Glass Houses

Published June 28, 2024 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.

ISBN:: 9780765382924

(1 review)

Join a stranded start-up team led by a terrifyingly realistic charismatic billionaire, a deserted tropical island, and a mysterious AI-driven mansion--as the remaining members disappear one by one.

A group of employees and their CEO, celebrating the sale of their remarkable emotion-mapping-AI-algorithm, crash onto a not-quite-deserted tropical island. Luckily, those who survived have found a beautiful, fully-stocked private palace, with all the latest technological updates (though one without connection to the outside world).

The house, however, has more secrets than anyone might have guessed, and a much darker reason for having been built and left behind. Kristen, the hyper-competent "chief emotional manager" (i.e., the eccentric boyish billionaire-CEO Sumter's idea of an HR department) is trying to keep her colleagues stable throughout this new challenge, but staying sane seems to be as much of a challenge as staying alive.

Being a woman in technology has always meant having to be smarter …

Join a stranded start-up team led by a terrifyingly realistic charismatic billionaire, a deserted tropical island, and a mysterious AI-driven mansion--as the remaining members disappear one by one.

A group of employees and their CEO, celebrating the sale of their remarkable emotion-mapping-AI-algorithm, crash onto a not-quite-deserted tropical island. Luckily, those who survived have found a beautiful, fully-stocked private palace, with all the latest technological updates (though one without connection to the outside world).

The house, however, has more secrets than anyone might have guessed, and a much darker reason for having been built and left behind. Kristen, the hyper-competent "chief emotional manager" (i.e., the eccentric boyish billionaire-CEO Sumter's idea of an HR department) is trying to keep her colleagues stable throughout this new challenge, but staying sane seems to be as much of a challenge as staying alive.

Being a woman in technology has always meant having to be smarter than anyone expects....and Kristen's survival skills are more impressive than anyone knows"

1 edition

ilk@bookrastinating.com reviewed Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby

3 stars

Well done Tor for kicking DRM to the gutter.

But this is two-and-a-half star affair. All the male characters are one-dimensionally unpleasant save for the love interest. The protagonist, while a bit a of girlboss, does have your sympathy for much of the story, but that goodwill gets drawn way down in the last 60-odd pages, once her background is further detailed. Some of the similes struck me as juvenile; there's a lot of things I'd call the Milky Way before calling it a cum stain.

I like the parallel Ashby draws between the abusive relationship between for-profit vendor and end user, and the abusiveness in relationships, but it doesn't get used to much effect. The company, Wuv, is such a vile vision I have no doubt capital will have it ready to inflict on people by the 2030s. So I enjoyed some of its themes but plot- and content-wise …

Well done Tor for kicking DRM to the gutter.

But this is two-and-a-half star affair. All the male characters are one-dimensionally unpleasant save for the love interest. The protagonist, while a bit a of girlboss, does have your sympathy for much of the story, but that goodwill gets drawn way down in the last 60-odd pages, once her background is further detailed. Some of the similes struck me as juvenile; there's a lot of things I'd call the Milky Way before calling it a cum stain.

I like the parallel Ashby draws between the abusive relationship between for-profit vendor and end user, and the abusiveness in relationships, but it doesn't get used to much effect. The company, Wuv, is such a vile vision I have no doubt capital will have it ready to inflict on people by the 2030s. So I enjoyed some of its themes but plot- and content-wise it felt somewhat thin. I would read another Ashby novel but it's going to have come with rave reviews.