Rating: 
Summary: Intense, wondrous, meaty, cathartic, excellent!!
Review: This most remarkable literary duet tells at one time the story of the evolution of Adie Klarpol from discouraged commercial artist to inspired cyber-expresionist, and the devolution of Taimur Martin from confident teacher to abject political prisoner.The simultaneous tales are intertwined, not unlike the famed double-helix, and it was not unusual to find the reader lost among the two strands, not firmly affixed to either. I expect that this is one intent of the author as he ponders and prys at our concepts of perception and reality. The vast constrast between the two states of being is emphasized by Powers' phenomenal grasp of the tools and methods of Virtual Reality, and by his heart-breaking comprehension of the destruction of a personality when isolated and abused with no apparent end. The one experience being filled to overflowing with creative juices and ecstatic growth as a team of cyber-pioneers strives to complete their concept of ultimate human expression; the other being brutally and relentlessly drained of all possibility of sanity or life. I am greatly interested in views of the near future and imaginative glimpses of what we may next become if only we survive the process. Survival entails accomodating to the ever faster change that, while driven by commercial interest, revolutionizes our perception of our lives, ourselves and our relationship to all else on a daily basis. We recognize from grim experience, that the tools and methods of this change can be at once beneficial and deadly. Adie's growing realization of the dark side of her accomplishments, at first art and now weapon, forces a final convulsive transformation of her work into a possibility of redemption and hope. Taimur's brutal descent into nothingness similarly unleashes a convulsive transformation into ultimate understanding. I am still pondering the relationship that the author draws between the two..... I agree with most reviewers, that Power's work is a strenuous read. It is densely packed with image and emotion and too rich to be taken quickly or lightly. The characters are all complex and worthy of our attention. The ideas are important and gloriously expressed. I am now recovering from "Plowing The Dark" in preparation for entering another Powers masterpiece. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Hostage: the Game?
Review: This novel was one big disappointment. The author, who clearly has a background in computer programming and games, has tried to rise above this background into the realm of novel writing, great literature even. In this he falls flat on his face. His overblown language just doesn't fit the material. It was the opposite of a page turner, more of a page groaner ("Oh, no, not more of this!) His ending is unsatisfying, trite, a cop-out. He comes across as just a computer hacker who can now surf the Web for interesting facts with which to fill his amateurish novels, sorry. The one good track was the hostage, but the use of 2nd person made it seem like a new text adventure game where the reader unfortunately couldn't interact. ... Final summation: toss it into a deep dark cave.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but takes itself too seriously
Review: This was definitely worth reading, at least in terms of content/time spent ratio. The book moves along pretty quickly, but begins to lose its way sometime after its half-over and excepting some pretty parallells between life in the lab, outside world, and that of the hostage in Lebanon does not live up to its promising beginning. At least that is my opinion. Descriptions of technology are not bad for a fiction book even if I would have preferred having even less of it mentioned. All auxilary characters are completely flat and even some of the more promising ones end being not used at all. Flashbacks are very well written, but end up not quite connecting with the present for most of the characters. Doom and Gloom rule the day in the end. Read it if you are going on a long train ride or aflight, but I do not expect to ever re-read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I think I got a different version than most of the reviewers
Review: Who's kidding who?! This book was horrible! I couldn't finish it -- as much as I wanted to. It was boring and repetitive. The story dragged worse than T.Clancy's Bear and the Dragon! I think Powers should have written an entire book about the hostage -- that thread was the only thing that kept me coming back. Ultimately, though, it wasn't enough to keep me reading; I switched to the excellent "Newjack" by Ted Conover.
Rating:
Summary: I think I got a different version than most of the reviewers
Review: Who's kidding who?! This book was horrible! I couldn't finish it -- as much as I wanted to. It was boring and repetitive. The story dragged worse than T.Clancy's Bear and the Dragon! I think Powers should have written an entire book about the hostage -- that thread was the only thing that kept me coming back. Ultimately, though, it wasn't enough to keep me reading; I switched to the excellent "Newjack" by Ted Conover.
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