Book Review: Singular by Zack Hubert

This image and that of the author were taken from his website for review purposes.

Spolier Free Summary: Singular by Zack Hubert is a YA novel about a teenage boy who has to stop an artificial intelligence from downloading the minds of humanity into a computer. What’s the catch? Milo Bell is nowhere near a normal teenager. With the help of his AI friend and loyal AI dog, he faces an army of avatars and a computer program determined to end humanity as we know it to save humanity.  This was my April Book Cover of the Month winner. If you want to see an interview from the artist, just click here.

 

Character:  I have to be honest. YA usually relies on its main character, and Milo didn’t connect with me. The premise for the story was awesome, and the plot points were interesting, but I think Hubert missed an opportunity with Milo’s circumstances. I expect a degree of convenience in YA books; it’s simply unavoidable, but while Milo faces conflict, I don’t know how much he grows as a result of those struggles. He changes, but that’s not the same as growth. I might be being unfair here as the story I thought this could have been wasn’t the story it turned out to be, but, as a reader, I feel I have that right. Now, if readers can learn Milo’s secret, and not have an issue with some of his actions, then they’ll wonder what my ever-loving problem was. I think that’s the test for readers. When they learn Milo’s secret, can they accept how he reacts to it? I couldn’t.

Another note on character. This book oddly switched points of view. It wouldn’t have been hard to understand if it was consistent, but somewhere around the halfway point, we get these new characters. The reasoning made sense. Readers needed to know how the rest of humanity was responding. I just wanted those characters to have a role through the whole book.

Exposition:  This was solid. It was there, but not overly frustrating. Hubert did a nice job letting the reader watch the story unfold rather than explain what was happening and why.

World building:  This was probably the strength for Hubert. It was an interesting near-futuristic world with an obvious amount of research into AI and how it would function. People who enjoy speculative fiction like this might enjoy this book for this reason.

Dialogue: This didn’t really do much for me. It felt more like a back door to exposition rather than interaction of characters. Books do this. They do this a lot, so it’s not a crime in itself. I just think it happened too much in this particular book. We even get exposition in the form of digital messages from a character. I think it was too much, but if anyone throws Obi Wan at me, I couldn’t really argue with them. (Am I the only one who realizes his only function in any of the original movies is to explain stuff?)

Description: This was solid. Again, Hubert had a crystal clear view of this world, its technology, and how the events would affect those locations. He gave me what I needed to see and let my imagination do the rest.

Overall: This was a fascinating plot idea. It feels like classic speculative scifi. The characters aren’t the most believable, and some things feel too convenient, but it’s an entertaining read for younger readers.

Thanks for reading,

Matt