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cassandralovesfeta's review against another edition
3.0
I loved the main character but the rest of the novel did not come together for me.
callieisreading's review against another edition
3.0
I have had this on my shelf for 10 years or more, so I'm glad to finally have finished it. I will admit that my lukewarm response is partially my own fault- for some reason I thought this was going to be more sci-fi than it turned out to be. It was long and overwritten, and I should have DNF'd it when I had the inclination ~65 pages in. Nothing really changed from there. That being said it wasn't terrible, it was just kind of forgettable. Also if you want to know how future readers are going to feel reading books set during covid, I suggest reading a book like this that is so centered on 9/11 and the dot com crash of the late 90s (by the way this was published in 2011).
moirastone's review against another edition
4.0
Ambitious as all hell; successful on almost every page. Will bear re-reading. (Only wish, as I do more and more these days, for a more fully fleshed-out woman as love interest.)
seanoise's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
pbobrit's review against another edition
5.0
A really excellent book. I can clearly see why this book was nominated for and received so many awards. It reminded me of early Neal Stephenson. Taking very complex ideas, neurophysiology, metaphysics, quantum mechanics, virtual reality and combining them into a page turner of a book. It is difficult to go into too much more detail without spoiling the book for other readers, but the characters, the main one Fred in particular was well realized and compelling, but none of the supporting cast were cliched at all. For lovers of true science fiction then this is a definite must read.
martydah's review against another edition
2.0
I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately it was a chore to read. Rather than being too shallow in it's treatment of death, philosophy and modern computer technology, it was 'way too deep. All the various threads of the plot fought against each other. At one minute you were watching Fred's life unravel while his twin brother, George, lies in a coma. The next minute you were dealing with East Asian religious beliefs, Reiki faith healing and the possibility of virtual reality being actual reality.
Fred and George had a company built around a virtual computer world called Urth. George is diagnosed with cancer and Fred loses the company to a military conglomerate, with which his younger brother, Sam, seems all to eager to work. Enter Mira, who offers Fred a more spiritual existence via an electronic brain manipulation study. Add in text and e-mail messages that appear to come from comatose and immobile Gred and younger brother Sam's plans to move to Florida with the Urth project and you see what I mean. It's a very foggy plot.
The ending, by the time you manage to make it through the nearly 500 pages of this novel, is clever but one you really should have seen coming. Some of the characters are just plain ridiculous. Do we really need the magic shows for parties that Fred's washed-up-actor father, Vartan puts on with Fred's help as a commentary on unreality? Do we really need head-in-the-spirit-clouds Holly who things Reiki will cure her comatose son as well as the chaos she 'senses' all around Brooklyn? It's all a bit much.
There were some genuinely priceless moments in this book, which save it from getting a one star review from me. Fred and his 'inner George' hold some hilarious inner conversations. And the mysterious Mira is fascinatingly shadowy. Even the self-important (and self-delusional) family friend, Manfred, is a welcome comic relief. I would have been happier if the author had focused on the virtual reality element and the issue of what's there after death, rather than all the 'side-trips' he took, probably in the hope that density equals depth and confusing misdirection equals interesting reading. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Disappointing overall.
Fred and George had a company built around a virtual computer world called Urth. George is diagnosed with cancer and Fred loses the company to a military conglomerate, with which his younger brother, Sam, seems all to eager to work. Enter Mira, who offers Fred a more spiritual existence via an electronic brain manipulation study. Add in text and e-mail messages that appear to come from comatose and immobile Gred and younger brother Sam's plans to move to Florida with the Urth project and you see what I mean. It's a very foggy plot.
The ending, by the time you manage to make it through the nearly 500 pages of this novel, is clever but one you really should have seen coming. Some of the characters are just plain ridiculous. Do we really need the magic shows for parties that Fred's washed-up-actor father, Vartan puts on with Fred's help as a commentary on unreality? Do we really need head-in-the-spirit-clouds Holly who things Reiki will cure her comatose son as well as the chaos she 'senses' all around Brooklyn? It's all a bit much.
There were some genuinely priceless moments in this book, which save it from getting a one star review from me. Fred and his 'inner George' hold some hilarious inner conversations. And the mysterious Mira is fascinatingly shadowy. Even the self-important (and self-delusional) family friend, Manfred, is a welcome comic relief. I would have been happier if the author had focused on the virtual reality element and the issue of what's there after death, rather than all the 'side-trips' he took, probably in the hope that density equals depth and confusing misdirection equals interesting reading. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Disappointing overall.
annaelisereads's review against another edition
4.0
Set in the recent past at the rise of virtual reality and heightened paranoia...Complex, literary, compelling. I'm not going to even both to explain the plot. It's complicated but worth it.
jbojkov's review against another edition
2.0
Ok- I really did NOT finish this one. I've decided that my time is too valuable to read something that does not really hold my interest after the first three or four chapters. I liked the concept of this novel- twins who once owned a successful computer gaming business- one contracts cancer and is in a coma as the book opens, the other is struggling to maintain his sanity. The surviving twin joins a brain study and has his reality altered by the experiments, meanwhile, he also begins receiving emails from his comatose (and terminal) twin. Sounds interesting, right? Well- the narrative on this shifts around a lot in time and is pretty slow-paced. Not nearly as much action as what I was expecting and lots of reminiscing from the non-comatose twin. It's not that the book as bad- it's just not interesting enough to keep me reading.
lisagray68's review against another edition
1.0
I wanted to give up on this book at 100 pages, per my 100 page rule, but I was hopeful it would get better. Started skimming about page 230 or so just to finish. Started out weird & just got weirder.
bradyemmett's review against another edition
4.0
One of those books that you really don't know how it's going to turn out. The resolution was great, even though I thought it wouldn't be at multiple points. For sure an odd pick.