Stephanie Jane recenzis Waterdown by de Anastasia Slabucho
Enjoyable!
4 steloj
My initial idea of Waterdown, gleaned from its cover art, was some kind of outer space adventure because I misinterpreted the light points as stars. Waterdown is actually set in a grim future incarnation of Los Angeles - a city where our present-day blights of pollution and crime have been almost consigned to history, but where one's life choices are significantly constrained by implanted artificial intelligence devices. I loved the idea of the 'choice' that Slabucho inflicts upon her characters. There are two spheres of human existence: Temporals lose much of their free choice and short term memory, but can experience human emotions and social interaction. Permanents have enhanced memory capacity and are immortal, but also live socially isolated lives. Neither, I thought, would be a good life for me!
Waterdown manages to be both exciting and thoughtful which is a difficult balance to maintain successfully. I liked Geo as …
My initial idea of Waterdown, gleaned from its cover art, was some kind of outer space adventure because I misinterpreted the light points as stars. Waterdown is actually set in a grim future incarnation of Los Angeles - a city where our present-day blights of pollution and crime have been almost consigned to history, but where one's life choices are significantly constrained by implanted artificial intelligence devices. I loved the idea of the 'choice' that Slabucho inflicts upon her characters. There are two spheres of human existence: Temporals lose much of their free choice and short term memory, but can experience human emotions and social interaction. Permanents have enhanced memory capacity and are immortal, but also live socially isolated lives. Neither, I thought, would be a good life for me!
Waterdown manages to be both exciting and thoughtful which is a difficult balance to maintain successfully. I liked Geo as a character - even though she is a basically unlikeable person! - and appreciated her internal struggles when she realises that her life's work isn't the great achievement she had always believed it to be. Her soul-searching makes for poignant moments, especially when linked to her childhood memories. This introspection is countered with Geo's need to atone for her mistakes and quickly. Slabucho gives readers lots of tension in her well-paced novel as Geo begins to walk on the dark side of her perfect society.
I think Slabucho's portrayals of the various interpersonal relationships were my high spot of Waterdown, although I also appreciated her visualisations of Los Angeles. Even the AI, Fusion, appears to have a personality, and supporting characters such as lively teenager Air add a good sense of levity to prevent Waterdown from becoming too serious a read. I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed reading this novel and look forward to discovering more of Slabucho's work in the future.