What do you think?
Rate this book
Gray Matters
Gray William Gray Simon & FIRST First Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by C, 1999. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is very good. Dust jacket is very good. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 328965 Literature We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
28 people are currently reading
348 people want to read
About the author
William Hjortsberg
22 books158 followersWilliam Hjortsberg was an acclaimed author of novels and screenplays. Born in New York City, he attended college at Dartmouth and spent a year at the Yale School of Drama before leaving to become a writer. For the next few years he lived in the Caribbean and Europe, writing two unpublished novels, the second of which earned him a creative writing fellowship at Stanford University.
When his fellowship ended in 1968, Hjortsberg was discouraged, still unpublished, and making ends meet as a grocery store stock boy. No longer believing he could make a living as a novelist, he began writing strictly for his own amusement. The result was Alp (1969), an absurd story of an Alpine skiing village which Hjortsberg’s friend Thomas McGuane called, “quite possibly the finest comic novel written in America.”
In the 1970s, Hjortsberg wrote two science fiction works: Gray Matters (1971) and Symbiography (1973). The first, a novel about human brains kept alive by science, was inspired by an off-the-cuff remark Hjortsberg made at a cocktail party. The second, a post-apocalyptic tale of a man who creates dreams, was later published in condensed form in Penthouse.
After publishing Toro! Toro! Toro! (1974), a comic jab at the macho world of bullfighting, Hjortsberg wrote his best-known novel, Falling Angel (1978). This hard-boiled detective story with an occult twist was adapted for the screen as Angel Heart (1987), starring Robert De Niro. Hjortsberg also wrote the screenplay for Legend (1986), a dark fairy tale directed by Ridley Scott. In addition to being nominated for an Edgar Award for Falling Angel, Hjortsberg has won two Playboy Editorial Awards, for which he beat out Graham Greene and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. His most recent work is Jubilee Hitchhiker (2012), a biography of author Richard Brautigan. Hjortsberg lives with his family in Montana.
Learn more at: http://www.openroadmedia.com/authors/...
When his fellowship ended in 1968, Hjortsberg was discouraged, still unpublished, and making ends meet as a grocery store stock boy. No longer believing he could make a living as a novelist, he began writing strictly for his own amusement. The result was Alp (1969), an absurd story of an Alpine skiing village which Hjortsberg’s friend Thomas McGuane called, “quite possibly the finest comic novel written in America.”
In the 1970s, Hjortsberg wrote two science fiction works: Gray Matters (1971) and Symbiography (1973). The first, a novel about human brains kept alive by science, was inspired by an off-the-cuff remark Hjortsberg made at a cocktail party. The second, a post-apocalyptic tale of a man who creates dreams, was later published in condensed form in Penthouse.
After publishing Toro! Toro! Toro! (1974), a comic jab at the macho world of bullfighting, Hjortsberg wrote his best-known novel, Falling Angel (1978). This hard-boiled detective story with an occult twist was adapted for the screen as Angel Heart (1987), starring Robert De Niro. Hjortsberg also wrote the screenplay for Legend (1986), a dark fairy tale directed by Ridley Scott. In addition to being nominated for an Edgar Award for Falling Angel, Hjortsberg has won two Playboy Editorial Awards, for which he beat out Graham Greene and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. His most recent work is Jubilee Hitchhiker (2012), a biography of author Richard Brautigan. Hjortsberg lives with his family in Montana.
Learn more at: http://www.openroadmedia.com/authors/...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
April 6, 2023
Utopia and Dystopia are antonyms that describe the same thing. William Hjortsberg illustrated this fact in this short novel of a 25th century utopia of disembodied brains kept in thrall to a computerize bureaucracy created to shepherd them to enlightenment. (Can you imagine anything more nightmarish than a mystical, mechanical bureaucrat?)
Hjortsberg builds his future world with an impressive economy of words. He starts his readers in the deep end of the action while deftly sketching out the world as he goes. He introduces a handful of deeply flawed characters that he makes us care for, sometimes root for. Along the way he induces us to consider some deep, metaphysical questions all while feeling the claustrophobic gravitational pull of a nightmare. All this is accomplished in less than 200 pages. This is a brilliant sci-fi that deserves to be counted among the classics.
Hjortsberg builds his future world with an impressive economy of words. He starts his readers in the deep end of the action while deftly sketching out the world as he goes. He introduces a handful of deeply flawed characters that he makes us care for, sometimes root for. Along the way he induces us to consider some deep, metaphysical questions all while feeling the claustrophobic gravitational pull of a nightmare. All this is accomplished in less than 200 pages. This is a brilliant sci-fi that deserves to be counted among the classics.
June 14, 2011
- Boy, I will not have you reading pornography in my classroom. Is that understood?
- But sir -
- Is that understood?
- But, sir, it's not pornography. It's not. It really isn't!
- I am interested to hear, boy, that accounts of underage girls having sexual intercourse with dogs are not -
- But sir. Sir. You know how you're always telling us not to take things out of context?
- Ah, yes, I have probably said that a few times.
- Well sir, that's just what you're doing now sir. It's not pornographic. It's about the search for enlightenment. And the nature of reality.
- Am I to understand, then, that passages about women having their breasts whipped with thorny bouquets of roses are actually about the search for enlightenment?
- Well sir, I know it doesn't sound like that sir, but taken in context it is. Sex is just another way to try and reach enlightenment. And it all happens in her imagination sir. She's really a brain in a vat and she's trying to get back into contact with reality.
- Boy, excuse me for asking the question, but are your sexual insights based on theory or practice?
- Ah, so far mostly theory. But this book made me think a lot. Sir.
- You are putting up a spirited defence, boy. You may yet escape without receiving the detention you so richly deserve.
- Thank you sir. It's really about how perception is more than just a flow of neural impulses sir. Sex is about reconnecting with your body and experiencing the real world. A brain in a vat is missing something essential. It's a metaphor for what's wrong with modern society sir.
- Boy, have you been reading E.M. Forster?
- No sir.
- Hermann Hesse?
- No sir.
- Daniel Dennett?
- No sir. Just William Hjortsberg sir. And Commander Pants.
- Well boy, you may occasionally want to read something that isn't trash science-fiction.
- Yes sir. Though it's actually quite well written. You can borrow it if you like sir.
- Really?
- Yes sir. As long as you give it back. My friend wants to read it. Sir.
- Hm. Well, I may accept your gracious offer. Thank you.
- Sir?
- Boy, I have told you before not to interrupt me. Ah, I see what you mean about brains in vats.
- Sir, about my detention -
- Boy, never mind about that. You've got away with it again. Dismissed!
- But sir -
- Is that understood?
- But, sir, it's not pornography. It's not. It really isn't!
- I am interested to hear, boy, that accounts of underage girls having sexual intercourse with dogs are not -
- But sir. Sir. You know how you're always telling us not to take things out of context?
- Ah, yes, I have probably said that a few times.
- Well sir, that's just what you're doing now sir. It's not pornographic. It's about the search for enlightenment. And the nature of reality.
- Am I to understand, then, that passages about women having their breasts whipped with thorny bouquets of roses are actually about the search for enlightenment?
- Well sir, I know it doesn't sound like that sir, but taken in context it is. Sex is just another way to try and reach enlightenment. And it all happens in her imagination sir. She's really a brain in a vat and she's trying to get back into contact with reality.
- Boy, excuse me for asking the question, but are your sexual insights based on theory or practice?
- Ah, so far mostly theory. But this book made me think a lot. Sir.
- You are putting up a spirited defence, boy. You may yet escape without receiving the detention you so richly deserve.
- Thank you sir. It's really about how perception is more than just a flow of neural impulses sir. Sex is about reconnecting with your body and experiencing the real world. A brain in a vat is missing something essential. It's a metaphor for what's wrong with modern society sir.
- Boy, have you been reading E.M. Forster?
- No sir.
- Hermann Hesse?
- No sir.
- Daniel Dennett?
- No sir. Just William Hjortsberg sir. And Commander Pants.
- Well boy, you may occasionally want to read something that isn't trash science-fiction.
- Yes sir. Though it's actually quite well written. You can borrow it if you like sir.
- Really?
- Yes sir. As long as you give it back. My friend wants to read it. Sir.
- Hm. Well, I may accept your gracious offer. Thank you.
- Sir?
- Boy, I have told you before not to interrupt me. Ah, I see what you mean about brains in vats.
- Sir, about my detention -
- Boy, never mind about that. You've got away with it again. Dismissed!
March 16, 2019
I can't say I'm a sci-fi buff, though in my earlier days I did read Asimov, Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clark, and their contemporaries. But as I was impressed with Falling Angel by this author, I decided to try this book. The gamble paid off.
Gray Matters is superbly written, so well written that it is independent of genre, i.e. you can read it just for the prose. Hjortsberg is certainly a wordsmith, and the pace of the book is brisk enough and the interest generated compelling enough to keep one turning the pages.
The narrative contains interlocking stories, all happening concurrently in a post apocalyptic, pseudo-Utopian world, where brains are preserved in a depository, and can merit a body once it passes through several stages (called levels) culminating in enlightenment.
The lyrical quality of many passages is masterful. here are a couple of snippets:
"The beach...a pink parabola of coral sand protected by either end by jagged rock walls. Black and moon-pocked with sharp-edged craters where Triassic gas bubbles burst on the surface of a molten river, the violent contorted shapes threaten the tranquility of the water and the palm-shaded carpet of deep pangola grass above the beach."
"Shining with seawater, she seems more than mortal: her young breasts, dew-bright rosebuds; her damp hair, a trail of midnight across her tawny skin; her madonna's face an innocent mask hiding her depravity in her amethyst eyes."
The tale is both profound and chilling, with an impact equal to Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited, a world of passionless utopia, while at the same time distinctly dystopian.
Gray Matters is superbly written, so well written that it is independent of genre, i.e. you can read it just for the prose. Hjortsberg is certainly a wordsmith, and the pace of the book is brisk enough and the interest generated compelling enough to keep one turning the pages.
The narrative contains interlocking stories, all happening concurrently in a post apocalyptic, pseudo-Utopian world, where brains are preserved in a depository, and can merit a body once it passes through several stages (called levels) culminating in enlightenment.
The lyrical quality of many passages is masterful. here are a couple of snippets:
"The beach...a pink parabola of coral sand protected by either end by jagged rock walls. Black and moon-pocked with sharp-edged craters where Triassic gas bubbles burst on the surface of a molten river, the violent contorted shapes threaten the tranquility of the water and the palm-shaded carpet of deep pangola grass above the beach."
"Shining with seawater, she seems more than mortal: her young breasts, dew-bright rosebuds; her damp hair, a trail of midnight across her tawny skin; her madonna's face an innocent mask hiding her depravity in her amethyst eyes."
The tale is both profound and chilling, with an impact equal to Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited, a world of passionless utopia, while at the same time distinctly dystopian.
February 12, 2025
One of my goals for reading this year is to read books from the friends of Richard Brautigan. Starting with William Hjortsberg’s Gray Matters sure was an interesting choice. As a fan of the absurd and experimental works of 1970s New Wave Science Fiction I was prepared for the territory I was venturing into with this work but that isn’t to say that I wasn’t surprised with what was presented to me.
Gray Matters takes place centuries in the future where war has decimated humanity, leaving only the consciousness of a select, privileged few to exist in the confines of a computer hard drive. This is a really interesting concept and one that Hjortsberg sets up with a lot of promise but soon this book starts to devolve as bizarre asides and further questions are poised, leaving initial inquiries left undeveloped.
The narrative follows a few characters in this consciousness database. They are summoned to play out roles in enacting human emotion and exploring the deeper themes of consciousness and being truly are. Unfortunately the deeper themes and questions poised by this concept are often sidelined to explore sexual fantasies through these characters, often in strange and unusual ways. Having just read Lolita and having a familiarity with 70s SF this wasn’t anything too off base or extreme but unlike Lolita this felt less intentional on making commentary and more so an exploration of indulgences and showcasing shock value.
As the narrative progressed I found that much of the narrative abruptly shifts from one character and scene to the next, often after only a temporary step into this character’s plot. By switching around often I found it hard to devote focus and attention to what was going on and ultimately just in the mix with the chaos and surreal nature of this book.
Ultimately I would be more forgiving of these issues if this book wasn’t so short. Hjortsberg looks to explore a lot of different ideas with very few pages. Many interesting questions on what consciousness is are asked but very little time is given to exploring them, mostly leaving only the memory of the most shocking elements.
I will say, for someone who isn’t a Science Fiction author this book was pretty impressive. The concept really is intriguing and is absolutely in my line of interests when it comes to my favorite SF work. While the latter half falls apart in maintaining a concise and engaging narrative, I did find the set up really strong. While nowhere near as good as the best of Science Fiction I will say that this is still better than some of the lesser works I’ve read from established and acclaimed contemporaries of the Science Fiction genre.
Gray Matters takes place centuries in the future where war has decimated humanity, leaving only the consciousness of a select, privileged few to exist in the confines of a computer hard drive. This is a really interesting concept and one that Hjortsberg sets up with a lot of promise but soon this book starts to devolve as bizarre asides and further questions are poised, leaving initial inquiries left undeveloped.
The narrative follows a few characters in this consciousness database. They are summoned to play out roles in enacting human emotion and exploring the deeper themes of consciousness and being truly are. Unfortunately the deeper themes and questions poised by this concept are often sidelined to explore sexual fantasies through these characters, often in strange and unusual ways. Having just read Lolita and having a familiarity with 70s SF this wasn’t anything too off base or extreme but unlike Lolita this felt less intentional on making commentary and more so an exploration of indulgences and showcasing shock value.
As the narrative progressed I found that much of the narrative abruptly shifts from one character and scene to the next, often after only a temporary step into this character’s plot. By switching around often I found it hard to devote focus and attention to what was going on and ultimately just in the mix with the chaos and surreal nature of this book.
Ultimately I would be more forgiving of these issues if this book wasn’t so short. Hjortsberg looks to explore a lot of different ideas with very few pages. Many interesting questions on what consciousness is are asked but very little time is given to exploring them, mostly leaving only the memory of the most shocking elements.
I will say, for someone who isn’t a Science Fiction author this book was pretty impressive. The concept really is intriguing and is absolutely in my line of interests when it comes to my favorite SF work. While the latter half falls apart in maintaining a concise and engaging narrative, I did find the set up really strong. While nowhere near as good as the best of Science Fiction I will say that this is still better than some of the lesser works I’ve read from established and acclaimed contemporaries of the Science Fiction genre.
August 29, 2014
Rapidly sketched with a sardonic economy, this is Hjortberg's satiric-dystopian vision of a world after bodies, when human life is oh so much more sustainably efficient once it's been reduced to vast interior brain banks, wired together in a utilitarian matrix all striving towards a phantom(?) enlightenment. It's fun, crisply realized, switches gears surprisingly as it enters each of its five parts (named for stages of bee life/caste, a useful metaphoric structure here), and one of the several alternating plot strands concerns a Czech New Wave actress, so it's clearly playing to my biases. On the other hand, it's arguable that those plot threads don't actually ever converge so much as just bump randomly against eachother a few times at intervals, and the rather flawed characters don't really develop with the chapter structure, despite how we might (temporarily) root for them. But that's probably the point. This is a book about humanities drive for transcendence (of the body, of reality), seeming attained here en masse but breaking down in all its particulars, any happiness fleeting. So if everyone ends up isolated within themselves, perhaps that's inevitably apt. Interesting book. Hjortsberg is better-remembered for his modified noir Falling Angel, which I really must track down.
September 18, 2009
I was fascinated by this book in high school (I suspect the sex scenes had something to do with it), but beyond the prurient aspects the entire concept is one I return to occasionally: endless brains in jars who upon reaching some state of mental/emotional perfection are given new bodies, to live a life upon the surface. Enforced emotional therapy and forced 'cerebrectomy'. Life in virtual reality.
October 5, 2015
An interesting take on a possible future human society of the 25th century, by which time the human body is considered superfluous and obsolete.
Physical existence is reduced to the preservation of the brain alone, or Cerebromorphs, stored in rows and stratified floors in a Depository, tended by machines while they work towards personal enlightenment with the assistance of "adjudicators".
The story follows three such inhabitants, all rebellious to the regime in their own way. But as much as they grow disatisfied with their post-physical world of taped sensations (very prescient of virtual reality) will they be able to find fulfillment if they could house their brains in a body again?
Although a novel concept with some disturbing and humourous ideas (many Cerebrmorphs like to spend their time watching the machines go about the drudgery of their daily tasks through a visual window, replicating their old lives as couch potatoes in the most banal fashion) the book would have benefitted by fuller development and less sexual maliciousness, so common to many of the science fiction writers of the time (Larry Niven, Bob Shaw, Silverberg etc).
There is some fun to be had at the usual inaccuracies in science fiction stories written so soon after the moon landing and during the Cold War, when the far future seemed just around the corner.
But the defects noted above, as well as a flatness to the prose throughout, condemns this novel to the status of largely unsatisfactory period piece.
Physical existence is reduced to the preservation of the brain alone, or Cerebromorphs, stored in rows and stratified floors in a Depository, tended by machines while they work towards personal enlightenment with the assistance of "adjudicators".
The story follows three such inhabitants, all rebellious to the regime in their own way. But as much as they grow disatisfied with their post-physical world of taped sensations (very prescient of virtual reality) will they be able to find fulfillment if they could house their brains in a body again?
Although a novel concept with some disturbing and humourous ideas (many Cerebrmorphs like to spend their time watching the machines go about the drudgery of their daily tasks through a visual window, replicating their old lives as couch potatoes in the most banal fashion) the book would have benefitted by fuller development and less sexual maliciousness, so common to many of the science fiction writers of the time (Larry Niven, Bob Shaw, Silverberg etc).
There is some fun to be had at the usual inaccuracies in science fiction stories written so soon after the moon landing and during the Cold War, when the far future seemed just around the corner.
But the defects noted above, as well as a flatness to the prose throughout, condemns this novel to the status of largely unsatisfactory period piece.
August 11, 2013
I only knew Hjortsberg from his hard-boiled occult thriller Falling Angel, later filmed as the cult classic Angel Heart. This book is certainly a departure from that: it's a futuristic tale of brains in jars, struggling to reach enlightenment and then - finally - physical freedom.
It would spoil the narrative to give too much away but the story is an excellent meditation on the sanctity of memory. Surprisingly enjoyable.
It would spoil the narrative to give too much away but the story is an excellent meditation on the sanctity of memory. Surprisingly enjoyable.
January 5, 2020
This has not aged well. Interesting ideas, but hasn’t got the timelessness of other sci-fi authors of the time. It won Playboy Fiction of the year, and it showed.
December 28, 2012
Gray matters
Here’s another novel with a set of completely unpleasant characters taking centre stage, and I do use the word “characters” advisedly as most of them are disembodied and some are machines! Gray Matters describes a future where the powers that be have decided enlightenment is the goal of humanity and the best way to achieve this is for everyone to become a “cerebromorph” – that is a brain removed from the body and stored in a tank. One of the main characters rebels, and more by luck than planning, gets re-embodied but proves to be a very disturbed and even violent person in his new incarnation, someone who cannot handle the perfected world. I think the moral of this tale is that although perfection may be good for the environment, humans need the leaven of a little mischief…….
Here’s another novel with a set of completely unpleasant characters taking centre stage, and I do use the word “characters” advisedly as most of them are disembodied and some are machines! Gray Matters describes a future where the powers that be have decided enlightenment is the goal of humanity and the best way to achieve this is for everyone to become a “cerebromorph” – that is a brain removed from the body and stored in a tank. One of the main characters rebels, and more by luck than planning, gets re-embodied but proves to be a very disturbed and even violent person in his new incarnation, someone who cannot handle the perfected world. I think the moral of this tale is that although perfection may be good for the environment, humans need the leaven of a little mischief…….
February 18, 2022
"Gray Matters" is a 70s sci-fi novella about a future where mankind consists of millions of brains encased in computers, each trying to find enlightenment. Had the book just stayed with this plot I might have given it a 2.5-3.0 rating because the idea is interesting enough even if it is derivative and evokes similar and better stories that have come out before and since. But then the book starts exploring characters' sexual desires and what starts out as adolescent fantasies that are uncomfortable to read get increasingly creepy and gross. Between the unoriginality and the author sharing some of his twisted daydreams, the book is pretty trashy and it's no wonder it's no included on lists of must-read sci-fi classics.
September 13, 2007
I remembered enjoying the concept of this book -- brains are kept disembodied in jars, being nurtured until such time as the masters of this society decide to reimplant them in perfect bodies for re-entry into the world. I think this is the first time I became fascinated with the idea that our lives are our brains, long before I became a regular reader of cognitive science material.
May 7, 2015
I desperately wanted to like this book as I am trying to broaden my reading horizons, but I just couldn't get into the story. It was written back in the 70s and as such, the sci-fi element is very dated, but if you are a fan of older sci-fi writing, I am sure you'll enjoy it.
It just wasn't for me.
It just wasn't for me.
September 10, 2008
It was strange enough to keep me reading to the end, but the hoped-for "Aha--this is why it was so disjointed and strange" moment never really arrived. Weird 70's sci-fi still doesn't do much for me, but I already knew that. :-)
May 20, 2011
The idea of disembodied brains had fascinated me since seeing the movie They Saved Hitler's Brain when fourteen, if not before. This novel took care of that.
January 18, 2009
Owie.
September 8, 2023
In a strange future, a group of disembodied brains seeks spiritual enlightenment by shedding their selfish instincts. This unique journey unfolds within an enigmatic enclave of bodiless brains, organized into a hierarchy based on their progress along this spiritual path, with the physical maintenance handled by obedient robots.
At the heart of the narrative are three protagonists, all of whom pose challenges to the established system. There's a young boy who has remained unchanged despite the passage of centuries, a former 1930s actress lost in her past glory and grappling with loneliness through sexual encounters, and an artist who would rather embrace death as a free individual than submit to the authority of superiors.
However, for the author, this serves merely as the initial premise. Despite the brevity of the novel, it skillfully delves into various scenarios and themes, defying the constraints of limited points of view through interactions with machines, spiritual mentors, shared memories, glitches in the system, and more. The narrative seamlessly transitions from one perspective to another, at times within a few lines.
The novel offers a continuous stream of unique concepts (the gradual revelation of the universe's past is especially captivating), surreal situations, moments of sensuality, and unexpected plot twists. While it may fall into the realm of escapist literature, it piqued my intellectual curiosity with its speculative and futuristic elements, making it more than just a fleeting read.
This quick and entertaining novel, stumbled upon by chance through an eBook bundle, is one I'll fondly remember, perhaps even more than its intrinsic merits would suggest.
At the heart of the narrative are three protagonists, all of whom pose challenges to the established system. There's a young boy who has remained unchanged despite the passage of centuries, a former 1930s actress lost in her past glory and grappling with loneliness through sexual encounters, and an artist who would rather embrace death as a free individual than submit to the authority of superiors.
However, for the author, this serves merely as the initial premise. Despite the brevity of the novel, it skillfully delves into various scenarios and themes, defying the constraints of limited points of view through interactions with machines, spiritual mentors, shared memories, glitches in the system, and more. The narrative seamlessly transitions from one perspective to another, at times within a few lines.
The novel offers a continuous stream of unique concepts (the gradual revelation of the universe's past is especially captivating), surreal situations, moments of sensuality, and unexpected plot twists. While it may fall into the realm of escapist literature, it piqued my intellectual curiosity with its speculative and futuristic elements, making it more than just a fleeting read.
This quick and entertaining novel, stumbled upon by chance through an eBook bundle, is one I'll fondly remember, perhaps even more than its intrinsic merits would suggest.
December 11, 2020
Gave it a three, really a three and a half.
Picked this up in a second hand bookshop looking for a bit of old sci-fi I’d never heard of. Figured I couldn’t go wrong with a brain in a vat story and wasn’t disappointed.
Found the story easy to read, and quite funny. Some really interesting ideas in here, expressed in a very accessible way. The story (or more stories really) moves along nicely as it goes between short passages following the different narratives, and the writing is very solid with good humour and clearly defined characters.
The differing perspectives of the characters are very effective as a means of exploring different ideas of identity, reality, society and “enlightenment” - even if the characters aren’t always likeable, their viewpoints are compelling. The author paints a vivid picture of both the imagined future, revealed gradually throughout the book, and how we got there, and does it in a very organic way through the characters’ points of view. The “ideas” side is really solid, but also doesn’t take away from the fun stuff, and there’s a good amount of action (especially considering it’s a story about brains in jars).
Understandably for 70’s sci-fi I found some elements of the storyline outdated (more an issue when it comes to the social aspects than the technology).
Overall a really enjoyable read exploring interesting ideas, but not necessarily anything groundbreaking to read now.
Picked this up in a second hand bookshop looking for a bit of old sci-fi I’d never heard of. Figured I couldn’t go wrong with a brain in a vat story and wasn’t disappointed.
Found the story easy to read, and quite funny. Some really interesting ideas in here, expressed in a very accessible way. The story (or more stories really) moves along nicely as it goes between short passages following the different narratives, and the writing is very solid with good humour and clearly defined characters.
The differing perspectives of the characters are very effective as a means of exploring different ideas of identity, reality, society and “enlightenment” - even if the characters aren’t always likeable, their viewpoints are compelling. The author paints a vivid picture of both the imagined future, revealed gradually throughout the book, and how we got there, and does it in a very organic way through the characters’ points of view. The “ideas” side is really solid, but also doesn’t take away from the fun stuff, and there’s a good amount of action (especially considering it’s a story about brains in jars).
Understandably for 70’s sci-fi I found some elements of the storyline outdated (more an issue when it comes to the social aspects than the technology).
Overall a really enjoyable read exploring interesting ideas, but not necessarily anything groundbreaking to read now.
April 27, 2019
I feel this book was more than the sum of its parts - an intriguing idea examined with some solid but unexceptional storytelling. In short, humankind has had their consciousnesses uploaded to electronic storage mechanisms, and there is now a system of teaching and enlightenment intended to improve each person until they become worthy of gaining a new body and reentering the world.
The story follows a few people who are mostly dissatisfied with this system, missing the lives they used to have or simply yearning for freedom - an artist, an actress, and tragically a young boy who was the very first to be uploaded.
It's entertaining enough to watch events unfold, but I never really got the sense of being immersed in a truly real world... which is actually very appropriate given the theme of the book. It deserves great credit though for the concept, and especially the ending. It's one of the most viscerally unpleasant reading experiences I've had, and coupled with earlier hints and details in the story the implications are horrifying. Something that will certainly stick in the mind, and which perfectly underlines the moral of the book.
The story follows a few people who are mostly dissatisfied with this system, missing the lives they used to have or simply yearning for freedom - an artist, an actress, and tragically a young boy who was the very first to be uploaded.
It's entertaining enough to watch events unfold, but I never really got the sense of being immersed in a truly real world... which is actually very appropriate given the theme of the book. It deserves great credit though for the concept, and especially the ending. It's one of the most viscerally unpleasant reading experiences I've had, and coupled with earlier hints and details in the story the implications are horrifying. Something that will certainly stick in the mind, and which perfectly underlines the moral of the book.
September 7, 2024
I don’t even know what to say about this book… it had no plot, randomized characters that would suddenly disappear, and no ending. It felt like a rough draft that the author was waiting to fill in because of all the plot holes. The back of the book is what really led me to read this, but it was so misleading. I feel lied to with how different the book turned out to be. The entire thing had 2-3 plot lines that were in no way connected and had no segway into each other, 1/2 the time I had to reread several paragraphs because I wasn’t sure which plot line I was reading at the moment. Somehow each plot line led to sex, even though it’s a sci-go book about brains with no body’s? I just feel confused after reading this, it wasn’t even worth the $8 I spent on it. Lesson learned: if Libby, the library, and Kindle haven’t heard of it before, don’t read it.
Read
April 24, 2021This book happens to be the very first novel that I read cover to cover, I think I was 15 or 16 years old and I remember it was a real page-turner. As I recall it was a departure from anything else that I was browsing in the public library. I remember how I felt when i had read it all, it started me on a lifelong love of books and stories, in short, it was "Brilliant" go read it.
Read
April 3, 2019"It was no surprise to Y41-AK9 when the initial audit after the Awakening showed these amiable philosophers to be farther along the Path to Understanding. He was just an old shark fighter who knew how to survive."
October 22, 2020
Original and horrifying.
August 21, 2021
A stunning, exciting and dark look into the future. Quality writing and an intriguing plot make this quick read an essential read. Blows my mind on one level that it’s from 1972, but then, without the sci-fi component, it’s spot on 70s literature. Once more: loved it.
January 4, 2025
Scifi
The story line started in the direction of an electronic manual. Characters were thrown into the mix as an afterthought.
The story line started in the direction of an electronic manual. Characters were thrown into the mix as an afterthought.
October 24, 2022
I feel like Futurama may have gotten some ideas from this book when they introduced Nixon's head into their character line-up - he's basically just a brain in a jar.
Some of the content also reminds me of THX 1138, selections of Carl Hiaasen, and that book "I Am the Cheese" I read a while back. Probably would have been a great Twilight Zone episode.
Some of the content also reminds me of THX 1138, selections of Carl Hiaasen, and that book "I Am the Cheese" I read a while back. Probably would have been a great Twilight Zone episode.
September 24, 2017
It's often astounding to me when I read a bk that's totally obscure to me & an author that I've never heard of & then I see that there're 5 editions - as is the case here. I have a chamber orchestra called HiTEC & one the Systems that we Manage is called "Brain-In-A-Vat" - so everytime I run across a brain-in-a-vat image or whatnot I'm especially interested. This novel is the 'ultimate' brain-in-a-vat novel since it centers around a future in wch EVERYONE (at least so it seems at 1st) is a brain-in-a-vat - stored in underground depositories & still conscious post-separation-from-body. I was fascinated to see where the author was going to go w/ this, w/ how he'd use it as a metphor, etc.. SO, at 1st, I was teetering on giving this a 5. Then it slid down to a 4 - wch it barely stayed at by the end of the bk. Still, it stayed sufficiently fascinating. W/o going into spoilers, I can say that my disappointment was w/ the philosophy of it all not being sufficiently 'transcendental' for me - & i mean that somewhat ironically in relation to the plot.
August 23, 2010
Comparable to Rudy Rucker's ware tetralogy in genre (more human immortality through brains in jars/ people blending into machine conciousness), this postulates a sort of brain in jar police state, where people are forced onto a path towards buddhist enlightenment. If they ever achieve it, they get decanted into real bodies, where they live a sort of possessionless primitivist existence until they die. Not a lot of compelling characters or plotting to carry the freight of the ideas, this went out of print ages back, and I picked it up used somewhere.
July 2, 2015
La búsqueda del ser a través de introspecciónes de una sociedad basada en ascencsión espiritual y cerebros en suspensión líquida. Un libro muy interesante que muestra como cada uno de los participantes que forman parte de esta series de historias paralelas y entrelazadas intentan o no ascender, y un vistazo acerca de cual es la meta.
Sobre el final desarrolla una sociedad utópica donde creo que no me gustaría vivir.
Sobre el final desarrolla una sociedad utópica donde creo que no me gustaría vivir.
July 2, 2009
Should have been terrible, but i cant decide after it was done, if it really was. Pleasantly bizarre and disjointed 70s sci-fi, bad in a good way. I didnt think it was possible to like a brain in jars post apocalyptic book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews