Rating: 
Summary: Excellent except for extraneous lesbian sex
Review: I really liked this book. It was well written with a good plot. The author interwove the three parts of the main characters life deftly and with apparent ease. It wasn't TOO cyberpunkish, just a hint; the plot wasn't overwrought with too much tech stuff.The only problem that I had with the book was the abundance of lesbian sex. I have no problem with any kind of sex, hetero or homo, working into the story line of any book, sci-fi or otherwise. I DO mind when the sex is put in almost gratuitously. The main character's final sexual encounter ruined the whole ending. It left the book without a fulfilling climax (no pun intended). if it was left out, I would have rated this book a 9.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Cyberpunkish book in years!!
Review: I was so pleasantly surprised when I read this book! If I hadn't gotten a copy
of it accidentally I probably would have passed on it. I think it is the best cyberpunk novel I have read since Mona Lisa Overdrive, by William Gibson.
The style is straightforward, not bs-ish like some cyberpunk stuff I've read.
The story is intriguing, exciting, and moves at a brisk pace. The characters
are compelling and believable, and the setting is perfect.
I hope this review is taken in earnest!!
Rating:
Summary: Top notch SF
Review: I was surprised at some of the poor reviews given this book and have an idea that these stem from those picking up books from a list of Nebula Award winners. This book is not at all your typical SF story, indeed it feels much more like a mainstream story with some SF aspects than it does an SF story. I'm an avid reader of both science fiction as well as mainstream fiction, so this holds a good deal of appeal for me.
Griffith's prose is wonderful and showcases a beauty of language seldom seen in science fiction. Her characterization is also near perfect. I won't spend time discussing the plot as that's been handled amply by the other reviewers, but I will echo one other person's thoughts: The storyline that has Lore working at a sewage plant is, surprisingly, every bit as engrossing as the ones that deal with her kidnapping and her high society upbringing. To me, that says a good deal about Griffith's talent as a writer.
As for the sex scenes, which some people describe as being nearly constant in the book, there are actually about four or five scenes taking up somewhere around ten pages of the book (not each, but in total). Additionally, they're not placed in the story without purpose.
Overall, an excellent book. Personally, I'm quite glad that it won a Nebula. It's certainly desereving.
Rating: 
Summary: be warned
Review: i was very disappointed in the book, and amazed that it won a nebula. the science fiction aspects are minimal and mainly related to near-future waste management methods. the narrative borrows split-time techniques developed and far better utilized by many others. the story line is obsessed with graphic lesbian encounters. perhaps i was spoiled by having read 3 phillip k dick classics and gene wolfe's masterpiece "the fifth head of cereberus" before this, but this seems like a minor work of limited interest and a short shelf-life. spend your money and time elsewhere. be alerted: several aspects of the book are frankly explicit.
Rating:
Summary: be warned
Review: i was very disappointed in the book, and amazed that it won a nebula. the science fiction aspects are minimal and mainly related to near-future waste management methods. the narrative borrows split-time techniques developed and far better utilized by many others. the story line is obsessed with graphic lesbian encounters. perhaps i was spoiled by having read 3 phillip k dick classics and gene wolfe's masterpiece "the fifth head of cereberus" before this, but this seems like a minor work of limited interest and a short shelf-life. spend your money and time elsewhere. be alerted: several aspects of the book are frankly explicit.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat disappointing
Review: I was very intrigued by the almost Cyberpunk plot of the novel, done by a female author. Certain aspects of the plot were done quite well, and I would call them quite fresh, however the climax was not up to par, nor was I impressed with how the story unfolded toward the end. An interesting and quite short read, but not on my top 10 list.
Rating:
Summary: Good cyberpunk is hard to find
Review: In a genre over-run with cliches and wannabes, this is a standout. Nothing here rang harsh against reality, or seemed unfeasable - in fact, its feasability was almost frightening. Griffith is definitly a peer of Stephenson and Gibson and I look forward to looking for her other works.
Rating:
Summary: Don't let the "subgenre" label fool you
Review: In SF, unlike its sister genre fantasy, there has been a history of dealing with issues of homosexuality in an unflinching, honest fashion (instead of fantasy's fey princes and twisted perverts) and while those issues have not really grasped mainstream SF, it's always been there, blatantly stated in Samuel Delany writings and others, lurking in Disch, in Ballard, from the sixties and seventies onward, incorporating sexuality matter of factly, almost explicitly so. There have been subgenres, of course, as there are in any major genre, but for the most part it's not really shocking or scandalous to see homosexuality represented in SF. And so awarding the Nebula to this novel both gladdens and confuses me. Gladdens, because it is a fine, tightly constructed novel, exploring its characters with a depth normally reserved for such masters as Margaret Atwood (when it comes to charactization and studies, at least). Confuses, because there is nothing really explicitly "groundbreaking" about it. The plot, while entertaining and thought provoking, breaks no real new ground, either by busting down nonexistent barriers regarding homosexuality in SF or providing a mindwarping new way of looking at the artiface of Story. The story itself, on the surface, is simple. Lore, a children born into a ridiculously wealthy family is kidnapped and tormented. Eventually she escapes and instead of going back to her family tries to live out among society, where she meets master scammer Scanner, among other people. Eventually she tries to form her own identity, working as the lowest employee on the type of thing her own family patented. The novel's structure is interesting, in that it jumps between Lore's childhood and her tightly sketched family (even the briefly glimpsed ones feel real, and even small moments resonate), then to her life with Scanner and then to the present day where she finally finishes the journey of finding herself. The fact that Lore is a lesbian is treated astonishingly well, there is no cliched "coming out" moment, she begins the story as a lesbian and that is just the way things are. People turned off by homosexuality probably should avoid this book, while I didn't find the scenes too explicit (certainly nowhere near pornographic, as some reviewers have tried to claim) and frankly they don't take up too many scenes in the novel itself, for some people, one scene may be one scene too many. And those people are entitled to their opinions and shouldn't read things that make them unhappy or uncomfortable. And this is a novel that deals with unpleasant things, and faces them boldly and obliquely, much like we do in real life. Slow River is a good book, perhaps even a great book. Does it deserve to stand up with past Nebula winners such as Dune or Ender's Game or A Time of Changes (and before you think that I'm biased toward SF written by white males, I thoroughly enjoyed Russ' The Female Man, so there) . . . I don't think so, but I also don't know what the competition was that year. It doesn't really matter. If the giant block letters proclaiming it to be a "Nebula Award Winner!" capture your attention enough to entice you to read the book, then that's all well and good. For in the end it's a fine example of SF doing what it does best, reflecting our lives and taking real people and real emotions and putting them in a fantastic setting, so while the background may be unfamiliar, the rest isn't.
Rating:
Summary: A soul is never lost
Review: In this wonderful book, there is so much emotion explaned. Being a sci-fi novel has nothing to do with the way in which the author discribes every detail in Lores life. The author makes you realize what has happened when the author finally thinks the suspense has gotten to be too much. This is a perfect book to read for a class, as I did in college, or for leasure you are sure to enjoy it. Especially if you are a woman who loves utopia's.
Rating:
Summary: Transcends genre
Review: Left for dead by her kidnappers, Lore is found by the mysterious woman Spanner, who teaches her to survive by her wits and to live in the dark world of crime. The two become lovers, but Lore wants legitimacy and to heal from her various wounds (her past with her family, her weeks with the kidnappers), so she leaves, taking a new identity, and tries to fit in. Ultimately, Lore cannot run from her demons forever, and she must either choose to stay in the shadows or to face the truths of her past. Set in the not-so-distant future, "Slow River" weaves Lore's pasts and present together into an astonishingly compelling tale. At the heart of the book is the story of a young woman healing from abuse, and the science fiction aspects are simply the setting and enhancing details. "Slow River" is the type of book that transcends whatever genre in which it's placed: it's more than a science fiction story, more than a coming-of-age story, more than a lesbian love story, more than a story of healing from abuse. This is a book that makes one believe in the power of fiction.
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