Review by New York Times Review
CONVICTION, by Denise Mina. (Mulholland, $27.) Anna McDonald, at loose ends while her philandering husband takes their children on vacation, decides to clear an old friend's name after hearing him slandered on a true-crime podcast. Mina's incredible new mystery seems to have been written in a white-hot rage. THE GUARDED GATE: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America, by Daniel Okrent. (Scribner, $32.) In 1920s America, a mix of nativist sentiment and pseudoscience led to the first major law curtailing immigration. Okrent focuses on eugenics, which argued that letting in people of certain nationalities and races would harm America's gene pool. FALL; OR, DODGE IN HELL, by Neal Stephenson. (Morrow/HarperCollins, $35.) Stephenson tackles big questions - what is reality? how might it be simulated? - via the tale of a billionaire whose mind survives in the digital world long after his physical death. A THOUSAND SMALL SANITIES: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism, by Adam Gopnik. (Basic Books, $28.) This charming and erudite book challenges both authoritarian populists and illiberal leftists, arguing in favor of a liberal tradition that supports both social progress and individual liberty. LAST DAY, by Domenica Ruta. (Spiegel & Grau, $27.) Ruta's darkly glittering novel flits among characters - including a trio of astronauts, a 15-year-old girl and a tattoo artist - during the planet's final hours. Despite the heavy subject matter, comic moments leaven the book, and Ruta sprinkles in startling observations. THE BODY IN QUESTION, by Jill Ciment. (Pantheon, $24.95.) In this deliciously acerbic and intelligent novel, two jurors meet at a murder trial, and, sequestered at an Econo Lodge, begin a passionate affair with unexpected reverberations on their lives and the legal proceedings. Among the book's other pleasures, Ciment knowingly but matter-of-factly depicts class distinctions. THE way THE WAY WE EAT NOW: How the Food Revolution Has we eat now Transformed Our Lives, Our Bodies, and Our World, by Bee Wilson. (Basic Books, $30.) In this useful and informative book, a British journalist delves into the ways globalization has revolutionized our relationship THE BURIED: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution, by Peter Hessler. (Penguin Press, $28.) In stories of everyday life in Cairo, Hessler captures a country looking to make sense of what the Arab Spring has wrought. MIND FIXERS: Psychiatry's Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness, by Anne Harrington. (Norton, $27.95.) Harrington argues that the "biological revolution," which rejects Freud to seek a physical basis for mental illness, has overreached. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 14, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
In this supersized sequel to his best-selling technothriller Reamde (2011), speculative-fiction virtuoso Stephenson creates new challenges for his returning protagonist, computer-gaming mogul Richard Dodge Forthrast, including his literal transformation into a digital avatar. When a routine medical procedure goes awry, rendering Dodge brain-dead, a long-forgotten will drafted during his salad days abruptly takes effect, leaving his remains in the hands of wealthy and wily cryogenics entrepreneur Elmo El Shepherd. Twenty years later, his computer savvy grandniece Sophia devises a way to boot up Dodge's digitized brain in a cyberspace realm dubbed Bitworld, where he finds himself suddenly conscious again and in charge of fashioning a new virtual universe. As the decades pass and the Bitworld population of freshly deceased and uploaded souls grows, Dodge is forced to exercise tighter control until disenchanted, power-hungry El finally arrives on the scene and turns Dodge's palace into a prison. Stephenson devotees with a taste for Tolkienesque fantasy will revel in the author's imaginative world building as the story shifts more and more into Bitworld, while those who favor his ingenious riffs on future tech may find it tedious. Still, there are enough futuristic, envelope-pushing ideas here, especially related to AI and digital consciousness, to keep even nonfans and science buffs intrigued.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Stephenson is cutting edge and his followers and all readers intrigued by shrewd speculative fiction will queue up.--Carl Hays Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This laboriously detailed follow-up to Reamde explores where human imagination ends and artificial intelligence begins, providing some speculative concepts without any real payoff. Richard "Dodge" Forthrast, founder of the gaming company Corporation 9592, is rendered brain-dead when a routine surgery goes horribly wrong. His will stipulates that his brain be scanned and preserved by a tech company run by elusive Elmo Shepherd, in hopes of future regeneration. Decades later, Dodge's grandniece, Sophia, designs a method for turning on Dodge's brain, making him a lone god of sorts in a new digital world. Her invention allows people to leave Meatspace, or the terrestrial world, which is reinventing itself after the implosion of the internet, and travel to Bitworld, where Dodge and the now-dead Elmo battle for power. Though Bitworld is liberated from physical constraints and Meatspace is exploring a "post-truth" era, both simplistically replicate present-day societal power structures, showing the limits of Stephenson's imagination. Fans of Stephenson's passion for the minutiae of technological innovations will revel in the intricacies of his construction, but unwieldy dialogue, uneven pacing, and a narrow-minded view of the future betray the story's promise. Agent: Liz Darhansoff, Darhansoff & Verrill. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The latest from speculative fiction master Stephenson (Snow Crash, Anathem) is a behemoth that begins in the world of high-tech entrepreneurs in present-day Seattle and ends with characters-including a talking crow, a giant woman, Death in human form, and a troubadour-on a perilous quest in a purely digital world. The latter section evokes Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, T.H. White's The Once and Future King, and Monty Python. The tale defies easy categorization but bears the hallmarks of Stephenson's work: fizzy verbal energy, consistent humor, deep immersion in technology, and frequent action sequences. The central idea is that citizens can sign up to have their brains digitally scanned after death, and that those scans can be turned into computer "processes." When activated, these processes form a conscious being, providing a type of life after death. The plot turns on the conflicts that occur when thousands of these beings meet in virtual reality. VERDICT This sprawling, genre-hopping novel will thrill Stephenson's fans and engross newcomers. Epic is an overused adjective, but it fits here. [See Prepub Alert, 12/3/18.]--Christopher Myers, Lake Oswego P.L., OR © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
When Richard "Dodge" Forthrast dies under anesthesia for a routine medical procedure, his story is just beginning.As the founder and chairman of a video game company, Dodge has a pretty sweet life. He has money to burn and a loving relationship with his niece, Zula, and grandniece, Sophia. So when he dies unexpectedly, there are a lot of people to mourn him, including his friend Corvallis Kawasaki, who is also the executor of his will. To make matters worse (or, to say the least, more complicated), there's something unexpected in Dodge's last wishes. It turns out that in his youth he put it in writing that he wanted his brain to be preserved until such technology existed that his consciousness could be uploaded into a computer. And much to everyone's surprise, that technology isn't so far off after all. Years later, Sophia grows up to follow in her clever grand-uncle's footsteps and figures out a way to turn on Dodge's brain. It is at this point that the novel splits into two narratives: "Meatspace," or what we would call the real world, and "Bitworld," inhabited by Dodge (now called "Egdod") and increasing numbers of downloaded minds. Stephenson (co-author: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O, 2017; Seveneves, 2015, etc.) is known for ambitious books, and this doorstop of a novel is certainly no exception. Life in Bitworld is more reminiscent of high fantasy than science fiction as the ever evolving narrative plays with the daily reality of living in a digital space. Would you have special abilities like a mythical god? Join your aura together with other souls and live as a hive mind? Create hills and rivers from nothing? Destroy your enemies with tech-given powers that seem magical? Readers looking for a post-human thought experiment might be disappointed with the references to ancient mythology, but those ready for an endlessly inventive and absorbing story are in for an adventure they won't soon forget.An audacious epic with more than enough heart to fill its many, many pages. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
