but I felt the author succumbed to some dubious - and what I felt were unnecessary - shock elements
592876
So much potential with this story, but I felt the author succumbed to some dubious - and what I felt were unnecessary - shock elements. Also, what began as an interesting and comprehensive story, dissolved into a rushed ending with poor transitions with unrealistic twists in the storyline.
3170087
Is not all that I had anticipated from this over-rated expositor.
2271635
Perhaps I am just not very perceptive, but there were 4 or 5 plot elements that really took me by surprise.
1650584
One could anticipate that a fully satisfying explanation for the replacement of Europe by "Darwinia" may not eventuate, and it was not for this that I read the novel. Rather, the impetus was the occurrence of such an event within an early twentieth century setting. Unfortunately the scientific, political and other ramifications of this were not adequately explored, and using the context to simply highlight that creationist beliefs are deficient represents a lost opportunity for the novel to be of greater relevance and significance (in terms of speculative fiction). However, it is the novel's progression into shallow violence and horror that are its weakest aspects, with the few passages producing "put the book down and ponder" moments belittled by juvenile accounts of humans morphing into bug-like aliens.
860940
I was really torn on this book, disappointed really, until I finished it. I had read A Head Full of Ghosts and loved it, so I was eager to check out Tremblay's new book. It started off well enough, but something about the omniscient narration threw me off a bit. Then, after the initial hook, things devolved for a while. Much of the book felt like it needed to be edited out. There were scenes that just felt unnecessary, and there was far too much "stage direction" that made everything feel a little bloated. I could see the effect he was going for, but it just felt a bit flat. I almost didn't finish it, but I'm glad I did.

The third act made up for the sagging middle. Like in A Head Full of Ghosts, Tremblay has an ability to make a tragedy feel satisfying. He doesn't shy away from giving the reader a realistic ending, and he does it in such a way that I don't feel like it would upset a reader on either side of the fence--ones who only enjoy happy endings or ones who only enjoy darker ones. Even though much of the book was a bit of a slog, the ending made the journey worth it.

3.5 stars
4287320
Content warnings: rape (or something that looks and feels an awful lot like it) in the first chapter. Discussions of child molestation and cult living about 2/3 of the way through.

The morality in this book was questionable. The protagonist seems to be assigned his good alignment and informed of an antagonist's evil alignment. One thing that they both do is use their technology to control others' bodies -- and yet somehow it's okay when the protagonist does it, and him putting a backdoor into his own mental interface software to ensure that he could continue to do so was just a reasonable precaution; whereas when this antagonist does it, it's evil.

Sam is acting as bodyguard and handler for much of the book, and her role there makes sense. However, near the end, her attitude suddenly switched from "I'm keeping him alive and ensuring his loyalty" to "I'm letting his whim choose whether I live or die." Which is pretty outrageous. It's like the author was trying to lobotomize her into a romance subplot and then never delivered. Her character development aside from that -- the author tried, but I don't think he delivered.

The fact that the United States has a covert agency with no oversight and a huge budget just to ensure nobody goes too far outside the well-trodden paths of humanity was depressingly realistic. However, the view from a posthuman that posthumans would kill unupgraded humans is just bizarre. A huge part of upgrading, and a huge part of what makes it difficult, is ensuring that your motives don't change accidentally during the process. If the good doctor didn't want to kill people before her upgrades, it is a mark of her upgrade having been botched that she seemed to be in favor of killing people afterwards. I wish that had been made clear.

The technomagy resulting from the new and improved Nexus 5 was unrealistic. I understand it's handy for storytelling, and the humans-controlling-humans thing can make sense assuming human brains are all connected roughly the same, but humans using mind control on helicopters is a bit out there.

It's not explained why no one else had come up with the innovation the story hinges on. I had the impression that Nexus variants had been around for years, perhaps a decade, and it didn't seem like the innovation from Nexus 3 to Nexus 5 was that huge.

At one point, the author puts a couple dictionary definitions between chapters. That's pretentious. Don't do that.

All told, it's a bit more plausible than the typical Hollywood blockbuster, it's got some nice details in the background, and it keeps the action coming at a steady drip. I have to take a point off for the unnecessary rape and molestation scenes, another for Sam's underdevelopment and bizarre treatment, and between technology and morality and other nonsensical bits, I'm taking a third.
1877280
disturbing, and not in a strange apocalypse way, in the way that I think the author needs professional help.
1764913
Bizarre religious rant at the end made my not take the author as seriously.
4843567
I love the possibilities that the author explores, but many of the critical instances in this book were unrealistic, some of the devices were a real stretch.
I finished the book, but I wasn't satisfied with the read.
I don't understand how some of these reviewers can give such glowing comparisons to MAJOR authors.
Also, could have used a better editor - typos, missing words, misused words -  all the little failures that are the hallmarks of cheap Kindle books.
1224134
I read this book fast, because it was a real cliffhanger, and I did enjoy it for that reason. I found it difficult to abide the "romance novel" elements though, which I found both unnecessary and unbelievable. They cheapened the novel. Why did the women have to be stunningly beautiful and the men stunningly handsome? Falling in love at first glimpse? I don't think so. If I had been the editor of this book, I would have insisted that Gaetan be removed completely, along with the descriptions of what the women were wearing as they underwent their tortuous experiences. Not really a bodice ripper, but sometimes it sounded like one.
1719431
The premise of Mantchev's Ticker was intriguing, but fell short in execution. Not quite a Steampunk Frankenstein, but it borrowed some of those ideas, including the mad scientists and a thematic debate about improving humanity and threw in some Victorian Spiritualism and gadgets.

What was good - fast paced, light, interesting heroine, some cool 'steampunk' concepts.

Penny was, for the most part, a good heroine facing both internal and external jeopardy. She was independent and somewhat reckless, which made for both humor and some tension. The others were more or less distinct, but verged on types rather than full-fledged characters. I felt more could have been done with at least three of the major players.

If you don't think too hard, it made for a quick, light read. I often let the details of the world slide by and while there were predictable moments, the pacing kept me from dwelling on them.

The idea of the 'clockwork' heart was the most interesting, and for the most part, was well played through the novel.

What didn't work - the world overall, the romance, predictable twists.

I tend to be patient when reading books where a new world is being presented, because I recognize that takes time. There are two things that will annoy me in a new world - an info dump early on trying to explain every aspect of the world, and when an author just expects us to accept everything with little or no explanation. Mantchev is guilty of the later. There were too many gadgets tossed in without explanation and at times I felt like I was in the second book of a series where I'd missed important details because I skipped the first.

The romance between Penny and another key character fell flat. It is a bad trope for the independent heroine to fall for a male character with little ceremony because they happen to face danger together. Worse when it happens during that danger.

Finally, I found the 'twists' predictable. While not a fatal flaw, the book could have been better, relying on not just the external events but based on Penny's reckless nature and the flaw of her 'clockwork' heart.
2129406
The book had promise but something tells me the author got rushed at the end because it seemed incredibly forced, rushed, and with little in the way of closure.
269331
Feeling that I was in far a gripping read, given the book's plot-plan, settings and character dynamics, I'm sad to report that a failure, in my view, for the opening two pages to convey the fear, drama and tension of the slaying of a family was a serious handicap to further enjoyment. Whenever I read passages of such horrific or extraordinary happenings, I want to feel that I'm there - like the parrot on Long John Silver's shoulder - seeing and feeling the emotion of both assailant and victim. And I was as puzzled as the killer by the happily-families sticker on the minivan; even after a re-read I'm not quite sure of the intended message and its impact on the wicked man. Agreeable prose will not be enough to sustain my reading after this disappointing start, I regret to conclude.
1828222
A bunch of strange, upsetting and interesting characters, but I really felt like the author ran out of steam at the end. I didn't need it all tied up nicely but I was a little disappointed.
2517581
I just have a few problems with the way the premise was carried out. Granted, that all the side comments and 'modern' points of reference could be supported, I just wasn't ready for it.
4567991
I'm a sucker for historical novels about streetwise urchins and those about young women who need to disguise themselves as male. The narrator of "The Orphan of Florence" is a streetwise young woman disguising herself as a young man, so I expected to love it. Unfortunately I didn't. In some ways the story was overly obvious (we get it, she really does care about the people close to her, not matter how much she declares otherwise); at other times it was overly convoluted. Similarly, the attitude toward magic was contradictory: The swerve toward magical realism near the end was too abrupt. And the narrator herself, for all that she was touted as being so clever, did some pretty stupid things. Renaissance Florence was well evoked, however, and the story did fly by. Maybe my teenage self would have loved this book much more than my adult self.
I received a copy from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley.
302952
But it felt like details were left out and the reader had to figure those details out or wait to have them explained.