"The Ragpicker" had an interesting premise, but the execution didn't work for me. There was no world building. Things are just happening with no explanation. The female main character's perspective just seemed like racist ravings because the twitches are...immortal? Have several voices in their heads? Rumored to eat people? It wasn't clear. The characters weren't compelling, and I struggled throughout this whole story.

Was I lost/confused most of this book? Yes
Was I still having a good time? Also, Yes
I wish there was more context, things were a little too vague for my liking but overall the concept for this is really cool.
If all vibes and no plot is not for you then I don't recommend this.
Unfortunately, I don't have much more to remark on since I still don't really get this book.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review (or rating).

Series Info/Source: This is stand alone book. I got this on audiobook to review from NetGalley.

Thoughts: This was good. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world and we hear from 2 POVs, the first being The Ragpicker, a twitch who is a remnant of past times and feared by all, and Ysmeny, a girl who is fleeing her village in hopes of protecting a baby that was born there.

There is a portion that is told from a third POV in the second half of the book, which is a play that tries to explain how the apocalypse happens. I found this unnecessary, irritating to listen to, and confusing. This would have been better to include earlier in the book, or not at all. The reader doesn't really need to know what happened in the past, they can piece it together from the present.

There are some things I really enjoyed about this book. I like how different the voices of Ysmeny and Ragpicker are at the beginning of the story and how Ysmeny's voice changes as she understands the Ragpicker better and better. I loved the irony of the story as well. We start near Ysmeny's home town and then go on a great journey only to find out that home may have been where the journey started.

The way the Ragpicker talks is lyrical and wandering and it was interesting to try to parse it. The landscape is bleak but also strangely peaceful. I enjoyed piecing together how the world ended as we stumbled through the world as it was in the story.

I struggled some with understanding what/who the Ragpicker was; I feel like I missed something here. I also didn't quite understand the enemy they were fleeing from mid-book. Were these humans that had gone insane, twitches gone wrong, or something else? The book ended very abruptly, although that also felt somehow appropriate for the story.

In the end, this was different and I enjoyed it. However, I have always been strangely drawn to these post-apocalyptic survival stories about wandering desolate landscapes. If that's your thing, you will probably enjoy this as long as you don't mind some ambiguity.

I listened to this on audiobook and it was well done. There were two narrators; one for Ysmeny and one for the Ragpicker. They both did a good job narrating. My only complaint was the difference between the two narrators was incredibly jarring (maybe that was the point but it made for jagged transitions).

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this adventure across the desolate post-apocalyptic landscape of a future Earth. The characters were well done and the books was well written. It does end a bit abruptly and somethings remained ambiguous throughout. If you enjoy strangely thoughtfully paced books about adventuring a post-apocalyptic landscape I would check this out.

I went into this store completely blind and was very happily surprised by how it went.
It's definitely a book I needed to concentrate on. I couldn't just listen to it, tune out for some task for some seconds, and then easily step back in and know what's going on.
That's not a bad thing though! You just have to know what you're getting into.
The writing style was beautiful and poetic, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Same goes for the setting itself.
It felt very unique in every way and will stick with me for a while I think!
Almost makes me feel a sort of melancholic Fernweh in a weird sense.
Definitely a read like no other and I will recommend it at such.

This was more of an “it’s me, not you” problem. We have a rough and vague post apocalyptic landscape filled with maybe-humans and AI companions just trying to make do. I appreciated the slow reveal … the details were a relish and really pulled me in at first … but by the halfway point, I felt lost. Our leads simply meander through desert and dreamscapes, dragging along a baby or two, trying to survive and rekindle that human connection. Poetic, a bit absurd, certainly not to the point … but a bit wonderful, or reaching for that feeling, at any rate. This reminds me of several recent award-winning and much beloved series where it’s all about the daily life and character relationships. And I’m not a fan. Others will enjoy this far more than me, I bet. The narration was sublime but there were a few mistakes in the galley.

Do you hate infodumping, "as you know, Bob" dialogues and things that magically appear in sff books for the reader's convenience without any internal logic? May I present you: the ultimate anti-infodump novel.

The narrators, Ysmany and Ragpicker, don't waste any time explaining things that are obvious to them, often leaving the reader to piece the puzzle on your own. After all, for them this life, this world, this reality is normal. The narration reflects the thought processes of the characters: Ysmany is a young woman who can still be rash, overconfident, changing her mind on a whim, but also driven and caring. Ragpicker is an older-beyond-human-years cyborg (as we presume) and his mind is a landscape of failing software and emulations of people he knew who speak out of turn in a cryptic manner and cannot be controlled or turned off.

The world is post-apocalyptic, where nature took over civilization, and humans live in isolated settlements around "towers" which presumably protect people from rogue cyborgs by transmitting un-turn-off-able data noise that overwhelms and confuses them - these towers seem to be a remnant of civilization past, where they actually had a proper purpose, rather than something deliberately built now to protect the humans.

What caused the apocalypse is only hinted at, pieces of puzzle scattered around like everything else in the novel. It seems something between Brave New World and The Matrix happened making people addicted to virtual reality to the point they let the "real" world fall into dereliction.

But those are just my speculations, my piecing the puzzle together, which might not be correct.

The main plot is about a journey to save a baby from one of the cyborgs, even though again why did it want to kill the baby is shrouded in mystery, but the protagonist, Ysmany, is categorically convinced about it. It's more of a low-stakes road trip exploring how the world looks like, what does it tell us about humanity, and making parallels between that journey and overall human life and cycle of self-discovery, grief and transformation. Some would say it's close to cozy sci-fi a la Becky Chambers, even though there are a couple of violent scenes, so maybe it doesn't fully lie in the area of cozy sci-fi, but vast majority of the book falls within slice-of-life atmosphere, showing what's mundane and what's surprising to the characters.

This isn't a breakneck speed adventure, this is deliberate, literary-leaning exploration of human condition and language that strives not for efficiency, but for mirroring the imperfect perception, communication and thought processes of imperfect characters.

In the end it's a story of sacrifice and moving past grief and loss instead of desperately clinging to original convictions.

It's more likely to appeal to fans of Piranesi than Mad Max, where writing focuses on atmosphere rather than on plot. It's a mix of surprising, poignant and hopeful. And it does not hand-hold the reader through the experience. Which I found refreshing in the world of novels with overly-convenient-explanations everywhere. I am lazy and enjoy convenience, but living in a post-apocalyptic world isn't convenient for the characters, and not making it convenient for the reader adds a certain grit and immersion factor. Ultimately, the reader might find themselves as lost and confused as the protagonists, and in that, understand better why the characters sometimes end up behaving erratically or making incorrect assumptions.

Thank you NetGalley, Joel Dane, Meerkat Press and Dreamscape Media for the ARC!

Now that I’ve finished this audiobook I must point out that I was lost in the story most of the time, but I did enjoy it, the ragpicker, most of the time would stop in the middle of a sentence but for some reason it didn’t sound wrong for him, we already knew he wasn’t working properly…

What I learned from this story is that everything passes, and sometimes we make choices for us and for the ones we love and we need to live by those, this book takes place in a distant future where civilization is not the same as we have today, but at the same times is not that far off… yeah its a mysterious story, and I was brought in, with the soothing voice of the person reading the side of ragpicker, I really loved Rupert degas reading his part of this book, Catherine Ho, also did a brilliant job.

I did enjoy this story, even being so lost as I was, but again, I really enjoyed the people reading this book, if I was reading only the ebook, i would probably be a bit less generous with stars, I really recommend this audiobook, more than the actual book, its like having read a bedtime story, only for adults.

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media | Dreamscape Lore for the free AAC, and this is my honest opinion.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC

Sadly this book just wasn’t for me. The premise sounded awesome, like an even darker version of Fallout.
But I found the storytelling extremely vague and confusing, this desert world wasn’t explored enough for me and the creatures/mythology etc wasn’t well explained. It seemed the author wanted us to just know about it?
I couldn’t quite connect with the characters either, though I did find them fascinating.
I feel like this could’ve been a great book if it would’ve taken more time to introduce the surroundings to the readers.

The Ragpicker by Joel Dane is a charmingly strange dystopian fantasy novel set in a post-digital apocalyptic world following a man bonded to a mysterious 'second skin' as he searches for his husband. Along the way, he meets a young girl fleeing her oppressive village with a baby in tow. Together, they form a unique bond and travel through deserted lands in search of sanctuary.

The setting of a world rebuilding with remnants of the digital age is eerily realistic and the chemistry between the two mc’s is incredibly likeable; you can’t help but to root for them as a team. It’s a tender slow burn story about connection and the timeless question of what it means to be human.

I’m thrilled to have experienced this as an audiobook. The use of dual narrators, Catherine Ho and Rupert Degas, was perfection 👌🏻. Ho's narration gave a sense of vulnerability while Degas' narration added a gritty tone. The story very much reminds me of both the TV series "The Last of Us" and Becky Chambers' "Monk & Robot" fantasy series.

. I absolutely recommend this audiobook to soft sci-fi lovers, especially those who enjoy lyrical storytelling. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(2.5 Stars, Rounded up to 3)

I really struggled deciding if I wanted to rate this book 2 or 3 stars, so I split the difference. It wasn't because I didn't like the book, But I also wouldn't say I loved it. Based on the other reviews, I am definitely in the minority, so maybe it is just me.

Have you ever been late getting to a movie, or maybe your friend started it before you got there and You can still follow the movie, but you feel like you might have missed an important piece of information and some things just don't make sense? Well I spent most of this book feeling like that.

I really thought I missed something, so I re-listened to the first two chapters three times, then I went and looked to see if maybe this book was written about a video game, or maybe was part of a series and I didn't read the first book, but no... This was a stand alone book

Don't get me wrong, the prose of the book was beautiful. The author is good at the craft. It was both visual and visceral, stunning and captivating. But it was also superfluous and obfuscated.

It reminded me a lot of Stephen King's Dark Tower, but Stephen King did a better job of setting up the characters and plot. Speaking of Characters and plot. The world building in this book is superb. I'd like to say the same about the character growth, but I don't know if it is. Sure, they changed and learned new things, but I can't say they really developed.

The book itself could be summed up like the "Tears in rain" monolog that Roy Batty says to Deckard before saving him, the entire book is that stream-of-consciousness rambling, but meaningless in the end.

Novel Concept: 5/5
Novel Execution: 4/5

Title: 5/5
Characterization: 5/5
Dialogue: 5/5
Plot: 2/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Theme: 4/5
Prose: 5/5

Does this pass the Bechdel Test: Yes


Title
The title refers to a poem that Ysmeny references about the Rag Picker picking things up and also taking children. It seems to reference not only the real occupation of Rag Pickers (people who resell unwanted household items) and the Pied Piper. Inherently, The Rag Picker evokes a sense of scavenging and bargain which is in line with the world as a whole. Everyone is a Rag Picker--everyone is picking up the pieces of things long discarded so that they might make it useful once again and survive another day. It works very well.

Characterization
What The Rag Picker is (AKA a Twitch) and what other people think he is are two entirely different things. Many people see him as dangerous but more importantly, a chorus of long dead voices trying to lead him astray. The Rag Picker himself seems fairly intelligent and while he is plagued by Obits--digital versions of dead people--they are not controlling but more just locked in a perpetual conference call. Rag Picker is wise--he is philosophical.

Ysmeny is a confusing character that can be best understood as a girl who mean well, but doesn't exactly know what to do to mean well. She was born and raised to understand a twitch named Server, and in that seems to have some ability to communicate and understand Twitches which are normally seen as dangerous creatures that kill without remorse, plagued by the thousands of voices in their head of Obits.

Server is a military grade twitch that has protected this town because the LAMB Stack seems to ground her in some sort of reality. Without it she is losing herself. She is less human, more robotic at times.

Dialogue
Communication is a central theme to the story and the progression of communication between Ysmeny and The Rag Picker is fascinating. The Rag Picker struggles to verbally articulate but over time, Ysmeny can understand him very well. While it might seem like The Rag Picker is improving, when the man from the tower joins them it's clear he can barely understand The Rag Picker. Ergo, Ysmeny is improving.

And since The Rag Picker cannot communicate effectively, it's wonderful to get his perspective. Because his interior monologue is complex and philosophical. He has so many things he'd like to say and do, but fails to.

Plot
What was even the point of this plot? It eventually felt like nothing really happened and nothing was truly earned. Ysmeny claims to have gained wisdom on her journey but what? We never really see her improve in any way that relates to Sever and The LAMP Stack other than she misses it.

There are points when Ysmeny knows "something" that I think is the conclusion of Rag Picker's Goal but it's coy and frustrating. I don't really feel anything for how Rag Picker's goals conclude because it didn't feel earned. It just felt cruel. And confusing since this is science fiction technology that I don't fully grasp and understand. So I'm just supposed to understand that the plot line concludes the way it does because the author says so--and I didn't like that.

I didn't like that we never ended up anywhere really--I don't understand why Ysmeny makes the decision she makes at the end. It feels forced and contrived. Nothing changed from the moment Ysmeny left to the moment the book took us to where the story concludes.

This book was very good--but this plot struggled to the bitter end. It felt like Ysmeny forgot that the reason she set out in the first place is because Server did something. And the thing that Server did seemed fairly unimportant by the end. Why did everything just work out for Ysmeny? Why? I an lost in a desperate sea of "why?" And "why" and "Why?

Also is the play supposed to be nonfiction in the world? Did the world end because someone invented Laplace's Demon? I'm very confused.

Atmosphere
This world is vivid but confusing. I have general ideas as to what each creature is and the basics of humanity's downfall. But I wouldn't say I have a full understanding. And I don't need to have a full picture of the downfall--but I do feel entitled to a basic understand of exactly what a Twitch is and a Like Hunter. The explanations we get are very poetic but nonspecific. I was paying attention! I just felt like I was getting lost at corners and moments, desperate for an answer and finding none.

But aside from the lack of clarity we have on creature classes--this is a wonderfully decaying world akin to Horizon Zero Dawn and Blade Runner. Large expansive technological words falling apart. It's beautiful and tragic. It's strange to see that the predators are people still linked up to a dying social media system that allowed people to I think become dopamine addicts.

Theme
This book is about communication and the human experience. It wants to explore what it means to be human and what it means to be a community. How technology is both the thing that severs us but also something that can unite us. Sever is the only part of the theme that I cannot seem to understand. I don't really understand her.

Prose
This prose is beautiful. It gets away with very vivid purple prose because one of our narrators is caged to an interior monologue, and thus copes by being poetic about himself and the world around him. It brings to live this scavenged world of both rotting technological marvels to nature taking back what once belonged to it.

In terms of readability, I found myself getting lost more than once and struggling to understand certain concepts from time to time. The writing is complex and not entirely accessable. The prose prioritizes beauty over clarity--so it's generally gorgeous writing but it's not always clear.

The Last of Us (HBO/Max) meets The Fifth Season (by NK Jemisin).
A moving story of two main characters - a ragpicker who has lost (yet is seeking) his husband, and a young girl who is seeking her freedom and attempting to save a baby from growing up like her. They must learn to rely on and trust each other despite their many differences.

Beautiful writing. I don’t fully comprehend the world these characters inhabit, other than it being post-apocalyptic with most of the humans gone. Dolphins, whales and many other creatures we are currently driving towards extinction have returned because there are so few humans left to impact the planet. Those that remain belong to seemingly independent towns with “Towers” defending themselves against marauding bands of horrors. It’s not clear when this takes place. But good writing and storytelling endures.

#Ragpicker is a thought-provoking, strange, and sometimes tender tale well worth reading or listening to. My thanks to the author, publisher, @Dreamscape_Media, and #NetGalley for the advance audiobook for review purposes.

This book follows an avatar as he wanders the deserted world looking for any trace of his dead husband that he can find, his journey is interrupted when he comes across a girl trying to save a baby from the horrors of her village. This book feels very much like a piece of speculative fiction, nothing is explained and that's part of the appeal. I spent the entire book trying to figure out how the earth had ended up like this and for me that's what made this book so special. The Ragpicker was a surprisingly emotional read for me, with lots of writing on grief and human connection. Reading as our two main characters travel and grow closer, beginning with bonding over taking care of an infant felt special to me. I truly came to love these characters and root for them in all the trials that they faced.

There is something about the prose of "The Ragpicker" that is both intricate and luscious and yet entirely accessible. This was my first impression as I found myself falling into. It's not just the styling, but a few chapters in, it occurred to me that the linguistics were a reflection of the way the characters themselves processed the world. Not exactly 'flowery', though there is much attention to the flora and fauna of this world,or needlessly dry but it was detailed in the way a research observer gathering to create a verbal painting to catalog a space in record. This fit snugly into a world where one of our protagonists is working off a cache of memory that has been cut off from its more expansive database.

Outside of the language, I was instantly in love with the way the author tackled not the concept we've become familiar with when autonomous machines or cybrogs usually come into play--when does the machine adapt into human drive. Rather, this was a look at how the human experience might mold if put into that more enduring state and shell. On top of that was the comparison of memory of the neural kind and how that would compare and adapt to being the memory of the data kind. Our Ragpicker notes how each of the people he clings to live in one moment in time to him, but isn't that how we all generally see those we love who have gone before us? Isn't that drive not to forget the things that were precious, the need to salvage all the things we know have been forgotten or left unattended enough to not to have noticed in the first place, a nearly universal drive?

On the other hand, we have Ysmeny, who is a human who has learned to see and feel the world as a matter of sequences, patterns. She needs to more gradually be opened to the simple human wonders. Even though she is of flesh, she is in turn the one who in some ways acts more like the machine. This does not escape her and causes her a fair amount of distress. It causes her to feel she is broken, lacking, in a way I imagine many people who are neurodivergent may connect with.

These are just two of the dimensions of many that this relatively short novel contains. That said, this is a rare case of a book that has used its space wisely and not outstayed its welcome. What's more remarkable is that it's able to graze a plethora of ideas that your brain will want to stop and think more on, but more like a breeze, not an over stimulation or attempt to stuff in as much as it can in a way that makes insight sound like pretension.

I also greatly appreciated the humor and distinction of the individuals of the Ragpicker's memory. The environment, for all is detail, was gloriously nondescript containing growth and creatures that exist in many areas making this a world that can be anywhere. This is multiplied when stories of different area origins are mixed in. I always appreciate a nod to the role of stories, of our concept of the use of history. And while I don't believe this in particular was an intent of the author, there was something beautiful given all the cultural turmoil in our current world about the ability for these two people to come to understand and support each other even when such heavy bias and fear existed between different factions even without a speech barrier. I also mustn't forget to commend it on the message of the destination is not always what it seems, but that the journey itself is formative. That sometimes the circular is necessary to truly grow into what you're meant to be.

The only aspect about this book that threw me a little off, i also admire. there is an interlude that I'm not entirely sure was backstory and historical origin, or its own type of supposition or fever dream. however, there is such a tonal shift to a scriptural that it was a wonderful subtle subconscious shift that it was occurring separate from our moment of concern and possibly time. his when there had previously been talk of how plays have survived was a cleaver little move. So while I would have to revisit it to give you a more accurate impression, at a first pass I can respect it for its merits.


Overall this was a really thought provoking read that I would absolutely recommend to anyone curious about the philosophical elements to AI or dystopian cultures.

When I began listening to The Ragpicker, I knew pretty quickly that I’d need to stick around and see where this apocalyptic story went. I was immediately intrigued by the premise of this book, and it certainly kept me guessing!

The Ragpicker (via audiobook) shaped up to be a 4-star read/listen for me, though I feel that I would have been able to appreciate this story more if I had a physical copy in front of me while listening — the multi-character internal dialogue was initially a little confusing to follow via audiobook, but I caught on eventually!

If I had to summarize this book based on vibes, I’d say “weird but endearing, apocalyptic, found family” vibes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ALC for me to honestly review!

The style just didn't work for me; way too flowery and literary and in a way that made everything incomprehensible rather than relatable and impactful.