Helpful Score: 2
Y'know, I was very curious about this book, partly because I'm a recent McAuley fan, partly because its a biotech book.
However, I gave up on the book about halfway through because he didn't get to the freaking point! I like a good story with interesting characters, and this one has it with Alex Sharkey the initial viewpoint character, but after the setting moved to Paris it got slow. And this was with a Foreign Legion deserter with a combat personality on the loose.
So, maybe I'll revisit it and pick it back up, but I think its unlikely.
However, I gave up on the book about halfway through because he didn't get to the freaking point! I like a good story with interesting characters, and this one has it with Alex Sharkey the initial viewpoint character, but after the setting moved to Paris it got slow. And this was with a Foreign Legion deserter with a combat personality on the loose.
So, maybe I'll revisit it and pick it back up, but I think its unlikely.
Fits firmly into the cyberpunk genre, with hints of Neal Stephenson influence.... However, I didn't really enjoy the 'feeling' of the book. I liked McAuley's Confluence trilogy much more than this novel.
Wow, this was a real mind-bender. Cyberpunk to the max. It was a very bizarre story, but engrossing enough that I stuck with it. The author created a very eery near-future society.
" A wild and bizzarre vision of the future-I love this book." Pat Cadigan, author of Dirty Work
"An intelligent , fantastic, geo-political stew...rich in cultural references, believable corporate/political intrigues, and issues of self-awareness and the ethics of creation....McAuley is a Master."-
-LOCUS
"An intelligent , fantastic, geo-political stew...rich in cultural references, believable corporate/political intrigues, and issues of self-awareness and the ethics of creation....McAuley is a Master."-
-LOCUS
Interesting premise, but never became engaging. Finishing the book was a slog. Will not re-read.
The first third is excellent: a dystopian view of a future London that, given that it was written in the mid-90s, is startlingly prescient.
However, with Section 2, McAuley shifts tone and perspective in such a way that all of the good-will he has generated with his clever world-building is lost.
However, with Section 2, McAuley shifts tone and perspective in such a way that all of the good-will he has generated with his clever world-building is lost.
