Free Download
The Escapist
The Escapist
(c) James Morris.
Book Excerpt
dvantage with Carmichael around. It was unusual for me to come across somebody so unreadable. She was legendary, but then so was I, albeit always as an untraceable alias.
Despite my many trips around the Solar System, it still filled me with joy to leave Earth. I loved the planetary views in transit, and I adored the notion that mankind was no longer tied to an arbitrary hunk of minerals, and was instead in a position to choose between a selection of hunks of minerals to live on. But most of all, my excitement arose simply from travelling itself. I got a childish kick out of being in any kind of vehicle, particularly one going somewhere fast. Moving from A to B felt like what life itself was all about. Getting there was always an anticlimax.
The Moon looked eerie in the darkness as we crossed from the shuttle pad. A guy called Chucky, one of COSI's minor moon operatives, picked me up from the pad in a small but comfortably pressurised balloon-wheeled vehicle. He was outrageously fat, but he lived on
Editor's choice
(view all)
Popular books in Science Fiction, Creative Commons, Post-1930
Readers reviews
2.8
LoginSign up
Language too foul for me. Could not get past the first page.
- Upvote (0)
- Downvote (1)
Extremely badly written. The author has a real problem with segues: there is no clear delineation of changes in time (separating today, tomorrow, flashbacks from last year...) and the story jumps with crazy rapidity (e.g. from work to sex to assassination attempt in one paragraph). Nor does this feel like the usual cyberpunk trope of a spaced-out narrator, speaking haphazardly, because the protagonist's voice isn't really very developed, either. It's just bad writing. The casual use of graphic violence (and the utter lack of reflection by the main character) is also a turn-off. I gave up in annoyance after the first twenty pages.
12/03/2008
I’ve reading books from here for a while and this one has really pleased me. The characters are funny but believable, the plot is intriguing and full of action, and the set is above all incredibly well construct.
If you like computers and thinking about a possible future where everything is connected and life become half virtual, then here you a have good dose of it. Without forgetting deeper reflections on a.i. and machine’s self consciousness. Is eternal life a gift or a punishment?.
If you like computers and thinking about a possible future where everything is connected and life become half virtual, then here you a have good dose of it. Without forgetting deeper reflections on a.i. and machine’s self consciousness. Is eternal life a gift or a punishment?.
09/07/2007
Entertaining Satire
The Escapist is an enjoyable tale set in a future world where technology reigns supreme and the hacker is the ultimate criminal. It's a world where all the stupid ideas from today have found their consummation, and many of the good ideas seem to have slipped away.
The story itself evolves into an elaborate mess of seemingly disconnected agenda that the author skillfully draws together in the close.
If there is a criticism of this story worth making, it is probably restricted to a single scene in which the lead character is "humourously" sexually assaulted with a vegetable. The scene added nothing to the plot and I'm not sure making light of sexual assault is the wisest of approaches.
The Escapist is an enjoyable tale set in a future world where technology reigns supreme and the hacker is the ultimate criminal. It's a world where all the stupid ideas from today have found their consummation, and many of the good ideas seem to have slipped away.
The story itself evolves into an elaborate mess of seemingly disconnected agenda that the author skillfully draws together in the close.
If there is a criticism of this story worth making, it is probably restricted to a single scene in which the lead character is "humourously" sexually assaulted with a vegetable. The scene added nothing to the plot and I'm not sure making light of sexual assault is the wisest of approaches.
07/08/2006
Popular questions
(view all)Books added this week
(view all)-itok=vcKIB5v1.jpg)
FEATURED AUTHOR - 'The Plotting Shed' (see her blog http://www.intheplottingshed.com/) was Alex Martin's first writing space at the bottom of her Welsh garden. Now she splits her time between Wales and France and plot wherever she is. She still wanders aimlessly in the countryside with her dog and her dreams and she can still be found typing away with imaginary friends whispering in her ear, but these days she has the joy of seeing her stories published and the treasured feedback from readers who've enjoyed them.