The All-Consuming World - bookrastinating.com

hardcover, 288 pages

Published June 22, 2021 by Erewhon.

ISBN:: 978-1-64566-020-0

(1 review)

Maya has died and been resurrected into countless cyborg bodies through the years of a long, dangerous career with the infamous Dirty Dozen, the most storied crew of criminals in the galaxy, at least before their untimely and gruesome demise. Decades later, she and her diverse team of broken, diminished outlaws must get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade . . . but they’re not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir.

The highly evolved AI of the galaxy have their own agenda and will do whatever it takes to keep humanity from ever regaining control. As Maya and her comrades spiral closer to uncovering the AIs’ vast conspiracy, this band of violent women—half-clone and half-machine—must battle their own traumas and a universe of sapient ageships who want them …

Maya has died and been resurrected into countless cyborg bodies through the years of a long, dangerous career with the infamous Dirty Dozen, the most storied crew of criminals in the galaxy, at least before their untimely and gruesome demise. Decades later, she and her diverse team of broken, diminished outlaws must get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade . . . but they’re not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir.

The highly evolved AI of the galaxy have their own agenda and will do whatever it takes to keep humanity from ever regaining control. As Maya and her comrades spiral closer to uncovering the AIs’ vast conspiracy, this band of violent women—half-clone and half-machine—must battle their own traumas and a universe of sapient ageships who want them dead, in order to settle their affairs once and for all.

3 editions

Tom Boucher reviewed The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw

Review of 'The All-Consuming World' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I don’t remember why I got this book, and to refresh my memory I popped over to the Goodreads review to see that the fuck police have come out. Who the hell counts the fucks? If you can’t appreciate someone who uses the word fuck like salt and pepper to enhance and flavor their fucking text then maybe this fucking book isn’t for you. Whining about it on a review site is just fucking dumb.

That said, this future thriller suffered things that a lot of future thrillers suffer from. We needed a prologue to introduce us to the damn universe. Dropping in mid conversation is great when you know what the fuck is going on but dropping into a brain of a burnt out 400 year old clone of a clone of a clone that has ‘lived forever’ and solved problems by blowing their brains out repeatedly might be …

I don’t remember why I got this book, and to refresh my memory I popped over to the Goodreads review to see that the fuck police have come out. Who the hell counts the fucks? If you can’t appreciate someone who uses the word fuck like salt and pepper to enhance and flavor their fucking text then maybe this fucking book isn’t for you. Whining about it on a review site is just fucking dumb.

That said, this future thriller suffered things that a lot of future thrillers suffer from. We needed a prologue to introduce us to the damn universe. Dropping in mid conversation is great when you know what the fuck is going on but dropping into a brain of a burnt out 400 year old clone of a clone of a clone that has ‘lived forever’ and solved problems by blowing their brains out repeatedly might be a bit fucked in the head and it took way to long to figure that out.

The coloring needed for the minds and the other AIs would have been great. I would have appreciated some introduction, maybe hundreds of years at the past as AIs came online, but there were so many different types i spent so much brain power while reading trying to figure out those as i read along that the first half or so of the book drug on for me cuz every time they said or did something with words that have no definition in my brain i had to dig for context clues to try and figure out what was being said. And some of the words used to describe the singing character just left me lost.

That said, if you can get through the fucks to give and the lack of exposition at the beginning this is a pretty compelling story once you finally grok the fuck out of it. Then it ends with a dang cliffhanger. Hopefully there is another one if the fuck police haven’t spoiled it for the fucking rest of us.

Fuck.