Reckless Sleep

Reckless Sleep #1

by Roger Levy

Reckless Sleep is a supremely assured and visionary SF debut. It presents an apocalyptic, high-tech future twisted by paranoia and false dreams--a future made for Far Warrior Jon Sciler. After the disastrous failure of the first expedition to Dirangesept, the Far Warriors were sent to take over the planet. They were our last hope. Controlling autoid combat machines from orbit by remote links, the Warriors thought they were invulnerable. They were wrong. As thousands of autoids were destroyed by what appeared to be fabulously beautiful beasts, the mental agony suffered by the Warriors tipped their minds over the edge. And now, years later, on an Earth close to geological collapse, someone is killing the surviving Far Warriors. As ash from volcanic eruptions drifts in the streets of London and villages disappear overnight into fresh fault lines, the population seeks escape in the addictive game zones of virtual reality. The companies who control the phantom zones stand to make billions if they can develop ever more perfect virtual environments and to do so they need men who have become attuned to the highest military grade virtual the Far Warriors. The testers need to be able to keep secrets about the game zones, secrets about what really happened on Dirangesept, secrets about what lies in VR, waiting to get out. Secrets to die for.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Cyberpunk

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

I live in London. I'm married with two children. My third novel, Icarus, was shortlisted for BSFA best novel of 2007. My latest, The Rig, is published by Titan.
My other interests include photography and jazz. As I'm red/green colourblind, I especially love black & white photography, and jazzwise, I naturally like the blues. I especially love the cover of The Rig, not just because it’s a thing of beauty and perfectly fits the story, but because I think I can see the colours.

Reviews

[Liviu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very ambitious debut; it does not fully succeeds since the book does not coalesce in a whole; it took me more than 3 years of occasional reading to finally get to a point where I was interested in finishing it rather than getting tired by its over-writing, but it was ultimately worth. Virtual reality, Earth going down the drain, (real) alien planet with monsters...

I will start the related book Dark Heavens and read more from Icarus since Mr. Levy is an interesting writer; however I do not anticipate finishing those books soon either since they are also over-written, though Icarus is sparser than the other two and more accessible, but on the other hand its 3 threads are of less interest to me so far at least than the superb world-building of Reckless Sleep and Dark Heavens

[John Rennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roger Levy has only written four books in the last twenty years, and I've loved them all. We all love our space opera and epic fantasies, but every now and then it's nice to read something darker and more challenging, and this Levy provides in spades. I've seen Levy described as a successor to Philip K. Dick but I don't think this is a good description. While Dick liked to question reality, Levy's realities are all too real and usually all too bleak.

I read Reckless Seep when it was first published twenty years ago, and I loved it. I've just read it again and I still loved it, though this time round I'm more conscious of its failings. While the first half of the book is masterful, the plotting in the later parts of the book is a little unconvincing and the ending is barely plausible. But then it's always easier to set up a great mystery than it is to resolve it convincingly, and Levy is far from the first author to discover this.

But despite the flaws the book has a wonderfully dark and brooding atmosphere and the scientific aspects of the book are exactly what science fiction should be - weird enough to be almost magical but without crossing that line into fantasy.

This isn't going to be a book for everyone and I'm reluctant to recommend it unreservedly. If you like your scifi hard, dark and challenging then I think you'll enjoy this. If not you should probably pass by this one. This applies to all four of Levy's books.

[Nial · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay. It didn't really work though. It felt like a book that needed a few rewrites as the basis for a story is there but it doesn't hold up. Seemed like a few things missing like a first write that needs further work.

[Nick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. London geologically failing. Returnee from failed planet colonization.

[Juan Bosco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Esta es una novela sobre la colonización de otros planetas, un mundo a punto de colapsarse, cultos, afrodisíacos, realidad virtual y un poco de juego de rol. Son muchas ideas que no logran cuajar del todo y en conjunto no están tan bien integradas, pero por momentos te dejan reflexionando sobre "qué pasaría si...", que es algo deseable en la ciencia ficción.

La historia nos relata la historia de redención de un protagonista poco interesante, con algunos rasgos peculiares que el autor olvida después de mencionarlo por primera ocasión, por ejemplo, que es un aficionado a la poesía. La historia parece tratarse, en un inicio, de un nuevo sistema de realidad virtual donde es posible jugar rol con hechizos mágicos y todo, pero las cosas, como nuestro protagonista descubre, en realidad son más complicadas de lo que parecen.


Lo recomendaría con reservas para los aficionados de la ciencia ficción, le falta consolidar muchos elementos, pero hay algunas ideas interesantes que valen la pena enterradas entre el resto.

[Phil Meekracken]

I found Reckless Sleep a frustrating read. Roger Levy writes well: situations flow off the page smoothly, and characters are portrayed believably and naturally. His world has a surreal Dickian quality to it, sf touched with a hint of Magic Realism, such that you can never be quite sure what might happen over the page. Unfortunately, as the story develops it turns out that what might happen over the page is far more interesting than what actually does - Reckless Sleep is rather dull and confused (like most of its characters), and unsure what kind of book it wants to be. Not much happens, and the entire story seems infected with the same ennui that grips the ruined future world. I had to make myself stick with it till the ends, and by the time the mildly inventive conclusion was sprung I just wanted out.

[Infame Descalzo]

Disfruté esta vuelta a la ciencia ficción después de tanto tiempo. El libro es muy entretenido y muy gráfico, o sea, parece el guión de una película de ciencia ficción (todo el tiempo me preguntaba si el autor lo habría escrito con una intención así). Recomendable para los que disfruten del género. Como no soy un fanático de los videojuegos, tal vez no alcancé a saborearlo al 100%, pero supongo que personas que disfrutan zambullirse en esa realidad virtual, encontrarán el libro más que atractivo. Buen final (no lo spoileo).

[Peter]

a bit patchy in places, but a cracking read nonetheless: This is the guy's first book (according to the interview he did on the site) and wasn't as polished as it could have been but that is really being picky. This is an exciting read -- I got three quarters of the way through and then read the final bit in one sitting. It's by no means a classic but is one of the better new sci-fi reads around. give a shot, you won't be disappointed.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

An inventive and fairly unique take on the near-future dystopian scifi. Also combined space travel and fantasy as genres, but convincingly so.

However well he sees his own vision of the future and technology, alas this debut novel does not reveal that Levy had a truly nuanced view of human nature. The emotional motivations are cartoonish.

I picked it up on the take one leave one shelf at a hostel, was definitely worth the read in that context. I might try his later works.

[Daveb27 · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with reckless sleep, a great book that the other reviewers point out.
I reckon some of the themes were used in avatar

[BasziK · Rating 4 out of 5]

cyberpunk