Jessica Draper

Short and sweet: Draper was unable to distance herself sufficiently from her own Mormon worldview to create a believable work of fiction.

At greater length: It honestly took me almost two years to force myself to finish this. I was initially intrigued by the premise of this book, but somehow missed that it was by a Mormon author, from a Mormon press, about a Mormon agent. Unfortunately, on receiving the book I was slammed repeatedly over the head with Mormonism such that I, too, was utterly unable to distance myself from the author's Mormon-based worldview.

There are two main problems here--setting/plot, and characterization.

Cyberpunk is noir futurism. Hunting Gideon is Mormon not-very-futurism. Yes, it deals with computer technology and culture, but Draper substitutes the cynical, paranoid future of the noir / cyberpunk with a stereotyped sunny Mormon worldview. Here, those in authority aren't to be feared or mistrusted or viewed with justified cynicism; they are to be honored, valorized, respected, and obeyed. This can work if played as a dystopia, but not so much in the mystery / suspense plots traditionally paired with cyberpunk settings.

Characterization. I have to spare a moment on the gender issues. Way too cute and, again, the author has failed to remove herself from her worldview enough to create a believable set of characters, instead shading into wish-fulfillment of the Twilight variety. I was hopeful when the story began that the wisecracking agent would transcend the stereotype, and there were some nods in that direction initially. But those nods never materialized into any depth of exploration, and ultimately the characters remained simple cut-outs.

I give the book two stars because the prose was readable albeit clunky, meaning, not painful to read and not illiterate -- that gets a star -- and the book didn't greatly offend me -- another star.… (mehr)

When I saw this described as a cyberpunk novel I immediately thought of William Gibson and was looking forward to something in the same vein. Instead, I found a book that was overly descriptive for the most part yet made the odd glancing comment that left me confused, and when we finally get to the virtual reality world it felt flat and unreal. The writing seemed forced and the dialogue was not glib or witty which I think it was trying to be.

I have not read a lot of science fiction and the only cyberpunk novels I've read have been Gibson's. Fantasy is more to my liking. I passed this book on to my brother-in-law who reads a lot more sf than I do and may appreciate this book more.… (mehr)