Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must read cyberpunk, July 2, 2007
James, R. Strickland and Scott Humphries have just been added to my `must read list'. Apparently this book is from a startup publisher called "Flying Pen Press". I rather like their tagline of "Giving flight to great books." I went through their web site and found that their intent is to only publish the best of the best, so if it says 'flying pen press' it has been vetted by multiple editors and found not just print worthy, but damn good. (and it WAS!)
I read it in three days flat! Great book that I could not put down. This is an excellent first publication from this press. I will certainly buy the next few books that they publish, in the hope that they are even remotely as good as this one. I found this book to be fast paced action throughout in the cyberpunk genre' and loved it. An absolutely wonderful future look at where our technology is going and what eventually will happen when the line between technology and our brains blurs.
It took me a bit to realize that the lead character was a wheelchair bound paraplegic! The author gives us snippets and bits of background to help develop his world as he tells the story, rather than the huge information dump up front of which I am familiar. (And which I detest!) I gather this is also James Strickland's first novel; and that too is hard to believe. This would be a great novel from someone who is well established in the field. I sincerely hope that these two people have more stuff in the pipe for me soon.
This is a very well-told story with plenty of action and good character interactions as well. The back and forth play between the online virtual world and the real world I found to be quite entertaining, and while I did have an inkling of what the finale was going to be by about halfway through the book, I was not at all disappointed in how it turned out and how the author brought it to a climax.
This book is easily worth reading more than once, (and I like to read a lot!) My only pause in thought through out the book was the 6 by 9 format. How are you going to get shelf space with something that is slightly larger than the normal 'pocket book' of the mass media addition?
Great read though; I am absolutely sure you're going to find this book fun.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Book, July 4, 2007
I have been disappointed by a number of new authors who have clearly used some sort of formula to write their book. This book is not like that - it has its own style. It's absorbing reading: it draws you in effortlessly. Details appear where needed, and not as a "scene setting" first chapter. I have reread it twice now, and it gains more depth with each reading. It's going to be really hard to wait for James' next book! I highly recommend this book.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book & won't upset the techies., March 24, 2008
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This book is full steam ahead cyber punk goodness. I think there is a misstep at 3/4 of the way in. At that point some of the reveals felt more like tricks to me and I started to get disappointed. Before I could flip the off switch, "Looking Glass" revved back up. I really enjoyed the ending. A tough-as-nails female protagonist, secret conspiracies that make sense, and a future world that I can almost touch. Wonderful debut by James Strickland.
The story is basically about a female network administrator who fights hacking of the worst kind. If you fail, you die. And if you succeed then you wipe someone's mind away. It's a terrible case of job burn-out. Everything is going normally, burning the baddies until one day someone appears that can read their minds. At least it seems that way. Jump left, get burnt. Jump right, already waiting there for you. What do you do? And the worst part is that it's hard to tell what/who is real anymore.
It might seem like a retread of older cyberpunk novels if you're looking just on the surface, but "Looking Glass" is not. This reflection goes much deeper.
Overall one of the most satisfying reads in a long time. I really do recommend this book, even to non-techies.
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