Summary:
Clair and Libby are best friends in a world where technology rules everything. Teleportation is really just another part of life. Imagine what you want and the D-mat gets it for you. Everything seems to be going great until Libby gets a secret message about Improvement. It simply promises that you enter in a code and you can change your body to be whatever you want. Don't you want to be more beautiful? Clair warns Libby against it, stating that it is simply too good to be true and probably a scam, but Libby tries it anyways. Soon Libby doesn't seem quite like herself. She isn't feeling well and is missing school. Clair decides to find out exactly what is going on with this Improvement thing before she loses her friend. What Clair doesn't know is she begins to dig into a conspiracy that just may end up getting her killed. In order to save Libby and herself, she bands together with some unlikely friends to uncover just what's going on here.
My thoughts:
I really enjoyed this novel. The middle, which in my opinion should be one of the best parts, is slow. Part of this is to explain and describe characters and build the world, but Clair's racing against time, so pick up the pace! That being said, it was the only thing that I found lacking within the novel. Clair is an indepth character that goes through tremendous changes within the novel. She begins as a meek heroine but ends with more confidence. Libby begins super bubbly, so the changes in her personality are dramatic. Each character is pulled together well enough that the reader knows them throughout the novel. I was fairly certain that I understood the motives and choices without being left stunned at any point in time.
The highlight of this book is the world building. Every good science fiction novel has to have a good world building base that can bring the reader into the story and the author's imaginative world. Without that base, the rest of the novel is almost pointless. Williams does an excellent job of pulling us into this futuristic world where technology rules everything. It's almost to the point where technology has more of an affect on things than the people using them. While this is not a man versus machine novel, it does make you think about how much we rely on technological conveniences and where we may eventually end up. As a bit of a techie nerd, I enjoyed the rich descriptions about how things worked. I was immersed in the world wanting to reach out and play with the new gadgets. Everything seemed real enough that I could imagine our world using some of this tech just a few years down the road. The world building really makes the book stand out and I can't wait until the next in the series arrives.
Clair and Libby are best friends in a world where technology rules everything. Teleportation is really just another part of life. Imagine what you want and the D-mat gets it for you. Everything seems to be going great until Libby gets a secret message about Improvement. It simply promises that you enter in a code and you can change your body to be whatever you want. Don't you want to be more beautiful? Clair warns Libby against it, stating that it is simply too good to be true and probably a scam, but Libby tries it anyways. Soon Libby doesn't seem quite like herself. She isn't feeling well and is missing school. Clair decides to find out exactly what is going on with this Improvement thing before she loses her friend. What Clair doesn't know is she begins to dig into a conspiracy that just may end up getting her killed. In order to save Libby and herself, she bands together with some unlikely friends to uncover just what's going on here.
My thoughts:
I really enjoyed this novel. The middle, which in my opinion should be one of the best parts, is slow. Part of this is to explain and describe characters and build the world, but Clair's racing against time, so pick up the pace! That being said, it was the only thing that I found lacking within the novel. Clair is an indepth character that goes through tremendous changes within the novel. She begins as a meek heroine but ends with more confidence. Libby begins super bubbly, so the changes in her personality are dramatic. Each character is pulled together well enough that the reader knows them throughout the novel. I was fairly certain that I understood the motives and choices without being left stunned at any point in time.
The highlight of this book is the world building. Every good science fiction novel has to have a good world building base that can bring the reader into the story and the author's imaginative world. Without that base, the rest of the novel is almost pointless. Williams does an excellent job of pulling us into this futuristic world where technology rules everything. It's almost to the point where technology has more of an affect on things than the people using them. While this is not a man versus machine novel, it does make you think about how much we rely on technological conveniences and where we may eventually end up. As a bit of a techie nerd, I enjoyed the rich descriptions about how things worked. I was immersed in the world wanting to reach out and play with the new gadgets. Everything seemed real enough that I could imagine our world using some of this tech just a few years down the road. The world building really makes the book stand out and I can't wait until the next in the series arrives.
Pretty good YA SF novel. I really liked the world-building, Williams does a great picture of what this world looks like. I don't know that I believe his technology would result in the world he shows, but it's a very solid world for this novel. The bits about the fabbers, the lenses, where people live, all that is great. I liked Claire; she does grow in confidence through this book although again, I don't know that I believed in her new competence and incredibly fast-thinking in such a short time. She's a little bland, maybe. The other characters are all well depicted. I figured out Q's real identity within a couple sentences, no surprise there. The pacing seems a little uneven; the beginning starts off really well but the long chase in the middle does tend to drag on. At the end I was, frankly, getting confused about who was who; can't say more than that without spoilers. And the end was foreordained. I wasn't sure how Williams was going to handle that but he does it with a bang.
This is the first of a trilogy; I won't be going on to the next but it's only because I'm reading almost 30 different series right now, and I don't feel like adding another one to the list. I'd really like for stand-alones to come back in fashion for mysteries and SF (grin).
This is the first of a trilogy; I won't be going on to the next but it's only because I'm reading almost 30 different series right now, and I don't feel like adding another one to the list. I'd really like for stand-alones to come back in fashion for mysteries and SF (grin).
