What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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The Eden Cycle
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. Virtual reality, read in late 1980s or 1990s. Spoilers ahead... [s]
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I think I read it to but I have no idea. Back then I was reading a lot of cyberpunk. Could it have been one of William Gibson's?
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To bump, just go in and type something (the word "BUMP" is the most commonly used way to do it) then hit post.
That way, new members will see it, and those of us who have been in the group longer will have it in our minds when we are out shopping.
I'm really interested myself now, sounds like it's right up my alley.
Still haven't found this. Anyone got any ideas?
Not Otherland, there are no glowing balls and people don't get new bodies.Was this a full-length novel, or a short story/novella? This is nagging at me that I've read it as part of a collection or anthology, but I'm coming up blank for the moment...
Do you remember anything at all about the cover? Did you get it from the library or a bookstore? Any sense of whether it was by a "big name" author?
My sense is that it was a stand alone novel, a paperback. I know I owned it at sme point. It was not a very long novel.I do not believe it was by a big name author, in the sense that it wasn't anyone I'd heard of at the time, although it's possible that the author may have gone onto become more famous, and I didn't notice, since I can't remember his name. Pretty sure it was "his" name, however.
Hm. Parts of it sound like Another End (better description here). Parts of it also sound like Beyond This Horizon and Fury. None of those are an exact match, though.
Not one of those, although they all sound interesting.
Still looking for this one. The good news is that my dad also recalls reading it, but cannot recall the name or author, either.
I'm still curious about this one. Sounds good, I'd read it.
I keep hoping this one will get solved; I want to read it too!
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I would have thought quite sure, but it's been a lot of years since I read it, and I am open to the possibility that I am wrong about the name.
I am bumping this, because I still have not solved this -- and hope burns eternal that someone will know what book it is.
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www.worldcat.org (advanced search) -- Keyword: virtual reality aliens | 1960-2000 | Non-Juvenile | Fiction | Book | English
I keep checking back on this because I've read this book too and it's so frustrating not being able to find it now. I read it within the last couple of years and it didn't feel dated to me, it could have been brand new! I'll keep looking for it!
I am sooooo pleased to know someone else read this! It was starting to seem like I must have imagined the whole thing.
Still haven't found this. (It's not Leap Point, although that sounds interesting.)
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Pretty sure it was written in the 80s, before YA was an actual genre category. While the book starts out with the narrator and Jen in high school, they then live many hundreds or thousands of years after that — in short, I suspect it was written for adults. But I could be wrong, as it's been a long time since I read it.
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One Goodreads reviewer says, "The beginning 1/4 of the book is a budding love story... Then abruptly you discover that things are not what they seem. Life is a Matrix. The characters are human, but due to a signal from outer space, which was translated, verified and eventually the machinery needed was built, now death has been eradicated, people have become immortal, living multiple lives, however they choose. But none of it is real. Reality is that the human essence is stored in vaults as little energy orbs. The lives that people live are basically dreams... The characters live as they will, until they get bored, then kill themselves off and begin another."
Wow, well done Kris, I think you’ve found it!!
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site:www.goodreads.com "science fiction" aliens virtual reality "matrix" "bored" kill
I'll mark this as Solved. If you find this isn't your book, just come back and let us know.
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Yes!! Awesome.Why did it not occur to me to put "matrix" in my Google searches?
Thanks so much!
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
The Eden Cycle (other topics)Leap Point (other topics)
Another end (other topics)
Beyond This Horizon (other topics)
Fury (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Raymond Z. Gallun (other topics)Kay Kenyon (other topics)
Spoiler-y description: Turns out I recall a LOT about this book, just not the author or title.
Written in first person by a male narrator. The other main character is a woman named Jen. I do not recall if the narrator is given a name.
Book starts by describing Jen and the narrator growing up in a mid-20th century town somewhere in what I think was the Midwest. They are childhood sweethearts. She is more restless and intelligent than he. When they are in high school, she starts asking things like "what if this is not a real world?" and "what if we could escape?"
Soon, the narrator suspects that she has, in fact, escaped, partly because she seems to have no more interest in such questions. So one night he lies awake in bed and manages to somehow think himself out of the small town. He lands on a beach in Hawai'i, where Jen appears, tan enough to suggest she has been there awhile. She pulls a wad of money out of mid-air.
Then there is a section about some of their adventures, both together and apart. In the course of these adventures, they also figure out how the system is set up. It seems that aliens came to Earth with an IVR-type technology. Most humans have been absorbed by the machine and now exist as some kind of glowing balls in a big vat. The planet has been allowed to return to a state unintruded upon by humans and their technology. At one point, the narrator asks to see his little glowing ball. Then he wants to see Jen, but it turns out that she is one of a small minority of people who are too restless and intense to be reducible to a glowing ball, so her body is kept in suspended animation.
Meanwhile, narrator and Jen are growing bored with being able to invent new scenarios and live them out. Narrator becomes discouraged when an alien tells him that in all the lifetimes he has lived in the system he has had no moment of experience that is entirely original to him. Jen and narrator realize that last time they got this bored, they had their minds wiped and started over as children in the location that was the first part of the book. This time, they want to opt out entirely.
So the aliens cook them up new bodies and release them in the North American plains. It all goes well for awhile. Then Jen is injured or sick, and they realize they do not have the skills to survive outside for real, when death is final. So they decide to brainwipe again, but this time, they choose to be raised in a pre-Columbian North American tribe so that when they eventually get bored and get new bodies, they will have the skills to live in that environment. The aliens take them back into the system.
There are numerous issues with the book, including exoticising non-Western cultures and depicting women in a way I sometimes had trouble relating to. On the other hand, as you can see, in a world where I read several hundred books a year, this one stuck with me for over 20 years, and I want to find it and reread it.
Any ideas what it might be?