A haunting, brilliant novel
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The Extremes deals with the emotional aftermath of a Hungerford-style mass killing spree and the curious linkage that seems to exist between it and a similar atrocity in the USA. While the story of a bereaved American widow searching for some kind of closure in a dismal British town is affecting, what transforms The Extremes into something much more exotic is Priest's additional science fiction element of virtual reality to blur the boundaries between fantasy and reality. While Priest's depiction of his world is unconvincing in logical terms (on the one hand Bulverton is painted as a decaying resort town, yet for some reason has a popular state of the art virtual reality centre nearby), it makes for a fantastic dreamlike climax where the nature of reality itself is unsure, particularly when the novel starts breaking down into a fractal pattern, as characters already within virtual reality then enter other virtual realities within. Anyone looking for a standard thriller with a standard final explanation will be disappointed - but anyone looking for a bizarre dreamlike science fiction novel where the technology is of less importance than the characters and prose will love it.
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Very Disappointing
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I love some of Priest's work, especially The Affirmation and The Prestige, but The Extremes is so poor in comparison with those books that it is difficult to believe it's the same author. The writing is tired, characters do things without apparent motivation and then disappear from the book - in fact the plot is completely unstructured and ultimately dissolves into a tiresome nothingness. Virtual reality has huge potential for challenging storylines but it's as if Priest simply didn't know what to do with it. The first half of the book is intruiging enough to keep you reading, by which time you feel that you have to finish it off, but ultimately I was left wondering why I'd bothered.
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Brilliant and disturbing
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Christopher Preist writes stories that are on the fringe of science fiction. Calling him an SF writer is too limiting - he is a writer with imagination, who writes stories that stretch the limits of imagination. This novel focuses on one character's virtual reality experiences. What stands out is this book is the way the plot folds over and over, until the reader loses touch with reality. I say this is a disturbing book as well - when I was reading it, I found it so skewed that I could only read a few paragraphs at a time. I had to stop and do something else for a few minutes, to anchor myself, before coming back to it. Nevertheless, I read it in one day. This book incites a kind of subconscious itch, a discomfort that arises from not knowing what reality the characters is in. A brilliant work, along the same line as The Prestige, with its multiple realities. In the end, this novel shows that the book is the ultimate virtual reality device. Preist's mastery of a complex plot leads the reader down dark paths to dead-ends, before finally coming to a totally unexpected resolution. Great work, Chris.
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Brilliant and disturbing
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Christopher Preist writes stories that are on the fringe of science fiction. Calling him an SF writer is too limiting - he is a writer with imagination, who writes stories that stretch the limits of imagination. This novel focuses on one character's virtual reality experiences. What stands out is this book is the way the plot folds over and over, until the reader loses touch with reality. I say this is a disturbing book as well - when I was reading it, I found it so skewed that I could only read a few paragraphs at a time. I had to stop and do something else for a few minutes, to anchor myself, before coming back to it. Nevertheless, I read it in one day. This book incites a kind of subconscious itch, a discomfort that arises from not knowing what reality the characters is in. A brilliant work, along the same line as The Prestige, with its multiple realities. In the end, this novel shows that the book is the ultimate virtual reality device. Preist's mastery of a complex plot leads the reader down dark paths to dead-ends, before finally coming to a totally unexpected resolution. Great work, Chris.
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Superb
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I have never been disappointed in a Christopher Priest novel. Why isn't he more famous? Why hasn't he ever been on the Booker Prize shortlist? This is a wonderful novel about the nature of reality and the causes and effects of violence. It is gripping and superbly written. I actually preferred it to "The prestige". I recommend checking out all his books. (Check out the rave reviews of the hardback version, which annoyingly Amazon don't list under the paperback version.)
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