Review of EMA
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Alexandria Jurski
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Review of EMA
[Following is a volunteer review of "EMA" by Aian D. Grey.]
EMA by Aian D. Grey is a futuristic science fiction novel based in the year 2084 where the Economic Management System, or EMA, is the most complex and integrated artificial intelligence system in the world and has been tasked with regulating the world’s economy in order to control the global warming crisis.
The story follows Jason Webb, an inventor just trying to do his part in fixing the detrimental strain that society’s ever-increasing consumption of natural resources has placed on Earth. Jason is enamored with EMA and its creator, Damien Minsky. At a TED talk conference listening to this exact figurehead, Jason is plunged into a journey he was not expecting. A bombing at the conference has Jason falling in with Mobius, an underground press organization that’s sole goal seems to be dismantling EMA. Jason, who believed EMA was the answer to beating global warming, is pulled into a conflict that has him questioning everything he believes about what is best for the world.
It is clear that the author put a lot of effort into the novel, but it has fallen quite short of my expectations. First, the tone and feel of the writing was very textbook-like. This made it hard to engage in and follow the actual story. The dialog was stiff and forced, as was the relationships between characters. For example, Jason develops a love interest that progressed from being leery and untrusting of this woman to being attracted to and kissing her within the span of a few sentences. Also, though this story appears to be written for adults as the main characters are all in their mid-thirties, the writing abilities and style of the author feels more appropriate for young adults/teens.
Another shortcoming of the book is that the novel does not appear to be professionally edited. There is a lot of repetitive word usage and at least one error on almost every page. For example, on page 5 the author writes ‘Now, tell us a little about how EMA works,’ which is clearly supposed to be a direct statement but was not placed in quotation marks. On page 18 the author wrote ‘He was digital Sherlock who remembered everything was able to find things and people by applying…’ which has a punctuation mark or word missing that results in the sentence not making sense. Also, on page 23 the author has ‘…Minsky and his company EMA corp. have sometimes been…’ which should have commas surrounding the company’s name. This is just to name a few examples.
In conclusion, while it is clear that the author is very technical and knowledgeable about computers and AI concepts, the mistakes throughout the book and text-book feel of the writing made it impossible for me to get invested in the story. Because of this, I give this book a rating of 2 out of 5. I do hope that the author will be able to revise and edit the book in the future as it would greatly improve the reading experience.
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EMA
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
EMA by Aian D. Grey is a futuristic science fiction novel based in the year 2084 where the Economic Management System, or EMA, is the most complex and integrated artificial intelligence system in the world and has been tasked with regulating the world’s economy in order to control the global warming crisis.
The story follows Jason Webb, an inventor just trying to do his part in fixing the detrimental strain that society’s ever-increasing consumption of natural resources has placed on Earth. Jason is enamored with EMA and its creator, Damien Minsky. At a TED talk conference listening to this exact figurehead, Jason is plunged into a journey he was not expecting. A bombing at the conference has Jason falling in with Mobius, an underground press organization that’s sole goal seems to be dismantling EMA. Jason, who believed EMA was the answer to beating global warming, is pulled into a conflict that has him questioning everything he believes about what is best for the world.
It is clear that the author put a lot of effort into the novel, but it has fallen quite short of my expectations. First, the tone and feel of the writing was very textbook-like. This made it hard to engage in and follow the actual story. The dialog was stiff and forced, as was the relationships between characters. For example, Jason develops a love interest that progressed from being leery and untrusting of this woman to being attracted to and kissing her within the span of a few sentences. Also, though this story appears to be written for adults as the main characters are all in their mid-thirties, the writing abilities and style of the author feels more appropriate for young adults/teens.
Another shortcoming of the book is that the novel does not appear to be professionally edited. There is a lot of repetitive word usage and at least one error on almost every page. For example, on page 5 the author writes ‘Now, tell us a little about how EMA works,’ which is clearly supposed to be a direct statement but was not placed in quotation marks. On page 18 the author wrote ‘He was digital Sherlock who remembered everything was able to find things and people by applying…’ which has a punctuation mark or word missing that results in the sentence not making sense. Also, on page 23 the author has ‘…Minsky and his company EMA corp. have sometimes been…’ which should have commas surrounding the company’s name. This is just to name a few examples.
In conclusion, while it is clear that the author is very technical and knowledgeable about computers and AI concepts, the mistakes throughout the book and text-book feel of the writing made it impossible for me to get invested in the story. Because of this, I give this book a rating of 2 out of 5. I do hope that the author will be able to revise and edit the book in the future as it would greatly improve the reading experience.
******
EMA
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Latest Review: Just Die by E Alan Fleischauer
