The Lobotomy Club (Neoreality Series) [Paperback]

Clifford Pickover (Author)

Book Description

Series: Neoreality Series | Publication Date: August 15, 2002

Critics agree: "Pickover's neoreality series is the hammer that shatters the ice of our unconscious." This groundbreaking science-fiction collection explores worlds separated from our own by imperceptible veils. In Liquid Earth, reality melts along a rustic Main Street in Shrub Oak, New York. The Lobotomy Club begins in a New Orleans bar, and Sushi Never Sleeps in a New York electronics store. Egg Drop Soup starts with a walk along the tranquil Chesapeake River. All familiar settings at first glance, but a new reality awaits....

You'll visit worlds replete with beautiful women and their surgically altered brains, fractal sex, Noah's Ark, hyperspace physics, hallucinating androids, prophetic ants, exotic sushi, satanic aliens, vitamin B-12, novel plastics, cosmic wormholes, and quests for God and the structure of ultimate reality.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bucky Fuller thought big; Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Pickover outdoes them both!" -- Wired

"Clifford A. Pickover is the heir apparent to Carl Sagan..." -- Robert J. Sawyer, author of Calculating God

"Pickover has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art, and thought." -- Los Angeles Times

"Pickover inspires a new generation of da Vincis to build unknown flying machines and create new Mona Lisas." -- Christian Science Monitor

Add together... Asimov, Gardner, and Sagan, and you get Pickover, one of the most thought provoking writers of our time. -- Michael Shermer, Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic, author of Borderlands of Science

From the Publisher

The books in the Neoreality series may be read in any order. The books are on similar themes but are separate and distinct.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Lighthouse Press (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971482772
• ISBN-13: 978-0971482777
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,947,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

From my publisher:

Clifford A. Pickover received his Ph.D. from Yale University and is the author of over 30 books on such topics as computers and creativity, art, mathematics, black holes, religion, human behavior and intelligence, time travel, alien life, and science fiction.

Pickover is a prolific inventor with dozens of patents, is the associate editor for several journals, the author of colorful puzzle calendars, and puzzle contributor to magazines geared to children and adults.

WIRED magazine writes, "Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." According to The Los Angeles Times, "Pickover has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art and thought."
The Christian Science Monitor writes, "Pickover inspires a new generation of da Vincis to build unknown flying machines and create new Mona Lisas." Pickover's computer graphics have been featured on the cover of many popular magazines and on TV shows.

His web site, Pickover.Com, has received millions of visits. His Blog RealityCarnival.Com is one of his most popular sites.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Religion, Adventure, Brain Surgery, August 18, 2002

By 

Herbert Custer (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lobotomy Club (Neoreality Series) (Paperback)

I have finished The Lobotomy Club and Liquid Earth, two of the four books in Pickover's Neoreality series. I can't say which book I like better. The Lobotomy Club was cool. In this book, people perform brain surgery on themselves to allow them to see religious visions and a "truer" or "higher" reality. As they explore a world filled with monstrous Biblical visions, Adam, Sayori, and their friends encounter a vast conspiracy and hellish dangers. Like Liquid Earth, this book had a fast pace and is filled with quirky, serious, and funny tidbits. One of my favorite scenes occurred in Sayori's high-tech apartment in which Adam meets the other members of the Lobotomy Club. They all have special talents, and many seem to be named after items you'd find on a sushi menu! Other favorite scenes involve a large insectile creature that stalks throughout much of the book.

As with Liquid Earth, Pickover's books make you question reality. The books in the series also make you wonder about religion and how we might open our minds so that we can reason beyond the limits of our brain. Pickover has a way of getting inside your head and scrambling it. Quirky, mind-expanding, emotional, creative, fun. (People who like The Lobotomy Club will also like Pickover's Liquid Earth, Heinlein's Job and Number of the Beast, Greg Egan's Diaspora, Philip K Dick's Ubik, and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.)

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brain Surgery Can be Fun, September 13, 2002

By 

Melanie Michaels (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lobotomy Club (Neoreality Series) (Paperback)

In The Lobotomy Club, a "cerebral Mobius strip" (brain rewiring) lets people have strange visions. This book has something for people with different tastes, from UFOs to insectile aliens to prodromic dreams, to reality shifts. The lead woman has an artificial arm that is quite versatile, as you'll soon find out. I'm trying to determine which member of the Lobotomy Club intrigues me most -- probably it's the woman who always wears sushi jewelry.

To appreciate the Neoreality book series, I found that I had to open myself up to the strange sensations I felt while reading them. Go with the flow. Enjoy the oddness. Don't bother reading these books if you just want a standard novel. But if you enjoy fun and strange concepts, these are certainly a delight.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lobotomy Club is fantastic!!, December 29, 2002

By 

Charles Rowe (NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lobotomy Club (Neoreality Series) (Paperback)

Lobotomy Club is a wonderful sci fi novel that will attempt to entertain you and push your notions of reality all at the same time. The subtle blending of truth with fiction will leave you contemplating how much of what you have read is true, and how much is part of the wonderful environment you have been drawn into. One of the greatest parts of this book is its strong use of allusion which displays Pickover's adeptness with more subtle humor.
This is a wonderful read for most levels. You can take it at face value for a wonderful ride through a bizzare sci-fi adventure, or you can delve deeper and be rewarded with various little treasures for your efforts.