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Rating: 
Summary: pretty good idea, not so good execution
Review: The idea is good, but the execution is poor. Characters are one dimensional and tend to be sterotypical. There's a bra burning feminist who learns the error of her ways from Anne Boleyn, a racist reinforced by George Silver, and so on. Really can't say enough about the single dimensionality of the characters.
Rating:
Summary: Good idea badly handled . . .
Review: This anthology centers on an interesting idea but the execution is problematical. The set-up is in the introductory story: If you can locate a few scraps of DNA from any deceased individual -- Leonardo da Vinci, Anne Boleyn, your own father -- the personality of that person can be "injected" into you by broadcasting it into your eye and thereby into your brain. Scarborough never goes very far into just how this is done, which is okay. She's much more interested in exploring the effects of having another personality either piggy-backing your own or being fully integrated into yours. So a modern-day inventor enamoured of perpetual motion uploads Leonardo, but is distracted when he begins to view the rest of the world through the eyes of a Renaissance man. Or, a shallow tycoon acquires the skills of an Elizabeth fencing master so he can show off at the local SCA faire, but hasn't expected the Elizabethan religious values that accompany them. All the stories are pretty much like that, the moral apparently being that you never get quite what you expect to get. (Sounds kind of like Forrest Gump. . . .) There are some very professional writers here, including Elizabeth Moon, Kristine Rusch, and Carole Nelson Douglas, which makes the generally mediocre plotlines and two-dimensional characterizations especially disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: a fascinating journey into "what if"
Review: What if one could "host" the memories of a famous person, of someone who has qualities that you wish you had, of your deceased beloved. How would you be changed? How would the long-deceased react to the modern world? These are some of the questions that the stellar authors in this anthology attempt to explore. A scientist discovers how to extract memories from genetic material. He becomes Dr. Chimera - a blend of himself and his beloved wife. An inventor hosts Leonardo da Vinci and finds there is more to life than inventing. A mother gets more than she bargained for when she melds an explorer with her comatose daughter. A variety of authors from the science fiction, fantasy and mystery genres tackle this premise of experiencing the memories of another and a very satisfying anthology is born.
Rating:
Summary: a fascinating journey into "what if"
Review: What if one could "host" the memories of a famous person, of someone who has qualities that you wish you had, of your deceased beloved. How would you be changed? How would the long-deceased react to the modern world? These are some of the questions that the stellar authors in this anthology attempt to explore. A scientist discovers how to extract memories from genetic material. He becomes Dr. Chimera - a blend of himself and his beloved wife. An inventor hosts Leonardo da Vinci and finds there is more to life than inventing. A mother gets more than she bargained for when she melds an explorer with her comatose daughter. A variety of authors from the science fiction, fantasy and mystery genres tackle this premise of experiencing the memories of another and a very satisfying anthology is born.
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