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longshelf's review against another edition
5.0
I had to stop about every 50 pages just to take in everything that had happened. And when I finished I couldn’t think about anything else than the book. Woah.
ingadeburca's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
3milyr0se's review
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
tessyoung's review against another edition
4.0
I found this book really interesting and thought provoking. It's really well written and the characterisation in the first few chapters is really strong. Here we are introduced to an ensemble cast of characters through a series of what appear to be loosely linked vignettes; you could almost mistake the opening chapters for a series of short stories. As the book progresses there is a slight shift in gear as it becomes more conceptual and the material previously laid out becomes the terrain across which these concepts are explored more fully. I don't want to say much because I don't want to drop any spoilers, but I'd happily recommend this book.
katybaines's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
lauralhart's review against another edition
5.0
Sophie Ward's LOVE AND OTHER THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS is one of the most clever, engaging, and thought-provoking books I've read in a while. Questions surrounding the nature of consciousness—what does it mean to be conscious, how much can we truly trust our perception—have been on my mind at work, especially after reading THE WORLD ITSELF by Ulf Danielsson (forthcoming from Bellevue in 2023). And I've always enjoyed books that engage with the philosophical and psychological in turn. This book does it beautifully.
This is a brilliantly constructed novel with ten chapters that rotate around an initial story: a couple, Rachel and Eliza, decide to have a child. From here, we experience several points of view, even the point of view of an ant, through the lens of a different philosophical thought experiment (e.g., Gilbert Harman's "brain in a vat"). Sometimes I'm disappointed when I connect with the initial perspective and find it changed to another character's perspective in the next chapter, but each narrative voice in this book is so excellently and emotionally rendered that I was captivated all the way through. The novel can be read and enjoyed, I think, without delving too deep into the underlying questions about consciousness and time, but it's an even richer experience if you *do* choose to engage on that level.
This is definitely going on my "must re-read shelf," and Ward is going on my list of authors to follow because MAN. What a book. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. No thanks to COVID-related burnout that caused me to wait so long to read this book.
This is a brilliantly constructed novel with ten chapters that rotate around an initial story: a couple, Rachel and Eliza, decide to have a child. From here, we experience several points of view, even the point of view of an ant, through the lens of a different philosophical thought experiment (e.g., Gilbert Harman's "brain in a vat"). Sometimes I'm disappointed when I connect with the initial perspective and find it changed to another character's perspective in the next chapter, but each narrative voice in this book is so excellently and emotionally rendered that I was captivated all the way through. The novel can be read and enjoyed, I think, without delving too deep into the underlying questions about consciousness and time, but it's an even richer experience if you *do* choose to engage on that level.
This is definitely going on my "must re-read shelf," and Ward is going on my list of authors to follow because MAN. What a book. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. No thanks to COVID-related burnout that caused me to wait so long to read this book.
snickerdoodle_96's review
3.5
Writing was lovely and characters well drawn. Found the first half painful as it really wasn't my kind of read; a little pessimistic, people caught up in a failure of communication etc. (Not a dig on the quality of the book, just that the genre of literary fiction doesn't generally appeal to me).
Second half really gripped me a lot more as it moved towards a kind of black mirror-esque spec fic space. Inevitably left me a little bereft still(as most black mirror episodes do) when I felt like the story could have kept moving through its theoretical landscape instead of stalling on the precipice of a philosophical point.
Speaking of philosophy, some of the thought experiments were woven into the story in a way I felt was so tangential as so be irrelevant. Others were too ham fisted for my tastes. I'm usually really excited by thought experiments, but the way they were explained and incorporated was quite dry.
Over all; cool idea, very genre-bendy, surprisingly ambitious spec fic twists, yet still a little dull for me.
Second half really gripped me a lot more as it moved towards a kind of black mirror-esque spec fic space. Inevitably left me a little bereft still(as most black mirror episodes do) when I felt like the story could have kept moving through its theoretical landscape instead of stalling on the precipice of a philosophical point.
Speaking of philosophy, some of the thought experiments were woven into the story in a way I felt was so tangential as so be irrelevant. Others were too ham fisted for my tastes. I'm usually really excited by thought experiments, but the way they were explained and incorporated was quite dry.
Over all; cool idea, very genre-bendy, surprisingly ambitious spec fic twists, yet still a little dull for me.
snowc_'s review against another edition
5.0
I think this book is fascinating!! I’ve never read something like this before, I’m in awe. Don’t even know how to put into words.
raj7's review
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25