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Matthew Mather (1969–2022)

Författare till CyberStorm

32+ verk 1,639 medlemmar 84 recensioner 2 favoritmärkta

Om författaren

Inkluderar namnet: Matthew Mather

Serier

Verk av Matthew Mather

CyberStorm (2013) — Författare — 615 exemplar
Nomad (2015) 215 exemplar
The Atopia Chronicles (2012) 209 exemplar
Darknet (2015) 165 exemplar
Polar Vortex (2019) 62 exemplar
Sanctuary (2016) 62 exemplar
The Dreaming Tree (2019) 42 exemplar
The Dystopia Chronicles (2014) 41 exemplar
Resistance (2016) 36 exemplar
Destiny (2017) 35 exemplar
Blue Skies (2012) 26 exemplar
The Utopia Chronicles (2017) 24 exemplar
Cyberspace (2020) 17 exemplar
Meet Your Maker (2020) 12 exemplar
Timedrops — Författare — 11 exemplar
Compendium 10 exemplar
Childplay (2013) 10 exemplar
CyberWar (2020) 8 exemplar
Neverywhere 6 exemplar
Brothers Blind (2013) 5 exemplar
Extinction (2015) 4 exemplar
Genesis and Janus 2 exemplar
Shimmer 1 exemplar
Compendium Shorts 1 exemplar
Enlightenment 1 exemplar
Aeon Burn (2024) 1 exemplar

Associerade verk

The End Is Nigh (2014) — Bidragsgivare — 275 exemplar
The Robot Chronicles (2014) — Bidragsgivare — 34 exemplar

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Recensioner

Preface: I swear on my mother's iPad that I did not read any of the reviews or quotes at Amazon.com before writing this review, so help me Bezos.

Much has been written of how man and machine will interact in the future; whether it's Gibson's "Neuromancer", Stephenson's "Snow Crash", or any of a number of indie authors out there now. Matthew Mather's debut novel "The Complete Atopia Chronicles" takes artificial intelligence, distributed computing, nanotechnology, and the full range of humanity (hubris, love, addiction, selfishness, anger, happiness, etc.), portions them all into a blender, and mixes up the finest-tasting best-guess at just what Kurzweil's Singularity might be like.

Like all good SF writers, Mather extrapolates from our present global state of being (advertisements seemingly on every surface, the increasing effects of climate change, rising economic power of India and China) to build a world where distributed consciousness is in beta-testing and those chosen few are living fantastic lives both on a man-made independent island and in their own heads; but as good SF also does, we see how advancement comes with a price and no matter how much we build or how smart we think we are, in the end we are still human.

Of particular note is the device of telling each protagonist's tale in full before moving on to the next story. A more traditional approach would ironically skip from character to character, viewpoint to viewpoint, telling the tale as it unfolds; to truly obtain the full effect of each story occuring simultaneously one would need access to the distributed consciousness technology described in the novel. As it is we mere humans simply need to hold what we've read in our memory, but don't be surprised to find yourself scrubbing back to an earlier story to confirm that yes indeed, this is what was happening when that seemingly random thing occured; not to give anything away, that is. Of course, each tale of the Atopia Chronicles stands on its own and does not need the others to be enjoyed, or to educate.

Above all the future-gazing, techno-whizbangery and story-telling devices, the most important thing is the ability to tell a good story and to make you incapable of waiting to turn the page, which Mather accomplishes nicely in the Atopia Chronicles. While moving from one character wholly to another is jarring in the earlier stories ('Okay,' you say to yourself, 'why should I care about this guy? I still care about the last guy!'), as you keep reading you realize that your earlier friends are still out there, if only you could send a splinter off to check on what they were up to at that moment.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
Lefthandrob | 8 andra recensioner | Mar 9, 2024 |
Very interesting read (or listen rather). My main criticism would be that he tries to take on all points of view of all the major characters throughout the entire story line. This makes it a little tedious at times and I sometimes pined for him to just get to the point. That said, this novel does a great job of exploring the light and extremely darks sides of alternate/virtual reality.
 
Flaggad
jfranzone | 8 andra recensioner | Feb 14, 2024 |
This second installment of the Atopia Chronicles is SO much better than the first. Mather gets over his need to explore every single point of view (first-person aspect) during every single part of the story. He also sets aside the need to explore all of the possibilities of this new world that he has created.

Instead, he gets down to telling a good story. And it is a good story.
 
Flaggad
jfranzone | 2 andra recensioner | Feb 14, 2024 |
If I could give my past self advice, I would say read the second book in the series... only. It's the only one really worth the time in my opinion. The first part of this book starts as an executive summary of the first book... uh, skip please! The rest of the book is a replay of the second book from the main character's point of view (Bob). Aside from that, this book is really about the author struggling to come to terms with the meaning of reality... where do we come from? why is there anything instead of nothing? And simultaneously his rejection of religion.

In the end (spoiler alert)... the main character has sit down meeting with himself and learns the ultimate lesson. You have to love yourself. BLAH! Done.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
jfranzone | 1 annan recension | Feb 14, 2024 |

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Statistik

Verk
32
Även av
2
Medlemmar
1,639
Popularitet
#15,676
Betyg
½ 3.6
Recensioner
84
ISBN
114
Språk
9
Favoritmärkt
2

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