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quilly14's review against another edition
4.0
Hilarious. A look at a future when everything is privatized, even love and death.
mcstone12's review against another edition
5.0
After reading this book I feel like I think about it all the time. There was so much symbolism in it that I see in my daily life. Even though it is supposed to be futuristic I see a lot what Magnason writes about in my day to day life. Excellent read.
kateofmind's review against another edition
4.0
A capitalist Ragnarok, LoveStar is the ultimate private sector horror story, brimming with the kind of ideas sane humanity should fervently hope nobody but science fiction writers ever have - while, since it's all about how ideas are unstoppable, also persuading the reader/ listener that it's inevitable that someone with the wealth and power to make them real, will. The title character is a Hubertus Bigend on steroids, but one whose medium is biotechnology (of a particular and weird kind) instead of media. His works evoke Pohl & Kornbluth's Space Merchants while leaving that milieu in the dust. For example: if you can't afford it or go into debt, the Corporation will subsidize your access to the Wireless World (imagine a permanent omnipresent internet you use almost unconsciously without hardware, like telepathy), but in return you become a "Howler" who involuntarily screams out creepily targeted advertising messages at passerby, no matter what else you might be doing. Even romantic love itself is commodified, until the human race threatens to become customers so satisfied with the product that they can no longer be manipulated to want/buy more. It's a great if alarming read, but should you choose to read it, I recommend against the audio version; the narrator's neutral reading voice is grating enough, but when he speaks in character it's almost unbearable-- plus he pitches his voice absurdly for female characters with really pretty insulting effect. Better to go with the voices in your own head. I am seriously considering reading this again as an ebook, because I find I do want to read it again already.
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