02 November 2005

Review: nymphomation


Rating: ☆☆1/2

Title: nymphomation

Author: Jeff Noon

Genre: Science Fiction

Read: 1st Nov 2005

Comments: Nymphomation takes place in a dystopic future (well it was future when it was written (set in 1999, written in 1997), but now it's past... anyway...) version of Manchester England, where the populace is in thrall to a strange new lottery based on dominos. It's a bleak place where anything and everything is corporate-sponsored including the schools and the cops, and the air is filled with bio-mechanical advert bugs called blurbflies. A group of renegade mathematicians and hackers thinks there's something fishy about the whole domino system and especially the so-called jealousy killings of lottery winners, so they decide to try to break the system. Sounds like a good idea, no? But...

I have really mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it has a really great premise, some cool characters, a interesting and well developed backdrop and a writing style which is very modern, flashy, playful and fun to read, but (and this is a very big 'but') it's just not believable. Noon's trying to write science fiction, and he gets the fiction part really down pat, but he totally fumbles on the science, which makes it almost painful to read at times.

There are all kinds of things that are just inexplicable, (or maybe just badly explained), the main one being the blurbflies and their weird reproductive abilities, but all of the computer and hacking stuff seems like it was written by someone who doesn't have clue about computers and sounds almost magical rather than technological... Also, he likes to talk about how all of these characters are supposedly brilliant mathematicians, and he mentions all of these supposedly complex equations, but he never shows them to us other than a few off-handed mentions of quadratic equations (?!?).

So I guess I'd have to give it a C. The writing really is quite fun, but the fakey-ness of all the science bits is just too much.

Next up on the list is 'Joy in the Morning' from the Jeeves series by P.G. Wodehouse. If you've never read any Wodehouse I recommend that you start now! He's probably the funniest writer I've ever read.

Quote:"It’s domino time! Domino time! Dom, dom, dom, dom domino time!"

  • nymphomation

  • Goog Eveninger!

    PS. re-edited to gel with the new format

    Labels:

    1 Comments:

    Blogger Becki said...

    Mom-
    Thanks for posting... I'm gonna have to read some Clarke some day... And I will read Ian M. Banks too, I know there's one of his at the bookshop in Kobe that I keep picking up and almost getting but eventually discarding in favor of something cheaper... now what was it...?
    Ah that's right 'The Algebraist. Have you read it yet?
    Sudoku, huh? I never heard of it until today... Do you play it? Is it fun? I always liked logic puzzles so it seems like it might be fun...

    03 November, 2005 02:28  

    Post a Comment

    << Home