It’s always hard for me to judge whether there are spoilers in my reviews or not. I think even one sentence is a spoiler of a sorts. For me the plot is not important. Well, what does it mean “not important”. It is of course, but what I mean is the need for entertaining plot has long been covered by movies and series. However the need of thoughts, ideas, unique character configurations, complex feelings - those are still the kingdom of books for me. And that’s why when I talk about a particular book I might not remember what was happening in it, I will definitely not remember the names of places and heroes. But I will remember how it made me feel, what it made me think and which parts blew my mind.
So with that in mind, if you are okay with Concepts and Feeling spoiler but no “plot” spoilers - read ahead. If not, close it now and go buy the book :)
Permutation City
This book has so many ideas and concepts in it
cognitive capabilities of our mind, including possibility to “rewire” them, especially for the people we love
the feeling of guilt and “einmal ist keinmal”. Kundera, in his “Unbearable lightness of being” explores how little actions can carry heavy weight when repeated forever, and how contrary even the most significant act is just a sand grain in the history of times if it’s done just once - you’ll find similar ideas here
Virtual Reality and how we create our own reality - long before the movie Matrix made us all think about it seriously
First contact with an alien nation - my favorite kind of Start Trek episodes
The Library of Babel idea
Questions of Free Will and God and Destiny and Life and Immortality and Humanity itself
Some concepts reminded me of Avatar
and even technical concepts like virtualization and containerization, long before Cloud Computing
It also has something that’s not common in literature - a strong portrayal of female protagonist. She’s smart, she’s down-to-earth, she’s excited about ideas and about creating something. She’s a bit angry too. But who of us isn’t.
It’s not an easy read, and not because of the knowledge of chemistry and mathematics you might need to fully enjoy some of the chapters, but of the general feeling of heaviness. It’s complex in a good way. It tickles your brains and soul.
I hope one day to read it again and understand it better.
The author is a mathematician, programmer, writer and his website is wonderfully old-school.
Anyway, thought you should know and read it.
Peace,
Nune