Emergent Properties, Aimee Ogden

Received to review via Netgalley

I quite enjoyed Emergent Properties while I was reading it, but I don’t think it quite came together for me — I’m reviewing this a few days after finishing, and I confess, I’m not entirely sure what to say. I wouldn’t compare it too much to the Murderbot books, which have a very distinctive voice and attitude — this book has some similar themes, and even some similarities of voice, but is a little less… mature-feeling, I guess?

I did enjoy the setup of the mystery, and having to try and figure out what exactly is going on, without giving the game away. However, I kind of lost the thread of it between the body swaps and the random (-seeming) attacks on Scorn, and also the interlude in the black box bar.

There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on — the part in the black box bar actually intrigued me a lot since it imagined how AIs and others might interact, and how something akin to the internet (but older) might be. I think the Aura thing felt cribbed from Black Mirror, though (or at least, that’s where I know that whole social score thing from — even though I don’t myself watch Black Mirror!).

All in all, I had fun, it just didn’t quite come together for me. I’d read more by the author, and even more with this character or this world.

Rating: 3/5