I've read this book ~7 times now and listened to the audiobook from start to finish 3 times and since I like falling asleep listening to books I've already read her parts of this book way more.

For those interested in the Audiobook, I initially found Mare Trevathan's interpretation of androids annoying, she was too robotic speaking as androids when it was pretty clear the author intended for the tech to be sophisticated to the point of indistinguishable from regular humans. Fortunately, it took her only 4 or 5 chapters to catch on to this fact, and after that she was perfect.

I'm partially giving this review because I want to talk about my thoughts about the book, and partially hoping it inspires the author to continue to pursue this incredibly promising start to the series. Although I know this pipe dream is unlikely.

I found it had some great world-building, especially doing a fantastic job exploring the technology of the world (as good sci-fi generally should) and I for the most part found the main character mostly likable.

One thing that's a little offputting is all the anime tropes. Unlike the author, I'm not the biggest anime fan but I'm somewhat ok with this choice. While this world did include some of anime's weirder tropes, it was at least justified by the world built by the author. This is a massive galaxy with thousands of different independent cultures that while initially, all started human saw cultural evolution that was only exacerbated by genetic engineering. Given that, I supposed it's possible for some of those societies to function like a world out of an anime. I hope in future books the author takes the opportunity to explore planets with other possible cultural drifts that could have occurred through this form of cultural drift and that the story doesn't focus on ones with anime cultures, though I have a feeling he'll mostly stick to anime-like worlds.

Other than that, the author did a fantastic job with the world-building. It rather intelligently explains the history of colonization and how that shaped certain societies (in a way that sounded very plausible), and the technology is well thought out as well as the effects those technologies have had on their universe. The book ends with an appendix giving out far more detail about the technologies of his universe, which is a nice touch and further shows how much thought the author put into this world.

The book also has one of the better uses of artificial intelligence I've seen (including partially using one of the only two strongest arguments I've seen for why AI smarter than humans doesn't automatically mean a recursively self-improving AI), and I loved that it includes a rogue AI that gives a subtle reference to Roko's basilisk (which was brilliant, but it wasn't until my 3rd reading of the book did I catch it, so maybe a little too subtle which is sadly the opposite of some of his other hints).

The main character is brilliant. In a universe where genetic and cybernetic modifications are the norm, her's are by far the most extreme. She's for the most part smart and a total badass. Some may argue she's a borderline Mary Sue and boringly overpowered. I don't entirely agree. While thanks to her extreme mods she's definitely better than everyone else, it's definitely possible for a good author to keep such a character grounded, and succeed in making her story interesting. What makes a series potentially compelling is to follow young Alice on her rise from the bottom: a prepubescent teenage orphan on the run to what is presumably going to be her rise to the top, whatever top that may be.

As long during her journey she continues to face challenges that aren't relatively easy for her, the story can still be enjoyable. And there's already a list of potential enemies spelled out for possible future books: ...from least dangerous to most dangerous for Alice: the yakuza, Victoria, Noriko, Susan, Polytechnic Swarm, Key Deliberation)...

Finally, we get to my biggest problem with the book, how on the nose the final reveal is. The first time the revealing ending is hinted at just about everyone will strongly suspect what it is (oh it just got mentioned the Mirai were the most technologically advanced civilization this galaxy has seen, I wonder if that has anything to do with Alice having the most cybernetically advanced tech out there), and then it gets hinted at again, and again, and again. There are at least six massive "Look over here" signs pointing at what the big ending is gonna be. At some point, you have to wonder how the characters themselves didn't figure it out way earlier than they did. I appreciate good foreshadowing, but this was too on the nose for me.

I also noticed a few other plot holes, but you always do if you reread a book enough times, and there weren't any major plot holes here, tho there were some big plot conveniences (but less than others have claimed). And for the minor ones, well my head cannon has already edited them out. The other minor problem with the potential of this turning into the series, I worry given the author has certain peculiarities (given his other works and some of the sexually suggestive stuff that happens in this one) I sorta feel uncomfortable recommending this to friends who I know would otherwise enjoy this. Which is a shame since it's an overall great promising series.

I hope the author manages to continue this story, tho it seems less and less likely the further we get from the release of this one.

I have a lot more to say about this book, but this review is long enough as is, so I'll leave it here. ( )

I really wanted to rate this 5 stars. This book just totally and thoroughly embraces the Mary Sue trope and delivers a fast paced and enjoyable read. This is the perfect book to pick up when you just want to have some fun. ( )

A bit wooden

The dialogue is very straight forward. No disagreements, no arguments, nobody changes their mind. It makes for exhausting reading because everything moves at the same pace with no breaks or pauses. There no cycle or flow to the narrative except forward. It's very emotionless.

That being said, the tech is awesome and the world has real depth. The joy in exploring the technological possibilities is palpable.

I will be looking for the sequel, but I can not recommend this to others at this stage. ( )

A bit wooden

The dialogue is very straight forward. No disagreements, no arguments, nobody changes their mind. It makes for exhausting reading because everything moves at the same pace with no breaks or pauses. There no cycle or flow to the narrative except forward. It's very emotionless.

That being said, the tech is awesome and the world has real depth. The joy in exploring the technological possibilities is palpable.

I will be looking for the sequel, but I can not recommend this to others at this stage. ( )

First off, let me say that I am absolutely enamored with the worldbuilding and setting as there really aren't too many books which really get that post-human transcendence feel right. If I'm extrapolating into the future, this world is what you get when you avoid humanity being replaced by automation and AI by merging man and machine, but not in a ham-fisted way. Instead of "traditional" cyborgs which might have a robotic eye, limb, or even sub-dermal armor, the world presented by this book has taken AI and cybernetics to their logical conclusion: mental and consciousness augmentation. Many characters in this book are functionally immortal because they can reload themselves from backup or shed their current bodies. Even more so, they do things which are wholly "inhuman" like full multitasking or converting themselves into a gestalt-hivemind. I haven't seen this sort of post-humanism outside of a handful of web serials and if anyone can point me towards more of the same, I'll be eternally grateful.

Besides the setting being so damn cool, this book also raises some serious moral and ethical questions about the future of AI and humanity; mainly about what it means to be "programmed" in a specific way or the value of something super-sapient which can just be copy-pasted or deleted.

Highly recommended. ( )