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A review by vegantrav
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer
3.0
What I liked:
1. likable, interesting, well-developed characters, especially Leila (one of the three protagonists) and one of the minor characters, Leila's sister, Roxana
2. three separate plot-lines (the stories of the three protatonists: Leila, Leo, and Mark) slowly and subtly and and nicely woven together into a whole
3. cool super-rich super-villains (Straw and Pope)
4. intriguing sci-fi elements--both that of the Committee (the bad guys) and Dear Diary (the good guys)
5. a David Foster Wallace-ish dark sense of humor in many places; many of the rehab scenes are strongly reminiscent of Infinite Jest
What I didn't like:
1. kind of read this book last year: it was Dave Eggers's The Circle, though The Circle is less sinister (its bad guys aren't quite so bad) and yet also more sinister (its techno-dystopic vision is far more realistic and thus more frightening)
2. the aforementioned sci-fi elements were interesting but were not fleshed out in any good detail and were, to be honest, really just too far fetched (the test, the Dear Diarists' numbers, the plant-based computers, the Committee basically having infiltrated and turned almost the entire US intelligence apparatus)
3. ***********SPOILER ALERT***********
***********SPOILER ALERT***********
***********SPOILER ALERT***********
***********SPOILER ALERT***********
***********SPOILER ALERT***********
okay, so the ending bites: basically, there is no ending; the novel ends just as the adventure is really getting going as Mark is heading out to carry out his mission against Straw/SineCo/the Committee; I'm assuming (hoping? am I hoping? I don't know) that there's going to be a sequel, but I'm quite irked that none of the promotional materials, none of the early reviews, nothing on the dust jacket indicated that this was the first in a series--that would have been nice to know going in
so, overall assessment: entertaining but with some big flaws and a bit of a been-there-done-that feel . . . if there is a sequel (and I can't imagine that there won't be), I'm not sure I'll read it, which says a great deal about how I felt about this novel
1. likable, interesting, well-developed characters, especially Leila (one of the three protagonists) and one of the minor characters, Leila's sister, Roxana
2. three separate plot-lines (the stories of the three protatonists: Leila, Leo, and Mark) slowly and subtly and and nicely woven together into a whole
3. cool super-rich super-villains (Straw and Pope)
4. intriguing sci-fi elements--both that of the Committee (the bad guys) and Dear Diary (the good guys)
5. a David Foster Wallace-ish dark sense of humor in many places; many of the rehab scenes are strongly reminiscent of Infinite Jest
What I didn't like:
1. kind of read this book last year: it was Dave Eggers's The Circle, though The Circle is less sinister (its bad guys aren't quite so bad) and yet also more sinister (its techno-dystopic vision is far more realistic and thus more frightening)
2. the aforementioned sci-fi elements were interesting but were not fleshed out in any good detail and were, to be honest, really just too far fetched (the test, the Dear Diarists' numbers, the plant-based computers, the Committee basically having infiltrated and turned almost the entire US intelligence apparatus)
3. ***********SPOILER ALERT***********
***********SPOILER ALERT***********
***********SPOILER ALERT***********
***********SPOILER ALERT***********
***********SPOILER ALERT***********
okay, so the ending bites: basically, there is no ending; the novel ends just as the adventure is really getting going as Mark is heading out to carry out his mission against Straw/SineCo/the Committee; I'm assuming (hoping? am I hoping? I don't know) that there's going to be a sequel, but I'm quite irked that none of the promotional materials, none of the early reviews, nothing on the dust jacket indicated that this was the first in a series--that would have been nice to know going in
so, overall assessment: entertaining but with some big flaws and a bit of a been-there-done-that feel . . . if there is a sequel (and I can't imagine that there won't be), I'm not sure I'll read it, which says a great deal about how I felt about this novel