Brilliant vision of a possible future scenario when global warming has reaped havoc and food has to be genetically produced. The detail of the world tBrilliant vision of a possible future scenario when global warming has reaped havoc and food has to be genetically produced. The detail of the world the author creates is fantastic as is his evocation of Thai culture. Unfortunately for me the story itself didn’t quite live up to the brilliance of its setting. I found the details were more compelling than the plot and the characters. It’s a very cinematic novel in many respects. The bigger picture tends to swamp the individual lives of the characters. The Windup girl herself was my favourite character but she had to share the stage with several other lead characters, not all of whom were anywhere as near as riveting. There’s also a twist with one character which I never bought into. So it was admiration I felt for this rather than love. ...more
There are times in everyone’s life when we know without a shadow of a doubt we are our own worst enemy…
I agree with what people have said about this bThere are times in everyone’s life when we know without a shadow of a doubt we are our own worst enemy…
I agree with what people have said about this book. It’s a compelling quick read. Not the most literary of novels but fantastic light entertainment with some particle physics thrown in. A bit like Jason Bourne with the Tardis.
Without doubt we’ll be seeing the film quite soon. ...more
I should probably have read Egan's bio before buying this: "Greg Egan specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontoloI should probably have read Egan's bio before buying this: "Greg Egan specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology."
I rarely read SF and soon realised I might be out of my depth with this novel. It’s incredibly cerebral, consisting of more science than story as if Egan was more concerned in establishing the credibility of his vision of a world where humans clone themselves electronically and live in virtual worlds to computer programmers and quantum theory boffins than make any kind of appeal to people like me who simply want a good story! Often dialogue consisted of one character (taking on the role of the author) explaining to a less well informed character (the reader) how the science or technology worked and I found this method very wooden. Often the very long-winded technical details of what was going on went completely over my head. There was also a lack of human warmth or even interest in the novel. At times it read more like a manual than a novel. The story only really begins in the last fifty pages and finally, when I was hooked, the novel ended!
Against that was the undoubted brilliance and breadth of Egan’s ideas which certainly provided much food for thought. I’d suggest though that this is only likely to appeal to hardcore SF buffs who demand any vision of the future be scientifically and technologically justified in painstaking detail. ...more
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