Review of Terms of Service
Posted: 23 Dec 2022, 06:51
[Following is a volunteer review of "Terms of Service" by Craig W. Stanfill.]
The protagonist in this futuristic book called Terms of Service, written by Craig W. Stanfill is Kim. Kim lives a simple life inside a large city, which is managed by AIs. So everyone in this city has a rating on which the decisions of the AIs are based. If the rating drops, so do certain benefits, such as faster and more convenient public transportation.
Kim lives her life and has been working for the AI company since she graduated. However, when a friend comes back to town and gets her into a mess, she is drawn more and more into the depths of the AI and her life slowly becomes hell.
The plot in this book has a very nice pace, not too much is described, but also enough so that you can imagine everything well.
The beginning was rather restrained in terms of the plot, as the author describes the average life of Kim to describe the initial situation of Kim. From about halfway through the book, however, the tension increases quickly.
Also noticeable is that the author adapts his writing style to the time the book is about. Thus, all people are addressed with "she". Also, people no longer say "I" but "we". This strongly reinforces the feeling of the future, as this could be possible in the future.
The only negative point that bothered me just a bit is that by the fact that everyone is addressed with "she/her" the gender of the other people has sometimes been unclear for me.
Also, the topic, that your life is controlled by AIs is topical nowadays and the book describes a possible future that is easy to live due to AI but on the one hand, is based on lies built by the government.
I give the book 5 out of 5 stars because it was very exciting and the reading pace was very pleasant due to the good balance between description and action. The writing style also drew you more into the story and you could imagine the possible future very well. The fact that I sometimes could not immediately recognize the gender of individual characters did not bother me personally so much, so I did not deduct a star because of that.
I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in the topic of AI or who also liked the book 1984, as this book also borrows a bit from that book.
******
Terms of Service
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
The protagonist in this futuristic book called Terms of Service, written by Craig W. Stanfill is Kim. Kim lives a simple life inside a large city, which is managed by AIs. So everyone in this city has a rating on which the decisions of the AIs are based. If the rating drops, so do certain benefits, such as faster and more convenient public transportation.
Kim lives her life and has been working for the AI company since she graduated. However, when a friend comes back to town and gets her into a mess, she is drawn more and more into the depths of the AI and her life slowly becomes hell.
The plot in this book has a very nice pace, not too much is described, but also enough so that you can imagine everything well.
The beginning was rather restrained in terms of the plot, as the author describes the average life of Kim to describe the initial situation of Kim. From about halfway through the book, however, the tension increases quickly.
Also noticeable is that the author adapts his writing style to the time the book is about. Thus, all people are addressed with "she". Also, people no longer say "I" but "we". This strongly reinforces the feeling of the future, as this could be possible in the future.
The only negative point that bothered me just a bit is that by the fact that everyone is addressed with "she/her" the gender of the other people has sometimes been unclear for me.
Also, the topic, that your life is controlled by AIs is topical nowadays and the book describes a possible future that is easy to live due to AI but on the one hand, is based on lies built by the government.
I give the book 5 out of 5 stars because it was very exciting and the reading pace was very pleasant due to the good balance between description and action. The writing style also drew you more into the story and you could imagine the possible future very well. The fact that I sometimes could not immediately recognize the gender of individual characters did not bother me personally so much, so I did not deduct a star because of that.
I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in the topic of AI or who also liked the book 1984, as this book also borrows a bit from that book.
******
Terms of Service
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes