Review of The Sound of Creation
-
Chiara Sardanu
- Posts: 4
- Joined: 09 Mar 2023, 05:55
- Currently Reading: Thunderhead
- Bookshelf Size: 23
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-chiara-sardanu.html
- Latest Review: The Sound of Creation by Gabriella Zielke
Review of The Sound of Creation
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Sound of Creation" by Gabriella Zielke.]
The sound of Creation by Gabriella Zielke follows the computer scientist Ava and her team while they try to save their invention, the artificial intelligence Seneca.
Sense Labs created an innovative artificial intelligence that composes original music, able to show the truth to those who listen to it. Ava realizes that Seneca could be the key to the improvement of the Human Race: the music can help everyone to achieve their true self and understand how to live at their best. However, some members of her team want to give it to the government to use as a weapon against criminals and presumed terrorists.
In the meantime, Zek, the creator of our world, wants to save is project from the Guild that find it too dangerous. He is a promising apprentice creator of worlds, who believes that souls can reach higher dimensions without setting back others. His experiment with Earth and humans is seen as a threat to some in the Guild, so he goes to Earth to investigate, where Seneca and Ava are the key to the mystery.
The prose is simple and fluid, with short chapters and few character perspectives’, making the story easy to follow and understand. Computer science is a central theme, with both the human characters being programmers and Zek designing Earth like a video game, and the scene and details focused on it are accurate and logic. It can be difficult to balance science that is accurate with science that any reader can understand without losing interest in the narrative, and this book does a good job on it.
The idea of music as a mean to reach a superior dimension was suggestive, and realistic in the way it affected different characters.
The Sound of creation sound much more profound in title and premise than it was in the story itself. In fact, it was an action book rather than one of speculative fiction. This is not necessarily a negative aspect, but I found that the idea behind the book was a little wasted as an action story, and that the music deserved more space than it had. The chasing and hiding after a while got boring, and the characters betrayals supposed to be plot twists only highlight how naive Ava is, and how she even reach her position.
While there aren’t grammatical mistakes or misused words, the writing style has space for improvement. Some details emphasized are not actually important to the story, and the characters are stereotyped. It is evident that it is a debut novel, for the author crams as many things as possible in not enough pages, making characters and ideas shallow.
My rating for this is 3 out of five stars. It’s a nice book to relax without thinking too much, but not the sort that you will remember years after reading it. To me, it felt more like watching an American action movie, than the sci-fi story that I was expecting. I would say that it is not a bad book, but is bad science fiction: after you finish it, you are left with nothing more than when you started. While I had a pleasant time reading, I didn't get attached to the characters and no scene or sentence stuck with me.
I would recommend it to people that enjoy stories focused on what is happening rather than why, and want to unwind with an easy read rather than explore new ideas. I found it pretty accessible to readers of any age, since it doesn’t have any explicit scene and doesn’t require any previous background knowledge. Those that love computer science will probably appreciate more the details and scenes with programming and hacking.
******
The Sound of Creation
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The sound of Creation by Gabriella Zielke follows the computer scientist Ava and her team while they try to save their invention, the artificial intelligence Seneca.
Sense Labs created an innovative artificial intelligence that composes original music, able to show the truth to those who listen to it. Ava realizes that Seneca could be the key to the improvement of the Human Race: the music can help everyone to achieve their true self and understand how to live at their best. However, some members of her team want to give it to the government to use as a weapon against criminals and presumed terrorists.
In the meantime, Zek, the creator of our world, wants to save is project from the Guild that find it too dangerous. He is a promising apprentice creator of worlds, who believes that souls can reach higher dimensions without setting back others. His experiment with Earth and humans is seen as a threat to some in the Guild, so he goes to Earth to investigate, where Seneca and Ava are the key to the mystery.
The prose is simple and fluid, with short chapters and few character perspectives’, making the story easy to follow and understand. Computer science is a central theme, with both the human characters being programmers and Zek designing Earth like a video game, and the scene and details focused on it are accurate and logic. It can be difficult to balance science that is accurate with science that any reader can understand without losing interest in the narrative, and this book does a good job on it.
The idea of music as a mean to reach a superior dimension was suggestive, and realistic in the way it affected different characters.
The Sound of creation sound much more profound in title and premise than it was in the story itself. In fact, it was an action book rather than one of speculative fiction. This is not necessarily a negative aspect, but I found that the idea behind the book was a little wasted as an action story, and that the music deserved more space than it had. The chasing and hiding after a while got boring, and the characters betrayals supposed to be plot twists only highlight how naive Ava is, and how she even reach her position.
While there aren’t grammatical mistakes or misused words, the writing style has space for improvement. Some details emphasized are not actually important to the story, and the characters are stereotyped. It is evident that it is a debut novel, for the author crams as many things as possible in not enough pages, making characters and ideas shallow.
My rating for this is 3 out of five stars. It’s a nice book to relax without thinking too much, but not the sort that you will remember years after reading it. To me, it felt more like watching an American action movie, than the sci-fi story that I was expecting. I would say that it is not a bad book, but is bad science fiction: after you finish it, you are left with nothing more than when you started. While I had a pleasant time reading, I didn't get attached to the characters and no scene or sentence stuck with me.
I would recommend it to people that enjoy stories focused on what is happening rather than why, and want to unwind with an easy read rather than explore new ideas. I found it pretty accessible to readers of any age, since it doesn’t have any explicit scene and doesn’t require any previous background knowledge. Those that love computer science will probably appreciate more the details and scenes with programming and hacking.
******
The Sound of Creation
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Sound of Creation by Gabriella Zielke
