94. The Downloaded

 

I won't lie, the only reason I decided to listen to this was because of Brendan Fraser. That man is an international treasure and I fully support the Brenaissance. 

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with this audio drama/book. The heavy sci-fi tones really intrigued me and the political and social undertones helped to create a more 3D experience.

 I've seen a lot of reviews and all of them say they wish it could have been longer but I actually disagree, I think it was a good length for the story it was telling, clear cut and shocking.

This story primarily follows three characters, with several interjections from supporting ones too. We have two astronauts and an ex convict all of whom were downloaded into a quantum computer for various reasons with the intention to be revived back into their flesh suits within a certain period of time.

A tragic event strikes and its 500 years later, now with interviews driven by the Martian race we learn why so much time has lapsed since these people were revived, and how a small number of scientists and twice as many assorted prisoners have to work together to start anew.

At first I didn't understand the jump between the interviews and when time caught up and it was in the present. Where the story was primarily told within each interview, I didn't notice the switch until the Martian interviewer suddenly got a voice. I'd just like to mention, he got a proper voice 2 chapters before the end.

I liked how fleshed out our three main characters were. On occasion we branched out with some of the minor characters and caught a glimpse of their back story, but otherwise we stayed within our trio. I agree with some of the Goodreads reviewers who said they wished some of the other convicts got airtime as we could have seen more into the prison side of things as thus far we had only our glimpse through Rosco.

I found the first chapter or so where we established the story quite boring. I appreciate with the Captain the backstory surrounding her grandad was needed to set up the revival story, but did we really need to know all the ins and outs of Dr Hoss' silo? I appreciate they go into a dreamlike state where they can live out a paradise of their own making, but we didn't need to spend ages on his own personal one.  We didn't even get to know him well enough for his inner thoughts to be needed despite being one of our mains. 

I liked the interaction with the surviving human race, I liked how with the lack of technology following the disaster we got to see how people evolved naturally. In terms of language and ways of living this was interesting and plausible. I didn't like how we got introduced to the new humans, that was a bit traumatic and I guess justice was served as the *insert bad word here* got left behind to die, but I wanted more justice. Hoss beating the stuffing out of the guy was good, but I was kinda hoping for some murder considering we had about 50 prisoners present but the only one that seemed reformed was Rosco. 

I'll admit, I don't have an awful lot to say on this one as I'm trying really hard to avoid spoilers. I can say each character was diverse and there was a lot of strong and appreciated minorities represented here. Characters differed in terms of gender, ethnicity, homelands, it was glorious. We also got to explore briefly body swapping, murder, and the insight into how different criminals think after prison life.

I give The Downloaded a 6/10. It was interesting, it was well acted, but I'm just not sure it is my cup of tea. I'm not a massive sci-fi person anymore. I love the stars and the moon, and I love Doctor Who, but these are pretty much my limits. The X-Files are as alien as I get nowadays.

Have you listened to this book? Let me know what you think on my socials!