A review by nwhyte
Living Next Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson

http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2007/04/the_2007_philip.shtml[return][return]I had high hopes of this book. In its favour, Robson explores the questions of individual identity in a world where artificial intelligences are in charge of both the ordinary world and of various pocket universes which can be easily accessed, very much in the tradition of Philip K. Dick. The plot concerns the struggle for dominance between two god-like entities, Theo and Jalaeka, but one that is brought down to the level of their human friends and lovers, particularly through researcher Greg Saxton and runaway schoolgirl Francine, in a pocket universe called Sankhara.[return][return]Unfortunately I really had to struggle to finish this. Robson's high-risk strategy of jumping between eight different first-person narrators does not really pay off; I often had to flick back to the start of each chapter to remind myself who was speaking. This lack of signposting in the narrative was matched by an equally frustrating lack of signposting for the context; it is all very well to start a book with little idea of how this world works, but it seemed to take a very long time before the picture of what was and was not possible in it emerged. I found this frustrating. Robson is a good writer, and there are lots of good ideas here, but they are not laid out clearly enough. For almost the first time I can remember, I found myself wishing that the book had been equipped with a glossary and dramatis person