Customer Reviews

Virtual Mode (Bookcassette(r) Edition)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

As a longtime fan of Piers Anthony, I wasn't overly impressed with this book, or the remainder of the series (although I haven't read it all yet, and I do intend to finish it). I didn't feel drawn into the characters, and the story itself didn't enthrall me. However, this may be mainly because I am not the target audience for this series; judging by other reader reviews I have read, adolescent females feel a very strong bond to the lead character, and the book seems to touch thier emotions on a very personal level. I feel this is one of Anthony's strengths, the ability to write very specifically to his audience, and reach them completely, even if this lowers the appeal for others. If you are not an adolescent female, or have not been one, this may not be the book for you. However, it may provide some insight into what motivates and interests today's female youth.

I sympathize with the reviewer who said that the first few pages of _Virtual Mode_ turned them off of the book. I was given this novel as a gift when I was about eleven or so; I, too, read the opening passage and was disturbed into putting the book away, not touching it again for another year. Yet once I really began to read it, I found myself drawn into a grim reality where even the wonders of magic cannot compensate for the horrors of the human psyche.

I adore the protagonists: Colene, the mentally and emotionally twisted young woman whose attitudes and perceptions have been skewed almost beyond recognition; Darius, a man whose rigid sense of honor threatens to strangle his chances of happiness; Seqiro, Prima, and all the rest. Their conflicts and challenges may not be the stuff of epic fantasy, but they're interesting and can give one food for thought. Most moving of all, at least for me, was the exploration of Colene's emotions, history, and motivations. Anthony doesn't whitewash her situation: she's a deeply disturbed individual, and one who has cause to be that way.

I must admit, though, that as much as I love this book, I couldn't recommend that children--or possibly adolescents--read it without reservations. The folk who've said that it's full of sex are right; further, there's blood, vulgarity, remembered rape, and a host of other such things. While they add to the power of the story, they might (or might not) be considered inappropriate for younger readers. I doubt my mother would have gotten it for me when she did had she known what it was really about... but then, I didn't have any problems understanding it and certainly wasn't traumatized by it.

It's also true that the heroine is awfully young for all of the sexual situations she gets into, and that one could see the portrayal of women as sexist if one really wanted to do so. I personally read and enjoyed the story without worrying about such things, but I think that anyone who says _Virtual Mode_ shows sexism just may have a point. (Anthony *has* begun to disturb me in recent years with his fixation on the sexiness of very, very young women, but that's a subject better reserved for a Xanth review.) If such things offend you, you may wish to give this a skip.

Otherwise, I can say with enthusiasm that I feel _Virtual Mode_ to be a wonderful novel, one whose story and characters have stayed with me for years. Readers who enjoyed Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series may find this one especially appealing, as its resemblance to that saga seems much more pronounced than any to the perpetually punny Xanth.

Virtual Mode is one of those novels that really blow my head away. Colene is one of the most realistic characters that I have ever encountered in my life. Her pain and suffering are something that I can relate very well. For those that think that the things that happen to her doesn't happen in real life, well I have bad news for you, they do happen too often for my taste. Rape, depression, suicide, dyfuntional families, etc... are part of the reality of many people right now. Horrible to hear but truth, but what makes Virtual and its main character so humane and wonderful is her spirit to fight in adversity, even though she still is depressed and want to die.

Also the world of the Virtual Mode is amazing!! Piers really create a world full of multitude of realities.

I can't wait for DoOon Mode, the last novel, to know what will happen to Colene and Darius!! I really want them happy!!

I think this is the best series that Piers has written. And it is not a surprise considering that most of the inspiration of Colene come from real life suicidal teenage girls, asking him for help.

So if you haven't started reading this series, do so!! You will never regretted it.

"I like to consider myself apart from the whole earth. There is no dignity left. I would like to be able to float away with my books and music and my guitar. It just seems to me that there are few people left with any integrity, and two of them happen to be my favorite writer and my favorite musician. I do too much thinking for my own good. I compose poetry in my head, but it won't come out right on paper. It's depressing. I dream too much also. I have so many ambitions, and I am crushed when I realize how very few will ever be achieved . . ." This is an excerpt from one of my favorite passages in Virtual Mode. If this girl's thoughts sound familiar, you should read this book. I have never felt the shock of recognition in a book character quite as strongly as I did when I "met" Colene. The Mode premise is an fresh take on a common alternate reality theme. There are some good minor characters, although Anthony tends to oversimplify them. Virtual Mode is a good book, but what makes it exceptional is Anthony's portrayal of Colene. This is a must read for anyone (particularly women) who knows what it's like to be a seriously depressed or suicidal teenager.

I was completely unprepared for the depth of the main character in this book. Mr. Anthony writes as if he knows what it is really like to be this character. The adventures in the book are thrilling and they keep you interested. The writing assumes that the reader is intelligent and remains fascinating and page-turning from beginning to end.

Upon reading many of the review for this book, I have concluded that there are some people in this world that can not look past some of the inappropriate parts in this book. They stop at these parts and proceed to critize it as if it were to be an object of ridicule. This book is not an object of ridicule.

The first book of the Mode series, it is an ingenious introduction to a great series. Piers Anthony provides an appealing combination of fantasy and realism. Colene, as a character, will definitely attract readers who can relate to her experiances.

The characters in all three books took my breath away. I felt a need to know more about each and every one of them. When will HORSE come? I have been waiting most impatiently for the next book in this wonderful and innovative series. I even cried at the end. C.C.

This was a great book becuase I felt like Colene many times. We shared the same views. Colene was a very real girl despite the fanasty backdrop the book was set in. I liked the idea of being able to get away and follow your dreams.

This book was one of the most perverted books I have ever read!! A 14-year-old girl, barely starting high school, falling in love with a man that's TWICE her age!! And that's not all. Anthony gives vivid descriptions about Colene's "youthful" body, and too often. What are women?? Well, not sex subjects!! And it's not every day a girl would let some adult touch her body freely (as Colene did with Darius during their first night together), or drops out of high school to pursue a thought in her mind!! Or writes to an imaginary horse in her Journal (as she calls it). AND most girls are actually SEMI-MODEST, instead of willing to perform a striptease in front of four adult men, as Colene did when she was trying to get Darius' key. The girl's suicidal nature is lifelike, but the rest of the book.. Ugh!! Mr. Anthony goes even farther to describe the other women in the story, as if we of the female origin were nothing more than, quote "a walking vagina waiting to be unwrapped and plunged". From prior experience, Piers has a very sexist attitude about women in general. In his Xanth novels, Demoness Metria is more or less a femme fatale who does kinky stuff. In the Apprentice Adept series, the Red Adept is portrayed as a "healthy, well-formed" adult. And in the "Tarot" series, Amaranth is described as "voluptuous" and a cheap strip-tease who liked to show off. They are all women who are degraded by the descriptions Mr. Anthony has given them. Yet, he worsens the prejudice by displaying the males as good, noble people with wonderful ideas, intense lusts, and the ability to withstand the "tainted" seduction of the women

This book was so horrible I threw it in the recycling so that no one else would end up with this copy. I'm pretty sure Piers Anthony is a pervert. Not only was the story repugnant on many levels, it was just badly written and the characters were completely ridiculous.