Synopsis: On a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.
Eve isn’t looking for secrets—she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.
But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.
Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.
Review: Lifel1k3 (pronounced "Lifelike") is a fascinating, fast-paced book. The biggest downside I had was the number of characters. Some of them felt important, but not all of them. When you have an entire crew of people, they all need to feel like they are necessary. I didn't get that sensation. Specifically when it came to Cricket and Kaiser. The banter between Cricket and the other characters was definitely funny, but I wanted him to be more than the sassy sidekick. I also found Lemon's story to be predictable. Maybe this is an issue that only I had. It's a pity, but I felt like the entire story could have been told just as well with only Evie and Zeke.
Everything else about this book was excellent. I loved this world. I loved that machine characters, like Cricket, can have attitudes along with being servants. I also really enjoyed the dialog. Slang in sci-fi/fantasy books can be hit or miss, but Jay does this so well. Even words that would be considered slurs felt natural. Maybe it's because the word itself, fug, is very close to an actual slur, but it is something I can absolutely imagine people saying in this sort of world. The plot was engaging. There were some aspects I saw coming, but I still appreciated the ending. Seeing how things played out at the end made me pumped to read the next book. Sadly, I don't have it. :3
Great premise with some lackluster characters. Hoping we get a better feel for them and their purpose in later books.
4 howls
I haven't done this in a while, but if you play video games and you enjoy this concept of machines having their own thought processes, then I would suggest you check out a game called Nier: Automata. There isn't too much similar other than how machines are treated, but it's an interesting game and it might be up your alley.
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