Status
Available
Call number
Call number
FIC ASH
Collection
Description
New Arcadia is a city-sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd. Hwa is of the few people in her community (which constitutes the whole rig) to forgo bio-engineered enhancements. As such, she's the last truly organic person left on the rig--making her doubly an outsider, as well as a neglected daughter and bodyguard extraordinaire. Still, her expertise in the arts of self-defense and her record as a fighter mean that her services are yet in high demand. When the youngest Lynch needs training and protection, the family turns to Hwa. But can even she protect against increasingly intense death threats seemingly coming from another timeline? Meanwhile, a series of interconnected murders threatens the city's stability and heightens the unease of a rig turning over. All signs point to a nearly invisible serial killer, but all of the murders seem to lead right back to Hwa's front door. Company Town has never been the safest place to be--but now, the danger is personal. A brilliant, twisted mystery, as one woman must evaluate saving the people of a town that can't be saved, or saving herself.… (more)
Publication
New York : TOR, 2016.
Original publication date
2016-05
User reviews
LibraryThing member eyes.2c
... 'rest in power'!
Oh my! This book is so unexpected that I'm still scrambling to catch up with and relive what went down.
Hwa is an amazing character. Her strengths and weaknesses, her very humanness in a world where people embrace bio-engineering stands in sharp contrast to those around her. Her
Hired to be the bodyguard for Joel, the heir apparent and youngest of the 'family', Hwa comes face to face with truths that are disturbing. The drive and ambition of the family is both bizarre and frightening, Orwell's '1984' meets David Weber's 'Mesan Alignment' in the Harrington Books with, I don't know, perhaps some of 'The Matrix.' Let's face it Lynch Ltd. is one scary corporation, a corporation without ethics and driven by the few super people prototypes. Are they machine or human or neither? The lines certainly blur.
So you have this hive type community mind that is looking to control and tailor the responses and decisions of the heir apparent, Joel, but the non engineered Hwa, the organic is the X factor in the equation, the wild card--and therein lies her power! Her relationship with Joel is fascinating, as is that with Daniel. Who or what is Daniel? I am still trying to figure that out too.
So I loved this book and am unsure why. Maybe because that wild card kept frustrating the status quo, despite the personal tragedies that happen along the way. Hwa is a strong female lead that one can empathize with. Great character! She is in a fight for her very being, without ever realizing it.
Great stuff!
p.s. The dedication is timely. It speaks into the void. Thank you Madeline Ashby!
A NetGalley ARC
Oh my! This book is so unexpected that I'm still scrambling to catch up with and relive what went down.
Hwa is an amazing character. Her strengths and weaknesses, her very humanness in a world where people embrace bio-engineering stands in sharp contrast to those around her. Her
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world is narrowed down to a huge oil rig in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canadian coast--a city (Company Town) owned by a huge corporation: Lynch Ltd. ... and wasn't the original US nuclear testing site a prototype of 'the Company Town' ? Ah! the nefarious doings of large corporations rears it's ugly head! Hired to be the bodyguard for Joel, the heir apparent and youngest of the 'family', Hwa comes face to face with truths that are disturbing. The drive and ambition of the family is both bizarre and frightening, Orwell's '1984' meets David Weber's 'Mesan Alignment' in the Harrington Books with, I don't know, perhaps some of 'The Matrix.' Let's face it Lynch Ltd. is one scary corporation, a corporation without ethics and driven by the few super people prototypes. Are they machine or human or neither? The lines certainly blur.
So you have this hive type community mind that is looking to control and tailor the responses and decisions of the heir apparent, Joel, but the non engineered Hwa, the organic is the X factor in the equation, the wild card--and therein lies her power! Her relationship with Joel is fascinating, as is that with Daniel. Who or what is Daniel? I am still trying to figure that out too.
So I loved this book and am unsure why. Maybe because that wild card kept frustrating the status quo, despite the personal tragedies that happen along the way. Hwa is a strong female lead that one can empathize with. Great character! She is in a fight for her very being, without ever realizing it.
Great stuff!
p.s. The dedication is timely. It speaks into the void. Thank you Madeline Ashby!
A NetGalley ARC
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LibraryThing member Kellswitch
New Arcadia is a city-sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd and Hwa is one of the few people left who is purely human with no bio-engineered enhancements. When the youngest Lynch needs training and protection, the
I loved the world, and the technology, everything here felt like it had weight and history and the city felt lived in and real.
I loved the way the book approached but the benefits and the consequences of rampant bio-engineering and body modification were touched on in a practical way, not a preachy way and to me paints a very scary look at one of our possible futures.
I really enjoyed Hwa, she isn't they stereotypical female hero in action stories, she has flaws and weaknesses but was also strong and new how to compensate for many of them,
Overall I found all of the characters and subcultures of New Arcadia to be fascinating and I wanted to meet more of them, spend more time with them and less with the characters attached to Lynch Ltd, I found all the characters fairly believable, I just enjoyed the every day citizens more.
My only real complaint about this book would be that the driving plot line, the death threats and the mystery of who was behind them felt a bit tacked on at points, it sometimes felt as if those story elements were only there to justify the exploration of the world of New Arcadia and in the end it felt like it was wrapped up a bit to neatly, a bit to quickly and conveniently.
Normally this would bother me a lot but I enjoyed the world and the characters to much to let that ruin the fun for me. This was a fun book and a definite page turner.
This is an author I plan to pay to keep an eye on for her future books.
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family turns to Hwa. But can even she protect against increasingly intense death threats seemingly coming from another timeline?I loved the world, and the technology, everything here felt like it had weight and history and the city felt lived in and real.
I loved the way the book approached but the benefits and the consequences of rampant bio-engineering and body modification were touched on in a practical way, not a preachy way and to me paints a very scary look at one of our possible futures.
I really enjoyed Hwa, she isn't they stereotypical female hero in action stories, she has flaws and weaknesses but was also strong and new how to compensate for many of them,
Overall I found all of the characters and subcultures of New Arcadia to be fascinating and I wanted to meet more of them, spend more time with them and less with the characters attached to Lynch Ltd, I found all the characters fairly believable, I just enjoyed the every day citizens more.
My only real complaint about this book would be that the driving plot line, the death threats and the mystery of who was behind them felt a bit tacked on at points, it sometimes felt as if those story elements were only there to justify the exploration of the world of New Arcadia and in the end it felt like it was wrapped up a bit to neatly, a bit to quickly and conveniently.
Normally this would bother me a lot but I enjoyed the world and the characters to much to let that ruin the fun for me. This was a fun book and a definite page turner.
This is an author I plan to pay to keep an eye on for her future books.
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LibraryThing member mikedowd
Was OK. Plot holes to drive big trucks through, ending is nigh-incomprehensible. Characters & relationships were fun, though.
LibraryThing member jen.e.moore
A terrific book with a wonderful main character (note to everyone: Hwa is a perfect example of a strong female character - yes, she's physically strong, but also: emotionally solid with a few significant cracks, driven, and most importantly the resolution of the plot grows out of her character and
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personality). The pacing in the last section was a little off for me, but otherwise I loved it. Show Less
LibraryThing member Gwendydd
I really wanted to like this, and there were some things that were very likeable, but ultimately, the book fell flat for me.
Likeable things: the story is suspenseful and unpredictable. The world building is interesting, although it's not always well-developed. The characterization is good, although
Things I didn't like: There were a lot of things that were never really explained to my satisfaction. For instance, Hwa is one of the only people who doesn't have any body modifications. This makes her basically a freak. The explanation for her lack of modifications is that her mom didn't care enough to pay for the modifications, and then it became a part of Hwa's self-identification and she didn't want modifications. That explanation doesn't make much sense though - if her mom didn't want to spend the money, then it seems that there would be a lot of poor people without modifications. And although Hwa is the kind of person who would cut off her nose to spite her face, she has an occupation (bodyguard) where not having modifications is a major detriment. Another thing that bothered me is that most people have "filters" that prevent them from seeing Hwa's face as it really is (red spots on her skin). These filters were never really explained - why would people's faces be filtered? How do people recognize each other if their filters are changing people's appearance?
A lot of the action scenes ended with an ungraceful cut. Hwa would lose consciousness, and then we'd jump to a few hours/days/weeks? later and never get the story about how Hwa got out of the situation. Sometimes she doesn't even lose consciousness - the scene is just cut right at the crucial moment, and there is no explanation of how Hwa got out of the situation, or how much time has passed between when the cut happens and when the next scene starts. I have no idea if the action of this book happened over the course of days or months, which was really confusing.
The part that bothered me the most was the ending. [spoilers]The ending had a deus ex machina that just suddenly ended the whole story, even though it raised way more questions than it answered and was very unsatisfying.[/spoilers]
I don't regret reading the book - it's certainly a good example of a good female action character, and there is some fun world-building, but ultimately I found it to be very disappointing.
Likeable things: the story is suspenseful and unpredictable. The world building is interesting, although it's not always well-developed. The characterization is good, although
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some of the characters are somewhat flat. It's always fun to have a book where the main character is a mixed-race person with a disability, even if the disability is minor in this case.Things I didn't like: There were a lot of things that were never really explained to my satisfaction. For instance, Hwa is one of the only people who doesn't have any body modifications. This makes her basically a freak. The explanation for her lack of modifications is that her mom didn't care enough to pay for the modifications, and then it became a part of Hwa's self-identification and she didn't want modifications. That explanation doesn't make much sense though - if her mom didn't want to spend the money, then it seems that there would be a lot of poor people without modifications. And although Hwa is the kind of person who would cut off her nose to spite her face, she has an occupation (bodyguard) where not having modifications is a major detriment. Another thing that bothered me is that most people have "filters" that prevent them from seeing Hwa's face as it really is (red spots on her skin). These filters were never really explained - why would people's faces be filtered? How do people recognize each other if their filters are changing people's appearance?
A lot of the action scenes ended with an ungraceful cut. Hwa would lose consciousness, and then we'd jump to a few hours/days/weeks? later and never get the story about how Hwa got out of the situation. Sometimes she doesn't even lose consciousness - the scene is just cut right at the crucial moment, and there is no explanation of how Hwa got out of the situation, or how much time has passed between when the cut happens and when the next scene starts. I have no idea if the action of this book happened over the course of days or months, which was really confusing.
The part that bothered me the most was the ending. [spoilers]The ending had a deus ex machina that just suddenly ended the whole story, even though it raised way more questions than it answered and was very unsatisfying.[/spoilers]
I don't regret reading the book - it's certainly a good example of a good female action character, and there is some fun world-building, but ultimately I found it to be very disappointing.
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LibraryThing member zjakkelien
I really liked this book. I'm not completely sure I bought the story in the end, but I really liked the main character and I also liked several of the characters around her. Hwa is female, kicks ass, is half-Korean, and she has a condition (Sturge-Weber, which causes her to have port-wine stains,
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and which can give her seizures). Highly unusual! Hwa is also courageous and kind, and she is not easily deterred. I like the technology in Company town and the way Hwa stands out from that. She has a lot to deal with, but that is exactly what she does. And with all the problems she encounters, she never has to deal with misogyny. That is all too rare, unfortunately... Show Less
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
This book is on the longlist for Canada Reads 2017. It is up to this year's competitors whether it makes it to the shortlist. Since it is science fiction it is probably unlikely to be picked but I can always hope. I think it would be great if it got picked up so that Canadians would realize that
Go Jung-Hwa is half-Korean, lives on a giant oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland and works as a body guard for the sex workers on the rig. She is also one of the few people alive who does not have any bio-engineered body augmentations. She was born with Sturge-Weber syndrome which means she has a large port wine stain on the left half of her face and body and she also experiences seizures. Her mother, who does have numerous augmentations, was so disappointed with the disfigurement that she physically abused her and refused to spend any money on her. If it wasn't for Hwa's half-brother, Tae-kyung, her childhood would have been hell but Tae-kyung protected her and taught her Tae Kwon Do. Then three years ago Tae-kyung was killed when the oil rig blew up. Hwa has little chance of ever getting off the rig city and will likely die young. Then a mega-company, Lynch, announces they have bought the city and the rig and no-one knows what that means. Hwa comes into contact with a Lynch employee, Daniel Siofra, who offers her a job being bodyguard for seventeen year old Joel Lynch, heir to the Lynch empire. Hwa takes the job which means she goes back to high school with Joel. Her sex worker friends are happy she has a better job but they face going on dates without protection. Soon their bodies start showing up. Is it the work of a serial killer who likes to kill prostitutes or is someone trying to get at Hwa or are they trying to get at Joel while Hwa is distracted by her friends' deaths?
There is a large cast of characters in this book and sometimes I forgot who they were when they popped up chapters later after their first introduction. I'm not sure if this is a flaw or if I should play closer attention when I read. Maybe a bit of both so that is why I knocked half a star off my rating. Otherwise it is excellent.
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science fiction isn't all space opera and extra-terrestrials. Go Jung-Hwa is half-Korean, lives on a giant oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland and works as a body guard for the sex workers on the rig. She is also one of the few people alive who does not have any bio-engineered body augmentations. She was born with Sturge-Weber syndrome which means she has a large port wine stain on the left half of her face and body and she also experiences seizures. Her mother, who does have numerous augmentations, was so disappointed with the disfigurement that she physically abused her and refused to spend any money on her. If it wasn't for Hwa's half-brother, Tae-kyung, her childhood would have been hell but Tae-kyung protected her and taught her Tae Kwon Do. Then three years ago Tae-kyung was killed when the oil rig blew up. Hwa has little chance of ever getting off the rig city and will likely die young. Then a mega-company, Lynch, announces they have bought the city and the rig and no-one knows what that means. Hwa comes into contact with a Lynch employee, Daniel Siofra, who offers her a job being bodyguard for seventeen year old Joel Lynch, heir to the Lynch empire. Hwa takes the job which means she goes back to high school with Joel. Her sex worker friends are happy she has a better job but they face going on dates without protection. Soon their bodies start showing up. Is it the work of a serial killer who likes to kill prostitutes or is someone trying to get at Hwa or are they trying to get at Joel while Hwa is distracted by her friends' deaths?
There is a large cast of characters in this book and sometimes I forgot who they were when they popped up chapters later after their first introduction. I'm not sure if this is a flaw or if I should play closer attention when I read. Maybe a bit of both so that is why I knocked half a star off my rating. Otherwise it is excellent.
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LibraryThing member LynnB
This is the story of Hwa, a professional bodyguard who is hired by the powerful Lynch family to protect the youngest son, Joel, who is receiving death threats from the future. I have to agree with the reviewer (below) who said that the plot line doesn't make much sense. I couldn't really understand
I liked Hwa -- she's a strong character and well developed. The other characters were largely undeveloped -- when they would pop up after not being mentioned for a while, I had trouble remembering who they were. The good and bad news about not remembering is that it didn't seem to matter much.
So, I have to say I didn't enjoy this book very much...although Hwa and her relationship with Daniel was enough to keep me reading. That said, sci-fi is not my genre, so take my views with a grain of salt.
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the motivation, even after the killer's identity was made known. I liked Hwa -- she's a strong character and well developed. The other characters were largely undeveloped -- when they would pop up after not being mentioned for a while, I had trouble remembering who they were. The good and bad news about not remembering is that it didn't seem to matter much.
So, I have to say I didn't enjoy this book very much...although Hwa and her relationship with Daniel was enough to keep me reading. That said, sci-fi is not my genre, so take my views with a grain of salt.
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LibraryThing member alanteder
3.5 out of 5 sounds pretty wishy-washy, so to be upfront this was in 5 out of 5 territory many times, but the ending felt like it wasn't earned and seemed like a thunderbolt out of nowhere and periodic typos left the impression of a self-published effort, all of which put it into a 1 out of 5
So the 3.5 is a compromise.
The entire concept of a city-sized drilling rig off the coast of Newfoundland in a future world of cybernetically enhanced people was extremely well done. The heroine body-guard Hwa is a great character to root for. Having an AI / Virtual Reality research booth in a library where projections of lit-figures such as Alan Moore (author of "From Hell") become your research assistant when you are seeking info on Jack the Ripper & Whitechapel and then having a pestering projection of Truman Capote walk in on you as if he has wandered away from the "In Cold Blood" exhibit was genius. There was so much that was clever and well imagined about this book.
I just wish I had liked the ending more and that the publisher had fixed their typos by the time they got into a popular-sized paperback print run, which I am assuming this book has now received as the Canada Reads 2017 runner-up. I'd certainly read further from the author in the future.
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category.So the 3.5 is a compromise.
The entire concept of a city-sized drilling rig off the coast of Newfoundland in a future world of cybernetically enhanced people was extremely well done. The heroine body-guard Hwa is a great character to root for. Having an AI / Virtual Reality research booth in a library where projections of lit-figures such as Alan Moore (author of "From Hell") become your research assistant when you are seeking info on Jack the Ripper & Whitechapel and then having a pestering projection of Truman Capote walk in on you as if he has wandered away from the "In Cold Blood" exhibit was genius. There was so much that was clever and well imagined about this book.
I just wish I had liked the ending more and that the publisher had fixed their typos by the time they got into a popular-sized paperback print run, which I am assuming this book has now received as the Canada Reads 2017 runner-up. I'd certainly read further from the author in the future.
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LibraryThing member rivkat
Hwa is one of the few genetically unmodified people even in her relatively poor community, a former oil rig. She’s got a “stain”—misplaced tissue that makes her (according to her mother) disfigured and unloveable, prevents her from seeing out of one eye, and gives her seizures. When she’s
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hired as a bodyguard for the son and heir of the new owners of the rig, she gets involved in intrigue that might include an answer to the mystery of how her beloved, perfect older brother died. Interesting worldbuilding, though things wrap up rather neatly, and if you’re looking for disabled characters, fair warning that a cure is Hwa’s desired endgame—which is perfectly understandable given how she was raised plus the seizures, but may turn off some readers. Show Less
LibraryThing member STACYatUFI
When I started reading COMPANY TOWN it was nothing like I thought it would be. I found it odd and had a hard time staying in the story. I forced myself to keep going and not only did it get interesting, but I ended up enjoying it.
I thought COMPANY TOWN was a bit odd and somewhat boring until Hwa
The world building in COMPANY TOWN was by far the strongest part of the story. From the people that make up the world, to the actual world itself, Ashby's imagination was far from boring. I found it all very imaginative and original.
If you can get past the beginning, I think COMPANY TOWN will grow on you.
* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I thought COMPANY TOWN was a bit odd and somewhat boring until Hwa
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became the bodyguard to Joel. I thought at that point things started really happening and we really got to know Hwa. I really enjoyed the bond that developed between Hwa and her charge and the relationship between her and Daniel was of interest as well. I truly didn't see some things coming which is always nice in a storyline.The world building in COMPANY TOWN was by far the strongest part of the story. From the people that make up the world, to the actual world itself, Ashby's imagination was far from boring. I found it all very imaginative and original.
If you can get past the beginning, I think COMPANY TOWN will grow on you.
* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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LibraryThing member Shrike58
This is basically an advanced cyber-punk thriller wherein a damaged (yet determined) bodyguard for a sex-workers' collective gets hired by a CEO who's like Elon Musk on crack to protect his son from threats that might have a trans-singularity origin. I wanted to like this novel on the basis of
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Ashby's previous work but at the end of the day it felt somewhat incoherent to me; file under ambitious but flawed. Frankly, this book needed to be longer to better develop the plot and the actual threat. Show Less
LibraryThing member bucketofrhymes
I don't know how to say this without feeling like a traitor to bookworms everywhere, but I think I would enjoy Company Town more as a tv show than a book.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the writing itself. Company Town has a fantastic story, a gripping plot, a compelling
So, I guess that's the big disclaimer about my opinion of the book -- I liked it so much that it made me want to experience it in an alternative format. That makes no logical sense, but let's just go with it.
The things I love about this story include:
1. The union aspect. Admittedly, my experience with sci-fi books is limited (see: would rather watch a screen adaptation), but I haven't read much that involves labour relations.
2. It's not just labour relations -- this book also tackles environmentalism, corporate greed, sex work, privacy, bodily autonomy, and more. For such an intense book, this has an incredible amount of relevance to daily life today.
3. The diversity. This book has some pretty impressive representation for marginalized groups, including people of colour and people with disabilities. Sci-fi tv has a pretty big issue with character diversity, so this was refreshing to see.
4. Hwa. I don't always enjoy main characters with a brutal side, but oh my goodness, I love her.
5. This is a small thing, but I also adore the optometrist.
The whole time I was reading Company Town, I was thinking about quotes I've read where people talk about how ridiculous it is that when you're looking at sci-fi and fantasy -- genres with limitless potential -- stories seem to fall into the same tired stereotypes and tropes, plots seem subject to current social standards and biases. And why does that happen? Why can we envision a world with space travel but not a main character of colour? Why can we accept elves and orcs but not LGBT elves and orcs?
I feel like Company Town is if not a direct answer to that, then a solution, something that I'll recommend the next time someone asks for a sci-fi recommendation.
So, I guess that's where I stand on Company Town. There is so much that I love about the book, and there is so much that feel very needed. As far as personal enjoyment goes, I don't think this was the book for me, emphasis on book. Because wow, if there is ever some kind of gritty screen adaptation, I will be all. over. it.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the writing itself. Company Town has a fantastic story, a gripping plot, a compelling
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exploration of social issues, and a wonderful cast of characters (including the most kickass heroine I've read in awhile). It just so happens that the vast majority of the time, I would rather watch sci-fi than read it, and everything that I love about Company Town makes me feel that even more.So, I guess that's the big disclaimer about my opinion of the book -- I liked it so much that it made me want to experience it in an alternative format. That makes no logical sense, but let's just go with it.
The things I love about this story include:
1. The union aspect. Admittedly, my experience with sci-fi books is limited (see: would rather watch a screen adaptation), but I haven't read much that involves labour relations.
2. It's not just labour relations -- this book also tackles environmentalism, corporate greed, sex work, privacy, bodily autonomy, and more. For such an intense book, this has an incredible amount of relevance to daily life today.
3. The diversity. This book has some pretty impressive representation for marginalized groups, including people of colour and people with disabilities. Sci-fi tv has a pretty big issue with character diversity, so this was refreshing to see.
4. Hwa. I don't always enjoy main characters with a brutal side, but oh my goodness, I love her.
5. This is a small thing, but I also adore the optometrist.
The whole time I was reading Company Town, I was thinking about quotes I've read where people talk about how ridiculous it is that when you're looking at sci-fi and fantasy -- genres with limitless potential -- stories seem to fall into the same tired stereotypes and tropes, plots seem subject to current social standards and biases. And why does that happen? Why can we envision a world with space travel but not a main character of colour? Why can we accept elves and orcs but not LGBT elves and orcs?
I feel like Company Town is if not a direct answer to that, then a solution, something that I'll recommend the next time someone asks for a sci-fi recommendation.
So, I guess that's where I stand on Company Town. There is so much that I love about the book, and there is so much that feel very needed. As far as personal enjoyment goes, I don't think this was the book for me, emphasis on book. Because wow, if there is ever some kind of gritty screen adaptation, I will be all. over. it.
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LibraryThing member SChant
I enjoyed her Machine Dynasties books but this was disappointing. Muddled, implausible, too many coincidences.
LibraryThing member Robert3167
Corporateisation versus the misfit in this dystopian novel by Madeline Ashby.
By taking current trends; big companies becoming globally huge and power-full, nano technology moving into medicine, fossil fuel resources dwindling, the internet of things, facial cognition, Ashby has created a
Stay on earth and fix it or transform humanity into an augmented hybrid where the wealthy just bugger off to the stars leaving the poor masses to muddle through.
Go Jung-hwa known as Hwa works as a bodyguard for the sex workers protected by The United Sex Workers of Canada. Yes the whole thing is Unionized and legal on this floating city. The Lynch family have recently purchased the entire complex and no-one is sure of their motives. Status quo or scrap and sell.
Hwa encounters the family and the adventure begins - who does she trust when her friends and sex workers she protects are brutally murdered one by one.
By taking current trends; big companies becoming globally huge and power-full, nano technology moving into medicine, fossil fuel resources dwindling, the internet of things, facial cognition, Ashby has created a
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believable future where humanity is balanced on a knife edge. Stay on earth and fix it or transform humanity into an augmented hybrid where the wealthy just bugger off to the stars leaving the poor masses to muddle through.
Go Jung-hwa known as Hwa works as a bodyguard for the sex workers protected by The United Sex Workers of Canada. Yes the whole thing is Unionized and legal on this floating city. The Lynch family have recently purchased the entire complex and no-one is sure of their motives. Status quo or scrap and sell.
Hwa encounters the family and the adventure begins - who does she trust when her friends and sex workers she protects are brutally murdered one by one.
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LibraryThing member kmajort
I bumped into this title shelving the new books, then again on a blog (or perhaps GR review) from a co-worker....
Captivating, different, slightly dystopian, set in the near future. A city, the company town, created on the towers of oil rigs in the Atlantic off the coast of Canada; failing oil rigs,
Telling no more, very definitely worth checking out.
Good for fans of Cory Doctorow, Margaret Atwood, David Lynch. Was chosen as a Canadian Reads nominee.
Captivating, different, slightly dystopian, set in the near future. A city, the company town, created on the towers of oil rigs in the Atlantic off the coast of Canada; failing oil rigs,
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the boom definitely busted. A new company comes in to "save" the city... but not really. The main character (Hwa) is a treat.Telling no more, very definitely worth checking out.
Good for fans of Cory Doctorow, Margaret Atwood, David Lynch. Was chosen as a Canadian Reads nominee.
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LibraryThing member pwaites
Company Town‘s plot didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I nevertheless enjoyed reading it. Hwa’s a bodyguard for a sex workers’ union on a future city built around an oil rig. The city’s being bought out by a single family owned business, and Hwa is offered a new job: guard Joel, the
On the bright side, the world building was fantastic. The city of towers out in the ocean felt believable and realistic, even as it was completely different and inventive. Almost everyone in the future has some sort of bio-engineering that’s tweaked their genetics and physical body, and the setting itself involves a lot of bio-engineering in the structural design.
Hwa is one of the few fully “organic” people left. She’s a half Korean woman with Sturge-Weber Syndrome, and she’s a total badass. I liked her a lot as a lead character, especially the friendship with parent-child undertones she developed with Joel, the boy she’s guarding. Neither of them grew up with supportive parents, and I think that’s part of why they bonded so strongly. Before I move on, I do want to note that given the end of the book, I wouldn’t recommend Company Town for representation of disabilities.Hwa gets unexpectedly cured of her Sturge-Weber due to having sex with her love interest and weirdness with nanomachines.
Company Town‘s main failing was the plot line. It just didn’t make much sense at all. I have zero clue how the “death threats from the future” plot line was working, and I don’t think I would understand it any better even if I reread the book. Then there were smaller plot issues like how Hwa didn’t act much like a bodyguard and seemed to be able to do whatever was plot necessary, with no restrictions given her position. There was also some weirdness at the end, partly due to the nebulous plot line and partly due to the spoiler I referenced above.
Despite its flaws, Company Town was a fast and enjoyable read, and it clearly had feminist intentions (although you could argue as to how well they were carried out). I would recommend reading it, especially for the vivid world Ashby conjures.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received a free ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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family’s youngest son, who has been receiving death threats from another timeline.On the bright side, the world building was fantastic. The city of towers out in the ocean felt believable and realistic, even as it was completely different and inventive. Almost everyone in the future has some sort of bio-engineering that’s tweaked their genetics and physical body, and the setting itself involves a lot of bio-engineering in the structural design.
Hwa is one of the few fully “organic” people left. She’s a half Korean woman with Sturge-Weber Syndrome, and she’s a total badass. I liked her a lot as a lead character, especially the friendship with parent-child undertones she developed with Joel, the boy she’s guarding. Neither of them grew up with supportive parents, and I think that’s part of why they bonded so strongly. Before I move on, I do want to note that given the end of the book, I wouldn’t recommend Company Town for representation of disabilities.
Company Town‘s main failing was the plot line. It just didn’t make much sense at all. I have zero clue how the “death threats from the future” plot line was working, and I don’t think I would understand it any better even if I reread the book. Then there were smaller plot issues like how Hwa didn’t act much like a bodyguard and seemed to be able to do whatever was plot necessary, with no restrictions given her position. There was also some weirdness at the end, partly due to the nebulous plot line and partly due to the spoiler I referenced above.
Despite its flaws, Company Town was a fast and enjoyable read, and it clearly had feminist intentions (although you could argue as to how well they were carried out). I would recommend reading it, especially for the vivid world Ashby conjures.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received a free ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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LibraryThing member livingtech
Maybe I wasn’t reading closely enough, but I think there are still parts of the plot here where I don’t even really understand what happened. There were too many bad guys, I think, and the stuff about serial killers felt like it was maybe an intentional red herring. I think it also jumped
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around too many times. There were a lot of times where the protagonist should have died and was surprised to find herself alive after some ambiguous amount of time had passed. There were some really interesting ideas here, and I wish the book had focused more on those rather than... well, just the lack of focus. Show Less
LibraryThing member allison_s
Another of those fairly eye-opening near-future sci-fi novels that makes you wonder just how far from this kind of technology and world we really are. Hwa was a terrific, kick-ass, and fully-realized protagonist. *Heart-clutch* Ugh, her relationship with her mother. Unique setting, tons of action,
Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the review copy!
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bio-technology: pretty much exactly what I'd expect from Madeline Ashby at this point!Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the review copy!
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LibraryThing member TheYodamom
4.5
I am not going to tell you anything about the book. I read it blind on a recommendation and think it was better for it. it you enjoy science fiction with intense action and mystery give it a go.
I really enjoyed this unique little science fiction read. Great characters, a world that was fresh and
The story is filled with twists and turns that I didn't even know where twists till towards the end. When it was finally pieced together I was practically a drooling bag of goo from the intensity or the actions that lead to that point. Seriously I did get hot and a touch sweaty on the brow. I wish there was a book 2 I could see a future worth knowing at the end.
Okay the author is a foodie, a glorious one too. She mentioned Cioppino and Fainting Iman, the first is my # Fav food the second I'll be making very soon. So I loved her book and her taste in food , double winner. Yep, she is going on my must read author list
I am not going to tell you anything about the book. I read it blind on a recommendation and think it was better for it. it you enjoy science fiction with intense action and mystery give it a go.
I really enjoyed this unique little science fiction read. Great characters, a world that was fresh and
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exciting, and a mystery that I didn't figure out till it was revealed. The relationships each of the character had with each other was so different it was a touch off putting at first but soon became normal for this world in my mind. This would make a fabulous movie, it was so visually written.The story is filled with twists and turns that I didn't even know where twists till towards the end. When it was finally pieced together I was practically a drooling bag of goo from the intensity or the actions that lead to that point. Seriously I did get hot and a touch sweaty on the brow. I wish there was a book 2 I could see a future worth knowing at the end.
Okay the author is a foodie, a glorious one too. She mentioned Cioppino and Fainting Iman, the first is my # Fav food the second I'll be making very soon. So I loved her book and her taste in food , double winner. Yep, she is going on my must read author list
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LibraryThing member Dabble58
A gripping Canadian tale of life in a post-oil world, where cities are established on the old oil rigs. The main character, Hwa, is a martial arts expert and security enforcer. She accepts a job from the mysterious Lynch company, protecting the youngest son. In no time at all she, and he, are
The world Ashby creates is believable and relatively complete. The plot is fast moving and keeps you flipping the pages to see what happens next.
The book suffers somewhat from irrational and too fast leaps in the last few chapters. I found the ending stepped outside of credibility, even within the fictional world.
But maybe that's because I was racing through it to see how it worked out? In any case, the ending seemed rushed and ruined my pleasure in what otherwise was an excellent tale.
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facing attacks from all over, and trying to figure out what lies beneath.The world Ashby creates is believable and relatively complete. The plot is fast moving and keeps you flipping the pages to see what happens next.
The book suffers somewhat from irrational and too fast leaps in the last few chapters. I found the ending stepped outside of credibility, even within the fictional world.
But maybe that's because I was racing through it to see how it worked out? In any case, the ending seemed rushed and ruined my pleasure in what otherwise was an excellent tale.
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ISBN
9780765382900