Living Real

by James C. Bassett

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061057290
• ISBN13: 9780061057298
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

You will read this again and again!

I would like to start out by saying how much I love to read. And I know good and bad books when I see them. This is a great book. Except for maybe one or two minor spots in the book that drag a little, the whole book just begs for the next page to be read. So far I've read it 3 or 4 times and maybe I'll put it away to start reading again in another year or so.

Slip though the wrinkle in Cyberspace...

I thought this book was very well done, I enjoyed the characters in the book and found it gave me a lot to think about with how prevalent the web is in today's society... Picturing the different settings was cool for me, because I live in Florida and used to play some of the roll playing games and could really see it coming together the way to book depicts... I found the use of technology and the problems "Carver" had very interesting in light of today's problems with Piracy, Hacking, etc...If you like technology, this is the book for you... I just wish there were more books with this setting...

A fascinating, dramatic, and human view of the future

James C. Bassett's first novel "Living Real" was one of the handful of books I read last summer that left me with impressions that are still vivid a year later. That speaks strongly for the quality of the writing in this most interesting book. The protagonist is an author of virtual reality software - an artist more than a programmer - who discovers a break in the interface between the mind and the equipment that can be exploited to make the virtual world feel truly real, so that the "gamer" - for entertainment is the purpose of virtual reality here - can easily forget whether he is in the virtual reality machine, or outside of it. The ideal for virtual reality, at last! But disaster follows upon disaster. The protagonist finds that experiencing a game as reality is not the only effect on the mind - one's mind becomes permanently changed in subtle ways by its experience in this form of reality. And a critical point - it is possible for the programmer to guide the effect the program has on the minds of the users. Naturally there are many uses for this mind-molding tool, and some of the more sinister elements of society soon get wind of the discovery and come after it and its discoverer. Once the cat is out of the bag, there are people who would rather it was left there after all - as long as they hold the bag. Can the cat be recaptured and stuffed back in? Where will the bag eventually end up? To what use should this discovery be put? Is there any good use for such a tool? The book does not delve as deeply into such questions as it might have - but then, the protagonist is a technically-oriented artist, not a philosopher. At least the questions are raised, and the answers the author finds are satisfying. Frankly, though the plot was quite motivating all the way up until about 25 pages from the end, at which point Mr. Bassett seemed to lose his way, the plot is not the strongest point of the book. The strengths of the book are in the descriptions of the society and the characte! rizations of the principal characters. There is a "recreation area" that is described so vividly and amusingly that one wishes more time could be spent with those pages. The experience of using virtual reality software is depicted with great clarity. Emotions are clearly communicated, so that the characters are (virtually) real. One does care about these people, even some of the peripheral characters who have short but memorable roles. To summarize, "Living Real" has characters we can empathize with, a plot with some excitement, descriptions that really put us where the action is, a social point to make, a technology one can understand and enjoy, and a society that is lively and more than a little interesting. It isn't quite a perfect book, but by the time you decide that, you will have spent a number of hours in more enjoyment than any of us have the right to expect from your average book. I am hoping James Bassett is successful in having a second book published.