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roadtripreader 's review for:
The Expert System's Champion
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The hive sees you as a threat, and this new ghost is their response.”
Everything in this world is a trypophobics nightmare. That's the one with the circles right? Yeah this would be a nightmare to watch if it were on screen.
A thought-provoking end to this duology. I never forgot of this weird world in which "ghosts" are electronics shoved into human faces so violently their skull contorts and swells and is eventually misshapen- but it doesn't kill them it makes them something more.
*********************************************
Plot/Storyline: Worldbuilding as with most Tchaikovsky work - right up there with the best of them.
This installment is just as mindbending and laced in Abrahamic themes as the first. From the Trees where the Hives reside, to the Village Lawgiver and Ghost-Doctor to the Order of Cain and the "Bandage-Men" - this world expands and develops in a macabre way.
Characters: Handry did a full 180 and is now as scary as Sharskin if not more. In the beginning of the book he has more power than he ever had in his entire life both Pre and Post Severance.
●Melory The Expert System, Iblis The Architect have grown into their roles as defiers of the "ghosts" in their heads. Iblis more so but Melory fights an uphill battle and it's beautiful to behold her loyalty for her twin Handry.
●I love that an Antivirus was basically introduced to the environment. Amorket of Jalaino is a GIANT trypophobia trigger if this duology ever makes it onto the big screen.
Favorite scene:
So many old human things appearing as alien, unnatural and new in this world.
● "Priest,” came the call from outside. “We’re come from Tsuno to get word to you. Hardly let our heels cool since we left it.” A village on his route, towards the edge of where people lived. A frontier place, nowhere anything important happened, surely, and yet here was Graf telling me, “They need help, priest. They have a war.”
Favorite Quote/Concept:
● "Eyes of the Ancestors" I prefer the ones for swimming or diving and now that I think of it - yes they do look alien.
● "I can’t even swear it’s better than dying alone in the woods. But it is something, and you will have comrades to share your misery.” (Handry on joing the Order of Cain)
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Speculative Fiction stories by 2025
Everything in this world is a trypophobics nightmare. That's the one with the circles right? Yeah this would be a nightmare to watch if it were on screen.
A thought-provoking end to this duology. I never forgot of this weird world in which "ghosts" are electronics shoved into human faces so violently their skull contorts and swells and is eventually misshapen- but it doesn't kill them it makes them something more.
*********************************************
Plot/Storyline: Worldbuilding as with most Tchaikovsky work - right up there with the best of them.
This installment is just as mindbending and laced in Abrahamic themes as the first. From the Trees where the Hives reside, to the Village Lawgiver and Ghost-Doctor to the Order of Cain and the "Bandage-Men" - this world expands and develops in a macabre way.
Characters: Handry did a full 180 and is now as scary as Sharskin if not more. In the beginning of the book he has more power than he ever had in his entire life both Pre and Post Severance.
●Melory The Expert System, Iblis The Architect have grown into their roles as defiers of the "ghosts" in their heads. Iblis more so but Melory fights an uphill battle and it's beautiful to behold her loyalty for her twin Handry.
●I love that an Antivirus was basically introduced to the environment. Amorket of Jalaino is a GIANT trypophobia trigger if this duology ever makes it onto the big screen.
Favorite scene:
So many old human things appearing as alien, unnatural and new in this world.
● "Priest,” came the call from outside. “We’re come from Tsuno to get word to you. Hardly let our heels cool since we left it.” A village on his route, towards the edge of where people lived. A frontier place, nowhere anything important happened, surely, and yet here was Graf telling me, “They need help, priest. They have a war.”
Favorite Quote/Concept:
● "Eyes of the Ancestors" I prefer the ones for swimming or diving and now that I think of it - yes they do look alien.
● "I can’t even swear it’s better than dying alone in the woods. But it is something, and you will have comrades to share your misery.” (Handry on joing the Order of Cain)
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Speculative Fiction stories by 2025