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Product Description
Product Description
Pop culture, chaos theory and matters of the heart collide in this unique novella from the Hugo and Nebula winning author of Doomsday Book.
Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennet O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same
company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But a series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions.
Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennet O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same
company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But a series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions.
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First Sentence
The prototype for all merchandising fads and one whose phenomenal success has never been repeated. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The prototype for all merchandising fads and one whose phenomenal success has never been repeated. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Probably the most enjoyable book I've read that asks the question: why do people jump on the latest bandwagon only to discover that it doesn't make them any happier than they were before? The protagonist-narrator of the story is a social scientist, working for a research corporation and trying to find how fads begin. The corporation wants to figure out how to use her research to make new fads, and of course gobs of money in the process. The weekly meetings presided over by "management" are hilarious.
This book reads so easily that you might be deceived into thinking that it's simply written. Hardly. Willis has worked very hard to tie together a number of disparate elements. Some of the most enjoyable parts of the book are the short descriptions of dozens of past fads -- everything from coonskin caps to bobbed hair to mah jong. In the process, Willis tells us a lot about what we're willing to do to "belong."
I noticed from previous reviews that some people were disappointed with this book because it really isn't science fiction. It's true, this is not traditional science fiction, with a futuristic setting, new technology, etc. But Willis's remarks that relate fads to chaos theory are very well thought-out. In giving the reader something new to think about, she meets the basic test of science fiction. And in creating an enjoyable, perceptive story, she meets the challenge of being an exceptionally good writer.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is a light and breezy read. It is humorous and somewhat satiric. What it is not, is science fiction. It is, however, about a group of scientists, and it is definitely fiction. The book is written in an imaginative way, with each chapter beginning with a paragraph giving information about a particular fad that caught the imagination of society at one time or another. Written quite tongue in cheek, the book is a funny and light-hearted look at life, love, corporate dysfunction, and the herd mentality society sometimes adopts. While the book is not at all what I had expected, I rather enjoyed it.
The main protagonist is Sandra Foster, a social scientist who studies fads, tracking down their origins and analyzing what they mean. She works for the HiTek Corporation, a company laden with a surfeit of corporate bureaucracy. So does Bennett O'Reilly, a chaos theorist, whom Sandra meets when a package goes astray within the work place. They eventually join forces and begin working together on a special project with a flock of sheep as their guinea pigs. The book basically shows how chaos serves to unite these two in a way that they could not have imagined.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I loved this book, and so did the two friends who read it with me in a one-week trip abroad. We had read "Doomsday book", which we had liked, but we couldn't expect such a delightful and witty approach to office life. Besides, the message behind it isn't at all shallow.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"Anti-smoking is a fad. It'll be over by springtime" (1996).
Dated (and compromised) by its attitude to nicotine
If I was unkind I'd suspect that Ms Willis was either a smoker, or in the pay of the Tobacco Lobby. Read more
If I was unkind I'd suspect that Ms Willis was either a smoker, or in the pay of the Tobacco Lobby. Read more
Published 18 months ago by mad_mushroom
Hugely Disappointing Tedious Satire
Prior to picking this up, I'd read and greatly enjoyed two of Willis' other books: To Say Nothing of the Dog and Doomsday Book. Read more
Published 21 months ago by A. Ross
Bellwether
So disappointed with this book from Connie Willis, I gave up a quarter of the way in. It just seemed like a list of, and world history of, strange fads or obsessions e.g. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Chris
One of my "most read" books.
I love this book. I am a sci-fi reader and I enjoy classics. This book is written with a light touch and like most of Connie Willis's books, you can almost taste the amount of... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2010 by Mrs. P. A. Seward
Perfectly formed
I think this is Willis's best work. I enjoy most of her books, but she tends to tease her characters by letting them get really close to their target/desire but only lets them be... Read more
Published on 17 July 2008 by Tinhead
Not what I expected from a Nebula winner
This book is not science fiction, it is not science fact. It is a light hearted romance set in a multi-discipline science lab. Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2007 by Demo
Hugely enjoyable satire
I've just finished reading this and found it one of the most enjoyable books I've read for months. There's something of a Kafkaesque quality in the frustrations that the Hitek... Read more
Published on 2 Mar 2007 by J. P. Whittaker
Office comedy with a twist
A great little book from a science fiction writer exploring another avenue. The result is not a million miles away from the ongoing thread of UK books that I would loosely term... Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2007 by Mr. Stuart Bruce
A fun and strange book
I can't say if this book is in tune with Willis' other books, as I've only read one other of them. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2006 by bookaholic
NOT science fiction AT ALL! But no worse for that.
A book that proves the versatility of Connie Willis, only it has nothing whatever to do with science fiction or fantasy! Satire is what this book is about. Read more
Published on 21 Nov 1999
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