Theory of Bastards - Q8: Overall Impressions

clash_bowley

What were your overall impressions of this book? How did you feel while reading and after? How did it affect you?

RichardAbbott

As a story (except for the end) I thought it engaging, different, and credible, and was very glad o have read it.

One typographic question I was left with... which @Apocryphal may not be aware of if as usual he listened to the book rather than reading it... speech is signalled no by any kind of typographic signal (', ", italics or whatever)... all you get is a comma and then the text switches into speech. Why is this? Is it to blur any distinction between external speech and internal thought? Or an attempt to suggest that with the Bindis providing an interconnected world, then speech kind of runs into the results of search engine replies? Or what? I have no clue what she was trying to signal with this.

clash_bowley

Damn! I meant to ask what people felt about this! It's in my notes, and I just missed it!

Apocryphal

I read the paperback. Initially, I thought the lack of quotes would annoy me, because I had to work harder to parse when people were speaking - but in the end this turned out fine and didn’t bother me.

Overall, I thought it was a decent story. It held my interest. The research was interesting. The characters were interesting and well drawn. But my inability to draw conclusions at the end leaves me feeling a little ‘yeah, ok, but so what?’ about it.

NeilNjae

I thought the lack of speech marks was a way to blur the distinction between spoken and signed language, another way of lowering the barrier between human and bonobo.

Overall, I think it was a decent pop-science book, with the emphasis on the "pop". I think I already knew all the science in the book, but it was well presented here. (And Frankie is a definite hotshot researcher, as she does groundbreaking work in several different fields at the drop of a hat.)

That framing allowed me to be pleased with the book for what it did, rather than being disappointed that it was a deficient novel.

clash_bowley

I was totally sucked in, lived the story, and finished with over half the month left. I read another couple books in the meantime, and had to refresh my memory from my notes

RichardAbbott

@Apocryphal said:
Overall, I thought it was a decent story. It held my interest. The research was interesting. The characters were interesting and well drawn. But my inability to draw conclusions at the end leaves me feeling a little ‘yeah, ok, but so what?’ about it.

Yes - I am sure that she (author she rather than character she) wanted to bring the interesting biology in, and she also wanted to write about the way an interconnected society could fail catastrophically all of a sudden... but I don't think she had a way to bring those strands together, and still less a way to draw either of them with the "romance" between Frankie and Stott. So we were left with several disparate threads rather than them being gathered into a unified theme