Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Interesting, Stimulating Read, 30 Nov 2002
I have only recently discovered John Barnes, but I can say that he is a very talented writer. I had had this book on my shelf for a good while now, and I am glad I finally picked it up to read it. I found this novel very entertaining and "gripping." Granted, the story is disjointed at points, but so is the world that Barnes has created here, one where people "jump" back and forth between dimensions or universes. Some of the characters are quite forgettable, but the narrator and Iphwin stand out from the crowd. Despite this, I would like to have seen more "fleshing out" of Iphwin in the novel; there were aspects about him that lingered in my mind until the end. I expected to get some insight on these traits, but the lines were left dangling somewhat. What I remember most about the narrator is his detailed explanations of and conjectures based on "abductive reasoning." Maybe I have managed to get away from hard science fiction long enough to be impressed by Barnes' elaboration of these ideas, but the fact of the matter is that I was impressed (in a similar way as I am impressed--though somewhat bored--by Jules Verne's prosaic "scientific" tangents). The ending of the story was indeed somewhat anticlimactic. With just a few pages to go, I kept wondering how the author was going to tie everything up into a neat little bow in so short a time. In point of fact, Barnes did the opposite of what I was looking for and resolved very little. In a way, though, it is nice for an author to resist the pressure to achieve balance and full illumination in his writing. All in all, I found this to be a very good novel; before I was halfway through it, in fact, I had already gone out to buy all of Barnes' books that I could find locally. I have read a couple of his other novels since reading Finity, but I found this book to be the most interesting and memorable of the group.
|
|
|
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wit & Mind-bending concepts, 7 Mar 2004
Lyle Peripart, an academic specialising in an obscure branch of logic which he terms ‘abductive reasoning’ is offered a job by the mysterious Geoffrey Iphwin, Head of Contech, but before his interview receives a note warning him that Iphwin is more dangerous than he seems.
We are in a future, we soon realise, where most of the world, including the US, is controlled by Nazi Reichs. The descendants of exiled Americans keep their old country alive outside the Reichs, in Lyle's case in New Zealand or Enzy.
This future, however, has not stemmed from our past, but from another universe which diverged some time during the Second World War, or even earlier.
It now appears that people are slipping between alternate universes. Anomalies begin to appear. people recall irreconcilable versions of historical events. Added to all this is the peculiar fact, which no one seems to be able to think about, that America has disappeared.
It’s a clever and fast-paced novel, laced with Barnes’ dry wit and ironic observations, containing interesting scenes and set pieces. The obsequious talking ships and cabs for instance are reminiscent of Dick’s talking taxis and household appliances.
Barnes has also thought out some of the other consequences of meeting people from alternate time lines. Helen, now the muscular and efficient Secret Agent, rather than historian, turns out to be a sadomasochist dominatrix who subjects Lyle to a sexual experience she presumes he is enjoying (as Lyle’s alternative self did). Another colleague remembers not only being married to Lyle but that his father and pregnant mother did not die in a car crash and that his previously unborn brother grew up to be gay. It is encouraging that Barnes mentions or includes gay characters in his novels as a matter of course, something that is still lacking in US SF as a whole.
It suffers as a novel in that it can’t quite decide what tone to take. It begins in a comically surreal fashion and becomes more serious in the second half. It also explores the nature of identity in an original way, suggesting that chance, our choices and our environment has much to do with what makes us the people we are, rather than merely genetics.
It’s not as Americocentric as some other recent novels, since much of the action takes place outside the US. It does assume however that the descendants of US ex-pats would retain such a loyalty to their homeland that they would maintain that culture for generations without having it polluted by ‘those other cultures’
It’s not one of Barnes’ best novels, but certainly shows his flair for inventiveness and characterisation.
|
|
|
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Bother With This Book, 20 Jan 2003
By A Customer
When I first picked up this novel, I was expecting an interesting read due to the number of positive reviews surrounding it. The first half of the novel does have points of interest as it follows the travels of Lyle Peripart as he attempts to uncover the truth behind a Nazi Germany defeat of the USA during World War Two and why the former USA seems to have simply 'vanished'. Indeed the first half does reverberate with a buzzy energy reminiscient of the Philip K. Dick novel THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. This promising start simply falls apart with the onset of the second half of the novel in a most atrocious sort of way. The second half seems to consist of nothing but meandering explanations of virtual reality that simply don't appear to make sense and the ending .... well, I won't even bother going there. It was hard enough trying to understand the concept of 'abductive reasoning' in the novel's first half.I can only hope that any future John Barnes novels will have a much stronger storyline and avoid this novel's nonsensical concepts and ideas.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Ben Bova
by John Scalzi
