Rating: 
Summary: Idlewild, an amazing read!
Review: Ten kids, growing up in a school. A virtual school, in a virtual world. Lied to by every program and every programmer about who they are, their purpose, and their future. Never knowing their real family, never knowing what real life was like. Trained to be the future elite, doctors. Trained in reality to reincarnate the world. The Black Ep has killed off everyone, so in humanities last attempt at having a future they program this world, all for training of these ten specially designed children, to grow and live in a simulation of life, as to restore real life. They hate it at the school, so want to get out to live in the "real" world, and go to a "real" school, when, in reality it is the same as the virtual world of the school, only they don't know it.
The main character, Halloween, never believed in any of this, and rebelled against it all, his teacher, Maestro; his "parents," his peers, everything.
Another character, Lazarus, is surely dead, and Halloween has been attacked, but isn't dead, and he must find who has tried to kill him and who has killed Lazarus. Nobody believes someone is trying to kill anyone, for the program doesn't want fear in its students, the program even says that Lazarus just disappeared because he "graduated." Halloween doesn't believe this, and strives to find the answer.
This has to be my favorite book in a long while. It is high-tech, yet cultured, and smart. Written in such a beautiful way you never wish to set it down... you are fully tossed into the world Nick Sagan has created. It is a dark, lonely, sad, desperate novel, in which there are lies, death, loss, confusion, hatred, and backstabbing around every bend.
This truly is a beautiful book, one of my favorites of all time. An intelligent, wonderful, detailed, emotional first novel. It's hard to believe writing can get better than this, but let's see what Sagan can do with experience.
Rating: 
Summary: A Promising Debut Novel from a Marvelous Storyteller
Review: The virtual reality tale has become a mainstay of science fiction, a frequently used template for books and films that explore the increasingly intimate interplay between human beings and technology. It is territory well worth exploring, as more and more human-to-human interaction in the real world is modeled and replicated in the digital environment of the Internet, an environment that is as pervasive as it is profound in its effect on civilization. But as with any genre, the difference between mainstay and cliché is defined by the skills of the storyteller.With IDLEWILD, his first novel, author Nick Sagan has distinguished himself as a storyteller of considerable talent. Sagan, the son of the late scientist and author Carl Sagan, has crafted a story that delivers everything one expects in a cyberpunk/virtual reality novel. But IDLEWILD throws enough curves at the reader to keep the story well out of reach of the clichés that might otherwise mark it as yet another cut-and-paste virtual reality clone. IDLEWILD opens as a young man awakens in the middle of a field, having been rendered unconscious by some unidentified trauma. He is unable to remember who or where he is. His environment reveals itself to be a fantastic place, populated by strange creatures with strange powers. As his memory slowly returns he realizes that this fantasy world is a virtual environment of his own creation and the strange creatures are his classmates in Idlewild, an exclusive midwestern prep school that uses sophisticated virtual environments as classrooms. Gabe, the young man, learns that the trauma he suffered was a potentially fatal electric shock and that the massive current surged through his body as he lay wired into his virtual reality world. Gabe suspects that the shock was no accident and begins a cautious investigation of his classmates and of Ellison, the artificial intelligence that acts as the virtual headmaster of the school. Who would want to kill him, and why? As Gabe digs deeper into the mystery, the lines between the real and the virtual worlds blur and with each answer comes a new question. Gabe's paranoia increases as he learns that even his own perceptions are suspect. To describe the storytelling technique Sagan uses in IDLEWILD would be to reveal too much of this intricate tale. But it can be safely revealed that Sagan has deftly juggled multiple storylines to produce a slick cyberpunk whodunit with a tight and energetic narrative and an apocalyptic kick. Good stuff from a writer with a bright future. --- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart from Bookreporter.com
Rating: 
Summary: Reads like bad sci-fi channel drivel
Review: This book tries really hard to be intelligent and probably manages to fool most, but the story is too far-fetched to take itself so seriously. The characters are drawn up like soap opera stars we're supposed to envy, but it's hard to build up any respect for shallow, angsty teens with bad attitudes, with or without their superior intelligence. Top it off with a plot that can only be described as flat-out annoying, and you've got a big waste of time on your hands. Don't do it, folks.
Rating:
Summary: Reads like bad sci-fi channel drivel
Review: This book tries really hard to be intelligent and probably manages to fool most, but the story is too far-fetched to take itself so seriously. The characters are drawn up like soap opera stars we're supposed to envy, but it's hard to build up any respect for shallow, angsty teens with bad attitudes, with or without their superior intelligence. Top it off with a plot that can only be described as flat-out annoying, and you've got a big waste of time on your hands. Don't do it, folks.
Rating:
Summary: Approach with Skepticism
Review: This has everything going for it except the story itself. The jacket blurbs, cover art and author bio (I'll ignore his lineage, that really is unfair for a freshman effort) all point to an excellent, mysterious, thought-provoking story but instead you get a choppy, ill-paced, fairly flat plot. There are a few intriguing ideas in here but the thinly veiled "twist" is actually more distracting than it is enthralling since the more read science fiction reader will have figured it out halfway through the book. Key points in the character's development are given very poor treatment, resorting to self-absorbed inner monologues and very static emotions. The ending feels rushed, as if Sagan realized nothing could save this story. A young reader or someone fairly new to the genre might enjoy this but anyone else will most likely leave feeling at best unfulfilled or at worst angry at the time wasted.
Rating:
Summary: truly excellent
Review: This hypnotic and absorbing novel begins mysteriously and ends with tremendous force. It has many things going for it. + clever plotting
+ a nuanced, emotionally complex protagonist
+ breakneck pacing
+ imaginative imagery
+ absorbing themes But what I love most about Idlewild are its subtleties. Each time I read it I discover something new.
Rating:
Summary: truly excellent
Review: This hypnotic and absorbing novel begins mysteriously and ends with tremendous force. It has many things going for it. + clever plotting
+ a nuanced, emotionally complex protagonist
+ breakneck pacing
+ imaginative imagery
+ absorbing themes But what I love most about Idlewild are its subtleties. Each time I read it I discover something new.
Rating:
Summary: What a debut!
Review: Well, everyone's mileage may vary, but for me this is the best audiobook I've heard in a very long time. It's hard to describe without giving away the plot, but this is a dark, weird, Matrix-like story that starts out one way and winds up somewhere completely different, and along the way it amuses, provokes, tickles and disturbs. It takes a little while to realize where it's going, but once it comes together, look out. I had chills by the end of it. For a first novel, Idlewild is terrific, and honestly for a fifteenth novel it'd be pretty darn good too. Four and a half stars, and I'm rounding that up to five.
Rating:
Summary: What a debut!
Review: Well, everyone's mileage may vary, but for me this is the best audiobook I've heard in a very long time. It's hard to describe without giving away the plot, but this is a dark, weird, Matrix-like story that starts out one way and winds up somewhere completely different, and along the way it amuses, provokes, tickles and disturbs. It takes a little while to realize where it's going, but once it comes together, look out. I had chills by the end of it. For a first novel, Idlewild is terrific, and honestly for a fifteenth novel it'd be pretty darn good too. Four and a half stars, and I'm rounding that up to five.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting new writer
Review: You either go with this kind of book or you don't, and I went with it. Fast trip, wild ride, sudden stop at the end (but that's what sequels are for). Not quite as good as Ender's Game but close enough to make me a fan. This one goes on my list of faves.Who knew Carl Sagan's kid could write?
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