Fred Brounian and his twin brother, George, were once co-CEOs of a burgeoning New York City software company devoted to the creation of utopian vir...
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reviews
Jan 03, 2012
Bogydog
rated it: 
This book kicked me in the ass a bit. I'm gonna give it four stars for now, but I'm still thinking about it. At times, I felt it was too smart for me. At other times, I thought it was brilliant.
A guy answers an ad for a medical experiment. The experiment turns out to try and offer a religious experience, but only by using medical and chemical pathways to mimic the psychological experiences found in said events. For instance, by robbing the parietal lobes (which are tasked with o More...
A guy answers an ad for a medical experiment. The experiment turns out to try and offer a religious experience, but only by using medical and chemical pathways to mimic the psychological experiences found in said events. For instance, by robbing the parietal lobes (which are tasked with o More...
Jan 01, 2012
Lydia
rated it: 
Luminarium is a complex, cerebral book that takes on eastern mysticism, neuropsychology, the ethos of virtual worlds, and the nature of the human self. However, true to form, in writing this brainy book of ideas, Alex Shakar has also managed to hit that most elusive target of all: a fresh and believable depiction of true love that is neither romantic or ironic.
Maybe the secret to the compelling originality is that the love story is not between a boyfriend and girlfriend, or husband a More...
Maybe the secret to the compelling originality is that the love story is not between a boyfriend and girlfriend, or husband a More...
Oct 31, 2011
Craig
rated it: 
I don't have to reiterate the synopsis. The scope of this book is monumental. The conclusion is disharmoniously humble--and not in that apt sort of way. Maybe it wasn't Alex Shakar's objective with Luminarium to precisely reconcile the God Helmet, the world's religions and humanity's ubiquitous quest for spiritual transcendence, but after a hundred or so pages of the protagonist's, Fred Brounian's, despairing solipsistic trudge through New York City I expect a bigger payoff than a Wizard of Oz s
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Aug 09, 2011
Lisa
rated it: 
This was an interesting novel. Deeper than I expected it to be. It takes a brave author to dive into the vast realm of spirituality and build a compelling story around it. Shakar has quite a flair for seeing things in a unique light. The prose is wickedly smart. For the most part I enjoyed that aspect of it.
But it's not going to be a good fit for everyone. It's not an easy read, in either the depth of the text or in length. It's not a hard science-fiction novel, but I think it will app More...
But it's not going to be a good fit for everyone. It's not an easy read, in either the depth of the text or in length. It's not a hard science-fiction novel, but I think it will app More...
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Aug 06, 2011
Mike
rated it:
Grandly ambitious, occasionally brilliant, sometimes (maybe a few too many times) bogged down by the weight of sweeping thematic concerns which put a drag on forward motion. A good novel, by a writer of great promise, and worth your time... with some caveats.
Maybe it's that the central plot devices (a woebegotten ex-boy-wonder, grieving a stricken comatose twin, spun loose from a once-promising economic venture, struggling to find meaning and purpose, and happening upon a grie More...
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Aug 08, 2011
Tiffany
rated it:
Alex Shakar’s second novel, Luminarium, presents this predicament: how can spirituality and technology coexist or, even, work together as the world presses forward, leaving yesterday’s coding and yesterday’s faith far behind? In Shakar’s post-9/11 New York—the novel takes place around the fifth anniversary—this quandary looms even more prevalent as the city and his characters search for whatever meaning may remain after losing so much. My advance warning: this book is not for the faint-hearted.
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Jan 26, 2012
Deb
rated it:
I enjoyed the book up to the last few page (don't worry, no spoilers). It was vague and kind of pretentious and I don't understand what the author's point was. Sure I could come up with some theories and support them from the text, but really most of my conclusions feel like reaching.
If I just ignore the ending, I really enjoyed the book. The characters felt real to me and poor Fred trying to cope with the weight of dealing with the emotional and financial difficulties of dealing w More...
If I just ignore the ending, I really enjoyed the book. The characters felt real to me and poor Fred trying to cope with the weight of dealing with the emotional and financial difficulties of dealing w More...
Dec 24, 2011
Katie
rated it:
Wow - I'm not sure what to say about this one... I liked it better in the first 3/4ths than towards the end. For the last 100 pages or so I was just waiting for it to be over. The plot just became dragged-out and tiresome.
Having said that, this is a very imaginative book. And very intellectual (probably too smart for me - it lost me at certain points). It's "about" dreams, souls, consciousness, an immersive computer world, and how all those things bleed together to the extent More...
Having said that, this is a very imaginative book. And very intellectual (probably too smart for me - it lost me at certain points). It's "about" dreams, souls, consciousness, an immersive computer world, and how all those things bleed together to the extent More...
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Sep 26, 2011
Judy
rated it:
Luminarium is the best book I have read this year. It just has everything I like: a super intelligent author, set in contemporary times with hip current issues, a quirky family tale, and the science vs religion question handled with plenty of irony and humor.
Alex Shakar's first novel, The Savage Girl was good but I had some problems with it, one of which was the soullessness of his characters. In Luminarium he clearly went looking for spiritual underpinnings, as does his main More...
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 03, 2012
Georgina
rated it:
Shakar effotlessly manages to embody this avatar world in an entirely human way.With all the previous reviews i had read, i was very much pleasantly surprised with how deep it is and by how much heart this novel has. A twin grieving for his twin, a twin with his twins best interests at heart until the very end; all within a virtual world. Science fiction in a truly glorious form, about love, about trust, about faith, about heart. A unique take on the genre and indeed on the world. I look More...
Jan 04, 2012
Jeruen
rated it:
An edited version of this article was first published as Book Review: Luminarium by Alex Shakar on Blogcritics.org.
Your twin brother is in a coma, your family is dysfunctional, the company you have founded is being taken away from you, your girlfriend abandons you, and you're dead-broke: what would you do if every person in the world is dead-set against you? This is essentially the premise of Alex Shakar's novel entitled Luminarium, where the topic of human despair interfaces with mode More...
Your twin brother is in a coma, your family is dysfunctional, the company you have founded is being taken away from you, your girlfriend abandons you, and you're dead-broke: what would you do if every person in the world is dead-set against you? This is essentially the premise of Alex Shakar's novel entitled Luminarium, where the topic of human despair interfaces with mode More...
Nov 30, 2011
Jason
rated it:
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
So before anything else, let me caution my fellow New Weird fans that Chicagoan Alex Shakar's Luminarium is not the trippy sci-fi novel that its cover, jacket copy and breathless Dave Eggers blurb promise it to be, and that those picking it up expecting it to be such are going to be severely disa More...
So before anything else, let me caution my fellow New Weird fans that Chicagoan Alex Shakar's Luminarium is not the trippy sci-fi novel that its cover, jacket copy and breathless Dave Eggers blurb promise it to be, and that those picking it up expecting it to be such are going to be severely disa More...
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Aug 10, 2011
David
rated it:
I got into the main character of this novel to a substantially greater than normal. It almost felt like Fred was the avatar that I was projecting into Shakar's world. As a result, it felt like I was feeling through Fred, that I was experiencing through him. Wrapped up in the strange combination of enlightenment, mystery, and human change, I felt like I was personally experiencing it all instead of just reading about it. My heartbeat is still racing. I get engaged in a lot of what I read, bu
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Sep 07, 2011
Kenneth
rated it:
This book is deeply convoluted, but in a good way. At any point in the story, it is difficult to tell which reality is present. Fred, who has already been mentally and emotionally softened up before the beginning of the novel, receives a stunning blow when he enters a medical study in search of inner peace. He spends the rest of the story reeling through highs and lows, with surprises good and bad coming from every direction. Fred's confusion is contagious to the reader and to his fellow cha
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Jan 30, 2012
Anne
rated it:
Hmmmmm, a challenging look into what's waiting for us after we die... if anything!
Using virtual reality, science, meditation, the beliefs of the Hindu religions, avatars, emails from the great beyond, magic, you name it. Fred, the main character, has to figure out what his purpose of life is.... and how can he reach his twin brother, who has been in a coma for 6 months yet seems to be trying to contact him through emails and text messages.
Using virtual reality, science, meditation, the beliefs of the Hindu religions, avatars, emails from the great beyond, magic, you name it. Fred, the main character, has to figure out what his purpose of life is.... and how can he reach his twin brother, who has been in a coma for 6 months yet seems to be trying to contact him through emails and text messages.
Sep 16, 2011
Josiah
rated it:
Luminarium reminds me of Neal Stephenson mixed with Franzen. The family issues and character development was very Franzen-esque. The suspense of the story was more like Neal Stephenson. It was hard to put this book down, because there were so many questions left unanswered that you knew were going to be answered. The cybertechnology of the story wasn't as cutting edge as Stephenson, but it was reminiscent of Neal's work. The love story with Mira towards the end disappointed me. I was hopin
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Oct 08, 2011
Landis
rated it:
Lovied this book, although it took me a while to get into it. Mixing the world of virtual on-line worlds, Reiki, neuroscience, twin psychology, and life after life. Fascinating read. The only reason I didn't rate it higher is that it was definitely more of a cerebral read and I didn't care about the characters. Tremendous amount of knowledge and research behind this.
Sep 06, 2011
prema
rated it:
eventually decided i like this book. has grown on me like... a mold. not sure where it left me, where it left the protagonist, where it left itself, ultimately, in regards to spirituality, the future, communication with coma patients, virtual worlds, or any number of things upon which it originally seemed to have an opinion.
in other words - the book raised a great number of interesting questions & then didn't really do anything about them. didn't mean i wasn't amused, but...
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in other words - the book raised a great number of interesting questions & then didn't really do anything about them. didn't mean i wasn't amused, but...
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Dec 18, 2011
Jason
rated it:
The author's solid knowledge of Eastern religion, specifically Hinduism, is cleverly married to the theme of transcendental experiences brought on by experimental new technology. Add to this the personal and professional crisies of the protagonist and the overall character-driven nature of the plot, and you have a dense but very engaging read.
Oct 31, 2011
Philip
rated it:
This is one of those books that you end up staying up all night reading, by which I mean the ones assigned to you for class which you wait until the last possible moment to actually read. Fortunately, however, this proved to be a good one. The first hundred a fifty pages or so I felt dragged a little, but after that, I was hooked. It had an occasional poor sentence as well, but these are not too distracting, and overall the novel is a fun, somewhat thought-provoking read.
Dec 02, 2011
Gaby
rated it:
for me, it failed to hold my interest. it was too much of the same type of events over and over. if the goal, as the jacket indicated, was to profoundly depict problems in our culture, it didn't come close to that level in my reading of it.
Nov 30, 2011
Marsha
rated it:
A rather different read, incorporating virtual worlds, neuropsychology, metaphysics and mythology. There's plenty of action and twists here, but the primary character's inner experience is showcased here. His progression through neuropsychological experimentation that is meant to approximate spiritual experience is unique. Perhaps my only complaint with this book is that it seems to drag on just a bit too long at the end.
Nov 08, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
I enjoyed reading this, although I only scratched the surface of the meanings involved. The more challenging bits about enlightenment, alternative realities, consciousness, etc. were balanced by more familiar themes of familial affection and making one's way through modern life. I think this author's next novel is going to blow my mind Corrections-style.
Jul 10, 2011
Marked this book "to read" based on riveting first-person essay about launching a book in September of 2001. The essay is here, via The Millions.
Oct 15, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
A lot of theorizing on the convergence of technology and faith and religion and the internet, so the ideas were interesting, but the actual plot and characters were less so.
Oct 04, 2011
Skrot
rated it:
Thought-provoking and well written. But a little too slow, and the ending was blah. Still, there was some intriguing speculation on our role in the universe, including discussions of Hindu cosmology, virtual reality and quantum physics. Well-developed characters. Plot could have been tightened up a bit. Probably more like 3-1/2 stars, but I'm rounding up.
Oct 03, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
I didn't think I was going to like this book at first. The vocabulary level is very high. I decided to read the second chapter and I was hooked. I was able to identify with the main character's denial of his brothers' prognosis and his fear of the obvious outcome. His search for answers or a miracle was heart wrenching. Very well written. Strong main character.
Oct 06, 2011
David
rated it:
One of my favorite contemporary writers. This is a compelling, challenging, and very funny novel. See my review in the October issue of the Texas Observer.
Aug 16, 2011
Shelly
rated it:
Luminarium is one of those books that'll get you thinking. I liked the characters and connected well with them. It is a long book and tackles some pretty deep subjects. I needed a bit more of an anchor in the storyline for that reason, but overall I enjoyed it.
Thanks for the Firstreads Giveaway!
Thanks for the Firstreads Giveaway!
