Dear Three,

(Disclaimer: I received an eARC copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.)

Never in my long life as a reader have I ever been given so little information and been so happy because of it.

You are a wonderful novel, full of intrigue, twists and turns, and a world that is as fully-realized as I can imagine it to be. That might sound confusing at first but consider that when a Sci-Fi novel paints in vivid details the world that the author is envisioning, they are also limiting what the reader can imagine because everything is being painted.

You, Three, are like a sketch. You are quick pencil drawings that deliver the barest of information to make the story understandable. You are like a fine Japanese print in which things are carefully laid out in thin, delicate strokes.

You make the reader work a little. And that is a wonderful thing.

Beyond your scarce data, you give us characters and relationships that we can fall in love with. You give us a hero who is flawed in so many ways, yet we care about him and we want him to succeed not only because of the stakes but because of who he is trying to be.

You are swift, at times frightening, haunting, beautiful, a joy to read, impossible to put down, and, in the end, leave us wanting so much more.

My only gripe with you, dear novel, is your ending. Your build up, your layering of excitement and confrontation and anticipation isn’t served well by your ending. In many ways, you fall flat at the end.

Of course, the rest of you, the journey the characters go on across this desolate wasteland hunted by telepathic thieves and cyberpunk zombies is so rich and delicious that the problem with your ending is pale in comparison.

You, Three, deserve the moniker ‘Epic’ right before ‘Sci-Fi.’