drowningmermaid > Recent Status Updates

Okay so I watched "Hackers" while reading this and I really think it's helping me understand this book.

O look. I found a totally legal audiobook. So I was going to rate this 1.5 stars so far, with an asterisk that it would probably be two or three if I had an audio version and didn't have to commit the time to read-reading it. But now I've heard the narrator smarming his way through this and my brain is not enjoying this, either.

Is this worth it just to say I read a David Brin novel? None of the characters are likeable, or even not-annoying. There's shy annoying youth, overconfident definitely-going-to-survive-all-this white guy protagonist annoying, black Scotty annoying, and a couple of demure annoying women distinguishable only by their varying levels of sexual assault.

Entering the "why am I doing this to myself" phase.
Wondering if the concept of uplift similar to the 2001 concept of monoliths.

Also the racial stereotypes are obnoxious.

Entering the "why am I doing this to myself" phase.
Wondering if the concept of uplift similar to the 2001 concept of monoliths.

Dang, I've been avoiding this one every time it got recommended at book group. All the negative reviews seemed so compelling. We'll see if it can win me over.

Dang, I've been avoiding this one every time it got recommended at book group. All the negative reviews seemed so compelling. We'll see if it can win me over.

Willis is no Stephen King. Awesome research wonderful world. Dropping the rating one star for attempted-suspense.

Oppressively male. Our Hero is a leering dickwad, the dialog is random gibberish with no emotional logic-- everything I've come to know and tolerate from S.M.Stirling.

It is refreshing to see that every review I have encountered thus far makes note of what a terrible decision it was to write the whole GD book in 2nd person.

Blah blah blah resolutioncakes.

Why didn't she just drop off the baby at a hospital with a note that it was the Russell baby? Why didn't she just go to the police with the baby and claim it was a foundling? Am I supposed to feel for someone who feels all adoptive-mothery for a child she HAS NO CLAIM ON and is totes okay with the mental agony she leaves the rest of the family in?

It doesn't seem like the "smothering" that evidently caused major psychological trauma-- was really all that bad. Nothing pathological. No one seems to be bothered by it except for the daughter herself.

Also the lies of the dippy douche boyfriend don't really seem like they should have been sooo believable.
I know this makes me aware of how much the Internet has changed the way people think and get information, but seriously, she should have been able to look up an article on microfiche or something. And she should have wanted to, even if she wasn't consciously factchecking.

How does a woman wind up on a live broadcast telling her story about her deep, dark secret without any fact checking, without even any pre-rehearsal? Oh right. Need for cheese.

The whole need for urgency is beyond hokey, too. DUDE. The Jury is sequestered. You know, you can't just show up at the end of a trial.

Gag me with cheeze. Womanizer and general scumbag has had a change of heart and now will only tell cute widdol wys to save his old pals. It's like reading propaganda that forgot what it was supposed to be promoting.

What exactly is she so worried about that she doesn't want her new husband at any of her appointments? What's so obviously different about a first pregnancy vs. a second?

Good god. I'm less than halfway in and I keep waiting for the haze of stupid to clear, but it just keeps getting worse. The whole premise is beyond idiotic-- starting with a young, wealthy, white woman being sentenced to death on highly circumstantial evidence. On the demographics of those who get the death penalty? It's like an "issue" novel wherein the person in question bothered to do minimal effort.)

You can give yourself a paper cut with hair? (No.)
Everyone can mistake a healthy sixteen year old for one whose had a baby less than a week ago?

So... once she knows that her ex-boyfriend is a douche, why does she not come forward? Why does she not return the child she stole?
There is such an obvious RIGHT THING TO DO here.

Things I didn't need to know about, because they had nothing to do with the story:
After going into hiding--
The life history of CeeCee's new landlady
The life history of CeeCee's new boss and what it was like for her to work her new POS cover job
The blow by blow of her dating relationship with Man #2. The shockingly uncomplicated dating relationship as a single mother.

The governor's wife has no personal security of any kind?