Mirage

Rating:
Summary: Weird!
Review: Excellent idea but stretched a little too far. The basic premise, simulation of a person's psyche on computer, is tantalising. I felt the characterisations were believable but the various twists and turns were too predictable and seemed to be deliberately laboured. I reckon the book is 2 chapters too long and would have benefited from a hard-nosed editor demanding more pace, less self-indulgent self-analysis.

Rating:
Summary: A Bit too long
Review: Excellent idea but stretched a little too far. The basic premise, simulation of a person's psyche on computer, is tantalising. I felt the characterisations were believable but the various twists and turns were too predictable and seemed to be deliberately laboured. I reckon the book is 2 chapters too long and would have benefited from a hard-nosed editor demanding more pace, less self-indulgent self-analysis.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT FICTION to top Critchton
Review: I've known and hunt for the books of the two great authors of this book, but havent come to see any of em on the bookstores that i frequent. I havent read any of their individual works before since i cant find em, but have read about their particular novels that captured my attention. It turned out I get to stumble upon this book and seeing that these two coveted authors have collaborated, it blows my top off, so needless to say I bought it - and just as i presumed , these two authors are excellent writers.

I first get to hear about F. Paul Wilson as the then-anonymous author for his medical thriller THE SELECT, and all along I've known of Costello for his novel SEE HOW SHE RUNS. It turned out that he is now well known for having created the bestselling CD-ROM Interactive drama called THE 7TH GUEST.

This book however is a surefire winner by combining two of these great authors' capabilities to compose great story scenarios of thrills within a novel not only in plot, but in the way they delivered the story for the readers; this is one of those books that you'd indeed find hard to put down once you started reading it, so much similar with that other book I've reviewed here at Amazon called THE BIG PICTURE.

The plot involves a total opposite of twins, who are both raised by their uncle as told in the storyline; the other, Samantha, ar erratic yet great paint artist went on a comatrose for no tracable reason that baffled every doctor - and it turned that her only option of hope for who could help her is the most unlikely person - her twin Julie, a proffessional in the field of scientifical research program that she turned out, and have developed a virual reality machine that could penetrate through the brain's cargo of memories she called as Memorycape.

Part THE LAWNMOWER MAN but with an added touch of a little similarity to Critchton's fictional concepts - this novel stands on it own competitively amongst those well known fictions. The twists are as fascinating as any of the great thrillers in the field of science fiction and crime genre. "The Matrioshka dolls images" that Julie would often see in her twins memoryscapes serves to hold all of the clues into what answer lies in the mystery that this novel would unfold... if you could solve it by the hint, well it would be a better idea to give yourself the treat of reading this book. It's a great adventurous read for the sci-fi/crime/thriller fiction novel genre.

Definitely one of the best,

"A WONDERFULLY INVENTIVE, ENGROSSING, THOROUGHLY TWISTED PIECE OF WORK... I LOVED IT." ~~Peter Straub

"WILL KEEP YOU TURNING THE PAGES" ~~Rocky Mountain News

Rating:
Summary: Weird!
Review: This book wasn't too bad, but it was strange. The descriptions of Sam's memoryscape were a little too wordy at times, but I did enjoy this book. I do recommend it but, if you want to read a real page-turner by F. Paul Wilson then get The Select.

Rating:
Summary: Great Story
Review: This is more of a sci-fi book than a medical thriller, as advertised, for which I am very grateful. If it had been labeled a sci-fi thriller, I probably wouldn't have picked it up and would have missed out on a very good story. The idea of exploring a person's memory with virtual reality is fascinating. Wilson and Costello have combined to make this a believable premise. The characterizations were wonderful and the suspense unrelenting.