I should have stopped reading this book. Within the first chapters I knew I didn’t like the main character, the imprecision, the never-ending vibe of college students smoking weed and waxing philosophical about Dune, Apocalypse Now and the Rastafarians – though near the end of the book a few details indicated the characters must be about 50 years old… aged weed-smokers waxing philosophical after decades of altering their mind is not better. I guess that must describe the author too. This isn’t his first book but it seems to be his first novel so there are a lot of the common debut issues in story-telling. I kept going because the technological near-future is very interesting. I would have loved more description of that universe and how our present reaches it.
The provided description is fairly inaccurate. Lion Zorn is an empathy-tracker who works for corporations to foresee cultural trends to allow them to best market their products. He is one of a few, though an early one. A former journalist and animal rights activist his increased empathy can send him spiraling when he sees animal products. And apparently makes him dramatically exhausted, though several joints a day probably doesn't help. The Arctic corporation’s pharmaceutical wing contracts Lion to find the leader of the Rilkeans… and the story gets totally lost. The ending does tie up some loose ends, but I found it about as believable as an afternoon soap opera. I doubt I would pick up another novel from this author, but maybe his non-fiction is researched, organized, and edited.
by Steven Kotler
2 stars
I should have stopped reading this book. Within the first chapters I knew I didn’t like the main character, the imprecision, the never-ending vibe of college students smoking weed and waxing philosophical about Dune, Apocalypse Now and the Rastafarians – though near the end of the book a few details indicated the characters must be about 50 years old… aged weed-smokers waxing philosophical after decades of altering their mind is not better. I guess that must describe the author too. This isn’t his first book but it seems to be his first novel so there are a lot of the common debut issues in story-telling. I kept going because the technological near-future is very interesting. I would have loved more description of that universe and how our present reaches it.
The provided description is fairly inaccurate. Lion Zorn is an empathy-tracker who works for corporations to foresee cultural trends to allow them to best market their products. He is one of a few, though an early one. A former journalist and animal rights activist his increased empathy can send him spiraling when he sees animal products. And apparently makes him dramatically exhausted, though several joints a day probably doesn't help. The Arctic corporation’s pharmaceutical wing contracts Lion to find the leader of the Rilkeans… and the story gets totally lost. The ending does tie up some loose ends, but I found it about as believable as an afternoon soap opera. I doubt I would pick up another novel from this author, but maybe his non-fiction is researched, organized, and edited.