⭐⭐⭐. 5 /5 Stars.

Spares By Michael Marshall Smith

Creative technology but a cracked chip?

I liked that Jack wasn't made out to be a perfect character. He didn't claim such, and he often reflected on his past and actions. He knew when he had been terrible. The self-accountability goes a ways, but by the same token, he wasn't very redeemable..? Even by the end of the book, that seemed to fall flat for me. Even after knowing what he did to the monster in "The Gap". At least he was witty.

I don't really like sci-fi, but I found the tech a pretty creative aspect of the book and the some of what I enjoyed the most (the opposite of my norm for this genre). My favorite parts of the book dealt with the curiously motivated robots & microchips (Rachet), talking refrigerators, sassy computer program interfaces / "versonalities" and the use of certain characters like Vinaldi.

The writing style is hit and miss. And some backstory seems misplaced. Especially as it concerns "The Gap." Their experiences lose some of their meaning with the excessive use of drugs (mentioned below), unneccessary terminology, and paragraphs dotted along the book that gives the reader information, half of which lead to a dead end. Not to mention that it seems like it was supposed to offer a sense of intrigue and chaos. Only, it never totally got there. Though I can't say the writing didn't add to the chaotic side of things. As a reader, you can get lost in sudden vagueness amongst the crazy and end up understanding even less than before.

The romance between Nearly and Jack was, in my opinion, underdeveloped and not really necessary? Nearly, for her experiences in the shady bits of life, also seemed fairly immature and child-like at the oddest times. It made more sense for them to have a platonic relationship, but I can't say that I am particularly annoyed by what became of them.

Other aspects of the story, particularly concerning the spares, could have been more centered. It sometimes felt overshadowed by other aspects of Jack's life or events outside of them. Which in itself felt a bit weird given that the title is based on their existence and the overlap to Jack in the first place. Also, for most of the book, the spares themselves aren't really present in any real capacity. Learning about the Farm you start to care, but it stops short.

Now onto the afforementioned drugs. The Rapt drugs taking over so much of the story was a bit distasteful for my liking. I felt like it only added to the story for certain aspects of the plot and ruined others. It made sense as a harmful aspect of the dystopian, rough society, as well as soldiers coping through their sufferings, but it often buried entire pages of the book to the point of taking me out of the story. Also, even if Jack had a past with it, functioning to the point of completing almost anything with such insanely strong hallucinations and altered brain chemicals, especially those capable of driving men to lose reality, seemed much less likely. Even more that the story could progress in spite of it without going horrendously wrong. It is sci-fi, a tale of fiction, but it definitely took away from the overall experience for me.