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Psinapse
This science fiction thriller of industrial espionage, double-dealing and corporate skulduggery is a dark homage to Verne's futuristic scientific tales of the century before. Set in a dystopian Britain of 2019, Psinapse gives a glimpse of life in a high tech future approaching quicker than you might think.
131 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 8, 1989
12 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Ives
8 books9 followersWriter of dystopian near-future science fiction. Reader of pretty much anything that comes to hand, more usually non-fiction than fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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November 14, 2011I haven't rated this book as I wrote it and think that would be unfair. However, I have read Psinapse countless times since I wrote it twenty years ago, and would, now I'm older and wiser(!) truthfully rate it around 4 out of 5 stars. Many of my friends read it on paper during the 1990s and everyone, despite not necessarily being of the target demographic, said they enjoyed it. I have only recently Kindle-ised Psinapse, so reviews are still rather sparse, but one inspired me to write the prequel Sirene this year. I personally think that when reading this book in 2011, the sometimes accurate, sometimes inaccurate predictions for 2019 add a unique touch of amusement to what is a characteristically 'eighties' techno-thriller.
March 13, 2012
Ives wrote Psinapse in the late 1980s based on a future he pictured in twenty or thirty years. We’re rapidly approaching when the story takes place, if not already there. This presents a thorny issue. How a potential reader feels about this will make an immense difference in deciding if this is a book for them.
Before discussing that issue, let’s talk about the story. The main character is Karen Masterson, a recent college graduate with expertise in computer security. While this was a hot field when she started her training, the demand was much lower when she finished. With the high rate of unemployment in the dystopian society Ives’ imagined, Karen was lucky to get her job helping develop a leading edge defense system. Cancellation of the project sends Karen to the unemployment line. When some strange things happen related to her former employer and coworkers, Karen starts digging, and sets us off on the thriller part of the tale.
I mostly enjoyed the story. The futuristic technology and dystopian world Ives describes are imaginative and, with a few exceptions, worked well. However, it felt like too much of the book was extended narrative. Psinapse starts out with a good, dramatic scene to draw the reader in, followed by narrative explaining back-story. There is nothing wrong with this approach; however, the back-story, primarily concerning how technology had evolved up to that point, went too far, causing the story to drag. That the author had thought this out was a good thing. That the reader had to wade through it all, whether necessary to the story or not, wasn’t. For example, a long history of how computer technology had changed, allowing much more powerful computer chips to be built, wasn’t important to the story. Only that this change had happened.
The remainder of the book contains a fair amount of narrative. Some of this is filling in of back-story, some needed, and some maybe not. Some is because the characters, especially Karen, are often acting alone, so the storytelling is largely action or her thoughts. The latter, while technically “inner dialogue,” often reads the same as narrative. How a reader will react to that is more a matter of taste.
Which leaves us with the thorny issue. In his bio, the author talks about his love for the classics of science fiction: Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and such. Reading these authors today presents the reader with an envisioned future that is both futuristic and retro, when compared to our actual present. Psinapse has the same situation. Some of the technology as Ives pictured it in the late 1980s is still forward looking – imaginable from our current vantage point, but still in the future. Retina scanning for ATM security and computer/brain interfaces are two examples. Yet other technology has come and (mostly) gone – dialup internet access, for example.
The type of reader who enjoys reading classic science fiction, comparing the future those authors pictured to the reality of where we are today, is likely to enjoy Psinapse. Those things I see as negative, including detailed back-story, may well appeal to those same readers. For those readers who get jarred out of a story when it feels like they’re jumping between past, present, and future in the same scene, it may not.
**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **
Before discussing that issue, let’s talk about the story. The main character is Karen Masterson, a recent college graduate with expertise in computer security. While this was a hot field when she started her training, the demand was much lower when she finished. With the high rate of unemployment in the dystopian society Ives’ imagined, Karen was lucky to get her job helping develop a leading edge defense system. Cancellation of the project sends Karen to the unemployment line. When some strange things happen related to her former employer and coworkers, Karen starts digging, and sets us off on the thriller part of the tale.
I mostly enjoyed the story. The futuristic technology and dystopian world Ives describes are imaginative and, with a few exceptions, worked well. However, it felt like too much of the book was extended narrative. Psinapse starts out with a good, dramatic scene to draw the reader in, followed by narrative explaining back-story. There is nothing wrong with this approach; however, the back-story, primarily concerning how technology had evolved up to that point, went too far, causing the story to drag. That the author had thought this out was a good thing. That the reader had to wade through it all, whether necessary to the story or not, wasn’t. For example, a long history of how computer technology had changed, allowing much more powerful computer chips to be built, wasn’t important to the story. Only that this change had happened.
The remainder of the book contains a fair amount of narrative. Some of this is filling in of back-story, some needed, and some maybe not. Some is because the characters, especially Karen, are often acting alone, so the storytelling is largely action or her thoughts. The latter, while technically “inner dialogue,” often reads the same as narrative. How a reader will react to that is more a matter of taste.
Which leaves us with the thorny issue. In his bio, the author talks about his love for the classics of science fiction: Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and such. Reading these authors today presents the reader with an envisioned future that is both futuristic and retro, when compared to our actual present. Psinapse has the same situation. Some of the technology as Ives pictured it in the late 1980s is still forward looking – imaginable from our current vantage point, but still in the future. Retina scanning for ATM security and computer/brain interfaces are two examples. Yet other technology has come and (mostly) gone – dialup internet access, for example.
The type of reader who enjoys reading classic science fiction, comparing the future those authors pictured to the reality of where we are today, is likely to enjoy Psinapse. Those things I see as negative, including detailed back-story, may well appeal to those same readers. For those readers who get jarred out of a story when it feels like they’re jumping between past, present, and future in the same scene, it may not.
**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **
February 7, 2012
The start of this book suggests you are going to read a technical military story about a project to control Jet Fighters by mind reading technology. However, after introducing and explaining the concept, the story almost completely changes into a corporate espionage story.
This wasn't a problem for me as a reader - just unexpected.
The futurism was actually pretty good, considering it was written a long time ago. There were a few things which betrayed the age of the story (mentioning the cost of internet phone calls etc) but generally it was fairly modern.
The narrative voice is young, but the writer states that he wrote this in his youth, so this is to be expected. Given the impressive level of research and descriptions of technology, I would be very happy if I had written this well at the same age!
Like the prequel Sirene, this book was short and could probably stretched to a longer story, but it is long enough to satisfy.
The ending did feel a little out of the blue; particularly the twist. However, this was probably intentional!
A fun read
This wasn't a problem for me as a reader - just unexpected.
The futurism was actually pretty good, considering it was written a long time ago. There were a few things which betrayed the age of the story (mentioning the cost of internet phone calls etc) but generally it was fairly modern.
The narrative voice is young, but the writer states that he wrote this in his youth, so this is to be expected. Given the impressive level of research and descriptions of technology, I would be very happy if I had written this well at the same age!
Like the prequel Sirene, this book was short and could probably stretched to a longer story, but it is long enough to satisfy.
The ending did feel a little out of the blue; particularly the twist. However, this was probably intentional!
A fun read
February 16, 2013
Set in the very believable near future, this fast moving techno thriller contains a fair amount of very interesting potentially new technology.
This book has a strong storyline, containing intrigue, murder, mystery and interesting side issues.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Psinapse, and would happily recommend it to fans of futuristic crime thrillers.
This book has a strong storyline, containing intrigue, murder, mystery and interesting side issues.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Psinapse, and would happily recommend it to fans of futuristic crime thrillers.
June 27, 2015
This story could have been so good if just the technology had been updated :(
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews