Wednesday, May 18, 2011

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe


How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
by Charles Yu [Compact Disc Yu]

I really wanted to like this book (which I happened to listen to in book-on-CD form). I'd read quite nice reviews of it on various online sites, and have always been a fan of time-travel stories, so I was looking forward to giving it a sample. Yu, using himself as a narrative hero, creates an interesting time paradox, but I ended up finding the the non-stop internal monologue to become a bit tiring. The style of Yu's writing ranges from the humorous satire of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, to more serious scifi fare. The supporting characters -- Tammy the time machine's operating system, Phil -- the manager who doesn't realize he's a computer program -- and Ed, the dog who doesn't exist...but still does -- are all intriguing, and at times, I felt on the verge of buying into the whole tale. But then it gets mired in too much introspection and lost me again. I think some SF fans will enjoy this, for its component parts, so I'll recommend it for the casual genre fan. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[Also available in downloadable E-book formats.]

[ publisher's official Charles Yu web page ]

Have you listened to or read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

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