Mike Gower

A novel written by a guy with pretty old fashioned and immature ideas about women. One of the things I found peculiar in the first book was it also seemed written by someone pretty young, and yet the author is my age. It makes it all the more peculiar that the book describes anyone aged 60 or over in terms that make them sound like they have one foot in the grave. What I took to be translation problems with the first book, seem, at least partway through the second, more of a style of writing which I will politely describe as esoteric. To me, this series shares many of the interesting aspects and deficiencies of Dune. Great ideas; too bad about the stilted interpersonal interaction. It's easier to cut Frank Herbert slack for something written 50 years ago, than it is with a modern novel. I'll probably stick it out for some of the brain experiments. But I wouldn't call it a good novel.