Customer Reviews

Exit to Reality: A Novel (Forbes, Edith)

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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.

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.

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.

I read this book a while before the Internet became the daily presence in most American's lives that it is today. Rereading this book quite recently, I am struck by how much closer our world is to the author's vision than it was 10 years ago. Eerie.

Try juxtaposing this novel with the novel, "Feed".

In a farflung future, Euclid (whose real name is Lydian) responds on the computer bulletin board to a posting by someone named Proteus. In the ensuing conversation, Proteus admits to being unemployed, which is essentially unheard of and is cause for alarm. Yet Lydian is intrigued, and meets Proteus (whose real name is Merle), who soon confesses a secret. He can change his appearance at will, but he cannot remember what he originally looked like, or whether he was actually male. Merle shares this ability with Lydian, and the two begin a passionate love affair that crosses boundaries of gender and sexuality and that challenges the world in which they live. Yet the world isnt ready for change, and it finds ways to challenge them back, which causes Lydian and Merle to discover more about their world and the essence of love and existence than they originally intended. Exit to Reality is a vibrantly imaginative love story, as well as a terrific meditation on the battle between civilization and technology.

Life drones on for Lydian, a government information analyst, who works at home in northern California,via computer, and is slowly moving up the career ladder. The only significant changes that she has to look forward to are a house with a better view and slightly more luxurious vacations and neither will be hers unless she conforms to the complex pattern of regulations that govern life in the 29th century.

Then, Lydian's life is thrown into turmoil by a chance e-mail meeting with Merle, who has chosen to live on the fringes of society and entices her to join him. From their first meeting in Paris, when she witnesses Merle's body morph from older man to young boy, a stunningly inventive story unfolds, leading Lydian to question all of her most cherished beliefs about both the science and the meaning of life.

Edith Forbes has created a future in which the boundaries between virtual reality and life as we currently know it have disappeared. Death is no longer a necessity. Carefully regulated lives march on, in very orderly fashion, century after century. With Merle as both her mentor and lover, Lydian slowly uncovers truths that are so difficult to digest that she finds herself on the brink of psychological collapse and dangerously close to playing a role in destroying all life on earth.

As you find the answers to the little questions, such as why Lydian is able to consume 50 doughnuts in one sitting without getting sick, your mind will expand to wrap itself around the big questions posed by this compelling book. A wonderful marriage of fascinating technical detail, suspense,compassion and humor, "Exit to Reality is simply not to be missed!