Truth Machine

Rating:
Summary: Trite, pedantic pablum
Review: <<Gag!>> Do you like books where the male protaganist always has "Steely, gray penetrating eyes"? and the "brilliant lady scientist" who comes to adore him faints at the thought of a nuclear reactor ("Oh, horrors!") and GIGGLES repeatedly? Well, if you don't mind the pretentious and stultifying lectures on sociology, this one's for you. It wasn't for me.

Rating:
Summary: Provocative reading.
Review: This genre is way outside my usual preference and I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it so much. It stimulated my awareness of my commitment to honesty and integrity.

Rating:
Summary: If only his writing were up to his ideas.
Review: I was greatly interested in the premise of this book and eagerly picked it up. What I found was a novel that never developed much past the inital theme. In many ways, it is more annoying to find a great idea executed poorly than a overall bad book, because you can see what a better author could have done. Instead of a interesting comentary on a true society, the book myoptically contentrates on it's main charecters, the Good Scientist, the Bad Scienist and all the other cardboard cutout people Sci-Fi is known for. If the actions of these people seemed at all likely or logical it might still be fun, but they make desicions only because that is how the author wants the plot to go. Additonally, the "Computer writing a book" concept is fun to begin with, but gets old. The author drops in and out of his computer personal randomly and it just ends up annoying.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly provocative and well done.
Review: I find it vastly interesting that the people who said "The Truth Machine" failed their analysis never really back themselves up. They make some lame excuse and then reject it. Fairly typical of closed-minded people. I personally really enjoyed the bookl; I read the entire thing before it was offically out in print (when you could download several chapters at a time, answering a survey after each section), and I thought it was great. The ideas behind it are well researched and many of them are quite possible. The humor factor is not overdone, and you can tell that a lot of time was spent in the writing and editing of the story. Personally, I think any story is great that provokes a response (positive or negative) from a person. Just reading the book leads you to open your mind to new ideas, whether it is in the form of agreeing with what you read or finding ways to disagree. In any case, I really enjoyed the book, and I am looking forward to seeing the movie when it comes out!

Rating:
Summary: A perfect ten!
Review: It was completely believable from beginning to end. I feel like I just read about the future.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting, believable, stimulating.
Review: Riveting basic premise and story -- makes an extremely credible effort to gauge and factor current and future acceleration of social, societal and technological trends. Does NOT underestimate the the probable future effects of technological development on the human condition. The character relationships and conflicts are somewhat lacking in depth (i.e. almost all the characters unambivalently admire one another), although this could be due largely to the messianic plotline. Thanks to Halperin for his gift of writing this book!END

Rating:
Summary: I really tried to like this book...
Review: After reading all the great reviews this book received here at Amazon, I was disappointed to find that The Truth Machine utterly failed to live up to its acclaim. I don't deny that it was interesting (I, too, didn't put the book down until I had finished it), but comparisons to 1984 and Brave New World are a far stretch, if one can even make them at all. Halperin's vision of the future is indeed imaginative and thought-provoking, but these good points are lost in the shoddy writing and poor characterization. Even minimal attention to Randall, David, and Diana would have made this novel infinitely more enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: This says it all.
Review: I read The Truth Machine in one 6 hour sitting because I couldn't stand to put it down!

Rating:
Summary: Can't wait to see the movie!
Review: I started reading The Truth Machine on an a return flight from a business trip two nights ago and found I could not put it down until I finished it. I do not think I have ever read a book so fast in my entire life! I do love science fiction and found the story fascinating and believable.

Rating:
Summary: Great, thought-provoking novel
Review: My ex-girlfriend suggested The Truth Machine to me. I am sure she ment it as a slight but then I happened to see it and picked it up, and I am glad she said that. I don't believe I have ever felt more empathy for a literary character than I did for Petey. As far as relationships are concerned, hey, take the thought of whether or not you can trust a person out of the equation. Wouldn't it be nice to scip the salesman the next time you get a new car? However some questions should never be scipped; Do you think these jeans make me look fat? Who do you think is a better cook me or your mother? Perhaps a white-lie tolerance should be allowed. Or hopefully people will learn not to ask those kinds of questions.