| Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi Main characters: Derek, Kelly Anna Sirjan Summary: It’s the 23rd century and everything has changed. Everything but the quiet and old-fashioned town of Brentford that is. A town that old-fashioned that some huge corporation now wants to turn it into a… sightseeing tour. And that’s not the only problem the Brentford citizen have. People have started vanishing too, which made everyone wonder whether Rapture is underway. They do not know it (will never know it actually) but what they call Rapture is actually the effect of a really bad computer virus, transmitted via touch, which messes with the infected person’s mind and forcing them to play some sort of game called “go mango” (go, man, go?). |
Kelly Anna Sirjan was in my eyes like the female version of a superhero: perfect in every way and always having in her mind a way out from the most impossible situations (it’s been fun watching her entering all sorts of difficulties and thinking “well, I wonder how she’ll escape this one” :P ). Derek is an average guy (especially compared to Kelly Anna’s perfection :P ). Big Bob was one of my favorite characters, especially of his way of talking :P :P (Bible-talk). The book has a lot of minor characters, each with their quirks and charm. I know that usually a story with a lot of characters is rather hard to follow but I never had this sensation while reading this book (probably because of the aforementioned quirks :P ).
I was quite amused to see Hugo Rune mentioned in this book too (as the founder of a religion, Runeism, a language, Runese (that only has 40 words), a person in whose honor a month of the year has been named, the month of Rune, and many more :) ).
What I liked most: The parts related to the virus in the beginning. The whole go mango game as played by Big Bob and all the illusions that ensued (because, after all, our brain is our door to our reality, so if something — such as the virus in the story — affects it, there is no limit to what we can feel/see happening around us). The “it’s a well known fact to those who know it well” thing. The whole Rapture idea and the way everybody thought himself/herself worthy of being Raptured and was annoyed it didn’t happen to him/her as of yet. The way women insisted in having everything in their homes in the “universal color of peace” (only the color differed from person to person — one had an all-pink house, one an all-puce, one an all-purple and so on, each claiming they have their homes in one color because that very color was the universal color of peace :) )
Oh, and let’s not forget, the ending is very cool/interesting too :)
SPOILER
There is actually no real Brentford, no actual people left alive in the whole world. Everything is only a computer simulation situated in outer space.
END SPOILER
What I liked least: In the second half of the story Big Bob what kinda elusive if you know what I mean. We have no idea on his whereabouts for a while, how come he got rid of his virus, how come he ended up some sort of superhero and how come he didn’t die in the end??
Recommend it? Yes :) :)
Written by the same author:
The Witches of Chiswick
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