Customer Reviews

Vectors

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am perhaps not the most objective of sources, as Mike is an old friend of mine. We met our first day of college at Michigan State University (mumble mumble) years ago and have been close friends ever since.

However, what I lack in objectivity, perhaps I can make up for with scope. I've read pretty much every piece of fiction Mike has ever published, a few that he hasn't published, and some of his non-fiction as well.

The story is well enough described in the cover blurb and other materials, so I won't go into that.

All of Mike's books and stories are good, but this is the best yet. In it he combines all his numerous strengths as a writer and human being. Mike has always been able to make the science part of science fiction intelligible to non-science types like me, without talking down, and he weaves the needed explication into the narrative far more seamlessly than most. He was an unusually thoughtful and inquisitive college freshman, and has become an unusually thoughtful and inquisitive mature writer. Without simply falling into credulity, he manages to make the topic of reincarnation, if not yet scientifically respectable, then worthy of cautious inquiry.

More than in most "hard" SF, his characters are fully human and fleshed out, warts and all. The all-too-common "tell the readers what they need to know about quantum mechanics for the story to work, why don't you" kind of dialog is replaced with real conversation between believable human beings. Humor and tragedy interweave in the lives of his characters, just as they do in real life.

I could effuse a lot more, but you get the point.

Do yourself a favor and buy this book. Do some of your friends a favor, and buy them copies, too.

Ugh. I thought I had liked some of his stuff in the past, this was really crap. Scientist takes pictures of brainwaves, unique as fingertips, discovers identical ones from an old man and a kid born after the old man's death. His Wiccan, video game genius new girlfriend is killed by gang-bangers after he has scoffed at her suggestion that this is proof of reincarnation, so he goes on a mission to prove her theory. After a bunch of plot, he kills himself so he can be reincarnated soon after she is, so he can hook up with her again ASAP -- good plan.
I had thought he was more of a hard science guy, what's with the fuzzy reincarnation bit???

Mr. KMD weaves a wonderful cautionary tale of the near future. There is hard neuroscience mixed with speculative spiritualism, but the bottom line is living, loveable characters who adapt and grow. And the ending is a shocker...but the very next page is a sneak peek into the sequel ("Fragments"). By the time this series is over (feels like at least three, maybe four books in all), Michael will have turned the whole universe upside down. If you read it only to see a dark vision of where we shouldn't go in his setting, you should read it. But there is also an orchard full of ideas, some hard science, others ehtereal, to be savored. I can hardly wait for book 2. This novel is a triumph; albeit act one. Buy and read if you like sci-fi at all, and for sure if you are either a) of open-minded spritual grounding, but especially if b) you think you know how the universe works (because you have a wake up call...)

Someone else mentioned staying up all night to read Vectors. I found myself once again getting far too little sleep because I just wanted to read "one more chapter!"

Other reviewers have been more eloquent than I but I agree that one of Kube-McDowell's strength's has always been making science interesting to a non-scientest like myself. However, I'd say that what I love best about all of Mr. Kube-McDowell's writing is the way he takes an interesting subject, presents all sides of it, and writes characters you really care about to play out the story.

I'd highly recommend this book, especially to anyone curious about the blending of science and spirituality.

Sometimes, things just seem to come together. A brilliant scientist meets a creative pioneer. Science meets philosophy. And a mystery meets a mystery.

When was the last time I stayed up all night reading a book, even when I didn't really have the time, even when I had things to do the next day, because I simply could not bear to put the book down? When was the last time a book beat sleep? When was the last time I finished a book and then had to keep it with me the next day so I could go back and start reading it all over again?

Well, these days, that doesn't happen for me all that often, but it happened with Vectors. I stayed up all night reading Vectors (the first time; I'm halfway through the second reading), because I could not, would not, not even at the promptings of family and friends--not even when I knew where we were going and no one else in the car did--put it down. Everything else paled when placed next to my engagement with this book.

Vectors is full of unlikely meetings, seeming coincidences and risks. Kube-McDowell breaks every rule in the hard science-fiction author's canon. There's spiritualism, having tea with neuroscience. There's a respectful nod to the neopagan community, dallying over questions of evidence and data. There's a sweeping love story that encompasses everything else and makes this story sweet and real without being cloying or predictable.

Everything is vivid, from the science to the characters to the descriptions of a not-too-distant future Ann Arbor. Kube-McDowell's prose is gorgeous, lush without being purple, almost romantic. The characters are alive. You want to know them. The story itself is a roller coaster ride that will engage you from page one. I wasn't able to put it down. I'm having trouble putting it down for the second time. I put it down to write this review, because I don't want it to end again. It's going on the reread-every-year-or-so shelf with books like Stranger In A Strange Land and Jitterbug Perfume.

Michael Kube-McDowell has taken some risks, writing a book like Vectors. And Vectors is a risk worth taking.

I have done something that I never do. I have ordered three copies of this book. One is a Yule gift for friend. The second I'm keeping to read over again. The third I'm tucking away for when my first copy falls apart.

It takes amazing courage for a respected SF author of Kube-McDowell's reputation to tackle a subject like reincarnation. That's usually the venue of New Age crystal clinkers or East Indian guhrus. Vectors succeeds at examining this concept from the unusual juxtapostion of both neuroscience and spiritualism. The protagonist/scientist must find more than Empirical evidence of something no person on the planet has ever discovered, that life goes on after death. The writer's other equally brave challenge is that he's embraced the tale in the arms of an amazing love story.

Kube-McDowell is one of those authors whom I respect and trust. He transmits the spark of life to full-bodied, intelligent, passionate characters, and he's no slouch when it comes to the science. Arthur C. Clarke of 2001, A Space Odessey fame has collaborated with this man on a recent project, so you know there will be no fudge factor for fuzzy logic in his work. And that integrity lays Vectors' firm foundation. There are no ignored thought trails, no easy outs or do-overs. Dr. Jonathan Briggs must get the science right, and this character proves true to his intellect and to his emotions.

Vectors does something else that I rarely ever see in science fiction. This novel acurately portrays Wiccan and Pagan people in their environs of a spiritual gathering. Kube-McDowell grants these major and minor characters grace and dignity without falling into dogma.

There is nothing... I repeat NOTHING lax about this book. It held my curiosity captive for the entire read. I found myself sneaking paragraphs at stop lights, reading in slow traffic, sitting in my car in my driveway turning pages, and not putting it down until 3 a.m.

I am baffled at the five-star reviews on this book. I bought it because someone recommended it, and because of the reviews here. If you're looking for a well-written piece of fiction that incorporates the concept of reincarnation, look elsewhere.

The only reason I give this book two stars is because the premise in intriguing. The writing, however, is awful. I found grammatical errors and inconsistencies throughout. The worst part of this book, though, has to be the ending. It seems as if the author dug himself into a hole and then took the easy way out. Having read other books on the subject of reincarnation, I can think of many other possibilities that would have made the ending more palatable, and perhaps a lot more interesting.

If you want to read a book that was obviously published without the benefit of an editor, a book that takes the easy way out when confronted with a life-and-death dilemma... go ahead and read this one. For those who are looking to read about reincarnation, try the non-fiction section. The books by Michael Newton, Brian Weiss, and others who have experience in this area are much more interesting... in some cases, more interesting than fiction.

I'm only half-way through this book, but I'm hooked! The characters are thoroughly believable, and having broken 50 years old, the author has made me think about several issues that I am facing in the last half of this life. I can highly recommend this book!

Over the course of this book we meet Dr. Briggs, who isn't the most stable person to begin with. His career as a scientist is grinding to a halt when he meets the woman of his dream. The honeymoon doesn't last long and he's plunged into a quagmire of grief and the questionable behaviors it causes. Rather than science, this book is about personal beliefs about the afterlife and how they are subject to change. Perhaps if Briggs had gotten the help he needed after his girlfriend's death, he could have handled it better.

This is a book that starts with a lot of promise and ends with pure depression and desperation.

The author challenges us to think about the nature of consciousness in this fast-paced story of a professor researching brain patterns. Dr. Jonathon Briggs believes man is more than a machine and feels he can "find" personality in the colorful images he takes of brains, using expensive scanning equipment. But he apparently doesn't think he's looking for a soul or for the part of man that might be immortal. And he operates in the academic world where skepticism is heavy for anything that can't be proved through repeatable experiments. That eventually gets him in trouble with his academic colleagues.

After he falls in love with a woman who designs video games, but would like to be able to capture real experiences that could be played back in another person's brain, Jonathon begins to look deeper. When he finds two of his brain images are an exact match, he thinks either his premise - that each personality is unique - is wrong, or he's been thinking of these images in the wrong way. Could those two people be the same person? One was an older man who had died and the other a young child born after the man whose image matched. You figure it out.

While I enjoyed most of this story, I also wondered if that part of us that survives death is really reflected in brain images. Is the idea that you could use these matching brain patterns to "prove" that the one person is the reincarnation of the other really valid? How this is so was never well explained. The author seemed to have little understanding of reincarnation as it's been conceived of by spiritual teachers and communication with "the other side." The book does not mention the concept of karma (action - reaction, what you do to others comes back to you) that is part of the most widely-accepted view of reincarnation. The ending to this book is all wrong. Jonathon's lover has been murdered and the cops think he did it. His work is far from being accepted and he is miserable without the woman he loved.

Not wanting to give away the plot, but if you want to read a fascinating novel dealing with life after death, I highly recommend What Dreams May Comeby Richard Matheson as more in tune with a spiritual understanding of life after death. Reincarnation is not an invitation to depart this world and leave your troubles behind. This life is a bit like a school where we have lessons to learn, and the time of our departure is not up to us. Aside from the author's lack of understanding of the spiritual consequences, it did not seem likely that Jonathon would want to leave his work unfinished. Perhaps the author simply wrote himself into a corner and, like his character, took the easy way out.