★★★★★ 4
Easy reading, needs an edit pass
Format: Kindle
Bottom Line Up Front: good enough to buy sequels.
The premise of the story is set up well, pacing is overall decent (coincidentally, about real-time with the reader). The characters are simple, boiling down to one property for personality, one for motivation, and one for looks. However, they play believably against each other and there's no feeling of railroading (except one place, more on that later).
The chapter prefaces offer a nice world building method unconstrained by the first person exclusive story itself. On the other hand... Tell me the book was written during Trump-era mask mandates without saying "The book was written during Trump-era mask mandates".
Those references, while amusing now, will be dead in a few years (unlike the reference to SpaceBattles which is eternal).
Speaking of: The book could use a professional editor to fix things like "gravity thingamaBALL" being two pages later called a "gravity thingamaGRENADE" and described as a cylinder, easy to tie to. Clearly the author changed the shape for convenience but forgot to change the earlier mention (also, metal cylinders slip out of nooses. If you write an ACME 10-ton weight, shape it like a weight and be done with it ;). There were other similar niggles that I forgot now, and I saw no major plotholes... But remember: SpaceBattles forum feedback does not an editor equal.
Overall, nice way to spend sick days with 40 C fever.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2023
