ristan72's review against another edition
4.0
Kept me interested through the whole book.Nice twist at the end.
sjj169's review against another edition
I gave it the 100 page rule and I'm just not at all interested in this book. It tries to be smart and cutesy and completely is failing.
tuttu's review against another edition
5.0
Un superbe livre qui nous laisse à réfléchir sur notre propre réalité et ce que nous considérons même comme étant la réalité.
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A superb book that leaves us to reflect on our own reality and what we even consider to be reality.
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A superb book that leaves us to reflect on our own reality and what we even consider to be reality.
jlynnelseauthor's review against another edition
3.0
I won this book in a goodreads giveaway. All the below opinions are unbiased.
I really liked how thought-provoking this book was. It goes beyond the Matrix level of questioning the physical world versus the world created by the mind. What makes something real? There were many different views discussed and very intelligent conversations.
However, I was extremely disappointed in the lack of a sympathetic religious perspective. The book asks who would win: Science or God? However, all the religious people in the book are either dicks, bigots, or are constantly talked about as holding naïve false views of the world. It really ticked me off that the author either bashed religion or made the characters who are religious into bigots who condoned and practiced mass murders/bombing. Seriously? I have no problem reading an anti-religious book, but if you spend most of the time stating how people who believe in God are simple-minded morons, it clearly shows the writer's bias. This was extremely disappointing. The author researched a lot of clinical and scientific areas. However, he seemed to not care a rip about religion. In fact, he calls the end of the book a time of "religious inquisition" because I guess if you're religious, that means you're against science.
I cannot say I was surprised at the epilogue. I kinda knew that was where things were going. I think the last few lines of the book were very though provoking. Overall, the book is well crafted and suspenseful.
However, there was no sympathy towards people who believe in God. When the author has some characters share a vision of Moses parting the Red Sea. I thought, "okay, the author is making room that perhaps the miracles of the Bible did happen." But in subsequent chapters, the author even slaps away the truth of Moses miracle and chalks it up to the weather. At that point, I felt the author let his personal beliefs override the storytelling. Almost all of Jesus' disciples died wretched and extremely torturous death. You can't give an inch, Mr. "Pseudo" Galt, that there might be a little truth to their beliefs? Look it up: crucifixion, boiled in oil, all fun stuff just because they would not give up their belief in Jesus and what they saw. Miracles are more than just science. And believing in religion does not make you believe that science is "magic." While the main character may have believed this, and his brother, and his colleagues, there's wasn't room for one person to make him think more deeply on the subject? He has to swallow a lot in the last chapters. Not one vote for religious people being nice and perhaps not complete idiots?
I think the book was well-written, concepts well-described, and was a page-turning adventure. However, the author himself let his personal beliefs get in the way at times.
I really liked how thought-provoking this book was. It goes beyond the Matrix level of questioning the physical world versus the world created by the mind. What makes something real? There were many different views discussed and very intelligent conversations.
However, I was extremely disappointed in the lack of a sympathetic religious perspective. The book asks who would win: Science or God? However, all the religious people in the book are either dicks, bigots, or are constantly talked about as holding naïve false views of the world. It really ticked me off that the author either bashed religion or made the characters who are religious into bigots who condoned and practiced mass murders/bombing. Seriously? I have no problem reading an anti-religious book, but if you spend most of the time stating how people who believe in God are simple-minded morons, it clearly shows the writer's bias. This was extremely disappointing. The author researched a lot of clinical and scientific areas. However, he seemed to not care a rip about religion. In fact, he calls the end of the book a time of "religious inquisition" because I guess if you're religious, that means you're against science.
I cannot say I was surprised at the epilogue. I kinda knew that was where things were going. I think the last few lines of the book were very though provoking. Overall, the book is well crafted and suspenseful.
However, there was no sympathy towards people who believe in God. When the author has some characters share a vision of Moses parting the Red Sea. I thought, "okay, the author is making room that perhaps the miracles of the Bible did happen." But in subsequent chapters, the author even slaps away the truth of Moses miracle and chalks it up to the weather. At that point, I felt the author let his personal beliefs override the storytelling. Almost all of Jesus' disciples died wretched and extremely torturous death. You can't give an inch, Mr. "Pseudo" Galt, that there might be a little truth to their beliefs? Look it up: crucifixion, boiled in oil, all fun stuff just because they would not give up their belief in Jesus and what they saw. Miracles are more than just science. And believing in religion does not make you believe that science is "magic." While the main character may have believed this, and his brother, and his colleagues, there's wasn't room for one person to make him think more deeply on the subject? He has to swallow a lot in the last chapters. Not one vote for religious people being nice and perhaps not complete idiots?
I think the book was well-written, concepts well-described, and was a page-turning adventure. However, the author himself let his personal beliefs get in the way at times.
cillen's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
thewaltonfour's review against another edition
5.0
My mind was blown to smithereens reading this book. I kept asking myself what on earth could these people possibly know what was so devastating to cause these events to happen and then, POW! There is was! I
lynsey_a's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book, it was interesting, thought-provoking and I would have given it 5 stars if it weren’t for the author’s insistence on assessing every female character we encounter in terms of her attractiveness... I see this a lot with male authors & I just find it really irritating. Aside from that, I loved the story
feuillycakes's review
5.0
This book is quite possibly the most gripping and intelligent book I've read in a very long time. I bought it on a whim, thinking it would just be another apocalypse book with too much action and not enough sense, and it sat on my bookshelf for months. I finally picked it up a couple days ago and could hardly bear to put it down since.
John Macbeth is such an interesting character and surrounded by so much mystery, that I couldn't help but crave the answers to the questions I had had about him since around 50 pages in. At this point I had my suspicions about what was going on and they were confirmed at the very end, but throughout the book they were disproved then re-established in my mind, and with each and every person telling john they weren't real, my ideas about what the end of the book would be like strengthened and changed.
I found the plot fast paced and easy to keep track of, with none of the distractions usually found in novels of this length. Each character and plot line seemed relevant and completely in place, simply adding to the suspense and mystery when one cut into the middle of another.
Even with how easy it was to understand despite all the scientific terms and the amazingly intelligent writing, it was still a mind bending book. I had to reassure myself that it was just a book many times while reading as it was so convincing at points.
This is truly a must read book, and I'm sure I will find myself re-reading it again and again after making all my friends borrow it!
John Macbeth is such an interesting character and surrounded by so much mystery, that I couldn't help but crave the answers to the questions I had had about him since around 50 pages in. At this point I had my suspicions about what was going on and they were confirmed at the very end, but throughout the book they were disproved then re-established in my mind, and with each and every person telling john they weren't real, my ideas about what the end of the book would be like strengthened and changed.
I found the plot fast paced and easy to keep track of, with none of the distractions usually found in novels of this length. Each character and plot line seemed relevant and completely in place, simply adding to the suspense and mystery when one cut into the middle of another.
Even with how easy it was to understand despite all the scientific terms and the amazingly intelligent writing, it was still a mind bending book. I had to reassure myself that it was just a book many times while reading as it was so convincing at points.
This is truly a must read book, and I'm sure I will find myself re-reading it again and again after making all my friends borrow it!
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