Two stars for the story. It lost one story when it made the psycho chick bipolar and a cutter. It absolutely infuriates me because people can be psycho without being mentally ill! It feeds the stereotype, which this idiot author apparently shares. It was particularly frustrating because there was absolutely no need of an explanation for her behavior. He could have just made her psycho and walked away from saying why.

Even aside from that, this was a boring book. The story sounds really cool with the idea of neurotesting that allows people to be put into small groups of people who are similar... but this is weird because it never really explains how exactly they're the same? So they're in this group with people of unknown similarities that are so similar in whatever that they look at each other and just know each other and can read each other exceptionally well - because they all share that same whatever. But... oh, to hell with it. It's a lame story and there isn't even enough to the story for me to write anything. I'm babbling instead! Which I *ahem* never do.

For the friends who just read [b:Spin|910863|Spin (Spin, #1)|Robert Charles Wilson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406383726s/910863.jpg|47562] with me, a lot of the issues that were brought up in that book were also present in this. Confusing timelines, a main character that lacked personality or presence and was rather apathetic, a sometimes-requited-sometimes-not romance, and a total asshole of a father. That last was a character rather than a "problem" but the rest were definitely issues and when they show up in two books they'll most likely show up in more.

God, I'm glad that's over with!

This book was plausible with an interesting premise, but I never felt entirely blown away or even engaged with the story.

The idea of eventually being able to use biometrics and other tests to determine other people who should be in your social network doesn't seem so terribly far fetched. Nor does the idea that the social networks could eventually take the place of religion as church attendance continues to decrease annually. Even the idea that those groups may eventually come to battle with each other, primarily through lawsuits and legislation but occasionally through violence, seems like it could potentially happen.

Perhaps it was the characters that fell a little flat, or the fairly significant bounces forward through time that made it feel harder to connect to them, but there was no character that I felt emotionally attached to.

An interesting piece of speculative fiction, but without enough heart for me to really care about these characters as they approach potential apocalypse. Three stars for the well executed idea, but it's bordering on two because I'm pretty damn sure in a month I won't remember a single character from this book.

Abandoned at 25%. The writing is engaging, but it's just zipping along from one plot incident to the next. These events do nothing to explain what's happening to the characters and why. It does no work creating the milieu. The fundamental conceit of affinities and the closeness of the Tau tranches is never explained or earned. I wasn't be surprised to learn the company behind it is just assigning people randomly our for its own purposes rather than based on psycho social characteristics, and the power of suggestion is doing the heavy lifting. Would a bunch of people of the same.type even necessarily get along?

I was really interested in the idea, but Divergent, for all that series' many problems, looks like a better execution at this point.

The audio narration is quite pleasant.

Interesting premise, but not quite gripping as I had hoped.

This one had interesting ideas and it was a quick read, but I didn't like any of the characters. Read for Sci Fi book club. It won't be making my list of 2015 Hugo nominations.

A man growing up out of a life of semi-exclusion finds a way to belong via a new social grouping tool. A social grouping tool that quickly expands in its influence on the individual and on the world at large. The Affinities is a book about social constructs and politics...and I couldn't put it down. With a fluid stance on good guy/bad guy, a little hope for a united future and a well-turned action-based subplot (or plot-plot, depending on how you read this), The Affinities is worth picking up.

Fun read. Reminded me a lot of a more contemporary entry to Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. Cautionary, but not as preachy as it could easily have been. Great characters.

The Affinities was the book I selected at random as part of my library's "Blind Date with a Book" campaign for February 2016.

This book could have been so much better than it was. Every time there was an opportunity for a plot twist, the book stayed its same boring course. There was no intrigue, no suspense, no action at all. Even the big act III scene at the end was plodding and dull. Almost all the story is told in hindsight through the lackluster and sullen Adam.

If Adam hadn't taken this Affinities test and been placed with Tau, he would have remained boring and lame in a tiny apartment working crappy jobs and disappointing people around him. Instead this social experiment gave him a ready-made set of friends, a job, a place to live. He still was boring and lame but the people around him were more interesting. The story should have focused more on Damian who got things done and had vision instead of Adam.

It wasn't "Tau telepathy" that made these people special. It was that they trusted the other people in their group because they believed they were supposed to be working together. That's all.

The whole world war and the 'fraternity things' taking over the world that was promised in the book jacket was a big disappointing plot line. Nothing really happened at all.

The ending was very lame too. It just ended with a whimper. Boring and lame just like Adam. I came up with four or five different plot twists that would have made this book more interesting and suspenseful.

Spoiler

I kept thinking when Meir Klein left InterAlia and they came up with their own technology to retest the masses that they'd all find out that they were just "sorted" into these groups at random and really didn't have anything in common except being in this group. That would have been an interesting plot twist. Now what do you do when you've left everything you know and love behind to be devoted to this group of people who are supposed to be like you and they're just randoms?

Another one would have been for the older brother Aaron to be in Het. Or for Geddy;s girlfriend to be a double agent. Then that family reunion would have had some suspense and intrigue.

This book is like a watered down, budget conscious tv series loosely based on an action movie. Disappointing.

Liked the premise, but I wanted this book to be a little something *more*. It felt very shallow, like it was just skimming the surface of the ideas presented. Interesting but ultimately not completely satisfying.