For Amichai and the rest of his world, it isn't this life that matters, but the Upterlife. In Steinmetz' near-future portrayal, the world has been transformed by a technology that uploads the minds of the dead into an eternal afterlife of quests and games and challenges and happiness. The living--those not wiped out by epidemics, plagues, and decreased life expectancy-- do the drudgework necessary to maintain the server farms while dreaming of their deaths and their Upterlives. Amichai has grown up in an orphanage, but his love of pranks and his interest in programming--banned for the living-- have put him at risk of losing his place in the Upterlife. When he is caught during his most recent prank involving a pony in a nursinghome, he finds himself at the start of a journey that uncovers the darkest secrets of the Upterlife and the living world that remains.

I absolutely adored Steinmetz' previous series, Flex , but unfortunately, Uploaded just didn't really work for me. I was fascinated by the world, which reminded me a bit of an Egan novel. As someone who has always been terrified by the concept of eternity, I am always intrigued by the idea of uploaded consciousnesses. As a programmer, I also was amused at the idea of programming being forbidden. However, all of the characters, including Amichai, felt one-dimensional and unsympathetic to me. We have the "Hero Geek," the "Best Friend," the "Best Friend's Hot Sister," and the "Beautiful Dangerous Cultist." I think the book is somewhat held back by its stereotypes: the young female characters that are controlled by their sexuality, the odd comments about Judaism, the "Magical Negro" vibe of the one African-American character, and the whole "NeoChristian" thing. One of the greatest strengths of speculative fiction is that you can use worldbuilding to create a complex metaphor to explore real world issues. So why create an obsessive, backward, death-worshipping cult and call it "Christian"? The use of that tired portrayal of Christianity is a bit of a pity because I found some of the commentary quite thoughtful, such as:

"Something in her needed to believe the world was like a bank-- you deposited in kindness and got it all back in the end."

It would be much more effective if separated from tired tropes.

Overall, while the ideas of the novel are fascinating, the execution just didn't quite work for me. It could be that I'm just not the target audience-- I'm not a gamer and may simply have failed to recognize a lot of the in-jokes. While this didn't really hurt my enjoyment of Flex , I may simply have failed to "get" Uploaded.. I generally love quirky programming-imbued scifi, but this just doesn't quite have the insider geekery of Stross or Pratchett. If you're already a fan, then this is probably worth a try, but if you're new to Steinmetz as an author, I'd definitely recommend Flex as your first venture into Steinmetz' work.

I received an advanced reader copy of this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Angry Robot Books, in exchange for my (depressingly) honest review. 

~~Cross-posted on Goodreads.~~

Fix ('Mancer #3)

by Ferrett Steinmetz

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ferrett Steinmetz's Flex series is one of the most imaginative and unique urban fantasies I've encountered. The trilogy takes place in a world where passionate, obsessive belief actually has the ability to warp reality to match their internal vision. As the book puts it:

"If you believed with a diamond-hard conviction the universe should act in a certain way, sometimes it did. You didn't mean to make it do anything, it just… shuffled out of the way.

Someone with an unhealthy obsession with gaming might become a videogamemancer, causing bullets to bounce off skin or magicking portal guns out of thin air or causing people around them to patrol in repeated loops. An edumancer might actually be able to teach anything to anyone and make them remember every word. But 'mancy comes at a cost. When the universe is bent into an alternate system, it rebounds with flux: concentrated bad luck that targets the 'mancer and causes their greatest fears to come true. And when 'mancy stands off against 'mancy, as happened in Europe, reality can be so horrifically distorted that it can breach, opening a door for creatures from the Lovecraftian Dungeon Dimensions.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, check out Flex, the first book in the trilogy. From here on out, there may be spoilers for the previous books.

In some ways, Fix was a satisfying book. I love series that end, that resolve their plot arcs rather than dragging out character development and conflicts infinitely. As Steinmetz notes in the afterward, Fix is indeed the end of the trilogy, and I appreciated the sense of closure. However, at the same time, Fix was extremely difficult to finish. The previous books may have been dark, but Fix repeatedly verges on utter despondency. I believe that pacing is a delicate feat of acrobatics: if everything's too safe and easy and achievable, there's no suspense. However, when things are too hard and hopeless, where all of the protagonists' moves just make everything worse and worse, then there's nothing to keep the reader engaged and it's all too easy to give up and put the book down. Unfortunately, I think the first 75% of Fix falls neatly into the latter category. The protagonists--the people I've rooted for, admittedly with mixed emotions, for two previous books-- push so far past the moral event horizon that I felt alienated from them and just wanted it all to end. I kept putting down the book, coming up with any excuse to read something else. I had to force myself to take it up again again and again.

One of the things I've loved about these books is the protagonist. Paul is a bureaucromancer. He believes in laws and rules and order with so much passion that his faith actually bends reality. Needless to say, he's a bit on the OCD side. As someone who is compelled to turn the doorknob repeatedly in multiples of five when leaving the house to make sure it's really locked (not kidding about multiples of five, sadly), this makes Paul a very empathetic and relatable character for me. An example of why I love him:

Back in the days before Paul had fallen hopelessly in love with Imani, he would find himself seized by shameful urges in his dates' apartments [...] college dorms so cramped they were practically spooning; Paul laced his fingers together to avoid temptation. His dates always smiled when they noticed his discomfort.

"Whatcha thinking?" they'd ask.

"Can I…"

"Yes?" They'd tilt their chins, all but begging to be kissed.

"Can I rearrange your bookshelves? They're out of alphabetical order."

The dates ended shortly after that.

Paul's singlemindedness has always made him something of an antihero; after all, in the initial book, he's willing to sell drugs to gangsters to save his daughter and in the second book, his actions against the villain left me horrified. However, in this book, his descent is so abrupt that it wasn't possible for me to empathize or even comprehend his actions. Instead, I was left feeling disconnected, unable to empathise with Paul or see him as anything other than a villain.

'Mancers were always set up to be antiheroes. Their steadfast certainty means that they see the world in an inherently rigid and inaccurate way; after all, that's how they do magic. In this book, Steinmetz really examines the consequences of this rigidity. In some ways, I loved this introspective aspect and the ways it explored Paul's motivations and the repercussions of his actions, but it was also heartbreaking to watch him do some truly terrible things.

I forced myself again and again to pick up the book, and I'm glad I did. I love how the book continued to develop Imani and Aliyah's characters. I love that we finally get to see breach-torn Europe. I love that we learn more about the Unimancers and their system. And I also love the way Valentine's romance develops through the story. Without any spoilers, I found the ending profoundly satisfying and also sweet.^* If you've read the other books in the series, then I don't need to recommend Fix to you--you're going to pick it up anyway. If you haven't, and the idea of an OCD paperwork-loving 'mancer protagonist sounds like fun, you should definitely take a look at Flex. As for me, I'm excited to find out what Steinmetz has in store for his readers next.

~~ I received this ebook through Netgalley from the publishers, Angry Robot Books, in exchange for my honest review. (Thank you!) Quotes are taken from an advanced reader copy and while they may not reflect the final phrasing, I believe they speak to the spirit of the book as a whole.~~

Cross-posted on Goodreads.

^{*If you think that's spoilery, bear in mind that my definition of "completion" is apparently somewhat unusual, so don't necessarily assume a picture-perfect HEA with every plot thread wrapped up.↩}

Goodreads Page here.

Books: 148

Pages: 51,091

My Top 10

Planetfall - Emma Newman 

Heartrending.

Review

The Demon Under the Microscope  - Thomas Hager 

The history of antibiotics: fascinating, heartbreaking, and mostly new to me.

Review

Altered Carbon - Richard K. Morgan 

Noir scifi at its best.

Review

Flex - Ferrett Steinmetz 

The most entertaining and imaginative urban fantasy I read this year.

Review

The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi 

One of the few hard scifi novels I absolutely adored.

Review

Bad Pharma - Ben Goldacre 

Powerful and well-documented. I need to write a review of this one.

A Murder of Mages - Marshall Ryan Maresca 

A new author I'll definitely be following. Light, entertaining, and tons of fun.

Review

The Plantagenets - Dan Jones 

Easily one of the most entertaining history books I read this year. The Plantagenets were all crazy.

Review

Perhaps the best art manual I've encountered. I bought the physical book.

Review

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Nine - ed. Jonathan Strahan 

I love these collections, and this is one of the best.

Review

The Flux ('Mancer #2)

by Ferrett Steinmetz

TL;DR: If you're looking for some truly original urban fantasy, particularly if you're a gamer, you need to try this series. The Flux was good I read it twice. It is the sequel to the equally awesome Flex, which you should probably read first. (I adored that book as well, and interviewed the author here.)

**WARNING: I tried to minimize spoilers of the previous book, but it may not be entirely possible.**

I absolutely loved The Flux. It's incredibly difficult to follow an awesome first book, but this book actually surpasses the first. The Flux continues the story of Paul, a bureaucromancer, whose belief in the power of rules is so strong that it actually bends the fabric of reality, granting him 'mancy. I adore Paul, and I'm slightly disturbed by how well I understand his perspective. He copes with stress by making lists, including lists of all the certain deaths facing him. He's hilariously uptight, sees the universe in terms of rules, and believes that "Paperwork was what made the universe fair."

All of the characters flawed and vibrant people. I loved how Steinmetz managed to create a character like Valentine, a goth videogamemancer who is very sexually demonstrative and comfortable in her body, without ever objectifying her. Part of that comes from Paul's narrative perspective, as Paul finds Valentine to be equal parts embarrassing and bemusing. I absolutely adored their dynamics. They argue constantly--as much as Paul is capable of arguing--and then "hug it out later." Standard conversation:

"You come up with half a plan, then expect me to pull a miracle out of my ass?"

"...can't you?"

"Of course I can, but you shouldn't expect that!"

Or:

"Oh, God," he muttered. "This is such a mistake."

"That's how you always say yes!" Valentine squealed, and tackle-hugged him.

This book also solved one of my (few) issues with the previous book. While Imani was simply a two-dimensional nagging ex in Flex, in The Flux, she comes into her own. I'm not exactly sure I like her, but the exploration of her personality and motivations humanized her to the extent that I think I want to. I also enjoyed the addition of Oscar the hyper-organized mob boss and K-Dash and Quaysean, the donut-bearing gangsters.

And then there's the 'mancy. This book is dominated by videogamemancy, but we also encounter a Fight-Club-mancer (he insists he's a Palahniuk'mancer), but there's also plenty of bureaucromancy, pyromancy, and origamimancy to add a bit of spice. While this book will be more fun if you're a fan of videogames or Fight Club, the first time I read through, I caught precisely none of the pop culture references and still loved it. (When I reread, I employed a bit of Googlemancy and once I understood what Tyler Durden, Alex Mercer, and JRPGs referred to, the book was infinitely funnier.)

Like its predecessor, while this book may be a little slow to get started, when the story picks up momentum, it's utterly un-put-down-able. Sure, there's plenty of mancy and mayhem, but it's also about family and children and the pangs of growing up. It's about a little girl who discovers that Daddy isn't superman and good doesn't always triumph. It's about how learning that have value only through the efforts taken to achieve them. It's about the struggle to raise a child, the balancing act to protect her while still letting her grow through the consequences of her actions. It's about the terrible pangs of being a parent:

"If you give up everything for your children's happiness, Paul, you can't teach them how to be happy."

It's about how seeing others around us as human is part of what gives us our humanity.  And all of that is packed into a thoroughly entertaining, engrossing story told within a thoroughly fascinating world.

And while the ending is utterly, utterly satisfying, I can't wait for the next book.

~~I received this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Angry Robot Books, in exchange for my honest review. Quotes are taken from an advanced reader copy and while they may not reflect the final phrasing, I believe they speak to the spirit of the novel as a whole.~~

My latest at B&N SciFi. Short version: a novel magical system based on our most obsessive impulses, with characters that are themselves unusual, not because they're stupendous badasses, but the opposite. Very fun book.