the concept of this is super fun (and sad lol). i really like the DND aspect although it’s crazy to see how fast they are leveling considering they are only on floor 2!

the humor is hit or miss for me sometimes, i think it won’t age as well as the brand of humor in starter villain, but at least the book is consistent with its borderline cringe brand. i particularly enjoyed the dev notes at the end of each broadcast for the crawlers (they remind me of how i write github notes for each push lol)

i am excited to see more character growth as the plot shakes out. i hope we get to see more interesting interactions with dungeon creatures that give more peaks behind the curtains. also excited to learn more about agatha, i know carl doesn’t want to see her but i do!

i love cozy sci fi and this book was exactly that! a robot found family trying to navigate war trauma, relationships with each other and humans, coming to terms with their limited rights in the country of california (not a mistype lol), and dealing with robophobia.

i really enjoyed the peaks we got of each robot outside of their job at automatic noodle—each robot got a flash in a chapter or two that really helped to round out the characters. i also liked all the subtle (or not so) nods to trans people throughout the story! top surgery for sweetie, pink, blue, and white colors in automatic noodles space, discussion of having inward identity and outward identity matching, etc.

short n sweet! i hope we get to see more of these robots in the future!

i also thought this book was timely with lots of recent anti robot discussions online recently, mostly in an attempt to be funny—but i don’t know… books like this get you thinking about what that (maybe near) future looks like and how these things we’re making jokes about now might turn real sooner than we think.

i’m shocked by how much i liked this! it wasn’t what i was expecting at all (i went in blind) but i was happily surprised. this book is FUNNY, like i was laughing out loud at some of the jokes. i loved how dry the humor and banter were, while not totally believable, bc how can every character be that quick witted, made for a really enjoyable read.

the plot of this book was so outlandish it borderlines whimsy. truly just one of those “okay i accept this is true now and i am moving on” type of tales.

the main character was lowkey bland, but i think it had to be that way because the plot was so extra. he really was just in it for the journey and maybe his cats.

the dolphins were SO funny.

this was really good! but also a little heavy handed for me. i think if you’ve never thought about this concept before it’s a great book for kick starting that internal processing of our real world and how it functions and why it functions that way—who this system takes advantage of the most.

parts of me wish this was a trilogy and things were more drawn out for character processing sake because it all felt so fast to do in one book. but another part of me is grateful it’s one book.

the parallels to our world for the story were really well done. the sexism well placed and enraging. even the white guilt and white tears were well portrayed. and the religious passages for each chapter were CRAZY.

would recommend!