Circuit of Heaven [Turtleback]

Dennis Danvers (Author)

Product Details

• Turtleback
• Publisher: Demco Media (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0606163387
• ISBN-13: 978-0606163385
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Could Live Forever..., September 7, 2002

By 

Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Circuit of Heaven (Mass Market Paperback)

Dennis Danvers is absolutely brilliant at taking some impossible premise and making it believable. This is the third novel of his that I've read and probably the best. In this one, a brave new world has been created, in which you can "upload" yourself into some kind of really far-out computer, and live forever in cyber-immortality. Most of humanity has already done so and is now living happily in "the Bin," while a few holdouts still populate an increasingly empty earth.

This is the background for the love story of Nemo and Justine--one living in "the real world" and the other in "the Bin." But, it's far more complicated than that. Who are these people, really? What does it mean to be a human being? What is the nature of personal identity? And, is immortality always worth the cost? These questions are explored not in theory, but in the story, and the story is beautiful.

What would you do? Give up eternal life for the person you love? Or give up real life for computerized immortality? And how would you decide? Profound and thoughtful story with an unobtrusive spiritual dimension. I recommend it highly.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good, thoughtful, exciting read, March 16, 2000

By 

Hank Schwartz "banjo & SciFi" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Circuit of Heaven (Mass Market Paperback)

I seem to gravitate to post-apocolyptic tales, whether they be happy or troubled scenarios, and thoroughly enjoyed this complex and gripping adventure.

While the concept of converting living human personalities into virtual ones has been done before, most excellently by Frederick Pohl in his "Gateway" series for example, I relished Danvers' believable portrayals of persons good and evil, "real" and virtual, human and construct.

There were sufficient twists and surprises to keep my up beyond my usual bed times, and I was genuinely touched by the ending. It's a keeper.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, September 12, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Circuit of Heaven (Hardcover)

In 2081, most of the human population has had their consciousness "uploaded" into a giant computer called the Bin. The Bin is a virtual, electronic world that approximates our own. Except there is no crime, disease or death. However, most people inside the Bin are unhappy and stagnating.

Outside the Bin, there are only about 2.5 million people. The Earth's population consists of survivalists, the criminally insane, religious fanatics, and Christian fundamentalists. As you can imagine, the world is a pretty interesting place to live in.

Nemo, our 21-year old protagonist, lives in this world. After his parents abandon him to upload themselves into the Bin, he lives in his old neigborhood, fixing CD players and VCRs for barter. He lives with his protector, a Construct named Lawrence (a seven foot lizard with 4 souls), and his best friend Johnathan (a Christian fundamentalist). Nemo doesn't want to enter the Bin because his grandmother, to whom he was very close, chose to die outside the Bin.

One day, while Nemo is visiting inside the Bin with his parents, he meets Justine. Justine is Nemo's dream woman, and she seems to have no memory of her life outside the Bin.

The mystery and relationship between Justine and Nemo grows as they discover the secrets of those in the Bin, and those outside of it.

I really enjoyed this novel and I would highly recommend it to SF fans. My only complaint is that it wasn't long enough. It's 373 pages, but the size of the book is only about half the size of a normal hardcover. The cover states that Dennis Danvers is hard at work at a sequel, which I will definitely pick up as soon as it comes out.