Review: The Omega Project

The Omega Project by Steve Alten

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Not at all what I was expecting. Well, I don't read book synopses, only tags, and the front cover mentions a rogue computer so I kind of just went off of that. Basically we start a few years after the great die off, initiated by the lack of oil, with many flashbacks to how it all happened. Then humanity regroups and searches for more sustainable energy. The time frame here I had trouble getting over, plus the number of deaths. I think it was too much death too fast (the order of who died based on income was weird), and the regrouping of society also happened too fast with technology that would never be available that quickly now, not to mention after such a massive event... and who even *wants* a holographic phone? And for old people to have adopted this technology so quickly?

But this is only the first 50-100 pages of the book, and it changes severely after that. The main character, with a number of astronauts and a super computer go to Antarctica to test a habitat that is to be sent to Aurora to mine energy resources. After a few chapters here, the character is put into and then wakes up ("allegedly" O.o) from cryogenic sleep.

Though I initially hated what came to be the beginning of the rest of the book (and which I only thought would carry on for about 2 chapters, really I should start reading synopses), as you can see I came to like it. It was imaginative and I liked the new species and the main character/s.

Sometimes the descriptions didn't really work for me. I feel like the author describes landscapes within about 5 feet surrounding the main character, and then those landscapes become something completely different two paragraphs later as the character runs forward, which make it difficult to keep up with the settings.

I liked the back and forth thinking it was real vs. a dream. I kept going back and forth on which I felt it *had* to be, which was fun.

I mean, aside from the initial time frame and how sharply the story evolves into an awesome nightmare, I still thought it was every interesting. It was very descriptive to handle all the changes and it's very much tied into real life events which I think added a lot more layers to the story. Overall it was exciting but it was like reading two different books.



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Review: Love Minus Eighty

Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Anyone ever read the book Feed by M.T. Anderson? I had to freshman year of high school. The world set up by Love Minus Eighty reminded me of Feed, though LMF is much more complex and felt more realistic, and understood that technology doesn't degrade language - you can look up everything! But they're both about such technologically advanced futures that people are assumed to be plugged into everything constantly. Here it's through wearable devices while Feed was a brain implant.

Anyway, the novel centers around a future in which people who have sustained horrible injuries can be frozen and brought back to life, at a very high dollar amount. For those who don't have freezing insurance, if they are young and scientifically pretty enough, they can be put in the bridesicle program where if a man likes them enough, he can pay to bring them back and they have to be his bride for life. But it's another shot at life after having died.

It is a couple of chapters before you connect the characters and see where it's all going but all the characters are connected, which I also like.

The technologically advanced world is very complete, mentioning those people who shun technology, how the world is for people of different economic statuses, the people who love every bit of the technology and use it for fame, plus those average in-betweeners. The story itself was amazing - I almost don't want to say anything to give anything away for anyone who wants to read it. It's an interesting take on the idea of freezing people until technology is advanced enough to bring them back, or until they find someone rich enough to bring them back, even squeezed in some morality and religion in there. I read a lot of science fiction but while others focus on dystopian outcomes (massive changes in social structure) this felt more of a continuation of what we are now. Just us - in the future. The interactions between the characters was very organic, very believable, and you feel for everyone... well except Lorelei :)

Anyway, as a whole, it was a great and creative story. It was well thought out and well developed. I thought it was fantastic