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Summary: The first time i've ever been addicted to a book.
Review: I don't read novels often, but this one was a must. I had trouble putting it down. I borrowed it from a friend, and now i'm going to buy it cause i want to read it again.
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Summary: Great SciFi
Review: The Terminal Experiment was the best science fiction read I have had for a long time. Great story and plot, some really good ideas. I had trouble putting it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Three stars entertainment, one star story
Review: If you believe in god, transcendence or merely that something happens after you pop out of existence... still won't find in this book much enlightment. Furthermore, if you are one of the non-believers, or even just an agnostic, then this electric souls thing will definitely not be a WOW! type of an idea. Still, the book entertains. Too bad I didn't like the concept.
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Summary: Dreadful pot-boiler
Review: Poor characterization, weak plotting, wooden writing, bad SF: a dreadful book. "Move over John Grisham, your pot has boiled, clear the stove."
Rating: 
Summary: A good read
Review: Science is good, pace is quick, characters are cardboards. A good read nevertheless.
Rating:
Summary: First-class SF and mystery with a message that rang true
Review: I love both mysteries and SF, but all too often examples of each genre have characteristic flaws. Mediocre SF either has no ideas or concentrates on its ideas and ignores the character and plot. Mediocre mysteries have a great plot that falls flat at the end with an unbelievable denouement. Sawyer manages to avoid both problems and also make an uplifting statement about the human condition. I was thoroughly engaged during the entire book and found the ending extremely satisfying. I have to disagree with those who felt that some aspects of the plot, such as the soulwave, were not well-integrated into the whole. One of the things I liked best was the way the seemingly unrelated elements came together coherently. P. S. If you liked this book, try Greg Egan, espceially his Permutation City.
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Summary: Good premise that had nothing to do with the plot.
Review: I still don't understand why nearly half the book is dedicated to a completely different premise (that one can definitively detect the soul)? A hundred pages of setup for the "Gee, this makes me want to simulate myself" plot? I would have been much happier if the soul-thing had been the entire story. And does there HAVE to be a killer on the loose in every sci-fi book I read these days? Oh, for the days of Asimov and Heinlein.
Rating:
Summary: Ugh.
Review: Ten reasons to avoid this book: 1) Clumsy, insipid prose. 2) Rubber science. 3) The world's most obvious murder mystery. 4) A whiny and dull protagonist. You'd want to smack him if you only gave a damn what happened to him. 5) Rob's Remedial Plotting 101: "Hmm. My opening is rather slow. I know! I'll take a random scene from the end of the book and tack it to the beginning. Yeah! Then three hundred pages of flashback. That oughta juice 'er up." 6) Simplistic plotting. The author has either not properly thought through all of the consequences, or is deliberately avoiding difficult issues. 7) Even more simplistic solutions... 8) ...which lead to sophmoric philosophy... 9) ...which leads to laughable "transcendent" ending. 10) Man. Must've have been a slow year at the Nebula awards.
Rating:
Summary: Great story
Review: This was the first sf story that got me. The main plot device worked very well. I first read this as a serial in Analog, and I look foward to rereading it in softcover form.
Rating:
Summary: A simple but thought provoking book
Review: Four stars may be a little too generous for this book, but 3 seems to chintzy. Sawyer starts out inventing a super EEG to helop define brain death and (oops!) discovers the human soul. What this has to do with the rest of the book is uncertain and as such, the first 75 pages are largely superfluous. He uses this beginning to set up his characters, which he does in a soap opera type fashion, but spends too long introducing a technology that is irrelevant to the story. When the true plot is unveiled, it is well mapped out but a little too superficial. Further distracting from the story are continuous references to the "soldwave" which serve little purpose. Lastly, we are told fro the beginning that one of the computor simulations is the murderer, but it is a little too easy to figure out which one it is. So why do I give this book 3 and a half stars? Because despite its flaws, its and enjoyable, if simple, read.
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