Author: aclockworkangel

Genre: Hard sci-fi

What I liked about this book:

The world put forth in the first chapter of The Self is truly wonderful. I understand exactly where I am, that it's dusty and barren, that there's a black market that sells tech scrap, and that I'm an android. I also understand that it's Reclamation Day, and that a lot of people are dying. There's a sort of cool detachment to it that makes it very easy to parse, and I appreciate that.

This is further elucidated when we start learning about Engi, who is my favorite character so far (fortunately or unfortunately). There's a sense of fighting here, and of everyone who lives on this Mars colony being very poor-off. This self-selected mishmash of Russian and American culture is really interesting, and I like it a lot.

And then there's Engi.

Why did you have to kill him so early on? I Really Really liked Engi, he was fascinating, he was sick, and he clearly had an attachment to this old robot he either found or made. He's a fantastic character.

What I did NOT like about this book:

This novel is hard sci-fi, and is making too many mistakes for the genre. The hacking scene with the drone is very inaccurate, which is something I may not have noticed if I did not work in computer science. The segfault Liana gets when she loses her arm makes no sense. They're all little things, and things an average audience wouldn't notice, but if you're writing hard sci-fi, errors like this are WAY less forgivable than in pretty much any other genre, so I'd suggest the author clean them up.

I wanted more Engi. I think having more from his POV and his relationship to Liana, even in a flashback or memory, would really help me to be more attached to her as a character. Honestly I'd probably read the book if it was just about Engi.

Liana herself feels a little remote and mechanical, and it makes it *very* hard to become attached to her. I wavered between way more interested in everyone around her and bored with the things she was thinking. It is extraordinarily hard to make the audience care about a character like this, and although I think aclockworkangel is close, he hasn't quite hit the mark yet.

The pacing could also use some work. We jumped so fast from the bar to the underground bunker that it took me a minute to work out where we were and how we got there, and even then it was a lot of guessing. I'd like to see the pace slowed down and some more description of actions. There are also a lot of adverbs, and trimming most of what ends in -ly would help to clarify some of this.

Overall:

This book is honestly not bad at all, and I really enjoyed it. I was able to get through it in a couple hours, and it was a pleasant read. It's hard sci-fi, which might be a bit challenging for some, and I'm not sure if Wattpad is the right audience for it, but it has a lot of potential. I'd like to see it cleaned up and clarified, and for the author to inject just a *smidge* more personality into Liana. While her detachment is purposeful and part of the plot, I need to care about her just a tiny bit more.

I would, however, read the rest.

Rating:

7/10, it could easily earn more stars though with very little effort. I enjoyed the read and would continue to read the rest of the book.