I won this book as part of a giveaway.

This was a strange read, partly because of Dane's deliberate choices to break thoughts as they're happening. (This is my first Dane book.) But I found that these breaks worked really well to convey a picture of who our main characters are.

The story is full of unsurprising uncertainties... as in you have a young girl who seems to possess a commanding power of sorts over a dangerous entity (Server), she makes a decision which appears rational to her young mind but realizes the folly in it. She changes the Ragpicker over the course of their travel. Throughout all of this, there are hints that things will go poorly. And they kind of do but not dor long. The long term impact is on the Ragpicker himself.

All in all, The Ragpicker reads as another dystopian story but rather than focusing on the settings and the external effects, it focuses on 2 beings (and a baby), and the idea of being connected to others, of belonging. ( )

This dystopian novel depicts a devastated land in which only the remnants of a former civilization are to be found, and it is a brutal fight for survival.

The inhabitants of these forsaken territories are either very long-living children of the Internet Age who have lost their connection, or individuals who were born after the Armageddon trying naively to get along in a fearful environment.

The memories of the former are loosing its former networked status gradually and are talking only sporadically with their former virtual companions in their minds. The memories of the later are just beginning to take shape. Can these minds mingle?

Interesting thoughts, provoking writing style. ( )

I’m afraid I couldn’t get into this book finding the narrative of the two main characters, taking chapter about, not different enough for easy distinction. I appreciate the author was creating a unique world but I got confused about who the conversations were with for each of the main characters. I couldn’t get a totally clear picture of the world. Maybe at a different time of reading this book may have changed how I understood it. ( )