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Ultra 85
In the year 2115, when the Earth is no longer inhabitable, the remainder of humanity lives in Babel, a giant space station. Two pilots, Quentin and Kai, must find the planet Paradise, where only the most promising citizens are allowed to live. On their journey, Quentin and Kai encounter Quentin’s estranged father, who left Babel for Paradise when Quentin was a child, and they discover just how different Paradise is from what they imagined—and how they must change it for the better.
The bestselling author of Supermarket and platinum-selling hip-hop artist, Logic, returns to fiction with this gripping and propulsive sci-fi novel.
The bestselling author of Supermarket and platinum-selling hip-hop artist, Logic, returns to fiction with this gripping and propulsive sci-fi novel.
304 pages, Paperback
First published September 17, 2024
325 people are currently reading
3,215 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 267 reviews
December 13, 2024
Hard eyeroll. ****Plop - that’s the sound of this book hitting my “bound for donations� pile.
One of my favorite genres, the premise sounds great but I just couldn’t do it. It’s so bad. I tried three times!!!!
The dialog is so bad - the cringe level of these conversations just cannot be described- by me anyway. I just can’t take it!
The throwbacks to 80’s, 90’s, 00’s movies/books/lingo is so heavy it’s distracting.
Hard pass.
One of my favorite genres, the premise sounds great but I just couldn’t do it. It’s so bad. I tried three times!!!!
The dialog is so bad - the cringe level of these conversations just cannot be described- by me anyway. I just can’t take it!
The throwbacks to 80’s, 90’s, 00’s movies/books/lingo is so heavy it’s distracting.
Hard pass.
December 8, 2024
I’m entirely too damn gay to vibe with a novel this straight. The moment it started name-dropping The Godfather and Quentin Tarantino movies, I should’ve bowed out—just like I do in real life when those conversations come up. It’s a shame, though, because I absolutely loved Supermarket by the same author. I think the book is actually fine, I’m just not the target audience, straight boys that love straight boy movies set in space.
September 19, 2024
[2.75/5 ⭐️] An action-packed space heist that flips an age-old dilemma on its head—will AI be the downfall of humanity, or will humanity cause our own demise? In the present culture of technological fear-mongering, it’s important to question whether danger lies in the tools or in the hands of those wielding said tools.
Ultra 85 is full of banter and snappy dialogue, a refreshing break from the more high-brow language in most sci-fi books. I found myself laughing at the campy moments and getting pulled in by the juicy action scenes. There are a few lines that I was genuinely impressed by—in particular, just pure descriptions of scenery or environments—and it’s clear that Logic has a talent for writing.
Talent, however, does not equal skill. From a mechanics perspective, this book was all over the place. The characters are one-dimensional, important details about characters are dropped randomly through dialogue, and there is so much telling. For example, instead of seeing a character behave in a way that indicates they’re depressed or anxious, a character will say, “I’m sad,� or, “he’s just stressed.� These characters will (literally) say things like, “I want to die,� and two lines down the moment has already passed. And don’t even get me started on the treatment of female characters.
So much exposition is delivered through raw explanation, it felt like watching an amateur improv show. Instead of walking around funny and talking in an exaggerated way, the actor gets on stage and tells you, “I’m a clown.� Instead of showing the characters interact with the world in a meaningful way that reveals habits or culture, we are simply told that the action has occurred at some time before the story takes place. There is some buildup with the world building, which provides clues about what's to come, but these tidbits are over-shadowed by some heavy deus ex machina moments. Especially in the latter half, information just comes to the characters randomly and far too conveniently.
There are as many plot devices as there are references to American pop culture. This book suffers from an intense case of “the Ernest Cline,� whereby characters are obsessed with dated video game, movie, and musical references, and find every possible opportunity to quote these media. More egregiously, these facets of pop culture are ingrained into the plot, serving a major purpose in solving mysteries and unlocking secrets. I cannot stress enough how lame this convention is, and I’m not sure that even people who like the referenced materials appreciate their inclusion.
Ultimately, I might still recommend this book to those who like action stories in space settings that aren’t too heavy on actual scientific explanation. (I haven’t commented at all on the realism of the technology because I would exhaust myself. This time, I chose to just turn my brain off and accept it.) The question that this book poses, about the threat of AI vs. human behaviour, is also a timely and worthy topic to consider.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Ultra 85 is full of banter and snappy dialogue, a refreshing break from the more high-brow language in most sci-fi books. I found myself laughing at the campy moments and getting pulled in by the juicy action scenes. There are a few lines that I was genuinely impressed by—in particular, just pure descriptions of scenery or environments—and it’s clear that Logic has a talent for writing.
Talent, however, does not equal skill. From a mechanics perspective, this book was all over the place. The characters are one-dimensional, important details about characters are dropped randomly through dialogue, and there is so much telling. For example, instead of seeing a character behave in a way that indicates they’re depressed or anxious, a character will say, “I’m sad,� or, “he’s just stressed.� These characters will (literally) say things like, “I want to die,� and two lines down the moment has already passed. And don’t even get me started on the treatment of female characters.
So much exposition is delivered through raw explanation, it felt like watching an amateur improv show. Instead of walking around funny and talking in an exaggerated way, the actor gets on stage and tells you, “I’m a clown.� Instead of showing the characters interact with the world in a meaningful way that reveals habits or culture, we are simply told that the action has occurred at some time before the story takes place. There is some buildup with the world building, which provides clues about what's to come, but these tidbits are over-shadowed by some heavy deus ex machina moments. Especially in the latter half, information just comes to the characters randomly and far too conveniently.
There are as many plot devices as there are references to American pop culture. This book suffers from an intense case of “the Ernest Cline,� whereby characters are obsessed with dated video game, movie, and musical references, and find every possible opportunity to quote these media. More egregiously, these facets of pop culture are ingrained into the plot, serving a major purpose in solving mysteries and unlocking secrets. I cannot stress enough how lame this convention is, and I’m not sure that even people who like the referenced materials appreciate their inclusion.
Ultimately, I might still recommend this book to those who like action stories in space settings that aren’t too heavy on actual scientific explanation. (I haven’t commented at all on the realism of the technology because I would exhaust myself. This time, I chose to just turn my brain off and accept it.) The question that this book poses, about the threat of AI vs. human behaviour, is also a timely and worthy topic to consider.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
March 9, 2025
Two space peeps go on an epic accidental adventure.
There is not a single nice thing I can say about this one.
The characters were awful. Kai (the second to the main) was so freaking annoying. Like Jar Jar Binks level of annoying. His entire personality was built around 80s/90s pop culture movie bullshit. His dialogue was a regurgitation of it and no part of it was entertaining. Which brings me to the fact that the entire book was mostly dialogue. Bad dialogue. I would get lost in which jackass was saying what and would have to reread what irritated me on the first go, just to figure it out. AWFUL.
The story itself was lame. So much was left unexplained. Details were given to the extreme on things that did not matter, but the things that did, were rushed past. A world was introduced that I did not care about. What brought it to the point that the world had to exist, I did not care about. Characters were introduced that I did not care about. The past of those characters, I did not care about. The future of the characters, I did not care about. Get the point? AWFUL.
NO QUOTES:
Not a single one. That speaks volumes.
One star to a book that will be the biggest reading disappointment of the year, guaranteed.
There is not a single nice thing I can say about this one.
The characters were awful. Kai (the second to the main) was so freaking annoying. Like Jar Jar Binks level of annoying. His entire personality was built around 80s/90s pop culture movie bullshit. His dialogue was a regurgitation of it and no part of it was entertaining. Which brings me to the fact that the entire book was mostly dialogue. Bad dialogue. I would get lost in which jackass was saying what and would have to reread what irritated me on the first go, just to figure it out. AWFUL.
The story itself was lame. So much was left unexplained. Details were given to the extreme on things that did not matter, but the things that did, were rushed past. A world was introduced that I did not care about. What brought it to the point that the world had to exist, I did not care about. Characters were introduced that I did not care about. The past of those characters, I did not care about. The future of the characters, I did not care about. Get the point? AWFUL.
NO QUOTES:
Not a single one. That speaks volumes.
One star to a book that will be the biggest reading disappointment of the year, guaranteed.
September 20, 2024
I like Logic and both The Incredible True Story and Ultra 85, so this was a cool way to expand the story. And while I do think the lore was slightly inconsistent with some of the stuff in the former album, it was from 2015 so retconning a few things isn’t the worst. It was better written than Supermarket as well, just showing Bobby’s writing is for sure improving. This was a fun sci-fi story in general, but the background of the albums definitely made me appreciate it more.
January 2, 2025
Addendum � The actual rating would be ~1.5/5.0
What did I like about the book: the premise is sooooo good. So creative. This book could have been amazing...if someone else wrote it.
Things I didn't like about the book:
- Rampant typos and grammatical mistakes. Some of which were due to transliterated slang, but others were just careless.
- Plot holes. Characters consistently contradicted themselves.
- The pacing. The second half of the book was the plot. Exposition is necessary but the first half was ridiculously irrelevant to the ending.
- The info dumps, half of which included information that the narrator shouldn't have known. The main character will say something like "People on this planet always...". You've been on the planet for less than two hours??? What do you mean "always"?
- The way that I thought the narrator was (max) 25 from the way he talked and then I find out he's 52? And the sidekick who sounds like a teenager is in his 40's?
- The characterization of AI. "AI is evil...except the comic relief AI/wanna-be C3PO lolz." :/
- The constant movie quotes that were constantly explained. I get it, the AI was trained on movies. No, I don't need to be told the robot is quoting Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino every five pages.
Blegh. Do not read.
What did I like about the book: the premise is sooooo good. So creative. This book could have been amazing...if someone else wrote it.
Things I didn't like about the book:
- Rampant typos and grammatical mistakes. Some of which were due to transliterated slang, but others were just careless.
- Plot holes. Characters consistently contradicted themselves.
- The pacing. The second half of the book was the plot. Exposition is necessary but the first half was ridiculously irrelevant to the ending.
- The info dumps, half of which included information that the narrator shouldn't have known. The main character will say something like "People on this planet always...". You've been on the planet for less than two hours??? What do you mean "always"?
- The way that I thought the narrator was (max) 25 from the way he talked and then I find out he's 52? And the sidekick who sounds like a teenager is in his 40's?
- The characterization of AI. "AI is evil...except the comic relief AI/wanna-be C3PO lolz." :/
- The constant movie quotes that were constantly explained. I get it, the AI was trained on movies. No, I don't need to be told the robot is quoting Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino every five pages.
Blegh. Do not read.
February 26, 2025
respectfully, Logic should stick to music
February 12, 2025
one more tarantino quote and i was going to throw my phone out the window
Read
June 4, 2024DNF'd at 47%. I just could not do it anymore. Maybe there's something I'm missing that will be explained in the album but this book was just a mess. The ultra 85 is 85 families who inhabit paradise? The same Paradise that Thomas and Kai go looking for in The Incredible True Story? Oh and the ship they encounter on that album. It's actually his dad's ship who is still alive...? Also the people on Babel are just slaves for the ultra 85 families. This was just a confusing mess filled to the brim with pop culture references that meant nothing
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2025
3.5 - This was my first futuristic/sci-fi book and it was a fun read! I was a little disappointed in the ending, I wanted a little bit more, but overall a fun and different read. The entire time I read I envisioned it as a movie that I would definitely watch. Think of Interstellar mixed with 1984 and Hunger Games.
January 26, 2025
I wanted to like this book more than I did. I have been a fan of Logic’s music for a while and was so excited to see he was writing books. I haven’t read Supermarket yet, so this is my first taste of his writing.
The good:
There is an interesting world here. While not the spiritual successor to 1984 that it feels like the book is trying to be, there is that good good dystopian setting that acts as the glue holding everything together.
This book has a lot of really interesting philosophical questions. It examines slavery, AI, global warming, class politics and so much more. Philosophy and Dystopias go hand in hand so I loved this.
Not my thing:
The character voices. So I really wanted to vibe with the characters. I am really interested in how the modern voice can be integrated into literature. Logic attempts to do that. The problem is that most of the characters don’t have a voice that is solely them. The Protag and Kai both switch between street speak, uptight military and complex vocabulary/high education speak. While these are all aspects of their lives (except maybe the highly educated bit for Kai) they aren’t blended in a way that feels natural. It doesn’t feel like they have one voice and can then turn on the others depending on their situations. Instead it feels like they are still struggling to figure out how to speak like themselves.
The references:
I get what Logic was trying to do here. He wanted to write a love letter towards some of his favorite movies. But I couldn’t help but be turned off by the sheer amount of movie quotes and references. It just felt a little overdone.
The nose:
The philosophy and themes were maybe a little but too on the nose for me. Would have liked it if the themes weren’t so shoved in my face.
Overall:
This is a fun book. I enjoyed reading it. It is a great second book from an emerging author (though he is already famous for writing rhymes). So if you want a sci-fi dystopia book that has a fun easy to follow plot give it a read.
Side note: I have seen that the Audiobook is apparently a different (better) experience. I read it in paperback so I can’t speak to this. But if you want to give the book a try maybe go that route?
The good:
There is an interesting world here. While not the spiritual successor to 1984 that it feels like the book is trying to be, there is that good good dystopian setting that acts as the glue holding everything together.
This book has a lot of really interesting philosophical questions. It examines slavery, AI, global warming, class politics and so much more. Philosophy and Dystopias go hand in hand so I loved this.
Not my thing:
The character voices. So I really wanted to vibe with the characters. I am really interested in how the modern voice can be integrated into literature. Logic attempts to do that. The problem is that most of the characters don’t have a voice that is solely them. The Protag and Kai both switch between street speak, uptight military and complex vocabulary/high education speak. While these are all aspects of their lives (except maybe the highly educated bit for Kai) they aren’t blended in a way that feels natural. It doesn’t feel like they have one voice and can then turn on the others depending on their situations. Instead it feels like they are still struggling to figure out how to speak like themselves.
The references:
I get what Logic was trying to do here. He wanted to write a love letter towards some of his favorite movies. But I couldn’t help but be turned off by the sheer amount of movie quotes and references. It just felt a little overdone.
The nose:
The philosophy and themes were maybe a little but too on the nose for me. Would have liked it if the themes weren’t so shoved in my face.
Overall:
This is a fun book. I enjoyed reading it. It is a great second book from an emerging author (though he is already famous for writing rhymes). So if you want a sci-fi dystopia book that has a fun easy to follow plot give it a read.
Side note: I have seen that the Audiobook is apparently a different (better) experience. I read it in paperback so I can’t speak to this. But if you want to give the book a try maybe go that route?
December 20, 2024
3.5
so many good references!! i don’t usually like scifi, but the storytelling in this was so entertaining. i love atilla, but can we just talk about the name ‘bonita�?
so many good references!! i don’t usually like scifi, but the storytelling in this was so entertaining. i love atilla, but can we just talk about the name ‘bonita�?
February 20, 2025
I can understand why some people will have a hard time with this book but I honestly loved it. It was full of pop culture references and wit. Wasn’t Supermarket, but I will always enjoy a good sci-fi thriller
February 4, 2025
horrible.
November 18, 2024
Totally digged this book!! I love the two albums that this book is inspired by, starting when the first one came out in 2015. I think it was so thought out and the plot wasn’t lost. The characters were authentic to the story the album told, and even had some call backs to the music. Great book and will read again!!
December 2, 2024
My favourite part of this book was finishing it.
April 10, 2025
I'm starting this review on a good note: respect to Logic for branching out into different media. Logic is one of the few artists that incorporates strong storytelling elements in his music, so seeing him authoring books in addition to writing music really highlights his passion for storytelling. Now, for the review:
This book is an ABSOLUTELY safe skip. Sorry bud.
Seeing this in the library, I immediately knew it had two things going for it:
1. the cover looked pretty sweet, and
2. the book was written by Logic, a familiar and surprising name to see in a library - one of my favorite hip hop artists!
Logic's album The Incredible True Story is one of my favorite albums and after reading the synopsis and finding out this book was in the same universe... I was intrigued! More content to dig into... surely this would be a good read!
Nah. It's really just... not. The first three quarters of this book are HARD snooze material. It's a whole lot of setup for a giant nothing burger ending. The last quarter has some decent action and some story reveals, but really just falls flat for me. The story and writing style are clearly amateur. Not that I was expecting some legendary Tolkien-grade tale out of this, but it just reads amateur. This isn't a knock on the rating - knowing the author, this was sort of to be expected.
If you have no idea who Logic is, this is easily a 1 star. I bumped this to 2 stars only because I have already experienced some of this through The Incredible True Story/Ultra 85 albums (which are good, you should listen!) and like the universe.
This book is an ABSOLUTELY safe skip. Sorry bud.
Seeing this in the library, I immediately knew it had two things going for it:
1. the cover looked pretty sweet, and
2. the book was written by Logic, a familiar and surprising name to see in a library - one of my favorite hip hop artists!
Logic's album The Incredible True Story is one of my favorite albums and after reading the synopsis and finding out this book was in the same universe... I was intrigued! More content to dig into... surely this would be a good read!
Nah. It's really just... not. The first three quarters of this book are HARD snooze material. It's a whole lot of setup for a giant nothing burger ending. The last quarter has some decent action and some story reveals, but really just falls flat for me. The story and writing style are clearly amateur. Not that I was expecting some legendary Tolkien-grade tale out of this, but it just reads amateur. This isn't a knock on the rating - knowing the author, this was sort of to be expected.
If you have no idea who Logic is, this is easily a 1 star. I bumped this to 2 stars only because I have already experienced some of this through The Incredible True Story/Ultra 85 albums (which are good, you should listen!) and like the universe.
April 23, 2025
This book is a joke. The dialogue was bad, I never thought I would ever see the slang “fam� used in an actual book. The setting and storyline was interesting but need to be fleshed out more in order to make this a good story. I was able to skip half the book because it was just straight movie quotes. How did this man not get copyright infringement!? Logic should just stick to music.
This book was meant for 13 year old boys.
This book was meant for 13 year old boys.
February 19, 2025
What a blast this book is. I have always enjoyed the skits from the albums over the years and to see it all come together in this book was nostalgic. Can't wait to see what's next in the pipeline for Bobby Hall
October 14, 2024
I wanted to like this book the concept was something that i am interested in for sci fi but the plot just really lost me by the end. I wasn’t a big fan of how the dialogue was written either. The concept had potential but it just wasn’t executed in the way I would’ve liked.
November 13, 2024
DNF at page 70. This book kept me engaged for the first 50 pages or so, but after that the bland dialogue and over-the-top plot became inane. I didn’t hate it, but I just don’t think it’s worth my time. Maybe I’ll come back to it, but I doubt it. The cover is really cool, though!
November 22, 2024
The best Logic book so far. I love how personal his books are and how connected all his stories are. Seeing the growth of his storytelling across albums and books is so much fun. Love revisiting these characters that still permeate my life in ways unique to this story because they’re a part of the songs I listen to. This is the first book I’ve read based on an album? Especially listening to the audiobook, Steve Blum is the goat and has been but really gives a career performance here. The story is fun and space travel is always great. But the book is unabashedly a love letter to movies and pop culture. The references are fun but also shows the importance of art in our lives and what it means to people and the staying power of a story. Logic has been one of my favorite musical artists and now maybe one of my favorite writers. Hopefully he continues to do both and I will continue to consume.
September 23, 2024
3.37 overall is a wild number for this book. It should be way higher. I definitely recommend listening to the audiobook, it is another whole experience entirely. 5 stars all day long, the audiobook has a great "interview the author" chapter at the end that is an amazing wrap-up and just a little peek inside the creative space. Also, listening to the Ultra 85 album before getting into this audiobook builds a nice starting backstory that got me excited to keep the story going and get into the book. I can't wait for future projects I'm in for anything and everything. Supermarket was a great world building novel, and now this is right there with it. This man is amazing at creating an image in your mind, and Ultra 85 was no different.
March 10, 2025
as good of a story you’ll get out of a rapper
October 15, 2024
Good little sci-fi read. Somewhat predictable but entertaining, reminded me of ready player one with focus on old movie references throughout the book
November 21, 2024
Starts off a little slow but picks up by the second third. Exciting read (sometimes cringe? maybe?). Anyway, overall enjoyable.
March 5, 2025
3.5. I really enjoyed his memoir This Bright Future and going into this book, I knew it would be different since it's Sci-Fi. I'm not worried about how this connects to his music, just focused on the book itself.
Overall, it's fine. I do like the premise and found the world building interesting and worthwhile. The concept of the Ultra 85 was fun especially how those families behaved.
The first half of the book focused on conversations between characters and figuring out what's going on in the world while the second half had more story progression. I thought the book picked up and was stronger in the last 25%.
The main characters were really into pop culture of the 80s-2000s, mainly movies. Which can make sense when you spend all your time on a spaceship with not much to do but watch movies. But at times it seemed like every other paragraph referenced a movie scene-this distracted me and brought me out of the story. I'd probably remove 80% of the references, they don't add to the story or characters in my opinion.
It was worth reading for the world building for me, which is one of my favorite parts about books. I think the ideas are there for Logic, he just needs to improve on the execution in the future.
Overall, it's fine. I do like the premise and found the world building interesting and worthwhile. The concept of the Ultra 85 was fun especially how those families behaved.
The first half of the book focused on conversations between characters and figuring out what's going on in the world while the second half had more story progression. I thought the book picked up and was stronger in the last 25%.
The main characters were really into pop culture of the 80s-2000s, mainly movies. Which can make sense when you spend all your time on a spaceship with not much to do but watch movies. But at times it seemed like every other paragraph referenced a movie scene-this distracted me and brought me out of the story. I'd probably remove 80% of the references, they don't add to the story or characters in my opinion.
It was worth reading for the world building for me, which is one of my favorite parts about books. I think the ideas are there for Logic, he just needs to improve on the execution in the future.
January 14, 2025
Genuinely terrible.
I keep wanting to give Logic the benefit of the doubt but this was BAD bad.
While each character was supposed to have different personalities and clash, they all talked exactly the same. How are the “urban youth� and grizzled space captain both going to say “fam� and talk in slang?
Pop culture and references play a big part but it’s so fucking annoying and nauseating here. It’s bad enough when the characters just quote movies incessantly, “Bro was that Pulp Fiction? Good one, imma do Princess Bride now� - but it’s even worse where Logic straight up forgoes writing a scene by just describing it with a movie reference. “He dodged her attack like a John Woo movie.� Cool so we just gave up on writing? Like not even gonna attempt to paint a picture or have flow in action?
Not to mention one of the main villains explanation and big speech boils down to, and I am quoting nearly verbatim here: “Who gives a shit? X does Z, I don’t care!�
Genuinely an awful read.
Should be dropped to zero too, making legendary voice actor Steve Blum do a blaccent on the audiobook.
I keep wanting to give Logic the benefit of the doubt but this was BAD bad.
While each character was supposed to have different personalities and clash, they all talked exactly the same. How are the “urban youth� and grizzled space captain both going to say “fam� and talk in slang?
Pop culture and references play a big part but it’s so fucking annoying and nauseating here. It’s bad enough when the characters just quote movies incessantly, “Bro was that Pulp Fiction? Good one, imma do Princess Bride now� - but it’s even worse where Logic straight up forgoes writing a scene by just describing it with a movie reference. “He dodged her attack like a John Woo movie.� Cool so we just gave up on writing? Like not even gonna attempt to paint a picture or have flow in action?
Not to mention one of the main villains explanation and big speech boils down to, and I am quoting nearly verbatim here: “Who gives a shit? X does Z, I don’t care!�
Genuinely an awful read.
Should be dropped to zero too, making legendary voice actor Steve Blum do a blaccent on the audiobook.
November 26, 2024
disclaimer that im not familiar with logic’s music at all, including whatever music this book accompanies(?)
i think it had a lot of potential. the references were a lot and the dialogue wasnt always natural but i do think the story had merit. it’s just what you’d expect from someone whose writing isn’t their main passion.
favorite line:
“Life is more than knowledge. It is self-experience, and experience of self.�
i think it had a lot of potential. the references were a lot and the dialogue wasnt always natural but i do think the story had merit. it’s just what you’d expect from someone whose writing isn’t their main passion.
favorite line:
“Life is more than knowledge. It is self-experience, and experience of self.�
November 21, 2024
bad, hated it!
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