It's DNF (for now at least) for me and no rate.
Good, interesting premise.
Writing that needs full-focus from a reader and constant attention.
Narrative sometimes is a little bit confusing.
Maybe I will try to re-read it sometime. It is not an easy read.

Oh this was good. I enjoyed it so much more than I expected!
This book delivers everything that I would hope to get from an excellent SciFi read. I really enjoyed how C.D. Wight explored the lines of human morality, AIs logical/morality conflicts and how things that we might consider obvious within what is considered acceptable behaviour are challenged through the AI learning (e.g. the exploration of pests vs. pets). We also have human behavior that is questionable at every level. Loved that part. What I enjoyed even more was the exploration of using technology for good. I am so tired of SciFi as much as non fiction just yelling "we are doomed because we use tec". I truly enjoyed how this book explored the good and the bad. And all this while no character was heroically squeeky clean and perfect. The characters were just that - human. Annoyingly real humans at some points, but I still enjoyed that part a lot.
So the only reason I am not giving this book 5 stars is that the writing style at times left me with one question mark too many. I believe that the author missed explaining a concept or two at times as the concepts were clear in their mind and they did not realise they needed explanation. It definitely did not look like a tool of choice for suspense. If these explanations of how the world works would have been smoother, this would have been a clear 5 star.

DNF no rating. I'm sorry but this one wasn't for me. I liked the premise and the setting but unfortunately the story and characters didn't suck me in and I wasn't engaged.

A very enjoyable poke at the future. Do you want to be safely affluent or free to dream with the heavy hand or corporatism. Recommended to readers of the William Gibson zaibatsu

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

Tokyo Green is mainly about Tomo, who quits his job working on an AI after Japan is hit by a tsunami and his parents perish, leaving him to care for his granny. As this is set in 2049, where jobs are the most important thing to have as so many benefits depend on it, leaving the US is a huge obstacle. When Tomo decides to build a new existence for himself in Japan, he does not yet know to what lengths he will need to go.

I liked many premises of this book: set in the future, precarious job situation (tell me about it), cool job creating an AI called Sara, how it turned sorta dystopia. But I didn't really like Tomo, he was a bit sexist or rather...sexually indifferent due to the vast availability of it. I liked how he dealt with his Granny, trying to make life better for her. But he is also a tad selfish and a bit of an ass. He never surprised me. Maybe this is why I felt that the entire story started dragging after the initial part (job, Sara, tsunami, going to Japan) was over. And the tsunami doesn't really seem to matter after that too. It was odd.

2,5-3 Stars

I really loved this book. Dystopian concepts, but a lot more hopeful. I admit, I spent the first third waiting for the other shoe to drop ABC mayhem to ensue, but that's not what this book is. Thoroughly enjoyable!
I recieved a copy if this book from the publisher, via Netfalley, in exchange for an honest opinion.

A futuristic society, dependant on A.I.s, using problems from the present time to progress the story. Believable story characters and an interesting storyline. Have they solved the problems of an aging population?

Great novel, highly recommend for those who enjoy the genre. Will be recommending for immediate purchase.

I requested this book on NetGalley.
As a foreigner living in Japan, I liked the idea of a new author setting his story in Tokyo. I really loved the opening of the book, introducing Tomo and his AI Sara, the world in 2048.
I enjoyed most of the book, the scene in the park with a black butterfly and the "cicadas off" got me laughing so hard because these are so realistic, it really set the scene in real Japan. 2048 is not so far in the future and many things Tomo is going through are actually real in today's Tokyo making the plot extremely plausible for a Sci-Fi story, even the slightly caricatured male characters: shy nerd guy, chatty foreign guy coming to "Nihon", dirty businessman with a fetish on high-school girls, etc. Now, while the world turns around Tomo and a dirty businessman/politician, I struggled to see the female characters'... characters (Sara, Hana). They are important in the plot but Hana barely says a word before her glory moment and following fall while Sara would have so much more things to say and do, it feels her potentials are wasted (although acknowledged by Tomo, it still seemed like something was missing).
Overall it was a nice summer read and I would recommend it to friends visiting Japan and people with an interest in AI.

What a great switch on the typical change-the-world scenario. The hero finds it is more fun at the bottom of the social status than where he was at the top. Of course, the higher class does not want to let him go. And there in lies all the fun.

This sci fi book follows an AI specialist naked Tomo during the year 2048.

I enjoyed that it was from a POC viewpoint through the book and it made me think about how technology can become dangerous but it can also be helpful. Where do we draw the line?

I can’t give much away without ruining the plot but if you are into AI and how things could very well go in the future this is your type of book

Thanks to Netgalley, for a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review.

This is science fiction, but not too far in the future - environmental issues, big corporations running the show, high unemployment with the gig economy in full bloom. The world building was excellent here - everything about the culture seemed coherent and, sadly, all too believable. The writing was good and the plot flowed nicely. All in all, it was an enjoyable read.

I would have liked to see more character development - I felt somewhat detached from all the human characters. Perhaps this was deliberate, since they were operating in a somewhat cold, impersonal world. Oddly, Sara, the AI character, was more "relatable" in some ways than the human characters. But, I think the book would have more satisfying if we had a little more insight into the significant characters, allowing us to identify with and root for them.

According to the author's website, he wanted to write a book with a more optimistic view of the future than the dystopian literature that is more common, and I think he succeeded in this. While I found myself being a bit cynical about the way things came together, I could also see that this was a possible way for things to work out, and I'd certainly like that!

Definitely a good read, and I look forward to seeing more from this author.

Tokyo Green posits a predictable future involving the use of AI and links it to an uncredited variant of Asimov's Three Rules of Robotics. The story moves rapidly from a discontented Silicon Valley employee to his transition to helping his Japanese grandmother in a battle with a villainous corporate health care executive, linking the challenges faced by an aging population in need of both physical and social care but with limited resources.

I found the book hard to get into, but once I got past the first third of the book, it became highly engaging. The author does a good job of creating believable characters and physical settings and his discussion of technology is not too advanced to be unbelievable.

"In 2048, AI specialist Tomo is about to lose his job in Silicon Valley, as U.S. unemployment soars past thirty percent. In Tokyo, he reveals a yakuza scheme that amounts to genocide. Tomo fights to defend the independent lifestyle of his grandmother and other elderly Japanese, with help from an upbeat slacker and a rogue AI." Sounds great, right? Japan, AI, future philosophy, independence...count me in.

I got an email advertising Tokyo Green on Netgalley. I most commonly just throw these advertisements in the trash, but every now and again my curiosity is piqued. This time I was drawn by the cover, the "independent lifestyle," and a scheme.

I was horrifically disappointed. What I got was an in your face political soapbox drug deal gone wrong. There was little in terms of the AI philosophical pondering that was heavily hinted at in the first chapters we meet Tomo and Sara. What we got instead were some really unsubtle allusions. Horrible plot points: pot's illegal but I'm going to grow it anyway and change everyone's mind; corporate CEOs are bad people; my generation totally knows better than your generation. Oh, and let's throw in a love story with the kitchen sink.

So much potential squandered.

Disclaimer: I received this copy from NetGalley. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 2/5

Publication Date: April 18, 2019

Genre: YA Sci-Fi

Recommended Age: 18+ (technology and destruction)

Publisher: Indie published

Synopsis: In 2048, AI specialist Tomo is about to lose his job in Silicon Valley, as U.S. unemployment soars past thirty percent. He’s a terrible team player, and his ass-kissing skills are sub-par. While Tomo’s got talents for making robots act more human, the job makes him feel more like a machine.
When his hometown in Japan is destroyed by a tsunami, Tomo has the reason he needs to take a break.
But in Tokyo, Tomo overhears something impossible to ignore: a care-giving bot is pressuring his grandmother to sell her condo and move into an old folks’ home. Elderly neighbors complain their bots sing the same tune.
Tomo breaches the veil of customer service at the care-giving company, revealing a yakuza scheme that amounts to genocide. Tomo now has an opportunity to put his talents to better use—with help from an upbeat slacker and a rogue AI.
TOKYO GREEN (91,000 words) is a stand-alone SF novel that explores not only the dangers of technology, but also the ability of technology to thrust humanity deeper into nature, making the future a worthwhile destination for all.

Review: I thought if you like dystopian sci-fi this was a good book for you. The writing is solid and the characters are well developed. The story is interesting and the worldbuilding is really good.

However, the pacing kills it for me and I just struggled through this book. I might be in a mood, but it was just not for me.

Verdict: A decent book.

This book follows Tomohiro, who is something of a technical genius living in the AI-populated near future. He is struggling with his corporate job status during a time where robots have replaced most human employees, and his volatile temper and fear of public speaking only make matters worse. For me, this is where the book started going wrong. Tomo is incredibly violent-minded, but also has weird moments of empathy. His characterization is completely inconsistent—one moment he wants to bash someone’s head in with a hammer, and the next he is donating money to a stranger’s medical bills. He is really the only character that we get anything deep from, and unfortunately he was executed very poorly.

The plot itself was jumbled and strange, with no clear direction for most of the book. It was entertaining to read, but honestly it read like a first draft. It definitely needed another round of editing to clean up the rough edges. Tomohiro’s thoughts jump from A to B with no transition, sometimes there are weird gaps in time that are unexplained. It made reading a bit confusing at times. There is a bit of philosophical deliberation on what the future of technology could look like, and the repercussions it could have on humans, both good and bad. It was semi-imaginative as far as the technology went, a lot of the things reminded me of Tony Stark’s innovations. The overall message was a bit predictable, touting human ingenuity and the risk of allowing technology to become overly pervasive.

A major red flag for me was that the novel took place in Japan, and it quickly became clear that the white, male author was something of Japan fanatic. It was obvious that he had visited Japan and done his research, but he incorporated it in a way that was incredibly Western. There were weird inserts of Japanese words and a hyper focus on stereotypical Japanese things like maid cafes and seppuku. There were a few influences of Japanese social culture, but honestly it all seemed very surface-level and inconsistent.

What bothered me the most was the absolutely awful representation of women. All of the female characters are completely flat and are only present for sex appeal. Women are described as “beautiful babes” and have ZERO personality. Tomohiro goes to a maid cafe, and tries to get a VR girl to undress herself. When rescuing a high school student twenty years his junior, all he can focus on is the fact that her boobs are touching his body. Honestly, the description of women was downright pervy at times. It really creeped me out, because this is definitely a reflection of the author…let’s just say I would NEVER want to meet him in person. It turned an okay book into something lecherous and gross-feeling.

This was just not for me, The synopsis had me but the story did not come across well. I was very bored the entire time. I am giving it a 3 because I did skim the second half of the book, so I did not read every detail and do not feel like I can give it anything below a three when I did not actually read every word.

Tokyo Green is a very satisfying novel, although it is somewhat hard to categorize. It certainly qualifies as science fiction, since the story unfolds in a world in which robots and AIs do much more than they do at present and have taken over many of the jobs now performed by humans. The economic dilemma caused by this revolution is part of the background to the novel’s plot. But instead of robots taking over the world or AIs running amok, the story is a very human one, of a central character’s struggle with finding work, behaving ethically, and integrating himself with the AI world around him, some of which he created.
Tomo, the central character returns to Japan after a tsunami destroys his parents’ home, killing them. He quits his American job as an AI developer and steals the latest version of an android AI. He cannot return to the U.S. and he must carve out a way to earn a living and at the same time help his elderly grandmother in Japan. As he gradually builds a small empire comprised of managing robots who provide elder care and developing a hydroponic farm on the roof of his grandmother’s apartment house (illegally growing pot as part of his business), and resurrecting the stolen android brain to assist him, he is confronted by an evil corporate CEO who is trying to kill all of Japan’s elderly, among other things.
The pace of Tokyo Green is absorbing and methodical, reminding me in many ways of William Gibson’s "Pattern Recognition," and the technical aspects of the story are presented in an engaging and usually exciting way that is easily understandable by the layman. Tomo, the main character is charismatic and deft at all sorts of technical and engineering magic, allowing him to solve problems that would seem insurmountable. The story builds to an exciting climax that defies the reader to turn away from until it reaches its conclusion.
I’ve been to Japan and I enjoyed the location descriptions. More than the locations, the characterization of the Japanese cultural mindset and how that is part of the plot as well as the background made the book even more fascinating.
If you want a solid, not altogether impossible science fiction story with believable characters, lots of tension, and taking place in what, for most readers will be an exotic location, this is the book for you. It is a thinking person’s sci-fi story, plausible, sociological, and fun to read.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, it had what i was looking for in a sci-fi novel with interesting characters. The premise was very interesting from the beginning and it didn't disappoint when reading it.

This was an interesting sci-fi read. I'll be recommending this one to patrons that enjoy this genre, but not many outside that preference.