part Survivor, part Biodome, part that failed 1970s "sex raft" experiment. All of the characters are deeply unlikeable and can't possibly be good at their jobs, since all they do is think about sex.

Also getting some Gormenghast vibes. People who are complaining of this book having too much "padding" would hate that tome, but I appreciate how the location is an important character.

So far strong vibes of Phillip K Dicks "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" A vast cityscape without animals, people living under extreme scarcity, advertisements for vacations in places of plenty that may not be real.

There is sooooo many ways this could have been hokey and lame - A Sherlock Holmes adaptation where the main characters are queer black women in a vaguely cyberpunk near future United States going through a second civil war - but it's actually pretty enjoyable, mostly because the narrator Janet Watson has a clear voice.

I'm not sure if I like this honestly. It's almost like a Richard K Morgan novel, but instead of having a sex/fighting machine for the main character, we get Bob the IT guy. By making a semi hapless IT guy the main character, Stross has made both secret paramilitary govt operations and occult magic seem kind of lame.

Also, who names their main character Bob?

So far 50/50 "Super Sad True Love Story" mashed up with "Dhalgren"

The key with this book is to turn off your brain, because it utterly dissolves if you think about any of it too hard.

How is this book so long?

This book is supposed to have a good ending. So far it is so predictable and obvious seeming, he'd better have something good up his sleeve.

This book easily has both the most historical references and the most off the wall nonsense of any book I have read. How little it makes sense (or bothers to explain itself) is actually amazing.