Revolution World by Katy Stauber

Revolution World Reviews

• 
  Trike

  This is a tough one to review. The problem is that the book is sort of neither here nor there.
  
  It's satirical, but not quite satirical enough. It's very funny in spots (the reveal with the dogs made me laugh out loud), but the tone is uneven. There are a lot of interesting ideas in it, but it feels slight. It's well-written for the most part, but there are weird lapses in proofreading and editing, such as when pronouns switch genders.
  
  As a first effort, I quite liked it. I'm not a fan of the whole Texan state of mind thing, even if politically I don't think there's much here that most Americans disagree with. No matter which part of the political spectrum you find yourself in, we pretty much all agree that the government in general and Congress in particular is doing a pretty bad job.
  
  There are some things I didn't think needed to be in the story since there wasn't a big rationale for them. The biggest one was why the people of Omertà were vampires. They aren't traditional vampires, of course, but rather science fictional ones, but if there was an underlying point to that other than to hook it into the whole biopunk thing, I missed it. If Staub had used them to make a point about Canadian health care versus American health care, I could see their inclusion, but that aspect was left alone. And really, any number of medical conditions could be a stand-in to highlight those differences.
  
  Given all the anti-government rhetoric in the story, I'm actually kind of surprised health care wasn't underscored more. After all, late in the book she comes down pretty definitively against torture of suspected terrorists (or any enemies of the state, really) along with programs like Extraordinary Rendition, even if she does handle them humorously. Which I applaud, don't get me wrong -- these are difficult subjects to handle without going off on a screed, and even here she gets a little ranty for a couple pages. I happen to agree with her that torture is bad, and seeing as how this book was written probably sometime in 2010-2011, it's still relevant here in early 2015 with the recent US government report detailing how none of the torture the US engaged in actually achieved the result of garnering actionable intelligence. That's what those in the know have been saying all along, so it's a solid win for Staub here.
  
  The problem is, at the same time she's undercutting that whole ultrapatriotic "let's do things the way Jack Bauer does it in the TV series 24" stuff, she's substituting the Libertarian-slash-Tea Party ethos for it, which we've seen is also a failed method for doing things. Witness uninspected Texas refineries exploding to see the ultimate outcome of those sorts of policies.
  
  So on the one hand I liked the book, it had funny parts, but other aspects left me wanting a second rewrite to flesh some aspects out and punch up the humor. I'm not cool with Monsanto, either, nor the collusion between corporations and the government, but simply renaming them "Malsanto" and having DARPA be the jackbooted thugs of the piece was a bit too on the nose.
  
  But it's an easy read and there are enough good bits to hold your interest.
• 
  Tom Loock

  Okay -
  Revolution World is "just" a four star novel, but I've awarded the fifth because so many readers were way too harsh with this first novel by
  Katy Stauber and I feel compelled to tip the scales back, because this novel deserves to be read. Why?
  
  It's funny, often very funny (Friendly, helpful Canadian vampires, anyone?) and at times outright hilarious (Team Pom? Genius!). It's also deeply political, and dares to speak out on important issues like the so-called laws dealing with "terrorists", abuse of power, torture and (good vs. bad) genetic research.
  
  Stauber is clearly a believer in the letter of the constitution (as opposed to the way current lawmakers interpret it), both a Texan and a romantic at heart, and knowledgeable in the fields she tackles (genetics, security, small town Texan living etc).
  
  The problem I see and the reason I believe many (good)readers give it a low rating is that comedy and politics are a volatile mix: Many who love one, have a problem with the other. As in "I want to smile/laugh/be entertained and not be bothered with politics" versus "This is an important political issue and not funny".
  
  Well - I loved the mix of politics & humour & romance & geekiness & Texan issues & weirdness - so much indeed that I bought her short 'Gene Punks' for the Kindle (oddly missing on Goodreads) which has the charming Harmony from
  Revolution World as the protagonist before she had her daughters. I sincerely hope
  Katy Stauber will publish more books about Seth, Max, Clio, Terpsy, Gloria, Harmony, Uncle Vern and of course Team Pom!
  
  
• 
  Thomas Taylor

  Revolution World is a book set in a post-semi-apocalypse Texas. Full disclosure: I hate Texas. I hate Texans. However, Katy Stauber wrote with warmth and good characterization enough to make me forget how much I hate Texas and enjoy the Texan-centric ride that her book presented.
  
  The book itself is jam-packed with gun-toting craziness. Genetic modifications, oppressive governments, resistance fighters, non-sparkly vampires, etc. It's pretty much what you would expect from an Austin author: cool and deranged in a classy sort of way.
  
  The action itself is fairly low, and focuses more on the inter-personal relationships of the characters which is done well. The book itself winds up feeling a little shallow at 232 pages.
  
  It's definitely cute and fleshed out well. The book is a little goofy, but it winds up being more than the sum of its parts. That and the ending made me smile, and was not obviously predictable or painfully clichéd .
  
  Ultimately, for $15 it's a bit pricey for a 200 page trade paper book, but I am willing to bet that's because of the small publisher and I did enjoy the quick pulpy read.
  
  I still hate Texas, though. 3/5 Stars.
• 
  Courtney Schafer

  I had a lot of fun reading Revolution World. The author calls it a "beach read for nerds", and I think that's a perfect description. It's a funny, wildly imaginative story full of fire-breathing cows, ninja pomeranians, giant attack bunnies, and a sweetly awkward nerd romance. (Gotta love it when to show their love, the bioengineering whiz creates superintelligent ninja guard dogs (the aforementioned pomeranians) for her computer geekboy, while the geekboy is busy coding algorithms to spoof satellites so the evil government can't spy on her!) You'll want to read this one close to a fridge, or maybe in a bbq joint; it's got a plethora of mouthwatering descriptions of Texan home cooking. Fair warning: for those like me who aren't fond of 3rd-person omniscient POV with rapid head-hopping, brace yourself. But for me, the sheer exuberance of the story outweighed any quibbles with style.
• 
  Monica

  I was skeptical about this book, but wound up finding it totally delightful. The copy I have is edited poorly, but I thought that the whole story was fresh and funny, while raising a lot of critical issues that we're facing right now.
• 
  Courtney

  I think I read like 10 pages of this book. Just didn't like the writing style. It seemed cheap (is that even a way to describe it???). I don't know, just wasn't for me.
• 
  Jeff

  The word "serviceable" comes to mind, but that seems ungenerous. Lots of fun ideas and I did laugh out loud in several spots, so Ms. Stauber gets points for that. Definitely needed a better proofreader. The writing is pretty good overall, but came across as...the word "blunt" comes to mind. But that keeps it fairly short, which is better than wordy and overblown and makes it a worthwhile read, just for the clever bits. But. The last sentence was really kind of pukey. I wanted to blot it out with a Sharpie, but it was a library book. Though I believe many future readers would have thanked me.
• 
  Suz

  I was so disappointed in this book.
  
  I got it for a good price (5 or 6$ from Baen’s ebook library), and it seemed like it would be an awesome book. It’s in Texas! As a former Texan, I <3 Texas! It has ninja Pomeranians! giant killer bunnies! fire breathing cows! gene splicing! vampires! villains! good Tex-Mex!
  
  It was silly, but not silly enough. Or if it were trying to give some sort of message (and it felt like it was) it was sloppily done.
  
  In the future, society has collapsed, and not from the usual suspects of war or other disasters, but from something just as plausible - the collapse of agriculture and the weather through the use of large agribusiness’s genetically modified crops. Malsanto (really? Is that the best name you could think of? Try, for gods’ sakes, try!!) is a large evil agri-corp who is trying to beg/steal/threaten secrets from a small, very successful altruistic gen-mod company in small town Texas. Big security-tech company also moves in, looking to set up an off-site storage branch, and they team up with the girls from the gen-mod company. The military of the Grand Ole Patriot Acting U S of A get involved (with Malsanto) to threaten, steamroll and generally Guantanamo everyone involved into giving up secrets and products.
  
  There’s something of a geeky romance going on, which was OK, not thrilling, not new, but not terribly done.
  
  It could have been rip roaringly fun, but it wasn’t quite there. I’m not surprised to see that it’s this author’s first go. The book is unfocused and rather bloated. There was also a problem with editing (wrong pronouns, etc.). The characters and locale/society are well developed, and there was a lot of potential, this book just didn’t quite get there.
  
  The Pomeranians were cute, though.
• 
  Jenn

  This is a book my boyfriend bought, read and loved and has been trying to get me to read it for a very long time. I put it off as long as I could...but then it happened to fit for a challenge, and I liked it well enough. The major thing that annoyed me was all the editing issues. I know it's not really fair to judge a book by those, but this wasn't a review copy and it's published by Night Shade Books. The amount of errors in words being flat out wrong, randoms words not deleted and a part of the story where they called characters by the wrong name - someone who in the set up of the scene was not present - just really annoyed me.
  
  Other than that it's kind of a cute romances meets video game geeks meets resistance to the corrupt post apocalyptic government meets Texas meets bioenginered animals. I really did like the Ninja Pomeranians and wish I could have a group of them for myself. The giant fanged bunnies were disturbing. And there is also fire breathing cows. Those are all the main reasons my boyfriend picked it up. And there's also a vampire element. So if this is the kind of thing you dig, it is a quick fun read, and would be a great beach book.
• 
  Clay Kallam

  I’m guessing Katy Stauber is from Texas – or wants to be from Texas.
  
  The Lone Star state of mind is central to “Revolution World” (Night Shade Books, $14.99, 228 pages), which is set in a dystopic near future in which the American government has become tyrannical and the global economy is in tatters.
  
  Stauber does a nice job of mixing in a love affair with a solid narrative about genetic engineering and advanced computer hacking, but she throws in one too many extraneous elements and mucks up an otherwise satisfying plot with what seems like a gratuitous nod to the kind of books that are selling in 2011.
  
  But “Revolution World” doesn’t overstay its welcome, and all in all, it’s an enjoyable book – even if you’re not from Texas.
  
• 
  S. Taylor

  Texas revolutions, fire-breathing cows, ninja pomeranians, Canadian vampires, and terrorist plots -- this book has something for everyone! Stauber is out there pushing the envelope, welding outrageous concepts together until you have something new, something fresh -- a tilting, juddering steel rollercoaster of a novel.
  
  The core of the novel is an unexpected romance, but everything from gene manipulation to totalitarian government to videogames is explored, and somehow all comes back to the center. High marks for originality, high marks for bringing it all together, high marks for being something NEW.
  
  I can't wait to see what she does next!
• 
  Rachel

  This book is a hilarious romp through a future world. Nerd romance! Gene-tweaked carnivorous giant bunnies and flammable extra-methane-producing cows! Vampires that are neither supernatural nor undead! Government, corporate, terrorist, and Texan plotting! The characters are engaging and the romance is, well, nerdy--and very sweet. It could have used better editing; some of the dialogue and exposition is a bit awkward, and I wish people would stop using "alright" as a word. All in all, an excellent first novel. I see the author has a new book out, and I definitely plan to read it.
• 
  Thad

  For some reason, this book just didn't click with me. When I get into a really good book, it just flows. I didn't have that here. The story was good, and I particularly enjoyed the interpersonal dealings between Seth and Clio, but it just seemed that the important events in the book were lacking details to add that 'pop' to the mental imagery.
  Not a bad book, just didn't make me go 'Wow!' by the time I was done.
• 
  Mitchell

  Stupid and not especially well written and pretty much every character in it is a Mary Sue. And trying to for humour is hard to do - definitely hit and miss. But not a whole lot stupider than say the dumbest of the Scalzi books (which are fantastic). So some potential here. And good ideas - from smart guard Pomeranians, to giant bunnies and fire breathing cows. This is billed as a first book - so hopefully there will be another book and it will be a bit better.
• 
  Sade

  i think i dont particularly care for comedic fiction,unless one is a master of wit. This is a bit too broadly drawn - for instance, the Evil Corporation is 'Malsanto'. o Rly? The author can't seem to decide if she wants to write giggly, B-movie grade fluff or tackle Serious Subjects; and so, of course, does neither well. The literary equivalent of a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos.
• 
  Carrie Ives

  Enjoyed reading this one. It's quite fun and I liked that it was set in Texas. And who can go wrong with fire breathing cows and giant bunnies? The future is plausible and I think that it would be discussable by a book club.
• 
  David Agranoff

  Pretty good, bizarro punkish science fiction. It didn't grab me for some reason. Lots of excellent interesting ideas. You should try it yourself.
• 
  Melanie Goldmund

  Fast-paced fun read with lots of good ideas, lots of action and just the right (tiny) amount of romance.
• 
  Brian Blad

  Where is the next book?? Great read! Would make a great series!