I had a rough time with this one, so I did not make it very far through. Tangled, seemingly-unrelated ideas -- some of which might have been decent stories by themselves -- connected by uneven writing and confusing connections. Not my thing at all. ( )

An imago is a computer construct that is also alive, thinking and immortal, although it has no physical form other than a projected 3D image. DisLex is the company that has created imagoes, believing that by studying imagoes we can understand life and cheat death. Supposedly, understanding imagoes will also help find a cure for HMV, a horrifying mutational contagious disease that afflicts some humans.

I had a very hard time getting into the story, not following the leaps of knowledge and technology that were supposed to tie together imagoes, immortality and HMV. I felt no attachment to any of the characters, who seemed quite flat and uninteresting, and really disliked the protagonist, not because he was a great evil villain but because he was just so petty and disagreeable. ( )

Interesting account of a maniacal Disneyesque figure and his effects on the people around him and the world that comes to rely upon his technologies.

I was never sure about the Disney aspects of the story, but they never became particularly important.

A disease is mutating humans causing distrust and fear among the "normals". The main characters get caught up in the politics of the situation, and virtual characters in a virtual world may hold the keys to changing things in the real world.

There were a couple interesting characters (one a surprising choice that ended up my favorite character in the book) and some uninteresting ones that simply seemed to drift along with events, too stupid to realize what was happening. There were some interesting concepts only partially explored.

I have used the word "interesting" three times already, and it's because I don't want to criticize the book too harshly or heap undue praise upon it. It wasn't a bad read, although some of the events were mildly disturbing to read through, but it didn't grab me or fascinate me either and I found the ending vaguely anti-climactic.

I'm on the fence with this one. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but I'm not adverse to reading more from the same author. ( )

I made it only a third of the way in this book, but the subject really did not interest me. ( )

Well written, fast paced novel with a great villain and a rampant, incurable disease. I highly recommend this book for it's speculative view of the not too distant future, some well imagined technology, and the well developed characters with their human flaws. ( )