Want

This was yet another on the list of “oh god it sounds so good what if it isn’t really that good?!”Spoiler: y’all it REALLY WAS THAT GOOD.This is one of the most fabulously paced near future sci-fi that I’ve read in a long, long time. While I questioned it as I started reading, this started in exactly the right place and then sent us backward just long enough to establish the stakes and the horrible truth of just how far the antagonist would go to keep everything going the way he wanted it to. And once we’d established that – the story took off and just pulled me along in the best way. The mission and Zhou’s time among the you crowd intertwined so well. Just awesomely done.And can I mention Zhou for a moment? Holy crap it’s been a while since I’ve crushed on a main character so hard. He just got me right in the feels with damn near every scene. And he and Daiyu together were a fabulously swoony couple. I was rooting for them the entire time even with everything that should rightly have made them a terrible idea LOL. But they worked so well as equals, and that just hit me right in the competency kink.I have to admit though that they were not the only couple I ended up ride or die for by the end of the book. I hadn’t heard anything about them, so discovering that there was a major side couple of two incredible wlw was just a fabulous bonus for me. Plus ONE OF THEM IS BI!! … OK so I admit it’s possible that character realized she was a lesbian after dating men but then falling for a woman, but my little bi heart was just beating like crazy for those two so I’m headcanoning her as bi so there LOL.Finally I think my absolute favorite part of this book was the glorious sense of place. I’ve never been to Tai Pei, but I could see the streets Zhou lived on so well! Plus oh good lord the street food discussions and the family dinners with the group just had me drooling and getting hungrier the longer I read. Just a gorgeous setting in this book. I loved it kind of a lot.

Eco-espionage is my aesthetic, apparently.I really liked Cindy Pon's new book. It’s a kidnap job that becomes an eco-espionage thriller, with some serious conman action and tantalizing romance. It surprised me how much I wanted this book. Jason and Daiyu make great romantic interests, and the whole crew that Jason runs with is interesting, and despite their careful artifice, they do love one another. I’m also really sympathetic to Jason’s preference for a dark wardrobe, ie: he wears black almost all the time. Anyone who likes a science fiction book that is cognizant of today’s half-in attitude on environmental preservation will be sympathetic to the bittersweetness of a neon and smog filled metropolis of Taipei depicted here. Also, if you like boys who throw knives, check it out.I think I felt early on, when the teens were in their lair, that this book had a celluloid and grit feel of a tech noir on par with Ghost in the Shell, but the questions posed here are more immediate and make your actions resonate. The villain of the piece argues, later on, that we are consumers, and the world was made to be consumed. The trade off for whatever we want whenever we want it, is shorter life spans for the poor and isolated comfort for the rich.Speaking of the rich, Pon really shines when she describes the sparsity and the luxury, I feel like physicality, no pun, is her strong-suit. The best moments were the ones of intimacy between characters.Unfortunately I felt like she didn’t have the opportunity to let some characters get as much traction as our main duo, even though the job she did with them almost makes up for it.In the end however, the mystery leaves it hard to feel the impact.And I’ve been thinking about it, and there’s something wholly organic about the love that grows. When Jason notices Daiyu’s “toned legs” at one point there’s nothing exploitive or fetishized about it, and that’s kind of stellar. This should be the standard. I don’t know why it almost always feels like a guy is leering when he talks about his love interest. All the other characters, have or have-not, are described in fair terms.I could have enjoyed some more tension during the heist scenes, but I think I also read this book very quickly. It isn’t terribly long which is both good and bad, this book needs space to breathe, a plan this fool-proof needs time to unfold in your mind. There are month jumps, which Pon does not leave ambiguous, and by the time the story has wrapped up, a year had passed between the covers.I think my only real quibble is that I would have liked even more growth from Jason, while he did realize the world wasn’t exactly black and white, so I can’t be mad.My hope though, since there is already plans for a sequel, that we get to focus on other characters since I don’t know how taipei-lovers Daiyu and Jason will leave for Shanghai. (Okay, that one was a pun.)One last thing, I know Li Bingbing is too old, but she was who I thought of when I imagined Daiyu. Also the cover is gorgeous and totally worth bookstagramming. Make sure you pick this book up when it comes out, it will leave you mourning the blue sky and fresh air while you still have it. Otherwise we’ll be the next fishbowl heads living in a smoggy world.

Diversity; YES! An all diverse cast!World Building; Diverse and developed. I loved the setting; the unseen mountains (thanks pollution), the street markets, the description of architecture.ConsI didn't think it started in the right place. The beginning was a little slow, the MC was a little too literary oriented to feel genuine, but that's the only complaints I have. Once the romance began to bud, I wasn't able to put it down. I would recommend this book to everyone, and if you love sci fi, or simply romance, pick this up!

The plot and characters were not as deep as they could be, but the themes are rich and make you think. I read as an adult trying to find good books for teaching teen readers, and I was engaged for the whole read.

I bought this for my son's summer reading project. He never read it, but I did. It was a pretty good story (it was written before COVID) of a society that has disintegrated into a ruling elite that controls the availability of special suits that people need to wear to protect themselves from rampant pollution as well as a deadly virus that has infested the world. The story centers on a group of young adults who fight the corporation that is in control. Aside from its almost prophetic elements, Want is a fairly formulaic action novel. The heros get themselves out of many sticky situations and prevail in the end. There is some sexual innuendo and the nowadays obligatory same sex relationship which is why I don't think the book is appropriate for younger teens.

WANT was so. freaking. good.It was absolutely wonderful, the best mix of grey-morals and scifi, and I loved the fact that we finally had a scifi book set somewhere other than America on Earth, and highly recommend this. I can't speak much to the rep in depth because I am not Taiwanese, but, as far as my knowledge goes, it was wonderful, positive, and awesome.

Pon has perfected the art of world building and this was another great example of it. I loved the dynamics and diversity of the main characters and their absolute love for each other and their home land. The story carried at a good pace and had a good balance of deep calmness and awesome action, can't wait for Ruse!