Thursday

by Jake Kerr

In a virtual reality world of griefers, trolls, and anonymous terrorists, no one can tell what is real or who is pulling the strings

Gabby Syme is a VR agent for Savannah, the virtual reality network that covers the world. Taking advantage of a sudden opportunity, she is able to infiltrate the Supreme Council, the anonymous group of terrorists who wish to destroy the Savannah network. With each member named for a day of the week, the Council meets on a fantasy VR server, where Gabby goes undercover to take on the role of Thursday.

Despite discovering that no one is who they say they are and nothing is what it seems, Gabby is still able to close in on the leader of the group, the mysterious and terrifying Sunday.

254 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2017

About the author

After fifteen years as a music industry journalist Jake Kerr's first published story, "The Old Equations," was nominated for the Nebula Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America and was shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon and StorySouth Million Writers awards. His stories have subsequently been published in magazines across the world, broadcast in multiple podcasts, and been published in multiple anthologies and year's best collections.

A graduate of Kenyon College, Kerr studied fiction under Ursula K. Le Guin and Peruvian playwright Alonso Alegria. He lives in Dallas, Texas, with his family and a menagerie of pets.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a really interesting take on "The Man Who Was Thursday", posing a lot of interesting questions on the nature of the self and of reality but never really providing any answers, leaving each character (and the reader) to puzzle it out for themselves. It was a bit disappointing though that race is never really mentioned at all, despite one of the POV characters being a Black woman. Like, more thought is given to the unique experiences of an AI than to her experiences as a Black woman in New York.

If anyone who follows me is reading this, I KNOW Lucian's voice is utterly insufferable, it's intentional and eventually the POV will switch to another character who is not terrible.

[Jamie Sidey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Got so fed up with the juvenile characters that I stopped

[Bryce Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Take a Poochiefied version of The Man Who Was Thursday (This is a Chesterton that gets Bizzay!) that ignores all that boring spiritual stuff.

Just imagine how bad you think this book is going to be.

Then make it oh so much worse.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should note that I am not a science fiction fan and that may color my rating of this novel. I am, however, a big fan of Jake Kerr's short stories and this enjoyable book is worth reading. Taking place mostly in a virtual reality, Jake Kerr avoids a lot of the easy clichés and even pokes fun at some of the comparisons readers may make to similar books and movies. This keeps the story interesting and the reader guessing at what will happen. To say more would require spoilers I don't want to add. I think you almost everyone will enjoy the novel.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Utterly unsatisfactory. I didn't even care enough to give it a 1-star rating. At least it was short.