I’ve found a link for the article Sarah Ruttan wrote about The Amadeus Net in last week’s London This Week.
You can find the full text here.
Archive for August, 2005
I liked this article from the New Scientists that explores the idea of alternate history — counterfactuals for those who prefer the jargon — as it pertains to the history of science.
Alternate history is one of my favourite modes of SF, so it’s good to see that people are taking it a little more seriously (okay very little).
A nice article on the editorial page about The Amadeus Net and its (ahem) author. Appeared yesterday (Aug. 17, 2005) and was written by Sarah Ruttan in her “The Naked Truth” column. Unfortunately, there’s no online version, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
Deb Hamel, the reviewing maven at Book Blog, has given The Amadeus Net four out of five stars, and says:
“…the book is well-written, and once one gets into the meat of the story its principals are interesting enough to keep readers’ attention. Perhaps most likeable is the character of Ipolis itself, whose benevolent governance of its residents includes shielding them from incoming missiles, controlling the weather, and spiking the water supply of intimate couples with birth-control drugs unless they’re actively trying to reproduce. The Amadeus Net is not the sort of book that you won’t be able to put down, but you’ll definitely want to pick it up again once you do.”
You can read the entire review here.
While you’re there, you might also want to look into her BAFAB concept, which stands for Buy a Friend a Book, due to begin this October.
“This is a wonderful book. It accomplishes exactly what I look for in a good SF novel. Rayner creates an interesting, strange, and yet somewhat plausible world and then populates that world with compelling characters. I found myself caring about these characters, not just the inexplicably immortal Mozart, but all the motley bunch that have found themselves citizens of Ipolis, including the character of Ipolis her/he/itself. (It stands to reason that, if smart people can be real boneheads, that honour shouldn’t be limited to just biological sentience.) Rayner managed the progress of the story with a sure hand and flare for humour. I enjoyed reading The Amadeus Net very much and am looking to future titles from this author.”
— John Sloan
