A mixed book - the mindfulness description (Ch 4) I thought was really good, as was the conclusion - a strong passionate case for why we all need to take more care of our thoughts. However, the books "jokes" are too frequent, and not funny. More often than not they are fat-phobic or racist.
It was good enough, but not one I would recommend. The books backdrop - a changing Iran - provided an interesting setting for the book. The two lead characters had lots of depth, and there were a couple of unexpectedly emotional bits that felt very real. Ironically, it was the technology - normally the most interesting aspect of Egan's books - that was lacking. The premise was "side loading" a specific humans behaviour into a template of a human brain. It was interesting to see this intermediate technology explored (i.e. on the way to, but not yet at, uploading human consciousness into a computer - a frequent occurrence in Egan's books). However, the story wanders around before simply stopping without really saying very much about it.
Comments
Post a Comment