A keen and absorbing what-if tale about VR and a digital afterlife.
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: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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