Void Star | 
so-soI think this is a case of wrong medium for the book… I listened to the audio and was confused at the beginning with the number of characters and the complexity of the plot. I suspect I would have liked this better in print.
Interesting themes of AI and renewing youth to the point of almost immortality. There is a ton of detail, easy to get lost because of that.
so-soAmbitious in vision, this doesn‘t quite land the execution. Void Star has the potential to be great, but also the potential to be frustrating. If you‘re primarily a literary reader then this would be great for you, but otherwise I would steer clear of the weighty prose. Check out my full review: https://amysbookreviews.com/2021/04/12/void-star-by-zachary-mason-review/
panDon't read this book if you like interesting plot lines, engaging stories, or adventures that make sense. Do read this book if you enjoy poetry, don't care much about characters, or find it fascinating to read paragraphs and paragraphs of trivial literary devices that add nothing of substance to the story.
If you are going to read this book I recommend starting around page 250. You will not have missed out on anything, trust me.
Book Haul! “Void Star” by Zachary Mason, “The Genius Plague” by David Walton, “Code” by Charles Petzold, and my uber nerdy choice, “HTML&CSS” by Jon Duckett. Hooray for books!
pickFirst novel of 2018. Fantastic world-building that is revealed in glimpses here and there. Mason balances the promise of progress with visions of dystopia. An abandoned space elevator on a Pacific island. An obsolete construction drone flying through the city. A world of driverless taxis, faulty memory implants, and computers powerful beyond our imagination fill a flooding world that seems all too plausible. Highly recommended!
pickThis is a fantastic science fiction read. Mason‘s post apocalyptic world is fully fleshed out with painstaking detail and beautiful language. I felt traces of influence from William Gibson and Philip K Dick. Starts a bit slow but really picks up steam as the plot unfolds.
panThis book is heavy on the Sci fi. It didn't really click for me until the very end. The story lines were very separate for a while. It was long and I was not super into the story until like the last hundred pages. Skippable in my book.
so-soInteresting, but very confusing novel. In order for it to be effective for story telling, the device of constantly shifting perspectives has be executed flawlessly. The strategy didn't quite work in this novel, though, so I spent a fair amount of time having trouble piecing together the different strands of narrative. Can't really recommend this one, I just didn't feel it was worth the effort. Read Robinson's New York 2140 instead.
so-soInteresting and eerie foray into a world where humans are capable of both extending life and using surgical implants to communicate with AI. Read in one sitting, though it's not that short a book. I'm rating this so-so ONLY because if I were to compare it to the last twenty books I've read, it wouldn't be at the top. I did like it, and I bet many others will too.
Ending my reading drought once and for all by going hard and starting audiobooks again. Anyone know whether Void Star by Zachary Mason is any good? Any recommendations for future fiction audiobooks with a decent amount of action and excellent narration?
