SF/Virtual reality book title?
Dates: 6/23/03,7:44 PM through 6/23/03,8:24 PM (2 postings)
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Fiction_L Archives
SF/Virtual reality book title?
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FROM: Lisa Davis-Craig <[removed]@cantonpl.org>
REC'D: 6/23/03, 7:44 PM
I read a book
that had a 'Matrix' feel to it; now, with the movie of the Matrix making
(far too many) headlines, I'm trying to recall that book title to
recommend to friends, and find that I cannot. I'm hoping that you might
recognize some of the descriptions below and suggest the
title/author...? Thanks so much for the time!
A young boy is set in a world where most of the people have been
uploaded into a virtual reality computer simulation. The matrix-like VR
is a utopia, written by a computer genius, who sells space in the
'world' to any one who wants to be immortal. The VR world is pictured
as being a large cylinder (?) in orbit around the Earth.
The boy is befriended by a 'Construct', an artificially created life
form purposefully designed by mankind so as not to appear human (this
particular one is some large comical animal - an elephant?). Prior to
the Matrix-like VR, humans created lots of these Constructs to do
various menial tasks.
The boys parents have been 'uploaded'; the boy can 'visit' them in the
VR world, but he can only stay a limited amount of time, as his body
will begin to die with his mind gone. He visits his mother at one
point.
The real world is populated by people left behind or those who have
chosen not to be uploaded or have reservations about being uploaded.
One group of religious fundamentalists consider the VR world (and the
Constructs, for that matter) to be sacrilege, and they want to destroy
it.
The boy meets a girl, whom he protects for some reason, only to find
that the girl is herself a Construct. She is quite distressed by this
discovery, and wants to kill herself; the boy intervenes.
Somewhere along the way, the boy finds a miniature version of the VR
world down on Earth, and meets a fat guy that inhabits that mini-VR
world; he is served in his world by overly voluptuous women, but has
grown quite bored, as he is the only human in the place.
The 'upload' station is near a rail road station of sorts; when a person
elects to be uploaded, the mind is taken up and the body remains behind,
and is dumped into a railcar and carted away, and is burned.
FROM: David Wright <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 6/23/03, 8:24 PM
From Kirkus Reviews
Co-launching with Gregory Benford (see above)
Avon's new f/sf Eos imprint, and very agreeably
priced: a virtual-reality romance, from the
author of Wilderness (1991) and Time and Time
Again (1994). By 2080, the virtual-reality Bin
contains the immortal personalities of nearly
everyone on Earth; the only holdouts are crazies,
fanatics--and Nemo Thorne, who's seen the
crematorium where the bodies of those who enter
the Bin are burned. With his companion, Lawrence,
a multiple-personality green dragon Construct,
Nemo makes a living by refurbishing old
electronic equipment. But when paying his annual
visit to his parents in the Bin, he meets and
falls in love with the stunning singer Justine
Ingham, a newcomer to the Bin who doesn't
remember much and dreams of being other people.
Eventually, Nemo--and Justine herself--realizes
that she's a Construct, put together by Nemo's
politician uncle Winston to tempt him to enter
the Bin permanently. But why? Meanwhile,
Justine's friend, kindly old Mr. Menso the
bookseller, turns out to be Newman Rogers,
Systems Operator and inventor of the Bin.
Outside, the anti-Bin religious fanatic Gabriel
tries to persuade Nemo to infect the Bin with a
virus. If Nemo agrees, Newman Rogers will
neutralize the virus, allow Gabriel to think he
succeeded--and everybody will live happily ever
after. Short circuit: plenty of hiss and crackle,
no real substance. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus
Associates, LP. "
David Wright
Seattle Public Library
Beautiful Toronto.
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