Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
World going wrong? Hit control-C, August 15, 2002
James P. Hogan is one of my two favorite living SF writers and the only one of the two who writes "hard" SF (the other one is Spider Robinson). I've been reading his stuff since the late 1970s and I think this novel is one of his best.
The premise, of course, is that virtual reality has reached such an advanced stage of development that it's not easy to distinguish the "virtual" from the "real"; the essential plot element is that Joe Corrigan is trapped inside a simulation he helped to create. The reader knows all of this from the beginning, but for obvious reasons (and some that are not so obvious) it takes the protagonist a while to work it out.
That's where much of the tension in the novel comes from. It's so clear to the reader what's going on that you'll want to reach into the page and say, "Joe, man, wake up and _think_. Don't you _know_ where you are?" This effect is heightened by a couple of really really obvious details that you'll almost physically itch for Joe to notice.
But much of what makes the story _interesting_ is the extremely plausible tale Hogan tells about the development of the technology itself. Hogan does this sort of thing better than nearly any other SF writer past or present, and this novel is no exception; indeed, when virtual reality really does reach this level of development, it may well have gotten there by roughly the path Hogan describes.
Anyway, I can't tell you much else without spoiling the story. All I can do is mention in a general way that, as usual with Hogan, the story is full of mind-blowingly cool touches.
But speaking of spoilers, here's a warning: just inside the front cover, the current edition includes an excerpt that you probably shouldn't read before you read the book. Somebody made a bad editorial decision here: the excerpt comes from near the _end_ of the book and it gives some things away too early.
Hogan is all-but-unarguably the finest writer of "hard" SF today. Start here or start somewhere else -- but if you like good SF, start somewhere.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Standard Hogan, December 15, 2000
Realtime Interrupt is very much a typical James Hogan novel. His standard formula has been to take a technology that may be reachable in the near future, find a beliveable way to achieve it, and wrap a novel with interesting people and plot around the concept.Realtime Interrupt tackles two problems at once, artificial intelligence, long a favorite subject of Hogan's, and virtual reality. Certain things, such as the fact that the world Joe wakes up in at the beginning is an artificial world, are made plain from the start, even if he takes a while to discover it. As such, it does echo some of the themes of The Matrix, but without the gunfights and (bleah) goth elements. In many ways this book is "anti-cyberpunk," with a lot of the themes and ideas in a "normal" world instead of a corporate-trash ridden dystopia. As usual, the technology is fascinating, the characters are engaging, even they are not the most well rounded, the plot moves at a brisk, even pace, and the world (in this case Pittsburgh and Ireland) feels natural. Despite not having any real plot *twists*, it never quite went in the direction I was expecting, either. Joe is not the typical Hogan hero, having immersed himself in the world of political infighting before settling down in a more sedate role. Realtime Interrupt is a good book for anyone with an interest in technology and a nice understated yarn.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Who says Hard SF has no character?, June 1, 1997
By A Customer
It's a bleeding shame that the moment I bought this book, it seemed to drop out of print. A shame, I say, because this is the book I would throw into the face of anyone who says that Mr. Hogan (or Hard SF writers in general) don't care about their characters, only about technology.
The beginning is slow going, if only because the main character hasn't figured out what is so painfully obvious from the title. But what seems boring and unnecessary in the first half becomes, suddenly (like a baseball bat SMACK! in the back of your head), completely necessary, integral, and absolutely fascinating.
REALTIME INTERRUPT is many things -- cyberpunk (kind of), mystery, thriller, puzzle-story. But at its center, it is a tale of being able to go back again and fix your mistakes. And the message is, quite simply, you can't go back again, even if you can -- but you can start over, and that's almost as good.
This book requires patience in the beginning, but once you're halfway through, you'll wish it was twice as long just so the author can infuriate you some more. If you can find it, read it.
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