Tami Veldura's Reviews > Artificial Evil

The first impression I got from Artificial Evil is that Gerry is an ass. I didn't like him, I started leaning toward actively disliking him, and then by chapter three I reluctantly stopped hoping he wouldn't be the main character.

Gerry is not a sympathetic character. I wouldn't go so far as to say he's unlikeable, but I wasn't rooting for him the whole way through.

Petal, on the other hand, is a small miracle of hope in this otherwise very odd scifi and she kept me reading along.

So critique: writing was easy. Not complex, fairly smooth, few typos (one their/there confusion at the end bugged me). The writing doesn't get in the way of the story, but it doesn't make it come alive either.

Plot: Very curious! I love the idea of complex AIs that can evolve by themselves. I liked the visuals of data and the constant questioning of what is human. Or what does being human mean.

However, I never felt like I completely understood why this major attack was happening in the first place. The primary antagonist is off-screen and not a focus of the story until the last third of the book. Without any screentime or attention we didn't get much of a chance to see his character with more complexity.

Characters: Generally good! I like Mags, Petal, and Old Grey. Seca was interesting but fell a little flat without a chance to understand his motives. The protag and antag were just... meh. But the strength of the supporting cast continued to keep the book interesting.

Setting: Not bad, not great. The setting could definitely have become a major character and I think a lot of potential was lost there. The characters run around their world without directly interacting with much of it.

In short, not a waste of time, but I won't be picking up book two.