Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This book takes work to read, but may be rewarding., November 16, 1998
The book never unites. It operates in strobe. Glimpses, snapshots, snatches of imagery, implications of plot. It's hard work to stay with the characters, to remain curious and invested in their activity with minimal help from the author, who deals scenes like playing cards with quick flicks of the wrist. One of the miracles of style in the story is the recurrance of characters passing like ships in the night. Passing blindly almost without exception, because not one of the characters realizes the serendipity, the proximity, the intersections; not one of the characters seems to see the thick fog of fate or destiny that blankets everything. So the reading is difficult. The visuals come and go. The myriad descriptions of drug-induced moods and visions mix unreliably with what is trying to be description of the real world. But it was hard for me to tell, while reading the book, whether the lack of coherency was the author's mistake or the author's point. You know?
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What in the H-E-Double Hockeystix Was THAT?, December 2, 2000
I have long been a die hard fan of intense science fiction. The one star I'll give Hand for this book is for her excellent use of deep imagery in the work to invoke almost physical responses from the reader.However, the rest of what makes a story into a novel is missing. The characters are lackluster (at best), having no real passion or direction, and gaining none as the story progresses. For a while I was truly enthralled by the read, one page pulling me into the next until I had burned through the first three hundred pages in as many minutes. And then it died...not in a blast, or a convoluted plot twist, or even in any way that could be defined as heroic, romantic, philosophical, or otherwise. It faded as if it had never been. The story just seems to stop (like a car stalling silently on a fast highway) the story coasts in neutral for about 150 pages, flares like the engine sputtering to life for a heartbeat, (but not really) and then sliding onto the shoulder, making you wonder why you got in the car at all! Even if you like the occasional anticlimactic plot twist, this takes the concept a step further, where the only characters who receive any sort of finality die in ignoble, boring ways. I am also a male reader, but unlike one of my fellow reviewers, I don't need a huge hollywood style ending. I would, however, like an ACTUAL ending.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Glimmering, February 23, 2000
With the discovery of Brite as a replacement for fluorocarbons, rejoicing scientists believe that they have saved the ozone layer. However, the expert scientists were quickly proven wrong when a mining expedition off the Antarctic coast released an enormous amount of methane gas coupled with Brite into the atmosphere. A solar flare charged the compound producing a surging electrical current that altered the magnetic field and shredded large chunks of the ozone layer. Thus the atmospheric glimmering began. Electricity failed; communication became erratic; transportation was almost non-existent; manufacturing almost came to a complete halt. The atmosphere had become a constant array of florescent glowing colors bathing the planet in 24 hour light while virtually hiding the stars and the moon from view. Climates and ecosystems change for the worst as droughts, floods, famine, and plague become an everyday occurrence. The world is divided as to how to deal with the man-made catastrophe. Some people believe that the apocalypse is now. They use drugs and other stimulation to revel in the final days of doom as they feast on the death throes of a dying civilization. While others like John struggle to keep the decaying world out of his enclave. This is the world entering what appears to be the final millennium. This apocalyptic fiction is for hard-core fans of "end of the world" science fiction. Though well written and exciting, Elizabeth Hand paints a depressing picture of a future destroyed by scientific haughtiness. This novel is not for everyone, but those who enjoy reading about the planet Earth imploding need to peruse this tale of dread. The novel has a haunting quality that makes it near impossible to forget and a lyrical writing (in spite of its gloomy topic) that seems almost poetic in nature.
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