Imatge de l'autor

Deborah Christian

Autor/a de Mainline

17 obres 672 Membres 7 Ressenyes 1 preferits

Sobre l'autor

Nota de desambiguació:

(eng) aka Deborah Teramis Christian. Also writes as Teramis (middle name). Sometimes publishes under the pseudonyms Terry Randall or David Allen. Terry Randall is a pseudonym of author Deborah Christian, used primarily for RPG writing when she was working for multiple companies in that industry. For more author information, see LibraryThing author page for Deborah Christian at http://www.librarything.com/author/ch...

Crèdit de la imatge: (c) 2008 photograph by Deborah Teramis Christian

Sèrie

Obres de Deborah Christian

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Nom oficial
Christian, Deborah Teramis
Altres noms
Randall, Terry
Data de naixement
1956-07-18
Gènere
female
Nacionalitat
USA
Lloc de naixement
Bremerton, West Virginia, USA
Llocs de residència
San Francisco, California, USA (usually)
Professions
writer
author
Nota de desambiguació
aka Deborah Teramis Christian. Also writes as Teramis (middle name). Sometimes publishes under the pseudonyms Terry Randall or David Allen. Terry Randall is a pseudonym of author Deborah Christian, used primarily for RPG writing when she was working for multiple companies in that industry. For more author information, see LibraryThing author page for Deborah Christian at http://www.librarything.com/author/ch...

Membres

Ressenyes

To read more reviews my reviews, check out my blog at keikii Eats Books!


Quote:
"See, limited nanoneurals map only what we want them to. This is how we splinter a personality - we reproduce just a select part of it. Then we create clones with only the aspects we desire to see."

Review:
Splintegrate is one of the most uncomfortable, horrifying things I've ever read. The atmosphere is cloying. The fear is palpable. The story is very, very interesting, but I could only handle it in small doses. Every time I picked up the book with the intention of finishing it, I had to put it down again after a half hour.

The world was incredibly well laid out. The first quarter of the book was dedicated to introducing our main characters and the world. It is so complex, I'm still not even certain I have all the details right. There are a conglomeration of worlds, all being ruled by an Emperor, who is currently dying. The technology of these worlds is incredibly advanced, with cloning being an accepted part of politics. Even their porn is more advanced.

In fact, politics plays a heavy part of the events in Splintegrate. Whether the characters want to participate or not. There is the primary politics of assuring the Empire is stable as the Emperor is dying, by any means necessary. There is the secondary politics of the more unsavory characters, and how they are running their businesses. This is just a heavily politically influenced book.

Plus, there is the world of Lyndir, which is home to "licensed entertainers" and has Shigasu houses, run by clans, that employ the entertainers. Some who wanted to be there, and some who have no choice. The main character of the book, Kes, is one of the people at the Shigasu without much choice: when she got into debt, and it was either sell her body or end up in prison. Now, she is a high priced Dominatrix, The Queen of Winter, and she is heavily sought after. Her past is riddled with bad events, and her future doesn't sound like it is going to be all that great, either. She has a home now, he belongs to her Shigasue Clan. Yet they can still compel her to do things for the good of the clan.

And that thing they can compel Kes to do? Go with Ilanya Evanivit, the chief of Internal Security’s elite Political Division. Which is a lot of words to say she is one of the most politically powerful people in the Sa'adani Empire. And Eva wants to catch one of Kes's customers, for the good of the Empire. Janus is a businessman by less than above board practices. And Eva has determined he is in the way, to be removed by any means necessary. Any. Means. Necessary.

And those means are through the use of the Splintegrate project, the horrifying work of Metmuri Esimir. Esimir's goal is to split someone's personality into clones, take out the bad parts, and leave only good parts behind, before reintegrating the personality later without those undesirably aspects. This is to rehabilitate prisoners who murder and such. Only he works for the Navy, who is funding this project. Three guesses as to why the Navy want the Splintegrate project to succeed. Hint: it isn't for rehabilitation.

I'd like you to take a moment to reread that paragraph and reflect on how utterly horrifying that entire concept is.

And that is what they want to do to Kes. In order to catch someone who is in the way. My heart was pounding the entire time leading up to this Splintegration process.

Like I said in the beginning, this book is horrifying. I was so uncomfortable reading this book. It took me a long time to get into. At least a quarter is spent on just setting up the story, and it took me until the midway point of the book to really get into the story and attached to the characters. There are a lot of moving pieces, a lot of characters, and a lot of information dumped all at once, so I was confused for a long time. But once I got into the characters, it was smooth sailing ahead. Even if I did get attached against my better wishes since this is not the type of story that feels like it is going to end well.

Splintegrate handles a lot of mature topics. There is the dominatrix dominance/submission aspects and a master/slave relationship. There is the concept of owning people and debtors prisons. The main character hates her situation with a passion and can't wait to buy out her contract so she doesn't have to work and have sex with anyone anymore unless she wants to. There was pure body horror and psychological torture. It was grisly and shocking without resorting to violence. And I'm sure I'm forgetting some other hard topics. Yet, there wasn't actually any sex scenes. It came close a few times, but the focus of Splintegrate was not the sex, it was the topics at hand.

And if you're curious if you need to read Mainline first: No. I didn't feel at any point like I was missing out on anything for not having read Mainline. From what I gathered in the book, Splintegrate actually takes place several hundred years in the future. And also Mainline isn't actually being published (no ebook, can only buy third hand) anymore so this is a good thing.

ARC received from Tor Books on Edelweiss. This did not affect my review.
… (més)
 
Marcat
keikii | Jan 23, 2020 |
I tried to apply the don't-quit-before-page-100 rule, and almost made it ... Just couldn't. If for no other reasons than the constant and aggravating head-hopping (again, so that's why it's frowned on!) and the outright thefts from Tolkien (characters named Berin and Dalin (close, but not quite stolen) and Mithlond and Thengel are both infuriating and distracting), I need to move on.
 
Marcat
Stewartry | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Jan 11, 2013 |
It's been years since I've read this, but the storyline still pops into my head sometimes. Reva is a really interesting character and the story is engaging, fast-paced, lots of action and jumping timelines (I could see how some might find it confusing, but it didn't bother me). I'd love to see a sequel!
 
Marcat
thewalkinggirl | Hi ha 2 ressenyes més | Jul 26, 2010 |
(Amy) We have cliche sign! Apprentice sees master killed before his very eyes, must SAVE THE WORLD. Plus there are elves. Whee! Yawn. (Caveat: I couldn't finish this. It was too awful.)
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/zenos-library/2009/07/catalog_of_fail_june_20... )
 
Marcat
libraryofus | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Dec 29, 2009 |

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Valerie Valusek Illustrator
Wayne Breaux Illustrator
Alex Marciniszyn Senior editor
Kevin Long Illustrator
Thomas Miller Cover artist
D Mallard Editor
Thomas Cantry Cover artist
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Tim Bradstreet Illustrator
Thomas Snowdon-Romer Cover designer
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Donato Giancola Cover artist
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Obres
17
Membres
672
Popularitat
#37,565
Valoració
½ 3.6
Ressenyes
7
ISBN
26
Llengües
2
Preferit
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