first book of 2023 was quite the ride.

i'm actually supposed to be working so let me get back to that... review to come because i have many thoughts.

you know when something is so vivid that you can practically taste the words, that you have a city, a planet, no, an entire universe in your head because of what you've just read?

i can barely see shit. that whole, 'imagine an apple, what do you see' fiasco made me realise i do not have as imaginative a mind as i previously thought which sucked because i'm really awful at maths and science and i'm not a top athlete, so if i'm not creative, what's left at this point? i'm getting distracted, what i'm trying to say (with a lot of bullshit) is that machine's last testament is so incredibly vivid that even i could get a rough sketch of everything that was being described and honestly, it's probably one of the selling points of this book.

there are a few other things that are really great, which i'm getting onto, but there are also a couple things that didn't work for me which meant this was a four star instead of a five. because i'm nothing if not ungenerous.

OKAY enough babbling, here's everything i loved:

as i've just mentioned, this was so good. for some, it might be slightly lethargic to note everything that there is to see, but for me it worked. the details were so creative. so wonderfully descriptive and never what i would ever have thought to describe foliage or the arc of a building or the clothing aesthetic. unique, detail orientated descriptions. all the characters were fleshed out with actual personalities and i was roooooting for ovuha, let her be a menace. everyone was really hot too, which is always a bonus. the sex scenes? jesus.

there were various pronouns AND neopronouns wound seamlessly into the prose, including they/them and xe. there was also a range of different sexualities with both main characters being queer. basically this was a big queer fest and after reading this, i forgot straight people actually exist.

it actually reminded me a little bit of i, robot (the film because i haven't yet read the book) with one main, supreme AI controlling everything and every AI. the themes of surveillance and immigration intertwined with imperialism were hard hitting and an honest depiction. they were handled with care, thoroughly explored and honestly, probably a pretty accurate representation of past and current events.

i'm quite a morbid person with a slight fascination with death and such so this was right up my alley. it wasn't visceral for the sake of being gory either. there was a time and place for the violence, it served to add to the plot and create this concept that given the chance, people will leave their humanity at the door if it allows them to live a lavish life.

oh god, i've gone on a lot haven't i. ah well.

now, things that didn't work for me:

i have a small brain. i also have a worrisome memory, and while i don't need to be reminded constantly, i'm not susceptible to vastly complicated and layered amounts of information all at once. if you don't have issues, know that i am incredibly jealous of you firstly, and that you will have no issue in this department if you so choose to read this.

there was something missing, not there. i didn’t believe this intense connection could have formed so quickly and thoroughly in such a short time frame and such little interactions. minor spoiler ‼️ there were a maximum of 10 interactions they had in the beginning and yet ovuha was so in love that she based their entire plan on whatever suzhen wanted? too insta-lovey for me. i felt like it needed a bit more of a slow-burn.

while i did love the world building and felt immersed in this narrative, i do think the mechanics were overlooked. i was getting confused as to how a lot of things were able to happen and couldn't tell if it were me being stupid and missed something or if it just hadn't really been mentioned.

ironically, there were both moments of info dumping AND moments were everything was so utterly vague i genuinely had no fucking clue what was happening. see previous point.

it was slow at the beginning, all action was condensed together and it affected my understanding of, again, what the fuck was happening at moments.

overall i think this was an ambitious first novel that was immensely creative but lacked the finishing touches. i'd also like to point out, for most of it, i did have a loose idea of what was happening before anyone comes for me.