Set in the near future, BZRK is the story of a war for control of the human mind. Charles and Benjamin Armstrong, conjoined twins and owners of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, have a goal: to turn the world into their vision of utopia. No wars, no conflict, no hunger. And no free will. Opposing them is a guerrilla group of teens, code name BZRK, who are fighting to protect the right to be messed up, to be human. This is no ordinary war, though. Weapons are deployed on the nano-level. The battleground is the human brain. And there are no stalemates here: It’s victory . . . or madness.
BZRK unfolds with hurricane force around core themes of conspiracy and mystery, insanity and changing realities, engagement and empowerment, and the larger impact of personal choice. Which side would you choose? How far would you go to win?
Review:
So I admit it, I like the Gone series, and that's just about the only reason I read this book. I was hoping for something as good as and possibly similar to Gone. Why did I expect this? Because the summary I had on my copy was so FREAKING VAGUE! I mean it, I had like no real idea what this book was about other than the fact that involved nanotechnology, war, and covert cells. Which leads me to one of this book's biggest problems - lack of introduction and explanation. Grant tosses you in the deep end right off the first page. You have no time to discover who the characters really are, no idea what the heck is going on, who's on what side, what the goal is of either side, what the difference is between a biot and a nanobot, what it means to "wire" someone, how Mr. McLure is involved in all this, etc. etc. etc. It took me a large chunk of the book to figure out what exactly the Armstrong twins want to do and I never figured out what their plan for doing it was - really annoying. Also, we're barely introduced to Noah (one of the book's co-protagonists) before he's thrust into the thick of things and are left more bewildered than he is - because in addition to knowing nothing at all about BZRK, we also know very little about him. Noah's character is never really developed and the book suffers as a result. It can be hard not to "drown" in confusion at times.
Next issue - language. I'm ok with some b-words and one or two f-words in a book for realism sake, but have one (f-word) on basically every other page is just disgusting. It takes away from the book - the words end up feeling like zits that need popping in a bad way - and messes with it's flow.
Then comes sexual content. There are no actual sex scenes (thankfully), but it's talked about ALOT. Clive Cussler once said "sex kills suspense" and I more than heartily agree. It's not just sex scenes that kill suspense though - excessive talking about it does as well. I feel like shouting "Yeah, yeah can we get on with the REAL story already!" when they start doing that. It's irritating. Don't harp on me for being to much of a goody two shoes here - people will do what they feel is right, no way for me to stop them, but that doesn't mean I need or want to know about it!
Now for believability. In multiple places the book goes beyond plausibility defined by the parameters of the premise. For example, how is it believable that Noah would just hop on a plane from London to New York as a minor without parental consent, not knowing what's going to happen when he gets there? There's more stuff like that throughout the book.
Final issue - pacing. The pace tends to drag in a lot of places in the middle of the book and then at the end it gets so frenetic it's really hard to follow - annoying to say the least.
Overall, not a book I particularly liked. Even though it had a creative premise, the issues are just too big to make it very enjoyable. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone - not even fans of Gone - though I will probably be reading the next one myself just to see what happens.
2.5/5 stars
I was considering reading this book because of 'Gone' and the interesting premise too, but I guess I'll pass.
ReplyDeleteBTW, you are not a goody-two shoes if the swearing throws you off, when it's constant it really takes away from the book. XD
Awesome review. :)
I go post a long review on BSRK...then I realize you already did one =.= sighh my life. Great review!!! Though I really didn't think the book was that bad...
ReplyDeleteYa at times it felt like I was a little harsh XD
Deleteregardless if it is a YA book, the language was still annoying because:
a)of the way it's used - I've read books before where there are f-words present, and while I still don't rlly like it, they don't mess with flow of the book like they do here
b) it's unnecessary - I've read plenty of great ADULT novels without a single inappropriate word present and they were still perfectly realistic
c)I wasn't expecting it - he didn't use that language very much at all in Gone
As for the makeout scenes,etc. It would be one thing if they were actually romantically involved, but they HARDLY KNOW EACH OTHER, even if they've been running around each others brains.
Oh, and problem that I forgot to mention - lack of originality in theme. The idea of happiness vs free will isn't original or even new. It dates back to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World from the 1930s(which was a better book than this) (I read it for English this past yr).
@C) Gone really surprised me. I though Grant's (sorta) amoral writing style would be present in his other books but it wasn't... Which was quite a relief. I was cringing throughout the book, thinking "Really? Really Grant? What made you think teens need that in a book to enjoy it?!"
DeleteI've heard of Brave New World, it's a dystopian (<3) right? I'll check it out. Thanks :)
BTW what did you think of Noah's answer: "You can't be happy unless you're free"?
I'll warn u, BNW is pretty amoral as well - sexual promiscuity and drug use are seen as normal and are encouraged. There's no swearing though, except for "Ford!" (no jk, u'll understand if you read it. It's dystopian, yes, but kinda utopian at the same time. Everyone is happy, but the government is totalitarian and free will has seemingly been eliminated.
DeleteHere's a (lengthy) quote:
""What you need," the Savage went on, "is something with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here."
"Exposing what is mortal and unsure to all that fortune, death and danger dare, even for an eggshell. Isn't there something in that?" he asked, looking up at Mustapha Mond. "Quite apart from God–though of course God would be a reason for it. Isn't there something in living dangerously?"
"There's a great deal in it," the Controller replied. "Men and women must have their adrenals stimulated from time to time."
"What?" questioned the Savage, uncomprehending.
"It's one of the conditions of perfect health. That's why we've made the V.P.S. treatments compulsory."
"V.P.S.?"
"Violent Passion Surrogate. Regularly once a month. We flood the whole system with adrenin. It's the complete physiological equivalent of fear and rage. All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences."
"But I like the inconveniences."
"We don't," said the Controller. "We prefer to do things comfortably."
"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen to-morrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." There was a long silence.
"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.
Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome," he said."
So that should give you a good picture of what BNW is like.
As for Noah's answer, I think in order to be happy you actually have to experience unhappiness. You can't have one opposite without the other, so without one, u kinda end up stuck in the middle.