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Idempotency
In the year 2112, technology has advanced and immortality is nearly achieved—at least for those who can afford it. Those born before the stemgineering revolution, or TrueElderly, soon discover the problems of advanced age. This is just the beginning, as an avalanche of new problems is waiting on humanity's doorstep. For enthusiastic salesman Dylan Dansby, selling an innovative new product to combat these problems could be a career defining opportunity—but Dylan's selling a product he doesn't believe in, and one that might just work a little too well . . .
- GenresScience Fiction
387 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 24, 2015
37 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Wright
6 books19 followersJoshua Wright writes science fiction, speculative fiction, and horror. His newest book, Idempotency (published by Kindle Press), was a first-round Kindle Scout selection. In his day job, Josh works as a software manager at Amazon.com.
You can see what Josh is up to by following him on Twitter (@JO2shuaWright), checking out his website (www.JoshuaWrites.com), or dropping in on his blog (www.nblogn.com).
You can see what Josh is up to by following him on Twitter (@JO2shuaWright), checking out his website (www.JoshuaWrites.com), or dropping in on his blog (www.nblogn.com).
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 15, 2015
An adventure that takes place as much within the mind and without, Idempotency explores the dangers and delights of technology that could extend human life indefinitely – at least in theory. A solid Sci-Fi adventure with some well-thought out messages. If you liked Total Recall, then you’ll enjoy this book.
June 16, 2015
Future of Brainwashing, Not A.I
Interesting tale about Mr. Wright's rather two dimensional version of the future. The story is used to showcase new technical advances as well as play up the rich 1% versus poor 99% and corporate versus underground techie.
Unlike many novels that focus on hardware and software a century from now, this one is not about the growth of intelligence from artificial to sentience. This novel is actually about a system that can play a different virtual life for you a drastically faster rate - 3 days instead of over eighty years. When you remember your life and self after going through this process, then you are said to be idempotent.
Our story gets off the ground when this technology is subverted for a rich man's use, and a deeply hidden radical technology group finds out and tries to combat the brainwashing of Dylan Dansby and the world.
As a tech story, it was pretty good, with a good foundation in broad software knowledge. It keeps up the pace until 65% and picks back up at 85% for a big finish. The biggest problem I had, was there was little to no backstory to how the world got in the situation it was in, no clear picture of what the world really did look like other than slums and corps., and no clear financial model. While some was made to be so obvious it was a duh! moment, others were less so. The radical technical group reminded me of a older version of the lost boys. They didn't have any past successes, any current goals, only the one NRS battle. What is the deal with that? Hard to be the number one underground group if you haven't done anything.
Bottom Line: This is a future story where that future is thinner, but the tech is showcased. Not a bad read, but not great. Not A.I., so don't get fooled by labels. If you like tech, you may like this, but don't expect a sophisticated plot.
Interesting tale about Mr. Wright's rather two dimensional version of the future. The story is used to showcase new technical advances as well as play up the rich 1% versus poor 99% and corporate versus underground techie.
Unlike many novels that focus on hardware and software a century from now, this one is not about the growth of intelligence from artificial to sentience. This novel is actually about a system that can play a different virtual life for you a drastically faster rate - 3 days instead of over eighty years. When you remember your life and self after going through this process, then you are said to be idempotent.
Our story gets off the ground when this technology is subverted for a rich man's use, and a deeply hidden radical technology group finds out and tries to combat the brainwashing of Dylan Dansby and the world.
As a tech story, it was pretty good, with a good foundation in broad software knowledge. It keeps up the pace until 65% and picks back up at 85% for a big finish. The biggest problem I had, was there was little to no backstory to how the world got in the situation it was in, no clear picture of what the world really did look like other than slums and corps., and no clear financial model. While some was made to be so obvious it was a duh! moment, others were less so. The radical technical group reminded me of a older version of the lost boys. They didn't have any past successes, any current goals, only the one NRS battle. What is the deal with that? Hard to be the number one underground group if you haven't done anything.
Bottom Line: This is a future story where that future is thinner, but the tech is showcased. Not a bad read, but not great. Not A.I., so don't get fooled by labels. If you like tech, you may like this, but don't expect a sophisticated plot.
April 7, 2015
I felt a little disappointed by this book but looking back, I think reason is that the book is not what I expected. I was expecting a book talking about the issues coming from people living a long life.
However, while it is based on this idea and the plot is born out of this, the book actually talks about the future which might be possible in the exact same way even if people would live a normal life. It is talking a lot about the way people interact with computers, about huge corporations which ultimately are more powerful than governments, about "revolutionaries", people who fight the evil corporations.
That being said, the book was enjoyable and I am not sorry for taking the time to read it.
However, while it is based on this idea and the plot is born out of this, the book actually talks about the future which might be possible in the exact same way even if people would live a normal life. It is talking a lot about the way people interact with computers, about huge corporations which ultimately are more powerful than governments, about "revolutionaries", people who fight the evil corporations.
That being said, the book was enjoyable and I am not sorry for taking the time to read it.
January 10, 2020
The core part of this story is almost a revisit of the movie Total Recall, which is itself a movie take on the Philip K. Dick short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, the story whose title hooked me on Philip K. Dick. Here it's got a completely different use, though, which is funny given such a similar setting: near-future humanity which has spread to the nearest celestial bodies, including Mars.
The writing here is good. The story's a bit long, but it moves once you get past the first two scenes. It's probably a good fit for anyone who likes the cyberpunk genre. And I like that the author is exploring the space of what's possible given this new technology to people who no longer fear death.
What prevents this from being four stars is an unfortunate antagonist. He's waaaaay over the top bad, in a relentlessly evil way that is too single-minded and nasty to be interesting. I believe there exist people like him in real life, but he could have been written to feel a lot more real, instead of being so one-dimensional.
The writing here is good. The story's a bit long, but it moves once you get past the first two scenes. It's probably a good fit for anyone who likes the cyberpunk genre. And I like that the author is exploring the space of what's possible given this new technology to people who no longer fear death.
What prevents this from being four stars is an unfortunate antagonist. He's waaaaay over the top bad, in a relentlessly evil way that is too single-minded and nasty to be interesting. I believe there exist people like him in real life, but he could have been written to feel a lot more real, instead of being so one-dimensional.
February 10, 2018
This was an interesting take on a world with no middle class, a world where transplants are cheap, but skin regeneration is not. It goes into a lot of detail about the world: corporate policies and condition of the masses. Some people may want only the story itself, but I liked the background information. It gave context to what was happening. At times, 25 cent words are tossed in (outside of dialog), which took me out of the story, but there weren't enough of these to disturb me too much. I liked the ending: it gives you enough detail to wonder if everything really was resolved for Dylan, and leaves it open for a possible sequel.
June 4, 2017
Great read
I do like the way he writes. I quoted a few lines on my page of FB and got a few people interested in the book.
I could see the future in this book.
Felt the ending felt a bit rushed, could also be me trying to get to the end of it, but it was a satisfying end.
I do like the way he writes. I quoted a few lines on my page of FB and got a few people interested in the book.
I could see the future in this book.
Felt the ending felt a bit rushed, could also be me trying to get to the end of it, but it was a satisfying end.
December 9, 2016
This is a free-to-read self-published offering on Kindle that came recommended to me by my brother. I went in with pretty low expectations but still wound up gritting my teeth and praying for the end to come faster. This book has a lot of problems.
First, it's about too many things. The book tries to encompass human life extension, virtual reality and consciousness, the internet and computer security, corporate power and governance, and a whole basket of wacky but generic future-y technology like androids and holograms. None of these subjects seem wholly fleshed out, but they're all essential to the plot, which is convoluted and barely hangs together.
Second, it's in desperate need of a more discerning editor. I get it, this is a self-published book, so the standards aren't as high. I can live with corny dialog or the occasional typo or awkward turn of phrase. But I do require that authors know what words mean; for example, "opacity," which when applied to a window with modifier "100%" should not result in a character being able to see through said window. Maybe this seems like a minor nitpick, but this issue crops up continuously throughout the narrative, and it isn't limited to technical terms, but is applied to the characters and their motivations as well, often to bizarre effect. Just as frustrating: the narrative perspective is all over the map, sometimes inserting different viewpoints in the space of a single sentence, as when the narrator assures us that a character makes a "correct" assumption about their surroundings (who is telling us that this assumption is correct, if not the limited perspective of the character themselves?). This is exactly the kind of thing that an editor is supposed to catch, and the author notes as much in his post-script, where he praises the editors he hired. I can only recommend that he seek a second opinion for his next book.
Finally and worst of all, the characters have no consistent motivations or personalities, seemingly making their decisions solely on the basis of what will advance the plot. In one early scene, the protagonist is contacted by a band of Anonymous-like hackers who promise him some information he's dying to know, and he goes to incredible lengths to travel "off-the-grid" over the course of several days to meet them in Seattle. But then when he meets them, he almost immediately decides, apropos of nothing, that they aren't worth his time and that he should be dramatically rude to them while getting as drunk as possible. It makes no sense at all, and undermined any emotional investment I had made in the character so far. Like the frequent poor word choice, this was a recurring problem that ruined my ability to relate to any of the characters or care about their constantly-shifting goals and alliances. Worst of all is the villain, who alternates between sober mastermind and cartoonish evil in bipolar fashion and is impossible to take seriously.
I'm a fan of plucky self-published authors, and I wanted to like this book. I really did. And there's enough good material here to weave a compelling sci-fi story. But the narrative has so many problems, at both the macro and micro levels, that I just barely managed to finish it. An editor with a much heavier finger on the delete key and a lot of rework on the part of the author could maybe save this book. But for now, even for free, my verdict is hard pass.
First, it's about too many things. The book tries to encompass human life extension, virtual reality and consciousness, the internet and computer security, corporate power and governance, and a whole basket of wacky but generic future-y technology like androids and holograms. None of these subjects seem wholly fleshed out, but they're all essential to the plot, which is convoluted and barely hangs together.
Second, it's in desperate need of a more discerning editor. I get it, this is a self-published book, so the standards aren't as high. I can live with corny dialog or the occasional typo or awkward turn of phrase. But I do require that authors know what words mean; for example, "opacity," which when applied to a window with modifier "100%" should not result in a character being able to see through said window. Maybe this seems like a minor nitpick, but this issue crops up continuously throughout the narrative, and it isn't limited to technical terms, but is applied to the characters and their motivations as well, often to bizarre effect. Just as frustrating: the narrative perspective is all over the map, sometimes inserting different viewpoints in the space of a single sentence, as when the narrator assures us that a character makes a "correct" assumption about their surroundings (who is telling us that this assumption is correct, if not the limited perspective of the character themselves?). This is exactly the kind of thing that an editor is supposed to catch, and the author notes as much in his post-script, where he praises the editors he hired. I can only recommend that he seek a second opinion for his next book.
Finally and worst of all, the characters have no consistent motivations or personalities, seemingly making their decisions solely on the basis of what will advance the plot. In one early scene, the protagonist is contacted by a band of Anonymous-like hackers who promise him some information he's dying to know, and he goes to incredible lengths to travel "off-the-grid" over the course of several days to meet them in Seattle. But then when he meets them, he almost immediately decides, apropos of nothing, that they aren't worth his time and that he should be dramatically rude to them while getting as drunk as possible. It makes no sense at all, and undermined any emotional investment I had made in the character so far. Like the frequent poor word choice, this was a recurring problem that ruined my ability to relate to any of the characters or care about their constantly-shifting goals and alliances. Worst of all is the villain, who alternates between sober mastermind and cartoonish evil in bipolar fashion and is impossible to take seriously.
I'm a fan of plucky self-published authors, and I wanted to like this book. I really did. And there's enough good material here to weave a compelling sci-fi story. But the narrative has so many problems, at both the macro and micro levels, that I just barely managed to finish it. An editor with a much heavier finger on the delete key and a lot of rework on the part of the author could maybe save this book. But for now, even for free, my verdict is hard pass.
April 18, 2015
I am the mother of a child with a disability that would greatly benefit from the development of scientific breakthroughs connected with organ regeneration or replacement. As such, I found this sci-fi thriller incredibly interesting as the author takes such laboratory successes and extrapolates them out to whole systems replacements and the ramifications of such future developments on society.
The reach of his prose touches all of those things that we are taught not to bring up in polite conversation – “Don’t talk about politics, religion, or money.” Wright not only talks about them but demonstrates through his characters and environments that these are exactly the ethical discussions that we need to have in advance of widespread corporate manipulations of such medical techniques.
This book requires thought, discussion, and debate. Perfect for book groups who like to grapple with the bigger picture; I found myself wanting to send this to my political representatives, and my ethics professor. This would make a fabulous TV series to get the dialogue into the mainstream especially since Wright crafted his characters and action scenes three dimensionally. These characters are people we could easily know and relate to, making this look at a possible future that much more concerning and the read that much more interesting.
Fabulous sci-fi thriller that will keep you thinking and turning the pages.
The reach of his prose touches all of those things that we are taught not to bring up in polite conversation – “Don’t talk about politics, religion, or money.” Wright not only talks about them but demonstrates through his characters and environments that these are exactly the ethical discussions that we need to have in advance of widespread corporate manipulations of such medical techniques.
This book requires thought, discussion, and debate. Perfect for book groups who like to grapple with the bigger picture; I found myself wanting to send this to my political representatives, and my ethics professor. This would make a fabulous TV series to get the dialogue into the mainstream especially since Wright crafted his characters and action scenes three dimensionally. These characters are people we could easily know and relate to, making this look at a possible future that much more concerning and the read that much more interesting.
Fabulous sci-fi thriller that will keep you thinking and turning the pages.
June 20, 2016
I really liked this book! It was full of action, suspense and OH MY GOD do I ever hate the antagonist!!!
The language in this book is extremely intelligent, I actually learned new words while reading it!
And the ending... are you kidding! You leave me with like that Mr. Wright!?
The only downfalls I found were that I didn't really bond with Dylan, Kristina or Simeon at all. Frank had more personality and Sindhu was more the doer.
I would have liked to understand what exactly SOP was fighting FOR exactly, for the people to continue living in slums? Because they obviously weren't doing then any good...
Whoever did the editing on this book, needs to go back through Sindhu is spelled incorrectly a million times, lots of minor spelling errors itat just take away from the intelligence of this book
AND what happened to Lester? He and Kristina spent all this time together developing software. He found out about SOP. And then he disappeared.
Overall a great technological thriller!
The language in this book is extremely intelligent, I actually learned new words while reading it!
And the ending... are you kidding! You leave me with like that Mr. Wright!?
The only downfalls I found were that I didn't really bond with Dylan, Kristina or Simeon at all. Frank had more personality and Sindhu was more the doer.
I would have liked to understand what exactly SOP was fighting FOR exactly, for the people to continue living in slums? Because they obviously weren't doing then any good...
Whoever did the editing on this book, needs to go back through Sindhu is spelled incorrectly a million times, lots of minor spelling errors itat just take away from the intelligence of this book
AND what happened to Lester? He and Kristina spent all this time together developing software. He found out about SOP. And then he disappeared.
Overall a great technological thriller!
April 16, 2015
Enjoyed this a great deal. It wasn't quite what I expected, but once I adjusted it turned out to be a fast, energized read. Thought the future science/tech was pretty well done, characters had some depth & not cardboard cutouts. Interesting take on how access to tech over a long period of time could further divide parts of a society as well.
May 14, 2015
Interesting but weak resolution
I enjoyed the way he used some sci-fi future tech ideas as if they were common place to the characters, so many future based sci-fi calls special attention to future technology but to the characters in the story it shouldn't be special.
I did not enjoy the fact that he left so much of the story up in the air.
I enjoyed the way he used some sci-fi future tech ideas as if they were common place to the characters, so many future based sci-fi calls special attention to future technology but to the characters in the story it shouldn't be special.
I did not enjoy the fact that he left so much of the story up in the air.
February 2, 2017
It wasn't very appealing to me. The premise really sounded amazing but I couldn't get through. I DNF.
June 24, 2015
Idempotency
Fantastic story. Had a hard time putting it down. Soon as I could, picked it up and started reading it again.enjoyed it alot
Fantastic story. Had a hard time putting it down. Soon as I could, picked it up and started reading it again.enjoyed it alot
June 20, 2016
Interesting concept. I know what the author was shooting for at the end, but it was a little "meh".
couldn-t-finish
July 23, 2017Not what I expected. I couldn't get into it. There was more "telling" rather than showing, so it was more like a boring narrative.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews