Customer Reviews

Getting Back (Gemstar)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Just finished this today after recently having completed Ice Reich. It was obviously very well researched; full of all kinds of fascinating details about wilderness living. It is not surprising that this author is a natural history journalist. His concern for the environment and the dehumanizing effects of technology is evident throughout. Like all good anti-utopian (sort of) novels, it is really frighteningly plausible. This is what could happen if our population just keeps on increasing and increasing. Anyway, thought provoking, gripping without being too grisly, and an altogether wonderful read!

One of the most gripping novels I have read in the last 5 years! Superb character development coupled with compelling love and survival storylines shine and drive you to keep reading. Climaxes in the book are delivered with subtle twists surprise, and the imagagery makes me want to go see the australian outback and see how I change.

Getting Back is one of the best books I have read. It is simple and complex at the same time and leaves the reader hanging onto each page. One of my favorite things about the book is the intensity of it. The scary part is that something like this novel could really happen! The author is obviously a talented writer and weaves a suspenseful tale that is worthy of being read by all readers. I am not a reader that is usually attracted to this type of book but a friend recommended it to me and I am so glad that she did - I would recommend this book without reservation to any reader. It is a hit!

William Dietrich's novel Getting Back is one of those rare novels that is both interesting and well-paced; I sped through it over the span of three evenings. It meshes several large ideas together with a well thought out vision of the future and some characters that most readers will identify and sympathize with. Its minor drawback is a rather predictable and sappy ending.

In the future, the society is one of uniformity, controlled by a company that has merged with the government (or vice versa). Billions of people work for this company, and while some are content, others long for adventure and a way to be individualistic. One of these is Daniel Dyson, the main character of the story, an intelligent young programmer, history major, who is so bored at work he makes catapults to launch love notes to fellow workers and tried to hack into the expense reporting system.

He is "led" by underground internet contacts and a subversive young lady whom he is smitten with named Raven to Outback Adventures, a hidden, shady group that offers to drop people in Australia (which is now completely abandoned and quarantined because of a plague) with the goal of crossing the continent to get to an Exodus point on the far east coast.

To review the rest of the story would be to spoil it. Suffice to say that the trek and adventure lead Daniel, Raven and the others they encounter through a lot of self and cultural examination (has our society evolved the right way? could there have been another way? am I really a non-conformist or just an individualist?)

Some books who take on so many large ideas (world dominated by corporation, plague, conformity vs. individuality, etc.) get lost in the discussion of them, and, while I did find myself scanning through on a couple of pages of arguments about whether the current society was good or bad, for the most part Mr. Dietrich weaves these into an action packed adventure story. It is science fiction in the sense of the events that have happened and that it is placed in the future, but the trek across Australia makes it more of an adventure novel.

Highly reccommended. I go now in search of Mr. Dietrich's other novels.

As William Dietrich sees the future in Getting Back cities have expanded beyond all boundaries and everyone is given a pleasant career nook under the rule of United Corporations. The problem is not everyone feels happy or copperative in their given career role. Daniel Dyson, the main character feels alienated and unhappy. He spends his free time in the cyber world trying to uncover secrets of the UC or running "outside" an extremely dangerous way to pass time. Dyson buys onto a trip by Outback Adventures and finds himself in the outback of Australia under extremely trying conditions.

In purchasing this book, labeled a mystery thriller, I assumed it was more of a man against nature with a human adversary thrown in for good measure. Instead it is a futuristic novel whose vision may not be far off the mark - there are genetic engineering fowl-ups, mega conglomerates who rule the world and massive epidemics which wipe out large segments of the population. While the book promotes a back to nature perspective it does not adequately describe the scenery and the struggles with nature.

After a prologue that catches the readers interest and is exciting and intriguing. The author spends over one hundred long pages setting the scene of the future before the action really gets rolling. There is a side romance to satisfy everyone, however Raven(the woman) never fills out to be any more than a shadow woman.

Having said all that I would recommend this book to those who enjoy futuristic novels and a look at the five star reviews proves that there are those who found the book to be more to their taste.

Well, Big Brother (or United Corporation) is watching and they don't want anyone that doesn't fit into their mold. And they take steps to make the "discontented" disappear.

I enjoyed Dietrich's novel about this not-so-distant future. I thought his storyline was unique; there was good if not great character development. I really liked that most of the story took place in Australia with good descriptive sequences of the countryside. I thought there could have been a little more action and a little less politics but then this is a novel warning us of possible future scenarios if the world doesn't get it's act together.

This book was certainly good enough to make me round up some more of Dietrich's books to peruse.

I began reading Dietrich for his history/action/fiction novels featuring his Ethan Gage character. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of those so far and thought I'd try something else by him.
'Getting Back' is a future earth that is run by one massive corporation. Every citizen has their own personal niche and doesn't wander outside of it. There's no war, disease, famine, etc., but there are always going to be people that try to jam a square peg in a round hole. These folks that chafe at the status quo are given the opportunity to escape regulated society and take a vacation to the wilds of Australia.
Australia had apparently been decimated by some type of accidental man-made bio engineering experiment that went way wrong, and wiped out all the people on that island continent. Now it was just used to send folks on an outback vacation away from ordered society, or so they were told. In reality, Australia had once again reverted to its original use by decent society; that of wide-open continent-sized penal colony dumping ground.
The people that wanted to get away from society got their wish...now they just have to survive! Great action read and commentary on the human condition. The grass ain't always greener on the other side.

I have been pleasantly surprised by William Dietrich, firstly because Historical Fiction is not my normal reading venue and secondly because I've burned through 5 of his books in the last month.

This, like all his other books I've read up to this point, is a major page turner and hard to put down. The characters, landscapes, and situations all seem pluasible and highly realistic. All of his books would make fantastic movies.

In the twenty-first century, the world is perfect with everyone employed and no one going hungry, lacking shelter and advances in biology eradicate many killer diseases. United Corporations believe in a win-win philosophy that leaves no one outside the basic human needs. However, switching from Maslov to Plato, perfect also means boredom.

Just ask the occupant of Quadrant 43 Level 31 Cubicle 17 Daniel Dyson who feels like everyday is "playing solitaire with a deck of fifty-one. His stunts gain him lectures, threats of firing (no chance that ever happening in this win-win world), and increasing ennui.

However, when Daniel meets Raven his life changes. She persuades him to try Outback Adventures where he will have an opportunity to taste freedom during a survival trek across the bio-engineered destroyed continent. Daniel agrees to the journey. Unbeknownst to Daniel and his fellow bored trekkies is that Australia has become a "penal colony" again where the dangerous and the bored are left to survive or die because these two groups are most menacing to the perfect world.

GETTING BACK is a terrific tale that centers on a futuristic Daniel Boone type seeking and receiving something new in his drab life. What is admired in early nineteenth century frontier America is criminal in the twenty-first century. Dropping individuals into elements outside their norm has been a staple of literature and movies for a long time. However, William Dietrich keeps the tale original by retaining an amusing undercurrent and parodies of vogue theories that enhances a taut thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Its 2048 A. D. and Daniel Dyson is a bored malcontent stuck in a cubical which is buried in a company (called Microcore... what a great name) with little future and less opportunity. In this future United Corporations controls everyone's lives and if you don't rock the boat they let you work in one of their win-win companies. This is OK for most people except Daniel who feels suffocated, stifled and underemployed.

Daniel is convinced by Raven, a beautiful mysterious woman, that he can escape this phony world and test his hidden talents in an Outback Adventure. Australia has been quarantined off-limits for human habitation for many years due to Virus 03.1. Nevertheless, Daniel is ready for a challenge and signs up for the vacation of his life. Although, this is no ordinary vacation.

This is a vacation from hell. Daniel and his group suffer snakebite, starvation, extreme thirst depravation and exhaustion. Unbeknownst to Daniel, Australia has been the repository for the Morally Impaired (a.k.a. convicts). I guess even in the future we still don't know what to do with our social misfits. These convicts (visualize rejects from a Mad Max movie) are interested solely in escaping the island. The head convict aptly named "Warden" wants to get off the island and he believes that Daniel's group can supply him the means for his freedom. Warden captures Daniel's group and make it part of his weird collective. But Daniel and his group escape and make a mad dash to the east coast of Australia where they hope to signal an air rescue. However....That is as much as I wish to give away at this point.

There is very little about this book that I didn't like. It had science fiction, good dialog and a George Orwell
1984-like feel. Perhaps Dietrich could have added a map to help us visualize the trek better but that is a minor complaint to a book that I enjoyed. Dietrich's world of the future is a bleak one but that makes the adventure all that much more fun to read. Overall a good story and well worth the price.