The Web: Gulliverzone

The Web - 2027 #1

by Stephen Baxter

February 7th 2027: World Peace Day. All over the world celebrations are in full swing, and there's free access to the Web today. A chance to sample the worlds locked inside cyberspace. A chance for Sarah to leave reality behind and enter the world of the Gulliverzone?

Genres: Science Fiction

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Stephen Baxter is a trained engineer with degrees from Cambridge (mathematics) and Southampton Universities (doctorate in aeroengineering research). Baxter is the winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the Locus Award, as well as being a nominee for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, most recently for Manifold: Time. His novel Voyage won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the Year; he also won the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novel The Time Ships. He is currently working on his next novel, a collaboration with Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Mr. Baxter lives in Prestwood, England.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, some background....

I've been a fan of Graham Joyce for a while. Several years back, I tracked down the books of his I hadn't read, and a book called Spiderbite caught my attention. I couldn't find it for the longest time, and when I finally did, I discovered it was part four in a six-book series written for kids about the internet in 2027, written back in 1997. So I tracked down the rest of the books and finally got around to starting them. This is the first book in that series.

It's ... not great. It creates the world and sends us on an adventure where kids go into The Web (think Second Life, which, jeeze, is already a dated reference), but that adventure is into GulliverZone, which is an area of the Web where you get to experience Gulliver's Travels. The narrative is written in such a way that it's way too childish, even though it was written with a younger crowd in mind. There's no real characterization, and what conflicts arise are resolved within just a few sentences, or paragraphs at most. There's almost no tension to the story.

Now, I understand I'm not the target audience, but I've read books written for younger readers that didn't sound this basic. I can't help but feel like Baxter could have done a much better job than this. Here's hoping that changes with the remaining books.

[Soobie has fog in her brain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soobie a 13 anni:

Bel libro. La Zona Gulliver è una zona dove si trovano i Lillipuziani e i giganti. Ma Metafora scopre che quei personaggi sono troppo veri per essere illusioni ma il gioco si fa pericoloso...