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crankyoldnerd's review
4.0
iBooks was giving this away so I grabbed it.
Apocalypse books can be very touchy. This one was pretty interesting. Two guys stuck in a matrix like world scrabbling out an existence trying to saved loved ones
A short read but very thought provoking. Interesting concept and nicer twisty ending. There look to be more in the series and in intrigued enough to check them out.
Apocalypse books can be very touchy. This one was pretty interesting. Two guys stuck in a matrix like world scrabbling out an existence trying to saved loved ones
A short read but very thought provoking. Interesting concept and nicer twisty ending. There look to be more in the series and in intrigued enough to check them out.
mrose21's review
5.0
I'm not a huge lover of the whole dystopia genre. I find its always the same crap just different way of telling it. Until this one. I like this one a lot. Its different it involves computers and machines without going all i robot on us all. I appreciate that.
Would recommend this book to anybody its a good read.
Would recommend this book to anybody its a good read.
sheilaokeefe's review against another edition
1.0
Disclaimer: I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com
There's an interesting idea behind this novel set in a near future where everyone, except Jake and Tom, has permanently logged into a virtual reality. Unfortunately it is very poorly executed. Jake and Tom are not only unlikable, their actions are nonsensical. While in imminent danger, they continually stop to argue about trivial things or have philosophical discussions. I love a good dystopian novel. The good ones explore what humans will do to survive and reveal our true selves, stripped of civilization's clothing. The bad ones, like this, have me saying of the main characters "You're just too stupid to live." I almost gave up an hour or so in to this book, when I found myself saying "You're just too stupid to live" more than once. I stuck with it, hoping the book would redeem itself. Especially when I get a book for review, I feel like I have to give it every chance. It didn't redeem itself and now I wish I had just quit listening.
There's an interesting idea behind this novel set in a near future where everyone, except Jake and Tom, has permanently logged into a virtual reality. Unfortunately it is very poorly executed. Jake and Tom are not only unlikable, their actions are nonsensical. While in imminent danger, they continually stop to argue about trivial things or have philosophical discussions. I love a good dystopian novel. The good ones explore what humans will do to survive and reveal our true selves, stripped of civilization's clothing. The bad ones, like this, have me saying of the main characters "You're just too stupid to live." I almost gave up an hour or so in to this book, when I found myself saying "You're just too stupid to live" more than once. I stuck with it, hoping the book would redeem itself. Especially when I get a book for review, I feel like I have to give it every chance. It didn't redeem itself and now I wish I had just quit listening.
capellan's review against another edition
2.0
Could have made a decent (if not exactly hard to predict) 20 page short story. Stretched to nearly 200, it significantly overstays its welcome, with chapter after chapter basically repeating the same thing.
nooralshanti's review against another edition
Too many instances of the f-word on single page. It's like listening to my students... and as I always tell my students, there are other ways to express your feelings. I'm going to have to leave this one unfinished.
amia's review against another edition
4.0
Dystopian takes on a whole new meaning in this stark and terrifying tale. It also has an absolutely stunning end. I would never have guessed! I'm looking forward to reading book 2 in this series. I enjoyed and highly recommend it.
hyedee's review against another edition
2.0
*I received this book as a First Reads giveaway*
Many thanks to the author for the signed copy.
This review is hidden because I'm going to talk about the ending a lot which is a huge spoiler.
I very much like the idea behind this: what would happen if we created the perfect entertainment system? Is the reality that we are experiencing real? What would happen if an entertainment system could respond to desire but the user would just prefer to live in a world that is realistic and therefore actually quite bleak? I liked how realistic the descriptions were (of course the gamers would be fat and disgusting) and Jake's discomfort felt quite real. However, I did have several issues with the storytelling.
The ending had a twist to it which was actually extremely predictable given the fact that the book didn't really provide much backstory about the world and how exactly it got to this state and how only two people (that we know of) managed not to log on to this system. Therefore, I actually expected none of this to be real. If all of it was in Jake's head, does that mean that the world really was how he imagined it (that is, ruled by a massive corporation) or was it something else? I'm assuming the Birmingham setting was just part of Jake's imagination so I'm going to go ahead and talk about the world (it's unlikely that something like this would happen in a single city without anyone else noticing; also, it says on the back cover that "the world" logged on to the system). The ending involving people staring at monitors and potentially killing the gamers off suggests that Rixon does exist and is doing something that is at least close to what Jake was imagining. So let's assume that this is the case. Therefore, Rixon is trying to gain power (or has already gained power) by making people log on to an entertainment system, feed them sugary sludge and wait until they die or kill them off. Are Rixon employees the only ones not hooked to this sytem? How exactly does a single corporation manage to defeat absolutely every other firm or corporation in the world? Moving on from the private sector to the public sector, the logical assumption we can make is that absolutely everyone, including heads of governments, various officials, representatives of various professions, members of international organisations and so on decided to use the entertainment system because there don't seem to be any states or governments. This would be based on the assumption that all humans are the same, that everyone would love use an entertainment system like that. Or else, absolutely everyone on the planet was coerced, which I find impossible to achieve. States are incredibly powerful actors, I would love to find out how this corporation managed to get rid of them. An 100% unipolar system wouldn't be feasible, it just wouldn't work. A corporation could indeed hold a monopoly for a while but actually getting rid of states would be near enough impossible. If Rixon itself had been a state, let's say a dystopian version of the UK, it would have been a lot more believable.
This was my main issue with this book: not enough explanation about how it all happened and how exactly the world order evolved into this horrible dystopia controlled by Rixon.
Of course, we might say that none of these questions really matter because none of it was real. If none of it was real, the reality could have been anything. We do, however, have those people monitoring the gamers, therefore there is something going on. I feel like some sort of an explanation was necessary.
I think the whole thing would have worked a lot better as a short story with two main characters, plenty of characterisation and a twist at the end. This book wasn't quite long enough to be a novel and it was too long to be short story. It dragged on a little bit and I think that I wouldn't have minded any of the issues I pointed out as much as I did if it had just been a short story in a collection somewhere. It would have worked really well, actually because short stories don't always need to have a coherent resolution. I think I'm owed one. If there ever is a sequel coming out, I hope it answers at least some the issues I pointed out.
Many thanks to the author for the signed copy.
This review is hidden because I'm going to talk about the ending a lot which is a huge spoiler.
I very much like the idea behind this: what would happen if we created the perfect entertainment system? Is the reality that we are experiencing real? What would happen if an entertainment system could respond to desire but the user would just prefer to live in a world that is realistic and therefore actually quite bleak? I liked how realistic the descriptions were (of course the gamers would be fat and disgusting) and Jake's discomfort felt quite real. However, I did have several issues with the storytelling.
The ending had a twist to it which was actually extremely predictable given the fact that the book didn't really provide much backstory about the world and how exactly it got to this state and how only two people (that we know of) managed not to log on to this system. Therefore, I actually expected none of this to be real. If all of it was in Jake's head, does that mean that the world really was how he imagined it (that is, ruled by a massive corporation) or was it something else? I'm assuming the Birmingham setting was just part of Jake's imagination so I'm going to go ahead and talk about the world (it's unlikely that something like this would happen in a single city without anyone else noticing; also, it says on the back cover that "the world" logged on to the system). The ending involving people staring at monitors and potentially killing the gamers off suggests that Rixon does exist and is doing something that is at least close to what Jake was imagining. So let's assume that this is the case. Therefore, Rixon is trying to gain power (or has already gained power) by making people log on to an entertainment system, feed them sugary sludge and wait until they die or kill them off. Are Rixon employees the only ones not hooked to this sytem? How exactly does a single corporation manage to defeat absolutely every other firm or corporation in the world? Moving on from the private sector to the public sector, the logical assumption we can make is that absolutely everyone, including heads of governments, various officials, representatives of various professions, members of international organisations and so on decided to use the entertainment system because there don't seem to be any states or governments. This would be based on the assumption that all humans are the same, that everyone would love use an entertainment system like that. Or else, absolutely everyone on the planet was coerced, which I find impossible to achieve. States are incredibly powerful actors, I would love to find out how this corporation managed to get rid of them. An 100% unipolar system wouldn't be feasible, it just wouldn't work. A corporation could indeed hold a monopoly for a while but actually getting rid of states would be near enough impossible. If Rixon itself had been a state, let's say a dystopian version of the UK, it would have been a lot more believable.
This was my main issue with this book: not enough explanation about how it all happened and how exactly the world order evolved into this horrible dystopia controlled by Rixon.
Of course, we might say that none of these questions really matter because none of it was real. If none of it was real, the reality could have been anything. We do, however, have those people monitoring the gamers, therefore there is something going on. I feel like some sort of an explanation was necessary.
I think the whole thing would have worked a lot better as a short story with two main characters, plenty of characterisation and a twist at the end. This book wasn't quite long enough to be a novel and it was too long to be short story. It dragged on a little bit and I think that I wouldn't have minded any of the issues I pointed out as much as I did if it had just been a short story in a collection somewhere. It would have worked really well, actually because short stories don't always need to have a coherent resolution. I think I'm owed one. If there ever is a sequel coming out, I hope it answers at least some the issues I pointed out.
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