smkingsland's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
library_bookwyrm's review against another edition
3.0
I decided to read this book because I love the movie loosely based on it (The Thirteenth Floor). The book was quite different, and, frankly, I liked the movie better (not something I often say), but I did enjoy the book, too. It's a good example of 1960s scifi. The sexism drove me up the wall, at times, and the book often seemed more interested in the science aspect than the fiction part. Recommended to those who like 1960s scifi; everyone else, just go watch the movie.
unbowed's review against another edition
5.0
Wonderful science fiction. I kept wanting to go back to it, eager to see what was going to happen next. Reads quickly.
thomcat's review against another edition
4.0
The simulation hypothesis looks at the possibility that this world is a simulation - but this book from 1964 comes up with some points that are rarely mentioned. Way ahead of its time, this is also a pretty decent story.
The biggest thing missing from most of the times this hypothesis shows up is the why. The "battery" reason from the Matrix is pretty weak, and many other stories just dance around the problem. In this book, it is to act as a predictor for the future - especially political attitudes. The difference between concern that the citizens are being watched and actual paranoia is also smoothly addressed. And again, this was *way* before computers were capable of these calculations.
A minor quibble is the ending, unspoiled here - the key idea is introduced about 2/3 of the way through. Had that been there, in a subtle way, from the beginning, it would have been more satisfying. Or the author would have been [a:Philip K. Dick|4764|Philip K. Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1633698608p2/4764.jpg], who specializes in that sort of thing. Still, a very minor quibble in a story half a century before its time. Worth tracking down!
PS Aspects of this book ended up in "The Thirteenth Floor", and fittingly it is the 13th book I finished this year. If only I had finished it on February 13!
The biggest thing missing from most of the times this hypothesis shows up is the why. The "battery" reason from the Matrix is pretty weak, and many other stories just dance around the problem. In this book, it is to act as a predictor for the future - especially political attitudes. The difference between concern that the citizens are being watched and actual paranoia is also smoothly addressed. And again, this was *way* before computers were capable of these calculations.
A minor quibble is the ending, unspoiled here - the key idea is introduced about 2/3 of the way through. Had that been there, in a subtle way, from the beginning, it would have been more satisfying. Or the author would have been [a:Philip K. Dick|4764|Philip K. Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1633698608p2/4764.jpg], who specializes in that sort of thing. Still, a very minor quibble in a story half a century before its time. Worth tracking down!
PS Aspects of this book ended up in "The Thirteenth Floor", and fittingly it is the 13th book I finished this year. If only I had finished it on February 13!
vincentkonrad's review against another edition
4.0
reads a fair bit like dick. solid existential sci-fi
desdemona0b4b9's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
riduidel's review
4.0
Il est des romans qui, sans être proprement exceptionnels, vous parlent avec une force peu commune. Celui-ci en fait partie, par les thèmes abordés ainsi que la manière de les traiter. La thématique, tout d’abord, ne semble actuellement en rien innovante. Peut-être qu’à la sortie du roman, en 1964, alors que [a:Dick|1655|Mark Twain|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1170645482p2/1655.jpg] n’avait pas, je crois, écrit ses romans les plus emblématiques (comme par exemple [b:Le dieu venu du Centaure|14185|The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch|Philip K. Dick|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166585060s/14185.jpg|1399376], [b:Ubik|22590|Ubik|Philip K. Dick|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167352001s/22590.jpg|62929] ou d’autres), cette mise en abyme de la réalité était novatrice. Sans doute, même, que [a:Galouye|874602|Ursula K. Le Guin|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200106182p2/874602.jpg] a été considéré pendant un temps comme un auteur très novateur.
Malheureusement pour lui, la réalité virtuelle est passée par là, et son habile [b:Simulacron 3|807801|Simulacron 3|Daniel F. Galouye|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226816768s/807801.jpg|793743] a du mal à courir après des oeuvres comme Matrix ou Existenz, sans même parler des innombrables romans de science-fiction évoquant l’impossible différence entre réalité et virtualité. Bien sûr, ce thème reste, et devient même chaque jour un peu plus, d’une brûlante actualité.
Toutefois, ce roman a largement vieilli, et le laboratoire hébergeant le simulateur, digne d’accueillir l’ENIAC, n’est vraiment plus au goût du jour. Dans le même ordre d’idées, les cylindres magnétiques à mémoire ne me semblent plus à la pointe du progrès. Cependant, le thème reste intéressant. Malheureusement, le scénario, digne de la quatrième dimension, n’est pas non plus réellement à la hauteur. Même si l’auteur, dans une veine typiquement lovecraftienne(1), espère nous demander si le héros est effectivement paranoïaque, ou si sa réalité n’est qu’une illusion. Bien sûr, le lecteur (moi, en l’occurence) a désormais suffisement d’éducation pour que, lorsqu’un directeur de recherche sur un projet de réalité virtuelle s’interroge sur sa propre réalité, il a bien raison d’en douter. Mais l’auteur ne le savait pas, et insiste donc douloureusement dans une veine qui ne lui apportera que des déceptions. Enfin, le dernier point réellement décevant est la conclusion, dans laquelle le héros se relève, dans une réalité plus réelle, et se dit qu’il est dans la réalité. Ne peut-il pas se demander si, à son tour, celle-ci n’est qu’un autre miroir d’ombres ? Apparement, non. Tant pis pour lui.
Bien sûr, cet avis va sembler très dur. Mais ça n’est pas le cas. Ce roman est assez agréable, comme curiosité historique. Malheureusement, il a trop vieilli maintenant, et devrait donc reposer au panthéon des gloires oubliées.
(1) Tout le monde sait en effet qu’il est plus facile de masquer l’apparition d’un monde venu d’outre espace derrière les anodines portes d’un asile d’aliéné que, par exemple, dans une secte sataniste.
Malheureusement pour lui, la réalité virtuelle est passée par là, et son habile [b:Simulacron 3|807801|Simulacron 3|Daniel F. Galouye|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226816768s/807801.jpg|793743] a du mal à courir après des oeuvres comme Matrix ou Existenz, sans même parler des innombrables romans de science-fiction évoquant l’impossible différence entre réalité et virtualité. Bien sûr, ce thème reste, et devient même chaque jour un peu plus, d’une brûlante actualité.
Toutefois, ce roman a largement vieilli, et le laboratoire hébergeant le simulateur, digne d’accueillir l’ENIAC, n’est vraiment plus au goût du jour. Dans le même ordre d’idées, les cylindres magnétiques à mémoire ne me semblent plus à la pointe du progrès. Cependant, le thème reste intéressant. Malheureusement, le scénario, digne de la quatrième dimension, n’est pas non plus réellement à la hauteur. Même si l’auteur, dans une veine typiquement lovecraftienne(1), espère nous demander si le héros est effectivement paranoïaque, ou si sa réalité n’est qu’une illusion. Bien sûr, le lecteur (moi, en l’occurence) a désormais suffisement d’éducation pour que, lorsqu’un directeur de recherche sur un projet de réalité virtuelle s’interroge sur sa propre réalité, il a bien raison d’en douter. Mais l’auteur ne le savait pas, et insiste donc douloureusement dans une veine qui ne lui apportera que des déceptions. Enfin, le dernier point réellement décevant est la conclusion, dans laquelle le héros se relève, dans une réalité plus réelle, et se dit qu’il est dans la réalité. Ne peut-il pas se demander si, à son tour, celle-ci n’est qu’un autre miroir d’ombres ? Apparement, non. Tant pis pour lui.
Bien sûr, cet avis va sembler très dur. Mais ça n’est pas le cas. Ce roman est assez agréable, comme curiosité historique. Malheureusement, il a trop vieilli maintenant, et devrait donc reposer au panthéon des gloires oubliées.
(1) Tout le monde sait en effet qu’il est plus facile de masquer l’apparition d’un monde venu d’outre espace derrière les anodines portes d’un asile d’aliéné que, par exemple, dans une secte sataniste.
pussreboots's review
5.0
A Preamble:
Simulacron-3 is one of about a hundred books I've had for as long as I've been a serious reader. When I got bitten by the reading bug back in 1987 I started to collect books by two criteria: they had to be affordable and they had to be hard to come by. Rather than spend my babysitting money on the then popular books, I tended to go for old books and ones I had never heard of.
As I was collecting the books, often paying a dime or quarter for each, I was also reading books for school and working my way through the library's collection of science fiction and mysteries. In other words, my shelf devoted to my books quickly filled up and I read maybe a percentage of them.
About ten years after I bought Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye my husband and I went to see a fun science fiction film, The Thirteen Floor. Now I'm normally a compulsive reader of credits but I did not catch Simulcron-3 mentioned as the source material. If I had, I probably wouldn't have even remembered that I owned the book. So the book remained unread and stashed with my original 100.
Five years later I decided to register my original 100 with the hope of finally reading them and releasing the books I didn't want to read again or didn't think my husband or children wanted to read. A Bookcrossing friend contacted me shortly after I had registered the book and asked to borrow it, pointing out the connection to The Thirteen Floor. After I got over my surprise I found the book and sent it to her.
Five more years and I have finally read it. Most of my reading commitments are now finished and I have been enjoying a year of reading mostly what I want. Part of that reading for fun is to finally go through that original 100.
The review:
Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye begins as a murder mystery set in a computer lab. But it quickly embraces its science fiction setting to explore philosophical notions of reality, consciousness and soul. The title is a pun on "simulacrum" meaning the representation of something often intangible (such as a God). The "crum" has become cron (short for chronograph jobs). The "3" hints at the three levels of reality that Douglas Hall becomes aware of as his own life is endangered.
Things go awry for Douglas Hall when fellow researcher Morton Lynch goes missing and then another colleague, Hannon Fuller is murdered. Hall finds himself accused of both crimes but he has no memory of having committed any crime.
The clues to solving the murders come though from Rien Reactions marketing research based simulator, the Simulacron-3. The ways in which Hall and the other researchers can interact with the Units who "live" in their pre-programmed city would witness the sorts of odd inconsistencies in their reality as the researchers enter and leave the simulation or reprogram the world to try different situations.
As Douglas Hall begins to think he too might be a Unit in a simulation that has gotten so real as to mimic the building of a simulator like that of the real world the book really takes off. I think all my years of playing different Sim games made the book all the more perversely enjoyable. Douglas ends up trying to hide from the creator of the simulator and has the whole world trying to kill him.
My favorite quote from the book comes on page 108: "I couldn't dismiss the incongruity implicit in the need of an immaterial being for immaterial food." It brought to mind a fun evening of Sim torture while playing The Sims.
Simulacron-3 is one of about a hundred books I've had for as long as I've been a serious reader. When I got bitten by the reading bug back in 1987 I started to collect books by two criteria: they had to be affordable and they had to be hard to come by. Rather than spend my babysitting money on the then popular books, I tended to go for old books and ones I had never heard of.
As I was collecting the books, often paying a dime or quarter for each, I was also reading books for school and working my way through the library's collection of science fiction and mysteries. In other words, my shelf devoted to my books quickly filled up and I read maybe a percentage of them.
About ten years after I bought Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye my husband and I went to see a fun science fiction film, The Thirteen Floor. Now I'm normally a compulsive reader of credits but I did not catch Simulcron-3 mentioned as the source material. If I had, I probably wouldn't have even remembered that I owned the book. So the book remained unread and stashed with my original 100.
Five years later I decided to register my original 100 with the hope of finally reading them and releasing the books I didn't want to read again or didn't think my husband or children wanted to read. A Bookcrossing friend contacted me shortly after I had registered the book and asked to borrow it, pointing out the connection to The Thirteen Floor. After I got over my surprise I found the book and sent it to her.
Five more years and I have finally read it. Most of my reading commitments are now finished and I have been enjoying a year of reading mostly what I want. Part of that reading for fun is to finally go through that original 100.
The review:
Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye begins as a murder mystery set in a computer lab. But it quickly embraces its science fiction setting to explore philosophical notions of reality, consciousness and soul. The title is a pun on "simulacrum" meaning the representation of something often intangible (such as a God). The "crum" has become cron (short for chronograph jobs). The "3" hints at the three levels of reality that Douglas Hall becomes aware of as his own life is endangered.
Things go awry for Douglas Hall when fellow researcher Morton Lynch goes missing and then another colleague, Hannon Fuller is murdered. Hall finds himself accused of both crimes but he has no memory of having committed any crime.
The clues to solving the murders come though from Rien Reactions marketing research based simulator, the Simulacron-3. The ways in which Hall and the other researchers can interact with the Units who "live" in their pre-programmed city would witness the sorts of odd inconsistencies in their reality as the researchers enter and leave the simulation or reprogram the world to try different situations.
As Douglas Hall begins to think he too might be a Unit in a simulation that has gotten so real as to mimic the building of a simulator like that of the real world the book really takes off. I think all my years of playing different Sim games made the book all the more perversely enjoyable. Douglas ends up trying to hide from the creator of the simulator and has the whole world trying to kill him.
My favorite quote from the book comes on page 108: "I couldn't dismiss the incongruity implicit in the need of an immaterial being for immaterial food." It brought to mind a fun evening of Sim torture while playing The Sims.
mw2k's review
4.0
A surprisingly knotty and profound work, and it's easy to see why it's so influential. Does the brain in the vat scenario very well, and the fact it's coupled with a whodunnit only makes it that much better. I'm glad I got hold of this.