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The Extremes (Hardcover)

by Christopher Priest (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd (3 Aug 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0684816326
  • ISBN-13: 978-0684816326
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,588,505 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #63 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > P > Priest, Christopher

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Dunblane, Port Arthur and Hungerford will be places known to many of us because of the apparently random mass shootings that have happened there in recent years. The Extremes is a book about such violence--it's horror, the sheer bad luck of being its victim, and the anguish it causes to those left behind. It is also a book about virtual reality, and is set in a not-so-distant future in which events of violence can be experienced by anyone prepared (or able) to pay for the privilege.

After her husband has been violently killed in the U.S., Teresa Simons returns to the land of her birth and visits Bulverton, a (fictional) town on the south coast of England which has recently been torn apart by a massacre. She discovers that the ExEx or Extreme Experience virtual reality equipment she used as an FBI trainee has become public "entertainment" put together from people's memories of specific events by vast international companies (and also by shareware programmers). As she becomes embroiled in researching past events in Bulverton, virtual and true realities intertwine with disturbing outcomes.

Priest writes a good yarn, marrying fantasy and horrific reality in a gripping and suspenseful tale. --Sandra Vogel



Product Description

After her husband is killed, Teresa joins a virtual reality company, where she finds relief from her grief in other worlds and personalities. Then she enters the mind of Gerry Grove, the town's assassin. As she explores Grove's virtual existence, Teresa is terrified by what she discovers.
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, 15 May 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Extremes (Paperback)
I have never been disappointed in a Christopher Priest novel. Why isn't he more famous? Why hasn't he ever been on the Booker Prize shortlist? This is a wonderful novel about the nature of reality and the causes and effects of violence. It is gripping and superbly written. I actually preferred it to "The prestige". I recommend checking out all his books. (Check out the rave reviews of the hardback version, which annoyingly Amazon don't list under the paperback version.)
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Extremes - reality finally catches up with Chris Priest, 25 Aug 1999
By A Customer
Christopher Priest has written several novels where the normal, typical world we live in is changed almost unrecognizably in a subtle manner. In The Extremes, Priest has somehow homed-in on some of the most disturbing issues in the Western World today; the increasing number of spree killings, the remorseless unchecked popularity of the Web, and the introduction of virtual reality technology. These subjects, wrapped-up together, make The Extremes a fascinating book to work through, leaving the reader with many questions to ask, which Priest deliberately leaves the reader to resolve him/herself.

I read The Extremes the same week of the Denver shootings. If the modern world and modern morality seem a bit weird to you these days, then The Extremes will confirm you aren't the only one concerned with the way the world is going.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Clarke Award Nominee - deserves to win, 5 Mar 1999
By A Customer
This novel has been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and in my opinion it deserves to win. Chrisopher Priest has been writing fiction for nearly 30 years and he has not been in better form than here, and in the recent 'The Prestige'. It is an examination of violence and the part in plays in all our lives. Dunblane and Hungerford touched all our lives in the UK in both extreme and subtle ways and here Mr. Priest examines the effects these kind of events have on society. It is a richly powerful and provocative novel that deserves to be widely read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Sadly falls flat
This book has all the delightful English detail that is so Christopher Priest. It is very detailed, tied into the emotions of the main characters and well paced. Read more
Published 2 months ago by C. Fackrell

1.0 out of 5 stars Virtually nothing
I've read a handful of Priest's novels and this is the first one to disappoint me. The Extremes is like certain types of food: it seems nourishing at first but soon betrays itself... Read more
Published 2 months ago by sft

5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting, brilliant novel
The Extremes deals with the emotional aftermath of a Hungerford-style mass killing spree and the curious linkage that seems to exist between it and a similar atrocity in the USA... Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2005 by dogbarkssome

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Disappointing
I love some of Priest's work, especially The Affirmation and The Prestige, but The Extremes is so poor in comparison with those books that it is difficult to believe it's the same... Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and disturbing
Christopher Preist writes stories that are on the fringe of science fiction. Calling him an SF writer is too limiting - he is a writer with imagination, who writes stories that... Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2001 by Kirk McElhearn

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and disturbing
Christopher Preist writes stories that are on the fringe of science fiction. Calling him an SF writer is too limiting - he is a writer with imagination, who writes stories that... Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2001 by Kirk McElhearn

3.0 out of 5 stars Worthy but dull
Don't get me wrong, Christopher Priest is one of Britain's greatest (and most underated) authors, and I would give most of the other books he has written 4 or 5 out of five. Read more
Published on 7 Sep 1999

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