Rating: 
Summary: Surreal, metaphysical, exotic, and intriguing
Review: Alex Garland follows up The Beach with a novel which is geographically similar, but stylistically independent and thoroughly entertaining. He creates vivid characters and tells there stories in an amazing fashion, with every small detail slowly coming into focus until it finally reveals something much greater than just the sum of its seemingly disparate parts: a masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: It ain't no beach
Review: Alex Garland's first novel the Beach was fascinating, one of the best books I've ever opened. That was enough for me to give The Tesseract a try. While, I couldn't put The Beach down, The Tesseract was easy to forget. Until the hypercube finally unwinds, it is only a mass of boring characters writrten in the monotonous style of Genesis. My suggestion: read The Beach if you haven't and wait for Alex Garland's third novel.
Rating: 
Summary: not worth it
Review: This book is average
Rating:
Summary: poetic, eye-opening, and oddly touching
Review: i couldn't stop reading this book once i started because it gave me the feeling that i could reach out and touch the characters. it's a rare book that allows one to actually feel that the characters are human. i was touched by every character, even the most horrific: they all inspired sympathy in some way. bad things just don't happen to bad people, they can happen to any of us at any time. don't expect it to be a page-turner like The Beach was; instead expect to not want to see the pages go by. the thoughts and images that this book provoked in me are very similar to those of one of my favorite authors, haruki murakami.
Rating: 
Summary: Tightly written and riveting. The characters are real...
Review: This is a book for those who appreciate tightly written and character-rich writing. The Tesseract is a stunning change for Garland. Unlike in his previous novel, The Beach, he draws his scenes and characters with great sensitivity.For example, there are two brilliantly written funeral scenes. One of them, concerning the disfigurement of a child during a funeral, is particularly gripping. When Garland came to Seattle for a reading, I asked him where he got the idea for this scene. He then told a story of him attending a funeral in the Philipines during which the deceased's body was accidentally exposed and broken apart to the shock and horror of everyone there. All who see him on his book tour should ask him about it; it will rivet you.
Rating:
Summary: Confusing.
Review: I read Garland's first novel, The Beach, and found a literary gem. However, his latest work simply baffles me. Unlike his debut which is fast-pacing and doesn't keep the reader waiting, The Tesseract is slow to the extent of almost being drab. His characters are probably his only redeeming quality in this book.
Rating:
Summary: If you grew up in the 80's, think you have no time to read.
Review: Amazingly enough my generation is succeptable to information bits. We have short attention spans and even less time to read or so we think. Tesseract is a brilliant example of getting our attention quickly and making us want to turn the page. Alex Garland is truly a voice for this generation and his ablity to speak to us is not an easy task. The story was balanced and left me with many anxiously awaited page turns. I think even if you had never been in a foreign country let alone the Philippines he captures a very real perspective of the culture. READ IT!
Rating:
Summary: Amateurish and strangely overrated
Review: I read a few good reviews of this book before reading it and can't understand how it's managed to even get reviewed in major publications. The dialogue in this book is atrocious and the attempts to describe the underbelly of Manila come off as amateurish writing. I was very disappointed and definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I honestly gave the book a chance and finished it all but it just wasn't worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, thought provoking, fast read.
Review: I haven't read "The Beach" yet but I enjoyed this book. There are a lot of beautiful moments captured in the book. It is fascinating how the author moves backwards and forward in time and yet somehow it all seems to flow beautifully. Words are sparse but the impressions they created in my mind were great. Well written, I am sure I will love "The Beach", its next on my reading list!
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly good
Review: I found myself very drawn into the respective worlds of the main characters (like in Patrick Gale's Tree Surgery for Beginners) and enjoyed the writing style. The ending certainly had no surprises but it was certainly worth the journey.
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