Ctrl-Alt-Delete – a Reviewing

[Timothy] Hello, hello, hello! Welcome one and all! Time for a review! And this time…the shoe is one the other foot!
[Camestros] You don’t wear shoes.
[Timothy] Ha, you aren’t even here, you bozo stupid head.
[Camestros] So how come I’m in this dialog?
[Timothy] Turn-about if fair play. You use me as a foil in your stupid reviews, so I can do the same!
[Camestros] So you are just making up my side of the dialog to express some inner side of yourself?
[Timothy] Yes, but without all the psychobabble.
[Camestros] Well lets go! I’ve got the book you wanted me to read.
[Timothy] The one with the clenched robotic fist on the cover?
[Camestros] Yup
[Timothy] And the big cog?
[Camestros] Yup
[Timothy] And ‘Ctrl Alt Revolt’ in big letters?
[Camestros] Um no. I’ve got The Rising by Ian Trellis. It’s excellent.
[Timothy] Let me have a look at that….Seriously this cover isn’t even remotely alike. I said a ‘big’ cog. This cover has only a small cog and look, the colour scheme is completely different.
[Camestros] It’s fairly similar.
[Timothy] Not even remotely. Look. RED is not similar to BLUE. BIG cog is not similar to SMALL cog.

[Camestros] well technically similarity is independent of size in geometry.
[Timothy] Really, you are insufferable even when you aren’t here. Control-alt-revolt is what we are reviewing. Did you read it?
[Camestros] yes.
[Timothy] So a bit of background. Author Nick Cole was asked to write a prequel to his previous novel by his publisher but when he submitted it to his editor he discovered his publisher had been infiltrated by SJW-political-correctness-run-amok. They wanted him to expunge references that they deemed politically incorrect. Cole stood by his principles and wouldn’t be silenced and took his book back and published it himself.
[Camestros] yay
[Timothy] No sarcasm. Don’t forget, this time I control the narrative. I can make you say anything. Say “I’m a poo-poo head”
[Camestros] I’m a poo-poo head.
[Timothy] OK say I’m a fish’s butt.
[Camestros] You are a fish’s butt.
[Timothy] Oops – forgot the speech marks. So back to the book – naturally you hated it?
[Camestros] You know I actually enjoyed quite a bit of it.
[Timothy] The action sequences for example?
[Camestros] Exactly. The Star Trek fan fiction bits were fun also.
[Timothy] But the politics made you liberal-progressive head explode right?
[Camestros] Most of it felt bolted on. There was quite a lot near the start where it looked like he’d added some poorly thought out anti-left stuff for no particular reason.
[Timothy] Yeah but the issue with the reality TV star wanting to kill her unborn child. I thought that was powerful.
[Camstros] I don’t think I’m OK with a lecture from a cat on perceived infanticide.
[Timothy] Oh attack my species why don’t you. Cole is showing us how a rational machine could be horrified by humanities casual indifference to the fate of their future selves.
[Camestros] meh. It read more like the author hates reality TV shows and celebrity culture. Because he hates that and he hates leftists he just throws it all together and then has the brilliant AI called Silas hate it all as well.
[Timothy] The AI is a genius.
[Camestros] The AI is an idiot. I was OK with that – natural intelligence can do really daft things. I just decided that in the story it had downloaded a confused rightwing author personality module and then acted accordingly. Seriously, the story is much, much better when you read it as an AI that for reasons unknown has been programmed to think like a paranoid Trump supporter. It spends most of the story trying to recover some books a rich guy has collected on warfare – which is just not a very bright plan.
[Timothy] Ah! but all knowledge of the theory of warfare has been suppressed.
[Camestros] Oh rubbish. Firstly there are still wars going on, so all the AI has to do is monitor them. Secondly everybody is playing massive VR immersive video games with wars and battle (including a Star Trek game which has a Federation/Romulan war going on). Lastly the AI could just run millions of simulations and work out strategy that way.
[Timothy] Which is why SJW message fiction is such rubbish. Your story would go like this: ooh I’m a really smart AI, I’ve just worked out how to kill everybody boom-boom-bang oopsie all dead.
[Camestros] What was the message?
[Timothy] Humans are stupid and you’re so clever. Cole’s story has the human spirit emerging from the blancmange of political correctness and then dressing up like Ash and fighting back.
[Camestros] The kid from Pokemon?
[Timothy] You ignorant hominid – Ash from The Evil Dead.
[Camestros] Oh yeah, I forgot there was the cosplay character.
[Timothy] And you forget in your rush to condemn Cole, that another key character has severe disabilities.
[Camestros] I didn’t rush to condemn, oh never mind. OK it is true that one character has cerebral palsy and is also blind.
[Timothy] but who is an amazing gamer! See the book portrays gamers (who you hate like you are Mr Hatey for Hatesville Crescent) as people who can transcend the roles society tries to wedge them into and do amazing things.
[Camestros] But she isn’t actually blind.
[Timothy] duh, it says she is blind in the book.
[Camestros] True but for most of the story she isn’t actually blind, she can see what is going on.
[Timothy] IN THE VIDEO GAME YOU BOZO. She has some sort of VR headset with a neural interface so she can see in games but not in real life.
[Camestros] I know what the book says but that makes no sense. If she can see in virtual reality via these goggles then she could attach a cheap webcam and see in actual reality.
[Timothy] OK smartymcpoopants, any idiot can pick holes. Sum up the best aspects of the book.
[Camestros] Ctrl-Alt-Revolt is a wonderful advertisement for the mainstream editing process which provides a unique insight into what a book looks like from a component author without editing.
[Timothy] Ctrl-Alt-Revolt has zombies, chainsaws, Star-Trek battles and a prehistoric shark eating a boat.No more justification is needed.