Official Review: Arc City Stories by Todd Cinani

[Chipochashe]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Arc City Stories" by Todd Cinani.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Arc City Stories is a collection of nine stories by eight authors, Todd Cinani, Davene Le Grange, Max McCamish, Ava Silurian, J.L. Aarne, Patrick Tillet, Tracy Cross, and Amber Benbow. Each story tells the story of one of the citizens of Arc City. Arc City is a futuristic city in a world where climate change has caused havoc and technology is well advanced. Much like the world today, there is a big gap between the rich and the poor. The powerful want to become more powerful while the poor want to go a level higher to the cleaner air.

This short book will catch the interest of sci-fi fans as there are humans enhanced with cybernetics and high-end technology. The characters are unique and varied. Each author’s style is different. The stories mostly feature strong female personalities, although they are not always desirable. It is a broken society whose brokenness manifests in the brokenness of the characters themselves.

What I like most about the book is that the stories integrate well with the overall theme of the setting of Arc City, even though they were written by different authors. There is a constant debate on how much humans can integrate with technology without losing their humanity. A new dimension is added where Artificial Intelligence competes for equal rights with human beings. Ava Silurian puts it humorously in her story, Regret Me Not, as she writes, “Zoilix kept a particularly close eye on a colony latched to her bedroom window that she was sure wasn’t far off from reaching consciousness and demanding equal rights and housing.”

My favourite stories would be Scarlett, Scarlett II and Felk the Network. I enjoyed Scarlett’s story because it was full of action and had an unexpected twist. Felk the Network had an element of dark humour and a realistic outlook on the mental state of someone who has suffered from trauma.

The book was edited by a professional since I noticed only four errors. What I disliked most about the book was the labelling of certain Christian beliefs as nonsense in one of the stories. Some of the authors also used profanity. There are a few descriptions of nudity and a lightly described erotic scene. The writers describe some violent scenes graphically. Issues such as drug abuse and human trafficking are explored but with a scientific twist.

Overall, the stories were engaging and interesting. The book would be suitable for adults who enjoy science fiction and short stories. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars because of the reasons mentioned above.

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Arc City Stories
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[NetMassimo]

The theme is very interesting to me for the possible future developments we're actually having in technologies with their ethical and moral implications, though this stories seem to have negative connotations. Thank you for your great review!

[Pearl Akpan]

It is a broken society whose brokenness manifests in the brokenness of the characters themselves.

For me, this really speaks to the creativity of the author in character development and presentation. Generally I’m intrigued by the theme of this book. I love tech and I look forward to reading how the characters in this book integrate with it, without losing their humanity. Wonderful review!

[Chipochashe]

The theme is very interesting to me for the possible future developments we're actually having in technologies with their ethical and moral implications, though this stories seem to have negative connotations. Thank you for your great review!

My pleasure. Thanks for the comment NetMassimo.

[Chipochashe]

It is a broken society whose brokenness manifests in the brokenness of the characters themselves.

For me, this really speaks to the creativity of the author in character development and presentation. Generally I’m intrigued by the theme of this book. I love tech and I look forward to reading how the characters in this book integrate with it, without losing their humanity. Wonderful review!

Thanks for the positive feedback Pearl. I hope you enjoyed reading the book.