Exit to Reality: A Novel (Forbes, Edith) [Paperback]

Edith Forbes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 1998 | Series: Forbes, Edith

When Euclid (real name Lydian) ventures onto the Random Queries and Idle Speculation bulletin board she meets Proteus (real name Merle), a self-described misfit who admits to unemployment. Lydian is wary of this impossibility. After all, it is the 29th century and such oddities have been eliminated. But curiosity and a desire to jettison her culturally induced techno-stupor lead Lydian to rendezvous with Merle, igniting an unlikely meeting of the minds - and bodies. Lydian and Merle's careening love affair takes them from Paris to Jamaica, from the wrong side of the law to the far side of late-millennium family values, and ultimately, to a face-off between technology and civilization that spurs Lydian to question - and then dismantle - the very essence of human existence.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The 29th century has arrived and such inconveniences as war, disease, poverty, and unemployment have been rendered obsolete, allowing humans to work and live easily and efficiently. They are also free to contemplate their own seemingly worthless existence and strict adherence to rigid societal norms. This existential dilemma is particularly acute for Lydian, an information analyst suffering from acute boredom. An unlikely cure arrives in the form of Merle, a mysterious stranger who somehow lives beyond the boundaries of the prescribed culture, and who is capable of altering his form and gender. This chance meeting leads to an affair that provides Lydian with the excitement she craves, as well as a means of escape from both the confines of a sterile culture and a self-imposed psychological prison. Exit to Reality examines the role of technology in a modern society, confronting the question of who is truly in control. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In her first foray into science fiction, novelist Forbes (Nowle's Passing, LJ 4/15/96) creates a utopian world in 3000 A.D. in which the population has stabilized, almost everybody is employed, crime has been eradicated, everyone is good-looking, and individuals go through a regular regeneration process that erases their childhood memories. Lydian, an information analyst, encounters unemployed Merle online and agrees to meet him in Paris. When she discovers that he can change his appearance instantly, Lydian suspects that Merle is not human but a virtual-reality construct. Then Merle teaches her the secrets of shape-shifting, and the inquisitive Lydian begins to question their very existence. Forbes explores issues of morality, mortality, sexuality, loneliness, ecology, and bioengineering in this thought-provoking, chilling look at a potential future. Highly recommended for sf collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (April 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580050034
• ISBN-13: 978-1580050036
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,587,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect postmodern love story!, August 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Exit to Reality: A Novel (Forbes, Edith) (Paperback)

Don't listen to Kirkus--EXIT TO REALITY is one of the best books I've ever read. Edith Forbes portrays a feminist love in the future, in which bodies no longer tie people to the inexorable identites "woman" or "man." I've had everyone I know read it, including the whole staff of The Feminist Press! You'll like it even if you're not normally a sci-fi fan.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you liked The Matrix, May 16, 2000

By 

Renee Strickland (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Exit to Reality: A Novel (Forbes, Edith) (Paperback)

If you liked The Matrix, I highly recommend this book. Very original premise, with a wonderful cast of characters and situations. Fast read, and will keep you thinking long after you put it down.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent dystopic vision, June 23, 2003

By 

Barb Caffrey "writer-for-hire" (In a Midwest State (of mind), USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Exit to Reality (Hardcover)

Edith Forbes book "Exit to Reality" is marketed as a "utopian vision," but it is not. In actuality, life in the 29th century is a _dystopia_, where every action is highly regulated, and your life path set almost from birth.

Lydian, an information analyst, is bored to tears. Her lover is unexciting; her relationships with co-workers, stale. Her "Mom" (a machine construct) and "Dad" keep her amused, but no more. And she wonders what else there is to life than this.

As she's cruising the computer bulletin boards one day, she meets an unusual person, Merle. Merle asks her to meet him in Paris; she barely has enough credits for this, but goes anyway because she's just that bored. Merle astounds her with his ability to shapeshift, yet no one else seems to notice.

As they go to other parts of the world together (he knows how to travel without money), they realize many strange things. Food doesn't taste quite right. People act too much the same, considering. And they definitely *look* too much the same.

Simply put: in trying to make things easier, by erasing differences, instead, society made them worse because conformity is now even more rigidly enforced than before. Finding out that reality is actually on the inside of a computer matrix wasn't as surprising as it may have been before the movie "The Matrix," but it still wasn't totally expected.

Forbes writes well; she's witty and inventive, and her asides about food, tea, and life in general are well worth the price of admission even if the plot hadn't been as good as it was. In addition, I believed in the romance between the bored Lydian and the uber-shapeshifter Merle; they seemed a good match, as both had wondered for a long time the eternal question, "Is this all there is? Is there nothing more?" rather than sidestepping it, as most people generally seem to do.

This is an excellent book about dystopias and how they never work, and about the continuing and surprising powers of the mind and human achievement. Highly recommended.