![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Blurb On The Back:
It’s ten years since the attack that reduced Pittsburgh to ashes
Today all that remains is the Archive: an interactive digital record of the city and its people.
John Dominic Blaxton is a survivor, one of the ‘lucky ones’ who escaped the blast. Crippled by the loss of his wife and unborn daughter, he spends his days immersed in the Archive with the ghosts of yesterday.
It is there he finds the digital record of a body: a woman, lying face down, half buried in mud. Who is she … and why is someone hacking into the system and deleting the record of her seemingly unremarkable life? This question will drag Dominic from the darkest corners of the past into a deadly and very present nightmare.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Thomas Sweterlitsch’s debut SF novel is a technological thriller about grief and loss and the extent to which the virtual world can become a crutch for those looking to escape. There are some great ideas here – I particularly liked the idea of the Archive and the development of in-brain technology called Adware that connects to the internet and I also enjoyed the dystopian view of the future, complete with a telegenic, death dealing female president. However, there’s little explanation for how that technology works (a particular problem with the Archieve, which hinges on the idea of so much being recorded and accessible) and there were times when it left me confused (e.g. how it was possible to use Adware to email). More seriously, Blaxton crosses the line between being a grief-struck character and a self-pitying one and his refusal to undertake anything to help move on left me irritated at times. I also disliked the fact that Sweterlisch uses the same plot device twice to turn the tables on Blaxton and the antagonists (once revealed) are stock psychos without any real depth or motivation for their actions. Although this book didn’t quite work for me, there’s enough here for me to check out what Sweterlitsch does next.
TOMORROW AND TOMORROW was released in the United Kingdom on 17th July 2014. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
Today all that remains is the Archive: an interactive digital record of the city and its people.
John Dominic Blaxton is a survivor, one of the ‘lucky ones’ who escaped the blast. Crippled by the loss of his wife and unborn daughter, he spends his days immersed in the Archive with the ghosts of yesterday.
It is there he finds the digital record of a body: a woman, lying face down, half buried in mud. Who is she … and why is someone hacking into the system and deleting the record of her seemingly unremarkable life? This question will drag Dominic from the darkest corners of the past into a deadly and very present nightmare.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Thomas Sweterlitsch’s debut SF novel is a technological thriller about grief and loss and the extent to which the virtual world can become a crutch for those looking to escape. There are some great ideas here – I particularly liked the idea of the Archive and the development of in-brain technology called Adware that connects to the internet and I also enjoyed the dystopian view of the future, complete with a telegenic, death dealing female president. However, there’s little explanation for how that technology works (a particular problem with the Archieve, which hinges on the idea of so much being recorded and accessible) and there were times when it left me confused (e.g. how it was possible to use Adware to email). More seriously, Blaxton crosses the line between being a grief-struck character and a self-pitying one and his refusal to undertake anything to help move on left me irritated at times. I also disliked the fact that Sweterlisch uses the same plot device twice to turn the tables on Blaxton and the antagonists (once revealed) are stock psychos without any real depth or motivation for their actions. Although this book didn’t quite work for me, there’s enough here for me to check out what Sweterlitsch does next.
TOMORROW AND TOMORROW was released in the United Kingdom on 17th July 2014. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
