The thread title includes Spoiler Alert and I'll echo that here -- since this post is intended for people who've read it, I'm going to give something away. Nothing huge, but definitely spoilery.
I had a hard time with Grant's conversion to (spoiler, told you) agreeing to kill Snellen. He got control over his emotions enough to just barely restrain himself with the pedophile. Logically, Snellen could be a larger threat, but his social development was still centered on individual rights. When SF Ted pressed, Grant seemed to cave too quickly. "Oh, there's a WAR? Then okay." Also, the way written, it seemed a large part of this decision was based on his belief that the Team would lose respect for him if he didn't agree to go kill the guy. This small plot point my play out differently and make my criticism moot, but it seemed like a large out of character moment. I understand the utility of using this quick conversion to illustrate the final abandonment of Grant's own normalcy bias, the ultimate "we ain't in Kansas anymore" moment, but I wasn't sold.
I enjoy this, though I echo the sentiment of those doing the dollars-per-word count and realizing it's a lot of money. But I'm still buying. Some if it is obviously an outlet for someone who's done a lot of thinking about this scenario, and is glad to have an outlet to express that thought, even at the expense of the narrative. Frankly, I'm fine with that, too, because if I want very well-crafted story I'll go get a Jack Reacher novel; I value this for it's predictive value, and a "future history" needs some exposition.
My biggest problem? I read cool "fiction" like this to escape and enjoy. As Cyprus steals accounts, the second amendment gets attacked, and other real life events echo the series, its escape value is getting smaller!!
Thanks, Heavy G.
