Time's Adversary by J.G. McGovern
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When Andrew Vaughan dies in his hospital bed, surrounded by his family, he is a man at total peace with the world . . . until he wakes up again.
Vaughan has been resurrected by Eyelight Industries, a 22nd century megacorporation with no guiding principle except profit. He is offered a second life in an android body, on the condition that he take over as CEO of the company.
In the year 2118, virtually everyone is hooked up to Eyelight, a system that began as a search engine and social network but which now controls almost every aspect of human life. A growing religious organisation called the Church of Sagacity opposes the technology, encouraging its followers to disconnect, to throw off the shackles of digital oppression.
To keep his new life, the new CEO must overthrow the Church. But he keeps hearing the same phrase, over and over again: You are the enemy of Time!
Review:
*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
*Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
I had a really hard time reading Time's Adversary. I just couldn't get into it and kept putting it aside and picking up something else to read. It just...it just was not the book for me.
This story is about a guy who died, but his consciousness was put into an android so that he can try and stop this mega church from somehow disconnecting people from Eyelight, this system that pretty much controls everything now. The Eyelight company brought him back because apparently there were no evil people in the future that would be able to pull off taking down the church. I thought the premise sounded interesting, and I was curious to see what was really going on, but the way the story was written just didn't work for me. I didn't feel like any of the characters were real people (or androids). They just felt very flat and I was told their characteristics, like Vaughn being this ruthless person who only cares about himself. The story kept telling me that, but he didn't read like that. I guess that goes back to the characters not feeling real. Since he just felt off to me, I was never able to connect with him or any of them. I just couldn't get engaged with the story.
The other main issue I had? Everything happened almost instantly. It was like the one guy was supposed to infiltrate the church. His wife got one of the church members to be his new assistant so he could build a relationship and have an in. Only he just says something random about the church to her one time and she invites him to go to the church with her and check it out. Then he thinks how he would like to sleep with her, but no he couldn't because he has weird germ issues or something, but then two seconds later they are having an affair and he is in love with her and it was just kind of a mess. I didn't understand how any of it happened since it just was. Suddenly he was super religious, suddenly he was questioning everything, suddenly he realized this and that. The story needed more development. It needed more of the people actually figuring things out or trying to do things, not just well Mr. X should now be in the church so he is in the church with no real transition. He just is. It didn't work for me.
One last thing that I didn't enjoy - how everything was just explained in these big chunks of text. In the beginning I thought okay, if I just get through the setup of this world and everything it will get better, but it didn't really. Partly because the above mentioned unrealistic, paper cut out feeling characters, partly because of the above mentioned instantaneous plot points, and partly because if something needed explained it wasn't worked into the story really. It was just like someone saying what is happening? Oh here let me tell you. So we are doing x, y and z. Oh thanks. The whole ending was like that. Like we need to know what is happening now so here is a data dump of what is really going on. Like when villains tell all of their plans to the captured hero. The story wasn't engaging me enough to care so they were just big chunks of text that didn't work for me.
By the end I was just skimming to try and finish the book. There were some good elements to the story, some things I enjoyed, like the daughter of time and some of the strange stuff that happens (burning men and whatnot), but it just wasn't executed well.
Rating: ★ ★
This story is about a guy who died, but his consciousness was put into an android so that he can try and stop this mega church from somehow disconnecting people from Eyelight, this system that pretty much controls everything now. The Eyelight company brought him back because apparently there were no evil people in the future that would be able to pull off taking down the church. I thought the premise sounded interesting, and I was curious to see what was really going on, but the way the story was written just didn't work for me. I didn't feel like any of the characters were real people (or androids). They just felt very flat and I was told their characteristics, like Vaughn being this ruthless person who only cares about himself. The story kept telling me that, but he didn't read like that. I guess that goes back to the characters not feeling real. Since he just felt off to me, I was never able to connect with him or any of them. I just couldn't get engaged with the story.
The other main issue I had? Everything happened almost instantly. It was like the one guy was supposed to infiltrate the church. His wife got one of the church members to be his new assistant so he could build a relationship and have an in. Only he just says something random about the church to her one time and she invites him to go to the church with her and check it out. Then he thinks how he would like to sleep with her, but no he couldn't because he has weird germ issues or something, but then two seconds later they are having an affair and he is in love with her and it was just kind of a mess. I didn't understand how any of it happened since it just was. Suddenly he was super religious, suddenly he was questioning everything, suddenly he realized this and that. The story needed more development. It needed more of the people actually figuring things out or trying to do things, not just well Mr. X should now be in the church so he is in the church with no real transition. He just is. It didn't work for me.
One last thing that I didn't enjoy - how everything was just explained in these big chunks of text. In the beginning I thought okay, if I just get through the setup of this world and everything it will get better, but it didn't really. Partly because the above mentioned unrealistic, paper cut out feeling characters, partly because of the above mentioned instantaneous plot points, and partly because if something needed explained it wasn't worked into the story really. It was just like someone saying what is happening? Oh here let me tell you. So we are doing x, y and z. Oh thanks. The whole ending was like that. Like we need to know what is happening now so here is a data dump of what is really going on. Like when villains tell all of their plans to the captured hero. The story wasn't engaging me enough to care so they were just big chunks of text that didn't work for me.
By the end I was just skimming to try and finish the book. There were some good elements to the story, some things I enjoyed, like the daughter of time and some of the strange stuff that happens (burning men and whatnot), but it just wasn't executed well.
Rating: ★ ★
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