Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Titan Books (2015), 480 pages
Description
"Get ready for a world in which anyone can have the powers of a god or the fame of a pop star, in which human achievement soars to new heights while its depravity plunges to the blackest depths. A world in which at least one cat smells like a seafood shop's Dumpster on a hot summer day. This is the world in which Zoey Ashe finds herself, navigating a futuristic city in which one can find elements of the fantastic, nightmarish, and ridiculous on any street corner"--Amazon.com. In the near future, Zoey Ashe navigates a city in which one can find elements of the fantastic, nightmarish and ridiculous on any street corner. Anyone can have the powers of a god or the fame of a pop star; human achievement soars to new heights while its depravity plunges to the blackest depths. Her only trusted advisor is a cat, but even in the future, cats cannot give advice. At least not any that you'd want to follow.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member rivkat
Zoe, a barista living in a trailer park, discovers that she’s inherited her multibillionaire father’s criminal/financial empire after the first hitman shows up to kill her. Gore, snark, and improbable technologies ensue, in about equal measure. Wong writes Cracked.com, so if you’re familiar
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with that you’ll have an idea what you’re getting: cynical about humanity, but forgiving of human frailty, and unable to stop joking about anything (e.g., the villain’s constant rape threats are his Rape Tourette’s). Zoe is a good heroine: directionless, afraid, and untrained, but angry enough and sharp enough on the uptake that she makes a solid protagonist. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
An entertaining romp though a city in the future (but not that far in the future). Zoey Ashe, average girl just trying to make it in a difficult world, suddenly finds herself being stalked by some of the most dangerous men in the world. It has something to do with her dearly departed deadbeat dad,
First, Zoey is a bit naive when it comes to who her Dad is. She has access to look him up, and Zoey would certainly be in the public's eye as a famous person's daughter. Or at least one of her friends or boyfriends would know about it and tell her... but, outside of this one minor point, Zoey is a full character. She doesn't take stupid chances when she knows the stakes. She listens, learns, but doesn't just follows instructions. The characters that surround her a bit more stereotypical, but with potential to be fleshed out more. For example, Will, the maybe bad guy and employee of her late dad, is dark and mysterious, but we find out he is married.
There is also a message in this book, but it is subtle and is very well integrated. The plight of the homeless in the abandoned building is quite interesting, both how Zoey handles it and the reactions of the residents. And, there is no easy answer.
As for the story itself, its well done - lots of buildings being blown up, but always as part of the plot. I liked how the super villain was handled. He was a totally evil, but again, it was grounded in reality.
The technology is well done too - Mr. Wong wrote a believable future, with self driving cars and holograms and brings current trends, like live Facebook video, to the ultimate conclusion, a world where everyone is recording and transmitting everything. Without that technology, and the audience it brings, there would be no motive for the villains. Of course, to make super powered villains, there is some magical science - but it was done tastefully, and doesn't really effect the plot.
Overall, an excellent read, with a great leading lady and a cat.
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whom she has met exactly twice. She finds out that she is the only heir to his extreme fortune and the city he built.First, Zoey is a bit naive when it comes to who her Dad is. She has access to look him up, and Zoey would certainly be in the public's eye as a famous person's daughter. Or at least one of her friends or boyfriends would know about it and tell her... but, outside of this one minor point, Zoey is a full character. She doesn't take stupid chances when she knows the stakes. She listens, learns, but doesn't just follows instructions. The characters that surround her a bit more stereotypical, but with potential to be fleshed out more. For example, Will, the maybe bad guy and employee of her late dad, is dark and mysterious, but we find out he is married.
There is also a message in this book, but it is subtle and is very well integrated. The plight of the homeless in the abandoned building is quite interesting, both how Zoey handles it and the reactions of the residents. And, there is no easy answer.
As for the story itself, its well done - lots of buildings being blown up, but always as part of the plot. I liked how the super villain was handled. He was a totally evil, but again, it was grounded in reality.
The technology is well done too - Mr. Wong wrote a believable future, with self driving cars and holograms and brings current trends, like live Facebook video, to the ultimate conclusion, a world where everyone is recording and transmitting everything. Without that technology, and the audience it brings, there would be no motive for the villains. Of course, to make super powered villains, there is some magical science - but it was done tastefully, and doesn't really effect the plot.
Overall, an excellent read, with a great leading lady and a cat.
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LibraryThing member thefamousmoe
Good book. Fast read. I would recommend listening to the audiobook though, because the voice actress makes the main villain sound so stupid. That actually might have dropped this down from a four for me. When I was reading it in print, I could really get into it. But then if I was driving and
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listening to the story, the character voices sounded horrible and a tad racist. Show Less
LibraryThing member Gwendydd
This is fun and silly. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and it's best if you don't think about it too hard. It is really really violent, but given the title, that shouldn't be a surprise.
It's nifty that the heroine of the story is a trailer-trash barista and her cat, and that she turns out to
The story goes a bit overboard at the end, but in a way, it would be disappointing if it didn't - this is the kind of story that is supposed to go overboard.
This is like a good action movie - it's fun, fast-paced, and funny, but you don't want to think about it too hard.
I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was wonderful.
It's nifty that the heroine of the story is a trailer-trash barista and her cat, and that she turns out to
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be pretty awesome. But Wong didn't seem to quite know what to do with her sometimes - sometimes she is an everyman character who reacts with the same kind of fear that most normal people would have, but sometimes she is totally bad-ass and fearlessly talks back to the bad guys. The story goes a bit overboard at the end, but in a way, it would be disappointing if it didn't - this is the kind of story that is supposed to go overboard.
This is like a good action movie - it's fun, fast-paced, and funny, but you don't want to think about it too hard.
I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was wonderful.
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LibraryThing member Unkletom
I’ve never read anything by David Wong before this but ‘John Dies at the End’ has often been enthusiastically recommended to me by people whose tastes in books are, shall we say, eclectic.
If ‘John Dies at the End’ is a horror/adventure novel, as the author describes it, then
As the story opens, twenty-two year-old Colorado trailer park resident Zoey Ashe is about to get more than her allotted 15 minutes in the national spotlight. Her trip to the Wendy’s drive-thru is interrupted by an attempted assassination, which results in her flight via train to Tabula Ra$a, a lawless boom town in the desert of western Utah (think Vegas on acid-laced steroids) where, after more assassination attempts and a kidnapping attempt, she learns that her estranged father, gangster-turned-real estate mogul Arthur Livingston has died violently in an explosion leaving Zoey, for reasons I’ll let you discover for yourself, on the run with a multi-million dollar bounty on her head.
All this, which takes place in the first 36 pages, is what readers will eventually recognize as the slow parts.
What fascinates me is that, at the heart of the story is a preview of social technology’s future that is as plausible as it is frightening. ‘Blink’ is a social network that combines the immediacy of Twitter with the video technology of GoPro and Google Glass. If 24-hour news channels scare you, imagine ‘millions of live feeds broadcasting from glasses and pinned-on cameras, in addition to most car dashboard cams (standard on every new model since 2020) and a swarm of aerial drones owned by police departments, TV News channels, and tens of thousands of random voyeurs’ provide a constant video stream that allow Blinkers, to watch any person, place or event (newsworthy or otherwise) ‘in real time, the view hopping from one feed to the next’, automatically switching to the feed with the best view of the event as it happens. Anyone with a camera is now a newscaster and anyone desiring his 15 minutes of fame has an audience of millions if his stunt is dramatic enough. In FV&FS, The Hunt for Arthur Livingston’s Daughter is the story of the day and everybody in Tabula Ra$a wants to get the best shot of the action.
If the book has a weakness, it is that many of the characters are two-dimensional. They have as much depth built in to do what they were written to do, and not much more.
By now I assume you get the idea. The story is rocking, raucous, rollicking and very violent. I really enjoyed it, except for those moments when the author decided to kill off characters that I liked. If you like your reading laced with adrenaline, you will too.
*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review book was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.
FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
• 5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
• 4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
• 3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered good or memorable.
• 2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
• 1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.
If ‘John Dies at the End’ is a horror/adventure novel, as the author describes it, then
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‘Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits’ is likely to be called a horror/adventure/sci-fi/thriller. It’s a rowdy, rollicking geekfest that starts out as fast as a roller coaster and picks up speed with each chapter. As the story opens, twenty-two year-old Colorado trailer park resident Zoey Ashe is about to get more than her allotted 15 minutes in the national spotlight. Her trip to the Wendy’s drive-thru is interrupted by an attempted assassination, which results in her flight via train to Tabula Ra$a, a lawless boom town in the desert of western Utah (think Vegas on acid-laced steroids) where, after more assassination attempts and a kidnapping attempt, she learns that her estranged father, gangster-turned-real estate mogul Arthur Livingston has died violently in an explosion leaving Zoey, for reasons I’ll let you discover for yourself, on the run with a multi-million dollar bounty on her head.
All this, which takes place in the first 36 pages, is what readers will eventually recognize as the slow parts.
What fascinates me is that, at the heart of the story is a preview of social technology’s future that is as plausible as it is frightening. ‘Blink’ is a social network that combines the immediacy of Twitter with the video technology of GoPro and Google Glass. If 24-hour news channels scare you, imagine ‘millions of live feeds broadcasting from glasses and pinned-on cameras, in addition to most car dashboard cams (standard on every new model since 2020) and a swarm of aerial drones owned by police departments, TV News channels, and tens of thousands of random voyeurs’ provide a constant video stream that allow Blinkers, to watch any person, place or event (newsworthy or otherwise) ‘in real time, the view hopping from one feed to the next’, automatically switching to the feed with the best view of the event as it happens. Anyone with a camera is now a newscaster and anyone desiring his 15 minutes of fame has an audience of millions if his stunt is dramatic enough. In FV&FS, The Hunt for Arthur Livingston’s Daughter is the story of the day and everybody in Tabula Ra$a wants to get the best shot of the action.
If the book has a weakness, it is that many of the characters are two-dimensional. They have as much depth built in to do what they were written to do, and not much more.
By now I assume you get the idea. The story is rocking, raucous, rollicking and very violent. I really enjoyed it, except for those moments when the author decided to kill off characters that I liked. If you like your reading laced with adrenaline, you will too.
*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review book was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.
FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
• 5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
• 4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
• 3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered good or memorable.
• 2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
• 1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.
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LibraryThing member ViragoReads
So I say this everytime I review a book by this author, this was insane!
It's set in the not-so-distant future where the cars are self driving, holograms are a normal thing, and most of the world lives their lives either creating or watching a continuous live stream of their mundane or extreme
Zoe gets caught up in a mess of her late absentee father's making. There's his crew, the suits, who all wear actual fancy suits and are equivalent to the futuristic mafia. And then there's the evil villian Molech, who's basically a kid with daddy issues and a god complex. He wants to take over Tabula Rasa (and then the world) and pretty much destroy anyone or thing he deems unworthy. The problem is, that Zoe holds the key to either his success or epic failure.
So basically there are people trying to kidnap or kill her, or gain access to the vast fortune her father left behind for her (which includes his company and his "Suits"), or they want to protect her.
There are so many left turns in this story it's almost hard to keep up. The author kept me on the edge of my seat for this one. I was never really sure how it was all going to work out. The most important part of this book was that Zoe's cat survived all of the gunfire, explosions--basically carnage. I'm all about the animals people.
And it wasn't exactly an open or ambiguous ending, but there was definitely the hint of a sequel. I shudder to think what kind of mess Zoe would find herself in in a sequel!
It's set in the not-so-distant future where the cars are self driving, holograms are a normal thing, and most of the world lives their lives either creating or watching a continuous live stream of their mundane or extreme
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existences.Zoe gets caught up in a mess of her late absentee father's making. There's his crew, the suits, who all wear actual fancy suits and are equivalent to the futuristic mafia. And then there's the evil villian Molech, who's basically a kid with daddy issues and a god complex. He wants to take over Tabula Rasa (and then the world) and pretty much destroy anyone or thing he deems unworthy. The problem is, that Zoe holds the key to either his success or epic failure.
So basically there are people trying to kidnap or kill her, or gain access to the vast fortune her father left behind for her (which includes his company and his "Suits"), or they want to protect her.
There are so many left turns in this story it's almost hard to keep up. The author kept me on the edge of my seat for this one. I was never really sure how it was all going to work out. The most important part of this book was that Zoe's cat survived all of the gunfire, explosions--basically carnage. I'm all about the animals people.
And it wasn't exactly an open or ambiguous ending, but there was definitely the hint of a sequel. I shudder to think what kind of mess Zoe would find herself in in a sequel!
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LibraryThing member ViragoReads
So I say this everytime I review a book by this author, this was insane!
It's set in the not-so-distant future where the cars are self driving, holograms are a normal thing, and most of the world lives their lives either creating or watching a continuous live stream of their mundane or extreme
Zoe gets caught up in a mess of her late absentee father's making. There's his crew, the suits, who all wear actual fancy suits and are equivalent to the futuristic mafia. And then there's the evil villian Molech, who's basically a kid with daddy issues and a god complex. He wants to take over Tabula Rasa (and then the world) and pretty much destroy anyone or thing he deems unworthy. The problem is, that Zoe holds the key to either his success or epic failure.
So basically there are people trying to kidnap or kill her, or gain access to the vast fortune her father left behind for her (which includes his company and his "Suits"), or they want to protect her.
There are so many left turns in this story it's almost hard to keep up. The author kept me on the edge of my seat for this one. I was never really sure how it was all going to work out. The most important part of this book was that Zoe's cat survived all of the gunfire, explosions--basically carnage. I'm all about the animals people.
And it wasn't exactly an open or ambiguous ending, but there was definitely the hint of a sequel. I shudder to think what kind of mess Zoe would find herself in in a sequel!
The narrator did an excellent job bringing the characters to life.
It's set in the not-so-distant future where the cars are self driving, holograms are a normal thing, and most of the world lives their lives either creating or watching a continuous live stream of their mundane or extreme
Show More
existences.Zoe gets caught up in a mess of her late absentee father's making. There's his crew, the suits, who all wear actual fancy suits and are equivalent to the futuristic mafia. And then there's the evil villian Molech, who's basically a kid with daddy issues and a god complex. He wants to take over Tabula Rasa (and then the world) and pretty much destroy anyone or thing he deems unworthy. The problem is, that Zoe holds the key to either his success or epic failure.
So basically there are people trying to kidnap or kill her, or gain access to the vast fortune her father left behind for her (which includes his company and his "Suits"), or they want to protect her.
There are so many left turns in this story it's almost hard to keep up. The author kept me on the edge of my seat for this one. I was never really sure how it was all going to work out. The most important part of this book was that Zoe's cat survived all of the gunfire, explosions--basically carnage. I'm all about the animals people.
And it wasn't exactly an open or ambiguous ending, but there was definitely the hint of a sequel. I shudder to think what kind of mess Zoe would find herself in in a sequel!
The narrator did an excellent job bringing the characters to life.
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LibraryThing member titania86
If she knew someone was trying to kill her, Zoey Ashe wouldn't have been outside in the freezing cold trying to get her cat off the roof of her trailer. The Jackal/Hyena/Shark (he hasn't really settled on an alias yet) is lurking around with millions of viewers waiting for his moment to pounce.
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits is a fun book that sucks you into its screwed up futuristic world. It's stylistically similar to David Wong's John Dies at the End series except in science fiction instead of horror and with a female protagonist. The story takes place in the nearish future and features advanced technologies. Cars drive themselves. Advertisements are holographic. Google Glass-like technology is everywhere. The drive to record everything about one's life is even more prevalent than today. The stream website that is the most popular is called Blink and almost everyone watches and/or records their own Blink streams. Also, weirdos have tech-based enhancements to their bodies to make them stronger, faster, produce electricity, and a whole slew of nightmarish things. I loved all the technology and how it infused every day life. Most of it is a logical evolution of technology we see today or the expansion of present burgeoning technologies.
The characters are full of sarcasm and irreverence and the odds are stacked astronomically high against them. All of the characters are quirky and interesting in their own way. Zoey was just a regular trailer park resident scraping by with her stripper mom. Her self driving car barely works and her cat, while somehow still lovable, is stinky and contrary. Her whole world gets turned upside down with her father's death. People are after her in the first place because of his riches and one mysterious object everyone wants. Zoey went from trailer park girl to the richest, most privileged girl (plus America's most watched) in the course of a few minutes. She's drawn into all of this trouble because of her hated father and she has no choice but to ask his posse of fancy suits for help. I liked Zoey a lot. She doesn't know how to navigate this world and tries her best. I think she should have listened to her fancy suit posse a few times more than she did, but I thought she made pretty good decision throughout. She didn't let the newfound wealth get to her head or alter who she is. I also really liked Will Blackwater, fancy suit posse member and alcoholic extraordinaire. He does whatever it takes to get the task done, but he isn't without humor. His past is dark and twisty plus he doesn't sugarcoat things for anyone.
David Wong is amazing at what he does and I can't stop reading his books. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits is similar in tone to his first series, but sets itself apart with the focus on science fiction and different types of characters. I love this urban fantays/science fiction that he writes. It isn't epic or grandiose and I can see real people living in his books. I will read anything he writes. I'll be reading This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It while he finishes the third John Dies at the End book. Fans of his first series, The Unnoticeables by fellow Cracked writer Robert Brockway, or Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series will enjoy this book.
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Will Blackwater (sporting a fancy suit) saves her and brings her to the explosive, overwhelming world of Tabula Ra$a. This strange city is garish, loud, and mostly lawless. Zoey's biological father Arthur Livingston is a wealthy entrepreneur who amassed his riches using a combination of legal and illegal means. Zoey doesn't want anything to do with him, but she's mixed up in this trouble anyway. She caused the deaths of a couple of people coming after her who were followers of an internet sensation named Moloch. He takes great offense and vows to kill her, asking his followers to bring her to him in return for praise. Everyone with an internet connection is either after her or willing to be entertained by her death. What's a girl to do?Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits is a fun book that sucks you into its screwed up futuristic world. It's stylistically similar to David Wong's John Dies at the End series except in science fiction instead of horror and with a female protagonist. The story takes place in the nearish future and features advanced technologies. Cars drive themselves. Advertisements are holographic. Google Glass-like technology is everywhere. The drive to record everything about one's life is even more prevalent than today. The stream website that is the most popular is called Blink and almost everyone watches and/or records their own Blink streams. Also, weirdos have tech-based enhancements to their bodies to make them stronger, faster, produce electricity, and a whole slew of nightmarish things. I loved all the technology and how it infused every day life. Most of it is a logical evolution of technology we see today or the expansion of present burgeoning technologies.
The characters are full of sarcasm and irreverence and the odds are stacked astronomically high against them. All of the characters are quirky and interesting in their own way. Zoey was just a regular trailer park resident scraping by with her stripper mom. Her self driving car barely works and her cat, while somehow still lovable, is stinky and contrary. Her whole world gets turned upside down with her father's death. People are after her in the first place because of his riches and one mysterious object everyone wants. Zoey went from trailer park girl to the richest, most privileged girl (plus America's most watched) in the course of a few minutes. She's drawn into all of this trouble because of her hated father and she has no choice but to ask his posse of fancy suits for help. I liked Zoey a lot. She doesn't know how to navigate this world and tries her best. I think she should have listened to her fancy suit posse a few times more than she did, but I thought she made pretty good decision throughout. She didn't let the newfound wealth get to her head or alter who she is. I also really liked Will Blackwater, fancy suit posse member and alcoholic extraordinaire. He does whatever it takes to get the task done, but he isn't without humor. His past is dark and twisty plus he doesn't sugarcoat things for anyone.
David Wong is amazing at what he does and I can't stop reading his books. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits is similar in tone to his first series, but sets itself apart with the focus on science fiction and different types of characters. I love this urban fantays/science fiction that he writes. It isn't epic or grandiose and I can see real people living in his books. I will read anything he writes. I'll be reading This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It while he finishes the third John Dies at the End book. Fans of his first series, The Unnoticeables by fellow Cracked writer Robert Brockway, or Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series will enjoy this book.
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LibraryThing member Sarah220
This book ricochets wildly between humor and nail-biting tension as the protagonist goes from one crazy, dangerous situation to the next. In a world where "streaming" has been taken to a whole new level, being the target of a media savvy psychopath with mechanical enhancements has some distinct
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disadvantages. Plus a couple instances of food porn from Carlton sprinkled in the batch. Show Less
LibraryThing member AHS-Wolfy
A purpose built city for fun and entertainment in the near future gets thrown into turmoil with the death in an explosion of one of its founders. Into this chaos is dragged Zoey, biological but estranged daughter to the recently departed, as she is apparently the key to a vault he left behind. The
This is a fast-paced action thriller with plenty of humour to help keep the pages flying by. While his previous two books have been more horror based this is definitely more firmly in the science fiction genre. While the main story looks at mechanical implants to turn people into living weapons in the background there is the ever-present look at what social media could be heading towards. While the characters are fairly two-dimensional and the action frequently over-the-top it is still very much an enjoyable romp and I would certainly read another book set in this universe if the author writes one.
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folks in fancy suits who worked for Zoey’s father want her to open the vault and promise protection from another faction that don’t. Zoey travels from her trailer park home to the city where almost anything goes not knowing who she can trust and finds her life becoming one big movie with everyone live streams her every move. Can she even make it to the vault alive and what will she find inside if she does?This is a fast-paced action thriller with plenty of humour to help keep the pages flying by. While his previous two books have been more horror based this is definitely more firmly in the science fiction genre. While the main story looks at mechanical implants to turn people into living weapons in the background there is the ever-present look at what social media could be heading towards. While the characters are fairly two-dimensional and the action frequently over-the-top it is still very much an enjoyable romp and I would certainly read another book set in this universe if the author writes one.
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LibraryThing member jamestomasino
This book was a lot of fun, but the storyline was nonsensical. Most of the action didn't need to take place and it wasn't so much driven by the main character as by the random whims of the author. The narration in the audiobook is tricky to review. On the one hand, the narrator had a hard time
In short, it was a fun read, but I won't go out of my way to recommend it.
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keeping the cadence of the text, and would pause awkwardly in the middle of phrases in a disconnected way. Also, how on Earth did they manage to make the entire audiobook without a single person telling the narrator how to pronounce tabula rasa? All that aside, she was a good fit for the voice of the main character. So there's that, I guess.In short, it was a fun read, but I won't go out of my way to recommend it.
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LibraryThing member manopie
I received this book through the Goodreads book giveaway.
It sat on the shelf for months before I finally got around to it.
I read most of it in a matter of days. Easy to read, funny as all get out, and a bit of mystery as to what happens next.
It's a thoroughly enjoyable book and worth it if you have
Now, the trade paperback of the second book in this series comes out in just over a month. So I'll be going to my local store to snag it when it comes out because I HAVE to know what happens next!
It sat on the shelf for months before I finally got around to it.
I read most of it in a matter of days. Easy to read, funny as all get out, and a bit of mystery as to what happens next.
It's a thoroughly enjoyable book and worth it if you have
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to buy it and don't receive a free copy in the mail! Now, the trade paperback of the second book in this series comes out in just over a month. So I'll be going to my local store to snag it when it comes out because I HAVE to know what happens next!
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LibraryThing member tuusannuuska
Picked this up on a whim because nothing on my TBR sounded appealing, and this was certainly something :D
Zoey is a 22-year-old woman living in a trailer. Her Dad is an ultra wealthy business man with less than legal practices, and she hasn't had anything to do with him her entire life. She works
This takes place in the somewhat near future and the sci-fi element is mostly technological. Tech has just developed to a point where morally questionable human trials have started on modifying humans into technologically enhanced super soldiers. However, it isn't the military that's doing it, but these villainous a-moral thugs that are hell bent on becoming gods, basically.
This book is first and foremost violent (as you might have guessed based on the title) as well as fun. Some characters are funny to the point where I laughed out loud, but we don't really take a deep dive into anyone's personality. Zoey is basically just fed up with the whole thing and just wants to go home, and takes repeated verbal and physical abuse. I liked her, but this might well be triggering to people who have a hard time reading about people being verbally abused for their weight. The abuse comes from vile characters and being a bigger girl is just a quality of her's as a character otherwise (she doesn't have self-esteem issues, she doesn't want to be smaller etc.) but it's still not nice to read.
This reads like a fun action movie, and while it had some decently quotable deeper points to make, this is mostly just very entertaining violence. A bit reminiscent of Deadpool in tone, if lacking the the loveable asshole main character.
Zoey is a 22-year-old woman living in a trailer. Her Dad is an ultra wealthy business man with less than legal practices, and she hasn't had anything to do with him her entire life. She works
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as a barista and is pretty close with her mom, who's more like a friend to her. She also has a noxiously smelly cat. And then her Dad dies, and the option if staying out of his world is abrubtly taken away from her.This takes place in the somewhat near future and the sci-fi element is mostly technological. Tech has just developed to a point where morally questionable human trials have started on modifying humans into technologically enhanced super soldiers. However, it isn't the military that's doing it, but these villainous a-moral thugs that are hell bent on becoming gods, basically.
This book is first and foremost violent (as you might have guessed based on the title) as well as fun. Some characters are funny to the point where I laughed out loud, but we don't really take a deep dive into anyone's personality. Zoey is basically just fed up with the whole thing and just wants to go home, and takes repeated verbal and physical abuse. I liked her, but this might well be triggering to people who have a hard time reading about people being verbally abused for their weight. The abuse comes from vile characters and being a bigger girl is just a quality of her's as a character otherwise (she doesn't have self-esteem issues, she doesn't want to be smaller etc.) but it's still not nice to read.
This reads like a fun action movie, and while it had some decently quotable deeper points to make, this is mostly just very entertaining violence. A bit reminiscent of Deadpool in tone, if lacking the the loveable asshole main character.
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LibraryThing member lexilewords
So by the end of the book this honestly made me uncomfortable more often than anything else.
Molech was...I didn't like him. I didn't like his way of doing things, I didn't like his justification, I didn't like his motivation. I didn't like how he kept saying piggy to Zoey. Or the fact that Molech's
That said I wasn't fond of much of the cast at large. Communication would have gone a long way and if Will was half the strategist he claimed he would have realized that quicker. It constantly felt like a game of 20 Questions and not in the good fun way. Will, and by extension the other Suits, kept their plans to themselves because they either thought Zoey wouldn't understand the nuances and screw it up or would get upset about how they handled things. Well here's a newsflash - after the first time that goes supremely badly, maybe change your diagnosis. Every time the plan went wrong, it was because Will did not tell Zoey "hey so here's the play". Zoey literally had no reason to trust him but he kept getting morally offended and righteously angry that she would be upset that he again said he's hand her over to the bad guys' if they would just give him time.
Will this wasn't a game of "Cry Wolf", words have meanings especially if you don't have any history to back up the fact that you're trust-able.
And Zoey? She felt inconsistent. One minute she acts tough as a guy describes to his Blink followers how he will mutilate her body and the next she's freaking out because she can't handle a different guy threatening her.
Some of what Wong posits in this near-future tale (I don't remember an exact year given but it's after 2023, since there's a luxury car mentioned minted from that year) tracks well, but there's also a lot that does not. Or I'd like to believe would not. Especially about social media (something y'all know I am fond of). BLINK as a concept isn't so far-fetched when you consider Google Glasses or the augmented reality tech that's being developed and shown off for our smart phones.
The actual use of it though...its highly disturbing. It takes lack of personal space and privacy to a whole new level. Since Tabula Ra$a* is meant to be the absolute shittiest place, but also the most Tech Evolved I don't think its a fair template to gauge just how wide spread the use (or misuse) is nation, if not world, wide. I would have liked a little more information in that regard. Zoey, being from a trailer park and barely having a cell phone, isn't a decent gauge of the average citizen either. The book is all extremes one way or the other, with the ordinary citizens being regulated to either cannon fodder or nameless BLINK users.
In the end I am glad I listened to it, but feel way too disturbed to want to dwell on it. Christy Carlson Romano, the narrator, was as always a joy to listen to and she did a very good job differentiating the characters through cadence and tone (there's a good two dozen with regular speaking lines throughout and I could tell them all apart without needing help). I just...this book is disturbing as an entity in itself and as a possibility for our future.
(*)no that's not a mistake, that's how the city was literally named by a bunch of no-good billionaires
Molech was...I didn't like him. I didn't like his way of doing things, I didn't like his justification, I didn't like his motivation. I didn't like how he kept saying piggy to Zoey. Or the fact that Molech's
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favorite threat was that he would let his men brutalize Zoey. It wasn't his only threat, but its the one he went back to again and again. On top of all the physical violence he committed against her. I didn't like that while what he was saying wasn't without merit his reasoning was so flawed. That said I wasn't fond of much of the cast at large. Communication would have gone a long way and if Will was half the strategist he claimed he would have realized that quicker. It constantly felt like a game of 20 Questions and not in the good fun way. Will, and by extension the other Suits, kept their plans to themselves because they either thought Zoey wouldn't understand the nuances and screw it up or would get upset about how they handled things. Well here's a newsflash - after the first time that goes supremely badly, maybe change your diagnosis. Every time the plan went wrong, it was because Will did not tell Zoey "hey so here's the play". Zoey literally had no reason to trust him but he kept getting morally offended and righteously angry that she would be upset that he again said he's hand her over to the bad guys' if they would just give him time.
Will this wasn't a game of "Cry Wolf", words have meanings especially if you don't have any history to back up the fact that you're trust-able.
And Zoey? She felt inconsistent. One minute she acts tough as a guy describes to his Blink followers how he will mutilate her body and the next she's freaking out because she can't handle a different guy threatening her.
Some of what Wong posits in this near-future tale (I don't remember an exact year given but it's after 2023, since there's a luxury car mentioned minted from that year) tracks well, but there's also a lot that does not. Or I'd like to believe would not. Especially about social media (something y'all know I am fond of). BLINK as a concept isn't so far-fetched when you consider Google Glasses or the augmented reality tech that's being developed and shown off for our smart phones.
The actual use of it though...its highly disturbing. It takes lack of personal space and privacy to a whole new level. Since Tabula Ra$a* is meant to be the absolute shittiest place, but also the most Tech Evolved I don't think its a fair template to gauge just how wide spread the use (or misuse) is nation, if not world, wide. I would have liked a little more information in that regard. Zoey, being from a trailer park and barely having a cell phone, isn't a decent gauge of the average citizen either. The book is all extremes one way or the other, with the ordinary citizens being regulated to either cannon fodder or nameless BLINK users.
In the end I am glad I listened to it, but feel way too disturbed to want to dwell on it. Christy Carlson Romano, the narrator, was as always a joy to listen to and she did a very good job differentiating the characters through cadence and tone (there's a good two dozen with regular speaking lines throughout and I could tell them all apart without needing help). I just...this book is disturbing as an entity in itself and as a possibility for our future.
(*)no that's not a mistake, that's how the city was literally named by a bunch of no-good billionaires
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LibraryThing member Treebeard_404
Another action novel from David Wong featuring an unpredictable plot and a great touch of humor.
LibraryThing member bdgamer
Having read the "John" series, I had high hopes going in, and I wasn't disappointed at all.
The writing is sharp, the humor to be expected, and the characters as David-y as possible. But I was confused by one particular thing: it wants to be futuristic, yet stays well-rooted in the current world.
Let
Anyways, other than that, I have absolutely no complaints. This was a fun, quick read that had enough violence, humor, and laughably bad villains and heroes. It's dead serious at times, offering genuine life advice, and then throwing up slapstick or toilet jokes in the next page.
It also feels like a movie at times, something I would love to watch. However, I think it'll work better as a mini-series on television, considering just how interesting the world and the characters are. I'd love to spend more time in this world, which means a TV show would be a better medium. Oh, and yes, I'd love to read a sequel to Zoey and The Suits, too!
The writing is sharp, the humor to be expected, and the characters as David-y as possible. But I was confused by one particular thing: it wants to be futuristic, yet stays well-rooted in the current world.
Let
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me explain: on the one hand, we have fully autonomous vehicles and signboards that stretch across the sky; on the other, we have present era guns and technology. It's a confusing mishmash of current and futuristic technology, which made the reading a bit unpredictable since I couldn't anticipate the era of technology to be used later in the story.Anyways, other than that, I have absolutely no complaints. This was a fun, quick read that had enough violence, humor, and laughably bad villains and heroes. It's dead serious at times, offering genuine life advice, and then throwing up slapstick or toilet jokes in the next page.
It also feels like a movie at times, something I would love to watch. However, I think it'll work better as a mini-series on television, considering just how interesting the world and the characters are. I'd love to spend more time in this world, which means a TV show would be a better medium. Oh, and yes, I'd love to read a sequel to Zoey and The Suits, too!
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LibraryThing member wagner.sarah35
*I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.*
How to describe this book? Humorous, sarcastic, a sharp look at the use of media and technology in our society (characters are constantly broadcasting themselves throughout this book), and certainly reminiscent of Douglas Adams. It made for fun
How to describe this book? Humorous, sarcastic, a sharp look at the use of media and technology in our society (characters are constantly broadcasting themselves throughout this book), and certainly reminiscent of Douglas Adams. It made for fun
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reading, but I did feel like the book possibly could have been condensed as for the last half I felt as though I was reading violent scene after violent scene with only minimal progress in the plot. Nevertheless this is certainly a book for fans of humorous science fiction. Show Less
LibraryThing member Dorothy2012
Light, fast read. A cross between Hiaasen/Westlake/Moore. Note: a lot of ripping violence and gore.
Awards
Alex Award (2016)
RUSA CODES Reading List (Shortlist — Science Fiction — 2016)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Fiction — 2015)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — 2015)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2015
Physical description
480 p.; 7.8 inches
ISBN
1783291842 / 9781783291847
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