*SPOILERS* – don’t read if you don’t want spoilers.
Hmmm – I don’t know what to make of this book. Certainly it has a lot going for it – interesting characters with stories spanning decades and continents. Friendships, racism, classism, misogyny, climate issues, AI – so many topics examined. I enjoyed the backstories of the characters – growing up, finding themselves and each other, finding their place in the world, but the twist at the end, where all the characters come together on the beautiful remote island, voting on whether to allow development of off shore floating cities which would perhaps aid mankind but destroy the old world charm of their community – just when I thought I was getting my head around who was who and how their stories fitted together they hit us with the bombshell!!
The final part of the story is not real – it’s an AI simulation! I hate that!! I don’t like when books break the believable universe within the book to say ‘this bit is real’ but ‘this bit is made up’ I don’t like it. It forces you to confront the fact that actually it’s all made up, and the real emotion I have invested in these characters and their stories is cheapened. I feel cheated. It might be ‘clever’ and ‘meta’ but it sucks and it makes me want to spit or cry or generally have a hissy fit. Waah!
Sarah Wray Writer 