The Incrementalists

Today’s post is on The Incrementalists by Steven Brust and Skyler White. It is 304 pages long and is published by TOR. I believe it is a stand-alone novel. The cover has the title with Las Vegas in the background and a connect the dots moving across the cover. The intended reader is someone who likes secret societies, murder mysteries, and immortal souls. There is strong language, some sexuality, but no violence which is surprising. Adults readers will enjoy this book the best. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- An ancient conspiracy to make the world better. Just a little bit at a time. The Incrementalists- a secret society of two hundred people; an unbroken lineage reaching back forty thousand years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations and time. They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, a little bit at a time. Their ongoing argument about just how to accomplish this is older than most of their individual memories.
Phil, whose personality has stayed stable through more incarnations than anyone else’s, has loved Celeste- and argued with her- for most of the last four hundred years. But Celeste, recently dead, embittered, and very unstable, has changed the rules- not incrementally, and not for the better.
Now the heart of the group must gather in Las Vegas to save the Incrementalists, and maybe the world.

Review- I wanted to like this book. It has a great premise but the execution falls flat. I keep trying to tell what about the story is just did not hit with me but I just cannot put my finger on it. The characters are not bad characters. They are believable but just not really interesting to me. The mystery is interesting but it never got its hooks into me. Why Celeste did what she did really did not move me or make me care. Nothing about this book made me care. I hate being so harsh but this book just was bland to me. I read it hoping that something or someone would pull me into that world but nothing ever did. I cannot say that I would not recommend this book because that it just missed me and my taste in books and life in general is not everyone else’s. If you think that you would interested in reading this about immortal souls who are trying to make a better world then yes try this book. But if you need more than just a good premise for a story then do not.

I give this book a Two out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.