H. Laurence Lareau

Great spin on an already interesting trope

Revisado: 08-24-24

SPOILERS ALL: My first exposure to the consciousness-uploaded-to-the-internet trope was in an early episode of the X Files. Agents Mulder and Scully were trying to figure out why the suspect needed T-1 access to the internet, and it took them an entire dial-up episode to suss out the plot to suicide and upload. The obvious next step with that trope is the streaming series Upload, where the afterlife becomes a capitalist hellscape. King Rau’s is an Indian Dalit-to-Silicon Valley-CEO Horatio Alger story, where the subtext is on technology’s and capitalism’s role in not fighting climate change. The narrator, his IVF-borne-by-surrogate-after-her-mother’s-death daughter, tells both his life story and her own, foregrounding permutations of class and economic conflicts in a dizzyingly non-linear fashion. King Rau’s youth, his founding and innovation at a parallel-universe Apple (Coconut in the book), his fall from the top of the digital world, and his upload-type creation and vision is a story of bizarre hope. His daughter’s story of growing up in almost complete isolation with her doting (and eventually senile) father, and her flight to join the Luddites who call themselves “Xs” is interwoven with her father’s. There is an overall darkness to both stories’ inability to deal with the looming extinction of humans due to Hothouse Earth—climate change writ large. Through both stories, vitally important human connections fade to insignificance because Fate awaits. The author mostly avoids the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where Picard learns about an extinct civilization by having a single man’s uploaded consciousness dumped into his own head, yet there’s a hint that, after the last page is turned, that’s where the stories may wind up.

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Listen to the sample!!

Revisado: 07-02-19

I really loathe saying rough things about the hard work other people have done. (I'm an Audible author myself, so I know the pain!) I'll start with the good news. Stan Lee himself voiced the introduction, which was a lot of fun and probably was the last first time I'll get to hear him say, "Excelsior!" The story is fun, teenage super-power stuff--an interesting twist on the Ready Player One premise (there's even a comment in the text about how it is like RPO). The heroine and hero are well developed and interesting, the villains are deliciously awful, and the supporting cast is strong. The backstory trickles in nicely rather than coming in big fact-dumps.

Every other Audible Original I've listened to has been magnificently directed and narrated. This audiobook can't reach even the underside of that bar. It is robotic and plodding. It might've been better had it occurred to me to play it at 1.5 speed. Speed alone, though, wouldn't have saved the narrator's lack of range, odd emphases, and apparently moderate sinus congestion. I don't know if this is the result of unsophisticated directing or what, but it was frustrating to listen to a story I liked in a voice I didn't.

That said, you don't have to read many Audible reviews to learn that narration is a matter of individual taste. I've heard some books that I thought were fantastic but that others detested. So your mileage may vary. Listen to the sample to anticipate whether you can get through the entire book.

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The American Dream

Revisado: 11-13-17

Clines's latest may be tied to 14 and The Fold, but if it is, it's a tenuous link. If he's able to bring these disparate and superficially unrelated works all together in the future, it will be a stunning revelation.

This book is all about The American Dream, both figuratively and literally. There's a huge slice of car culture, lots of thankless rat-racing, crushing on idealized partners, and emotional baggage. There's also the figurative American Dream, which is the object of all this energetic questing. Its awkward "protectors" are disturbingly conflicted, as is so often the real-life case.

In spite of all these close relationships to reality, the book is an odd, outsized, sort-of-steampunk, sort-of-coming-of-age fantasy, with all manner of satisfying trimmings. The pace is crisp, the tension fraught, the resolution satisfying.

The book left me feeling an uncomfortable dissatisfaction. After talking it over with my (brilliant) son, though, I'm convinced that was deliberate and that it bears directly on the often frustrating pursuit of and seeming achievement of the conventional American dream.

It's a puzzling and exciting book that is ably narrated. It's also true to Clines's usual thought-provoking efforts. Altogether a good, if often head-scratching, listen.

Although this review is prompted in part by the opportunity to win a credit, the contest in no way shaped my assessment of the book.

AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY

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Kind of a farewell tour

Revisado: 03-27-14

Stephen Briggs is a standout narrator, as Discworld listeners already know. He (along with Nigel Planer) is as much a part of the series as the characters, much like Jim Dale is for the Harry Potter books or James Marsters is for the Dresden Files. And Terry Pratchett is a singularly gifted writer: nimble with stories, pointed with social relevance, creative and vivid with his fantasy worlds.

But there is a feel to this book that's similar to all the post-climax scenes in Star Wars movies or to all the post-climax moments in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. This feels more about wrapping up relationships and bringing some kinds of closure to the Discworld than it does like an addition to the magnificent multi-volume romp that life in the Discworld has been so far. And that's perfectly understandable: Pratchett's career is winding to a close, and so, I guess, should the series. But there is an unaccustomed tinge of melancholy permeating the typically fine story that didn't feel right.

It's always sad to say good-bye.

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Guilty pleasure

Revisado: 04-20-13

There isn't a lot of substance here, but there is so much style you won't miss it. If you were alive enough during the '80s to watch movies and play video games, you will dig this self-indulgent romp. It is every bit as engaging as the best gaming you've done -- whether D&D or video or MMORPG -- and just about as valuable. But who cares when you're having this much fun!

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New take on paradox

Revisado: 04-20-13

This was a vividly told and engaging story. Not since Robert Silverberg's mid-'70s Up the Line has time travel been so meticulously explored and the paradoxes so deftly treated. Avoiding spoilers is difficult, but the relationships among the characters are surprising almost every time, and the plot is twistier than one of those new compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

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Great story destroyed by robotic performance

Revisado: 04-20-13

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Reading this book -- you know, with glasses and lights on and everything -- would be fantastic fun. Listening to it was agonizing. I would've preferred Steven Hawking's "voice" to Julia Farhat's. And I just hate to say harsh things about people who have worked so hard.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The protagonist was vividly drawn and had a hilariously fresh, alluringly feminine style. Underwood did a great job telling the story from a feminine perspective -- I didn't check to see that he was a dude until the book was over. Then I about fell in a heap from shock.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator was obsessed with uttering each sound for every word, as though she were an advanced yet non-natvie English speaker working diligently to cultivate a precise, academic California accent. It was much more a cue-card reading than a bring-it-to-life performance. She also sounded congested for much of the book. I'm sure she has much stronger performances ahead of her.

Could you see Geekomancy being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

My pick for the star would be the amazingly attractive model who posed for the cover art. Zowie!! Heck, let's hope that's Julia Farhat.

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