PRO CONNECT
M. K. Noble graduated from UCLA with a degree in theatre. After working in television and commercials as an actress, she spent several years doing location casting for films ranging from the sublime (MISERY, Paul Thomas Anderson's HARD EIGHT) to the ridiculous (SHOWGIRLS). For several, challenging years, she taught high school English in East L.A.
THE DEMON RIFT, a horror novel is set in a 2004 Ohio shopping mall. The story began with family stories of a great uncle who perished in a prison fire and the wretched childhood he and her grandfather spent, languishing in a Cleveland orphanage. The prison site is now a parking lot. The setting became a shopping mall--cursed by what? The answers led to more questions and a story spanning 120 years.
BABYLON DREAMS began with an article by the futurist, Ray Kurzweil on mind-uploading technology. Can we explore virtual reality as digital versions of ourselves? What if after murder/suicide, a love triangle played out in a virtual reality world? What living in virtual reality would actually be like. What could you do that you couldn't before? Ultimately, what would you want to do?
Her short story, "The Seventh Folding of Willow Sprite" is about a girl whose on online affair with an alien living in the seventh dimension plays out in al alternate reality. It is available on StrangeFictionszine.
“. . . a challenging but compelling vision of a privatized, synthetic heaven slowly eaten away by ungodly capitalism, cupidity, and the sins of its founder.”
– Kirkus Reviews
A badly tainted entrepreneur lands in an idyllic, virtual reality afterlife run by his company—but hostile takeovers and vengeful avatars threaten his control of this digital heaven.
This offering by SF/fantasy author Noble takes the shape of dossiers of recorded transcriptions and documentation spanning the 22nd century, obtained via private investigators and the “Library of Congress VR Division.” They cover, not always chronologically, the rise, fall—and resurrection and fall—of Gunter Holden, scion of a venal businessman father. Gunter sought dad’s favor, among other self-serving relationships, by creating (partially by the theft of technology) a VR afterlife for paying customers. Dubbed Bali Hai, the heavenly realm grants the wishes and fantasies of the deceased dwellers in a cyberscape. Many “bio” (living) individuals even kill themselves to gain early admission. Such was the case with Gunter—only for him, it was a murder-suicide, his way of resolving a love triangle in which he saw his wife (the latest of several) leave him for a black-sheep musician brother, whose finer qualities she more admired. Now the “transitioned” digital Gunter still bids to run his business from Bali Hai. But in the bio world, rivals move in over the decades. They include a Christian-operated, VR-afterlife competitor, who’s not averse to “deleting” millions of virtual people in a show of power, including a self-identifying-as-animals nature cult founded by a former “holo-porn” kingpin. Enemies like these almost make the criminal Gunter seem like a good guy. The fragmented time/space/hard-drive series opener may tax the patience of some readers, especially those seeking straightforward causality. The Holden family tree becomes torturously tangled with each new revelation of Gunter’s hidden early life. Meanwhile, the semi-redacted, digital evidence file presentation approaches the techniques of experimental fiction (or Max Headroom getting buggy), with abrupt “memory breaches” and a Citizen Kane–type mosaic of the tormented antihero. The result is a challenging but compelling vision of a privatized, synthetic heaven slowly eaten away by ungodly capitalism, cupidity, and the sins of its founder. Noble credits futurist Ray Kurzweil as a particular inspiration.
A keen and absorbing what-if tale about VR and a digital afterlife.
Pub Date:
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2022
Babylon Dreams
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.