Scan barcode
A review by theaceofpages
The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
"Store the body at sub-zero temperatures; store the mind in a quantum computer—and reunite them at some point in the future. It was a perfect solution not just for those seeking to beat death, like my grandpa, but also for astronauts like Jürgen and me planning to go on a centuries-long interstellar voyage. Except, damn it all, something went horribly, horribly wrong."
Set in the future, humans have perfected cryogenics. The trick is that the mind and the body have to be stored separately and the mind downloaded from the quantum computer back into the body when the body is defrosted. We meet two groups of people - astronauts who were meant to be frozen for a long space voyage to a distant star and prisoners wh were meant to serve a 20 year prison senence in 10 months in a sped up simulation. Hower, things don't quite go as promised and everyone wakes up on or around an earth they don't recognise 500 years later. These are their stories, told through a series of interviews, as they share who they are.
I was immediately intrigued when I saw the concept. The book may be short but it covers quite a lot in it pages. But because of its length a lot of these things unfortuanately aren't looked at much deeper than surface level (altough some points like COVID in this case both 19 and the new 50 disease were brought up multiple times, still not nearly as deeply as many other books look at pandemics though). I wasn't aware of the interview structure before I started. Although it maybe makes things a bit more fragmented than they would otherwise have been (each interview is quite short!), the fact that this isn't done through dialogue (i.e. it's just one character talking at a time without interruptions) means it mostly reads as any other story would. This started as an audio format and there were definitely times when I could tell that this was written with that in mind. There are times when it becomes more stream of concious and I imagine those parts work much better inan audion format as that kind of rambling tone doesn't necessarily transate as strongly to a print format - this is not the majority of the book though. Just parts here and there. But overall, this was an interesting book and I'm glad I read it! I'm definitely a little curious about what happes to our characters next.
I recieved a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
Set in the future, humans have perfected cryogenics. The trick is that the mind and the body have to be stored separately and the mind downloaded from the quantum computer back into the body when the body is defrosted. We meet two groups of people - astronauts who were meant to be frozen for a long space voyage to a distant star and prisoners wh were meant to serve a 20 year prison senence in 10 months in a sped up simulation. Hower, things don't quite go as promised and everyone wakes up on or around an earth they don't recognise 500 years later. These are their stories, told through a series of interviews, as they share who they are.
I was immediately intrigued when I saw the concept. The book may be short but it covers quite a lot in it pages. But because of its length a lot of these things unfortuanately aren't looked at much deeper than surface level (altough some points like COVID in this case both 19 and the new 50 disease were brought up multiple times, still not nearly as deeply as many other books look at pandemics though). I wasn't aware of the interview structure before I started. Although it maybe makes things a bit more fragmented than they would otherwise have been (each interview is quite short!), the fact that this isn't done through dialogue (i.e. it's just one character talking at a time without interruptions) means it mostly reads as any other story would. This started as an audio format and there were definitely times when I could tell that this was written with that in mind. There are times when it becomes more stream of concious and I imagine those parts work much better inan audion format as that kind of rambling tone doesn't necessarily transate as strongly to a print format - this is not the majority of the book though. Just parts here and there. But overall, this was an interesting book and I'm glad I read it! I'm definitely a little curious about what happes to our characters next.
I recieved a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Death of parent, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Dysphoria, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, and Transphobia
Cancer part talks more about futuristic treatments than the actual disease