Rather interesting book, but the end is quite a bit disappointing.
No idea why the author had to drag (genetically re-engineered) vampires out of the science fiction writers dirt box - it's not as if they were a necessity for the story.
The book is well-written, but I found it a bit hard to read - the pseudo-internet talk didn't help and I figured rather late, that the EST/GMT "organizations" or tribes related to the timezones, so some more abbreviations that didn't make sense.
In that regard it isn't helpful that the book starts with the end - the 'hero' is standing on the roof of a mental hospital, reflecting his fate while the story unrolls - of course, we don't know this at the time, it's just the guy standing somewhat unrelated on a roof.
The concept of "tribes" and loyalties according to timezones seems a bit ridiculous to me, as well as that great business idea that the main character develops, that just wouldn't work out (well, if it did, the author wouldn't have written this book but would enjoy the millions he made with it).
Hmmm - "one-way osmotic materials" would be a perpetuum mobile, I'd think - amazing how you can get the science wrong with so few words - and that in a book that contains so little science...
Well worth the time reading and one of the few "modern" free eBooks and as that one of the higher quality ones, but not one of the best books on a more genera scheme.
Still trying to get used to peopled "ejaculating" sentences..
There had to be quite some hard work be done to keep the book humorous on this theme - and sometimes it is a bit too much...
If someone told you, he lost all your money - your fortune to be precise - would your first action be to comfort him?
Would you leave your relatives and head into New York with twenty dollars as your sole possession and no place to stay? Maybe you would - and you would end up in a lot of trouble doing so.
In the end, the story revolves around the same find-your-true-love theme as (an)other Wodehouse book(s).
This third book after BrainTwister (also under the name of "That Sweet Little Old Lady") and "The Impossibles" concludes the story around FBI agent Ken Malone, so better read the other two books first.
What happened to the brunette he had fallen in love with so madly in the second book?
We don't get told if the authors still blink/wait for marriage this time - another thing we'll now never know.
One funny thing throughout all the books: People always use "visaphones" - telephones with screens to see each other - which was perhaps not one of the most surprising projections of the future - but one that couldn't have been more wrong... we have mobiles all over now, and many of them have cameras, but still this is rarely used to show the partners of the conversation to each other :)
It's nice that the story has a twist and the end to the trilogy is quite unexpected, else it would have become quite a bit boring.
As science fiction goes, the whole series doesn't have great visions - the books are detective stories with telepathy and teleporting.
Not much to add to R Stephans comment - still the same humor, the story of Brain Twister continues, still worth reading (and only 200 pages as "large-font-PDF"). The novelty of the 1st book wears a bit off for me, so it was a bit less enjoyable.
Also we're regrettably getting deeper into the supernatural - perhaps "just telepathy" was not enough for an exciting story?
Different from the 1st book, there was (in my opinion) not so much of a mystery one could try to guess before being explicitly told.
Oh - one more thing - what happened to the blonde that our hero had madly fallen in love with in Brain Twister in this book?!
The same book also appeared under the title "That Sweet Little Old Lady" and is also available here - pick one, don't bother with the other.
In the same series, "The Impossibles" (also under the name "Out Like a Light") and "Supermind" (also under the name "Occasion for Disaster") appeared.
The book is about the FBI finding out that one important space-motor project is spied on by a telepath. The discover this with the help of a machine developed by them (this part is actually pretty fishy, as it contains some very unlikely things the author thinks he needs for the narrative, covered by some pseudo-scientific babble).
"Set out a thief to find a thief", they decide and try to find other telepaths to find the spy. Being telepathic seems to turn people mad (and the only telepath they ever knew off, now dead was an imbecile), so the search begins in mental hospitals all over the US. The search is successful - what a pity that inhabitants of mental hospitals often have their own idea of reality - and now the FBI has to go along with it to humor them.
The book is quite amusing and well-written. If you like detective stories, you can guess along for the identity of the spy, and you get a fairish chance of solving the problem before it is revealed.
Except for the telepathy-detecting machine (and telepathy itself), there are no weird or extremely unlikely twists to the story, but there are some good laughs along the way.
Iridos’s book reviews
No idea why the author had to drag (genetically re-engineered) vampires out of the science fiction writers dirt box - it's not as if they were a necessity for the story.
I.
In that regard it isn't helpful that the book starts with the end - the 'hero' is standing on the roof of a mental hospital, reflecting his fate while the story unrolls - of course, we don't know this at the time, it's just the guy standing somewhat unrelated on a roof.
The concept of "tribes" and loyalties according to timezones seems a bit ridiculous to me, as well as that great business idea that the main character develops, that just wouldn't work out (well, if it did, the author wouldn't have written this book but would enjoy the millions he made with it).
Hmmm - "one-way osmotic materials" would be a perpetuum mobile, I'd think - amazing how you can get the science wrong with so few words - and that in a book that contains so little science...
Well worth the time reading and one of the few "modern" free eBooks and as that one of the higher quality ones, but not one of the best books on a more genera scheme.
I.
Still trying to get used to peopled "ejaculating" sentences..
There had to be quite some hard work be done to keep the book humorous on this theme - and sometimes it is a bit too much...
If someone told you, he lost all your money - your fortune to be precise - would your first action be to comfort him?
Would you leave your relatives and head into New York with twenty dollars as your sole possession and no place to stay? Maybe you would - and you would end up in a lot of trouble doing so.
In the end, the story revolves around the same find-your-true-love theme as (an)other Wodehouse book(s).
I.
What happened to the brunette he had fallen in love with so madly in the second book?
We don't get told if the authors still blink/wait for marriage this time - another thing we'll now never know.
One funny thing throughout all the books: People always use "visaphones" - telephones with screens to see each other - which was perhaps not one of the most surprising projections of the future - but one that couldn't have been more wrong... we have mobiles all over now, and many of them have cameras, but still this is rarely used to show the partners of the conversation to each other :)
It's nice that the story has a twist and the end to the trilogy is quite unexpected, else it would have become quite a bit boring.
As science fiction goes, the whole series doesn't have great visions - the books are detective stories with telepathy and teleporting.
I.
Also we're regrettably getting deeper into the supernatural - perhaps "just telepathy" was not enough for an exciting story?
Different from the 1st book, there was (in my opinion) not so much of a mystery one could try to guess before being explicitly told.
Oh - one more thing - what happened to the blonde that our hero had madly fallen in love with in Brain Twister in this book?!
I.
In the same series, "The Impossibles" (also under the name "Out Like a Light") and "Supermind" (also under the name "Occasion for Disaster") appeared.
The book is about the FBI finding out that one important space-motor project is spied on by a telepath. The discover this with the help of a machine developed by them (this part is actually pretty fishy, as it contains some very unlikely things the author thinks he needs for the narrative, covered by some pseudo-scientific babble).
"Set out a thief to find a thief", they decide and try to find other telepaths to find the spy. Being telepathic seems to turn people mad (and the only telepath they ever knew off, now dead was an imbecile), so the search begins in mental hospitals all over the US. The search is successful - what a pity that inhabitants of mental hospitals often have their own idea of reality - and now the FBI has to go along with it to humor them.
The book is quite amusing and well-written. If you like detective stories, you can guess along for the identity of the spy, and you get a fairish chance of solving the problem before it is revealed.
Except for the telepathy-detecting machine (and telepathy itself), there are no weird or extremely unlikely twists to the story, but there are some good laughs along the way.
I.