Author: Rhett C Bruno
Genre: sci-fi
Similar books: Landscape With an Invisible Hand by MT Anderson
The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M O'Brien
Rating:
Summary (provided by publisher): The real world is only where you breathe…
In High Earth, digital entertainment is everything. Shows. Virtual Worlds. Simulations—there’s something for everybody in a city where working for a living has been rendered obsolete by technological advancements. Even a short walk outside to visit with others is no longer necessary. Just load into the network and you can be with anyone, anywhere.
For Asher Reinhart, nothing compares to Ignis: Live, a reality show that pushes human beings to their very extremes. As a volunteer director, Asher closely monitors the lives of those living on an interstellar ark, believing they're the last of humanity.
But when it's determined that the life of the show’s brightest star, Mission, must be put in danger to boost declining ratings, Asher is forced to choose: the show he loves, or the woman whose existence has been the focus of his attention since the day he was born.
My opinion: I was intrigued by the premise here - combining the predatory nature of reality television with a dystopian reality. My feelings for the book on the whole are a bit mixed. At turns it was utterly charming; other times it was obvious and tiresome. Bruno explains just enough of the world's structure for us to accept most of the plot developments without going into excessive detail. Over-explaining can destroy a novel. So too, though, can indulging in too many side plots. And that's the failing here. There are too many complications, too many side obsessions. As the book wore on I became more interested in speculating on what drove odd character behavior than in where the plot was actually headed.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
No comments:
Post a Comment