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A review by martydah
Luminarium by Alex Shakar
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.