Is it worth reading science-fiction books written about twenty years ago? Sergei Lukyanenko’s book “Labyrinth of Reflections” proves that yes, it’s worth it.
I’ve hit for Lukyanenko’s work a long time ago. According to a text on a cover, in Russia, he’s as popular as J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter’s author), but in Poland is different. His book “Spectrum” is one of my favorites books and now I’ve decided to read something else. From the first pages, I knew already, I’m reading this book at least ten years too late but, better late than later.
The Depth
Originally I wanted to write this review after reading the second volume, because “Labyrinth of Reflections” is only the first part of the whole story but after reading it I changed my previous plans. I did that because I realized this is the separate, finished story and the second volume will be about something else.
The universe that the author created is very interesting. The book was written twenty one years ago (1997 year, polish edition in 2002) and tells the story about the near future. Though the dates aren’t exactly known we could imagine it happens thirty, maybe fifty years later but the topic couldn’t be more up-to-date. Lukyanenko is narrating about the world that we have now. He’s inventing very advanced virtual reality and according to his vision humanity discovered the secret of connecting the brain with the computer. This gives the opportunity to get into VR directly, using only helmets and jumpsuits that additionally simulating natural body behavior.
Maybe games such as Second World (2003) or Minecraft (2009) are familiar to you, maybe not. If not, you should know that inside these environments you can create everything by yourself, including your personality and explore the whole world without any borders and restrictions. But you should know also that this Russian author twenty years earlier has written about VR idea and did it much deeper what is a reality now.
This VR world has a name: The Depth and after you’re inside you generally can’t go outside by yourself. To end the connection you need to have an outside program that will wake you up. I said generally because there are some exceptions. There are people who can break the surface by themselves and they are called The Divers, but there aren’t many of them. They are some kind of a legend in the Depth, everyone heard something about them, but almost no one met. And this book is telling us about Leonid’s adventures. He’s one of the Divers and the freelancer. One day he gets the task to solve some anomaly inside the Depth and this is the start of the plot.
IMHO
The ideas from this book aren’t new. We can name now what the author used: VR, matrix idea, quantum physics, and other galvanizing theories, and we know these technologies with our own experience. But he connected all these in a very surprising story. And it’s still surprising, even now when we know that some of the author’s ideas aren’t science-fiction already. And it’s very important that Lukyanenko asks questions that are still very up-to-date. For example, he asks about artificial intelligence - if it happens, what will it be? In what way it will change the whole world and people? In what way will it change our life experiences, VR senses, and our eagerness for connecting with VR directly? The answers we will have to find out by ourselves of course, but I like when apparently straightforward literature can talk about these topics.
Even though the book has “its age” already I haven’t felt outdated technologies so much, but of course, there are some issues like floppy disks, CD’s, modems, or Windows Home… Personally I’m not a big fan of the Microsoft environment and I would like the author to create something totally new or at least tell somewhere there is a product placement here…
It’s interesting also that the users of the Depth are using as their avatars old-fashioned stars from ‘90 like Stallone or Schwarzenegger. But all these little odds aren’t interfering in the pleasure of reading. The story is gripping and to those who like floating on a plot, this book should be really nice.