The last time I felt awed in that way was when I read Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen for the first time. The Atopia Chronicles is not just a good book, it's not even just an excellent book. Every sentence is a big sentence. Every idea is an important, seminal idea. It's science fiction at its best, with something of Ghost in the Shell, only clearer to understand. Technology is at the core of Matthew Mather's work, and he manages to envision evolutions (in communications, business, video games, social networks, information, medicine,...) that are both amazing and totally imaginable. But it is only a starting point to go much further and explore many facets of human behaviour. Each book offers a new and fresh point of view, like some kind of variation on the same theme, to better understand what Life with a capital L is about. This book is deeply philosophical and metaphysical, as it deals with the meaning of Life, escapism, estrangement and alienation, existentialism and absurdism.
Escapism is what humans have always craved and feared at the same time. This very book is a form of escapism, after all... We've always coped with reality thanks to fiction, stories, entertainment, sports, alcohol, drugs... It can't just be eating, working and sleeping (actually, even those three things are a form of escape from the Human Condition if you push them a little more than is usually done...) Knowing Life is finite and basically meaningless is technically unbearable, therefore we need as many things as we can find to divert these thoughts from coming too close. However, there can never be any real "solution", and whatever we try just ends up recreating the same form of limitation and frustration. It's difficult to cope with this absurd position when you're not Albert Camus and can't picture Sisyphus happy. Atopia offers the possibility to escape from reality and embrace multiple attractive alternatives, but living by proxy like that (or by "proxxi", I should say) can make you lose sense of who you are in a dangerous way, and lead to a lethal form of alienation from which you can never come back. You can never leave your chains, you can only go from one kind to another (Freud).
What is real? Something you've really done, or something your brain thinks you've really done? These are questions quite close to what Philip K. Dick obsessed about, in his books and, sadly, in real life. On Atopia, you have two options: get bored to death in a cramped space leaving little hope of any satisfying activity, or adopt the digital way of life that can take you virtually anywhere you like. As the latter alienates you more than any other thing, you're trapped either way.
The future envisioned in this novel is both attractive and repelling for the characters. It's probably the case for the author himself, and for his readers. It is my case at any rate, just the same way I marvel at today's evolutions while fearing them at the same time (I read the book on a tablet, and am posting a comment on a social cloud; but what if all this disappears or gets erased one day?). Which is not to say that Matthew Mather's work is only a compilation of prophetic ideas for geeks or a guilt-inducing cautionary tale. This is literary science-fiction that quotes Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll here, and Arthur C. Clarke and Chuang Tzu there, and fleetingly winks at Orwell's newspeak; this is intellectual entertainment written with style, styles even, as the narrative voice adapts itself to each character and therefore changes for each story (take Bob, for example: he sounds like a digitalized Bret Easton Ellis character!). And it's a coherent series whose individual installments all pack the punch of a short story, with a breathtaking final twist preceded by a mind-blowing narrative. And if this wasn't enough, the final book completes the puzzle while cleverly reusing all the former pieces and leaving enough space to hope for a sequel to the series (which I would jump on right away, needless to say). This is the book of the "phuture", and one of your "splinters" should already have bought it (or even started reading it!) as you're finishing this review...
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About the author
Complex comprehension of a futuristic world
Honestly, this is a much differently written book than the Destiny/Nomad/Resistance etc series books that Mather has created. I loved those books and thought this one would be great too. I’ve toughed my way through it though because it jumps around so much to alternate dimensions, alternate worlds, so many different characters (See photo of ‘identity’). Altogether it’s been a tough read as it is pretty complex compared to Mather’s other books.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2012
Top reviews from other countries
- J Bryden LloydReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2013
It can be a struggle, but it is a good read.
- FCondeReviewed in Spain on November 28, 2013
An epic history of distopian science fiction
- Zhibin DaiReviewed in Canada on November 27, 2013
Bring the virtual reality to a new level
- Barbara GrossReviewed in Germany on March 12, 2013
Brilliant and completely believeable vision of our future
