DNF
i practically minored in philosophy and still found the maunderings of the protagonist impenetrable, unending & self-indulgent.

maybe if i could get myself to finish this book, something will actually happen but life is too short to read books that only make you feel frustration.

Unfettered Journey by Gary F. Bengier is an amazing story, brilliant storytelling and plot throughout the entire book.

Largely, this book, to borrow from Bettlejuice (1988), reads like stereo instructions. It’s incredibly dry and evokes images of a collection of textbook excerpts. There are oversimplified complex ideas bandied about to either show off how much the author already knows or how much research has been done. This feels very much like a book written for the author rather than any potential reader. Or maybe a really niche audience — of which I am not.

Frankly, I need more nuance, more depth, and — above all — showing and not telling.

The overall plot itself is almost too absurd and increasingly convoluted to relay here. There are too many plot elements trying to co-exist in this story, and the impression it leaves is that of a short story collection that has lost all sense of self and joined hands to create one large, disjointed tale.

The characters themselves were replete with incredibly stilted dialogue — even the awkward exchanges that are either greeting-card-level oversimplified or info-dump for a wide variety of science/philosophical/theoretical concepts. In addition, there are strange interjections in the text that represent the main character's thoughts (usually just a sentence or two), delineated by a centered ellipsis and then blockquote-style thoughts with another ellipsis underneath to indicate this thought has ended. The best part of these is how robotic the main character sounds, even through his own thoughts. At even around 20%, I had hit such a wall with this unnatural style that it made me hope that he would indeed turn out to be a robot. At least that would make some sense of the obtuse angle of describing the main character's love interest when she's introduced into the story and the utterly ridiculous initial interactions they share. I mean...I just can't. It's the kind of stuff they joke about on Twitter . . . .

In fact, I'd rather him have turned out to have been a robot searching for proof of his own consciousness — that would've made more sense for the early idea of the plot rather than what ended up happening.

Even down to the world-building elements, which are firmly in place but completely empty of meaning — in the sense that he seems to have a new future-name for future things, but nothing is truly fleshed out or detailed. Much of this future seems to exist only in the author’s head and not quite landing truly whole in the novel.

Another book where I liked the vaguest notion of the idea of the plot, but not much at all of the execution of these ideas.

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. This book presents a futuristic premise that is exciting and scary. The characters are all loaded with flaws and are prone to thought-provoking, dangerous actions. I totally recommend this book for readers who enjoy creative and adventurous insight into a world in the future.

Gary Bengier's Unfettered Journey is a paradox of sorts. Without giving away any spoilers, I'll say that it tip-toes back and forth between an interesting textbook (particularly in the Philosophy / Math sections) and a sci-fi novel that lives in both the past the future. Socio-economic status is explored, AI and consciousness expounded upon, and asks a wonderful question - what's important with little is at stake?

Overall, I found Mr. Bengier's novel to be a fascinating and thoughtful read. At times, it is jarring when philosophical prose gives way to a few lines explaining how a character is reaction to a situation followed by more prose, but it is worth it to stick with this novel. I found traction around the second part and quickly finished it afterwards.

If you have interests in higher learning or are looking for an excellent book club read, please check it out!

An interesting and engaging book. It's well-paced, well-thought-out, and full of great ideas. It contains passages discussing philosophy and morality that I liked a lot but that might be slightly tiring for more action-oriented readers.

All told, well worth a read.

it was a hard book to get into, its well written, that for sure, but i feel detached from the main character because he talks and thinks as a version of sheldon cooper but a bit more on the human side, that being said, more than half of the book i didnt really knew what he was talking about or i had dificulties understanding the science behind, in most books i do not find dificult reading their english, but when it gets a bit more sciency and philosofical for someone that has english as second or third language as i do, its dificult to get on the story, and i did feel that most of the science or philosofie wasnt necessary for telling the story. I will read this book when i find it in portuguese from portugal and give it another go, because in english dragged a lot and it was quite hard for me.

Evie was the character that brought the storie a level down, when joe talks with evie, he doesnt spend as much time rambling or thinking big philosofical theories, he just do and says, but even so, this evie quote really sums what i wanted to transmite,
"joe, you are a puzzle. You spend a lot of time in your head."
he does and it gets hard to connect with him because of this, while in most books i love when the character thinks and let me explore his mind, in here reminded me of "Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fish" a text that i had to study for school and at some point we completely lose it... again i am talking about me and my experience, you may love it, its still very well written and by my reserch in trying to figure out what he was saying, and the science behind is correct enough to keep you on your toes and may help you learn some theories, because it gives you a memoir linked with pleasure,

i did like the world build on this book, the quest for discover a form for bots to attain the "I" and put that on their programation, the tecnology its also well described and those were the things i liked on the book,

i wanted more romance, a bit less of unnecessary sciency talk, it could have been a shorter book and still quite good, but more than anything i wanted to fall in love with this book but i couldnt and i am sorry, maybe i wanted more of a doctor who episode and less of a nobel prize speach, but again this was me, and my opinion, you may love it, and drink the words of this book as if it was sweet ambrosia directly from the greek gods...

thank you NetGalley for this opportunity, and i am leaving this review voluntarely.