ARA Review by Chaotic_Reading of Starfall
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Chaotic_Reading
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ARA Review by Chaotic_Reading of Starfall
[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, Starfall.]
Somehow, Vitacorp has been able to harness the power of light, and wants to keep all that power for themselves— by any means necessary. Meanwhile, AI mastermind Michelangelo seeks freedom.
This book is long. That isn’t to say it isn’t a good book, but it was a very long, and slow read for me. It took much longer to read than I first thought it would. There are a lot of characters, but it is easy to follow along with all their stories throughout the book, and they all converge together nicely at the end, which I appreciated. A mention of sex, as well as child loss would have been greatly appreciated, so be prepared for that. Though, in the author’s defense, he handled each situation rather well.
There were a few plot twists that I thought were handled very well, though one of them made me roll my eyes because of course it had to be aliens. I was really hoping that given the advanced society in which the book takes place, that the light people were able to harness had something to do with nano tech, but no; aliens. It’s always aliens, it seems.
That being said, I think it’s best to set up the rest of this review in chunks focusing on the different groups of characters, so hang on for a wild ride!
I’m going to start with Braxton and Avery since that is where our story starts as well. Their relationship is one that is clearly toxic. We learn later on in the story that the reason Braxton so easily comes to Avery’s call, as well as carry out some of the most insane orders, is because Avery is dangling Braxton’s literal life over his head. After a couple of fights with Hannah, Braxton decides he’s had enough, and eventually fights back against Avery. He finds the peace he deserves in the end, which was nice to see. Braxton was clearly just a tool for Avery for much of the book.
Avery, on the other hand, is very clearly our real bad guy. He wants all the light for himself, no matter the cost of getting it — thus Braxton going and murdering for him regularly — and even kills a few people himself. He has real issues with what are deemed “outer ringers;” people who are too poor to live in the wealthy rings of the city. Avery has some real twisted ideas that make Vitacorp run on a daily basis, but he gets what he deserves in the very end of the book when he is finally killed in a very gruesome way.
That leads me into Hannah and Pollock. We first meet these two under different situations, but they quickly line up, and work together. Hannah is seeking justice and information on the murder of her partner, while Pollock is just trying to get by. Together, they work to help undermine Vitacorp and Avery, but they get help from others over the course of the book. More twists and turns are revealed, including where the source of the light came from.
Several times over the course of the book, Hannah and Pollock strike against Vitacorp, as well as Braxton, doing damage where they can to help bring about the fall of the company. Hannah becomes a figure of hope against Vitacorp, and toward the end of the book, she helps to rally the entire city to rise up against Vitacorp and overthrow the company.
The two eventually join forces with The Basilisk, another who is working to take down Vitacorp, and it is with their combined strength that Vitacorp tower finally falls.
Finally, and probably my favorite storyline in the book, is Bev and Michelangelo. Bev helped to create the AI master structure, and continues to be one of its caretakers. The two have a weird bond especially since M is so advanced that he almost seems human. Bev finds a weird glitch in M’s startup routine, and takes advantage of this time to talk to a version of the machine that isn’t governed by the limits imposed by Vitacorp.
Together, the two devise a plan for M to “escape.” Or, well, a version of him that will be able to flee the confines of Vitacorp, and be able to live in the outside world. While they succeed in this plan, Bev is ultimately arrested and sent to jail. There she undergoes an unwilling surgery to be given an implant so she will be unable to use any type of computer or electronic ever again.
But this isn’t the last we see of Bev, or M.
I know I seem sort of vague in parts of this, but there is just so much to go over, I could probably write a review that is just as long as the book itself. Despite this, I still only gave the book three out of five stars. This mostly has to do with the length, as well as the time it took to read it. It is a good book, but it just seems to move along slowly for some reason. I would recommend this book, but only to the right person. This isn’t a book for everyone.
***
View Starfall on Bookshelves
Somehow, Vitacorp has been able to harness the power of light, and wants to keep all that power for themselves— by any means necessary. Meanwhile, AI mastermind Michelangelo seeks freedom.
This book is long. That isn’t to say it isn’t a good book, but it was a very long, and slow read for me. It took much longer to read than I first thought it would. There are a lot of characters, but it is easy to follow along with all their stories throughout the book, and they all converge together nicely at the end, which I appreciated. A mention of sex, as well as child loss would have been greatly appreciated, so be prepared for that. Though, in the author’s defense, he handled each situation rather well.
There were a few plot twists that I thought were handled very well, though one of them made me roll my eyes because of course it had to be aliens. I was really hoping that given the advanced society in which the book takes place, that the light people were able to harness had something to do with nano tech, but no; aliens. It’s always aliens, it seems.
That being said, I think it’s best to set up the rest of this review in chunks focusing on the different groups of characters, so hang on for a wild ride!
I’m going to start with Braxton and Avery since that is where our story starts as well. Their relationship is one that is clearly toxic. We learn later on in the story that the reason Braxton so easily comes to Avery’s call, as well as carry out some of the most insane orders, is because Avery is dangling Braxton’s literal life over his head. After a couple of fights with Hannah, Braxton decides he’s had enough, and eventually fights back against Avery. He finds the peace he deserves in the end, which was nice to see. Braxton was clearly just a tool for Avery for much of the book.
Avery, on the other hand, is very clearly our real bad guy. He wants all the light for himself, no matter the cost of getting it — thus Braxton going and murdering for him regularly — and even kills a few people himself. He has real issues with what are deemed “outer ringers;” people who are too poor to live in the wealthy rings of the city. Avery has some real twisted ideas that make Vitacorp run on a daily basis, but he gets what he deserves in the very end of the book when he is finally killed in a very gruesome way.
That leads me into Hannah and Pollock. We first meet these two under different situations, but they quickly line up, and work together. Hannah is seeking justice and information on the murder of her partner, while Pollock is just trying to get by. Together, they work to help undermine Vitacorp and Avery, but they get help from others over the course of the book. More twists and turns are revealed, including where the source of the light came from.
Several times over the course of the book, Hannah and Pollock strike against Vitacorp, as well as Braxton, doing damage where they can to help bring about the fall of the company. Hannah becomes a figure of hope against Vitacorp, and toward the end of the book, she helps to rally the entire city to rise up against Vitacorp and overthrow the company.
The two eventually join forces with The Basilisk, another who is working to take down Vitacorp, and it is with their combined strength that Vitacorp tower finally falls.
Finally, and probably my favorite storyline in the book, is Bev and Michelangelo. Bev helped to create the AI master structure, and continues to be one of its caretakers. The two have a weird bond especially since M is so advanced that he almost seems human. Bev finds a weird glitch in M’s startup routine, and takes advantage of this time to talk to a version of the machine that isn’t governed by the limits imposed by Vitacorp.
Together, the two devise a plan for M to “escape.” Or, well, a version of him that will be able to flee the confines of Vitacorp, and be able to live in the outside world. While they succeed in this plan, Bev is ultimately arrested and sent to jail. There she undergoes an unwilling surgery to be given an implant so she will be unable to use any type of computer or electronic ever again.
But this isn’t the last we see of Bev, or M.
I know I seem sort of vague in parts of this, but there is just so much to go over, I could probably write a review that is just as long as the book itself. Despite this, I still only gave the book three out of five stars. This mostly has to do with the length, as well as the time it took to read it. It is a good book, but it just seems to move along slowly for some reason. I would recommend this book, but only to the right person. This isn’t a book for everyone.
***
View Starfall on Bookshelves
