What do you think?
Rate this book
World One
Kat tried to be honest. She changed her emotional animation toward worried with a subset of shy. Her voice quieted by ten percent, face tilting down to catch the blueish shadows of the limbo park in which she stood. Generic and disjointed from the rest of TruWrld2, it was the only place where she could see Tennan in spite of their different home regions. "I think of all those apartments on all those floors in all those buildings. Those people, they never see anybody--"
"They see people every day. I'm seeing you now." Kat shifted. "Yes, Tennan. But in person." Tennan stepped closer to her and halted. He gazed at her, eyes nuanced with gemstone colors and deliberate wrinkles. He took in her digital form. He loved her. He would try to never meet her. "Kitty-Cat, I don't know how to be more personal. I am here with you in as much entirety as I can muster." Kat laughed. "'Muster!' At least you're not using auto-speak!" Every part of Kat's life has been taken over by digital worlds and simulated experiences. Then she meets Eva, a political renegade on the fringe of society. Drawn to technology but craving human connection, Kat mistrusts Eva's attempts to lure her away from VR worlds and other sims. Worse, she suspects that the programmer Sodi is playing at more than one game. Kat can flee through dingy places and digital paradises, but will it be far enough to escape the worst of what technology created? If she can survive in any world, which will it be? Can digital worlds connect with physical lives enough to get her back?
"They see people every day. I'm seeing you now." Kat shifted. "Yes, Tennan. But in person." Tennan stepped closer to her and halted. He gazed at her, eyes nuanced with gemstone colors and deliberate wrinkles. He took in her digital form. He loved her. He would try to never meet her. "Kitty-Cat, I don't know how to be more personal. I am here with you in as much entirety as I can muster." Kat laughed. "'Muster!' At least you're not using auto-speak!" Every part of Kat's life has been taken over by digital worlds and simulated experiences. Then she meets Eva, a political renegade on the fringe of society. Drawn to technology but craving human connection, Kat mistrusts Eva's attempts to lure her away from VR worlds and other sims. Worse, she suspects that the programmer Sodi is playing at more than one game. Kat can flee through dingy places and digital paradises, but will it be far enough to escape the worst of what technology created? If she can survive in any world, which will it be? Can digital worlds connect with physical lives enough to get her back?
370 pages, Paperback
Published November 25, 2017
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 18, 2020
A more concerning take on Ready Player One
Where Ready Player One was a fun and nostalgic take on a population immersed in virtual worlds, World One shows us how disconnected humanity would be and challenges us to consider if we’d really want to live in a world without real people and real connections. A full review to post on my blog in time.
Where Ready Player One was a fun and nostalgic take on a population immersed in virtual worlds, World One shows us how disconnected humanity would be and challenges us to consider if we’d really want to live in a world without real people and real connections. A full review to post on my blog in time.
November 3, 2021
For fans of The Matrix, Ready Player One, and The Barcode Tattoo, this is a story of both the negative and positive sides of technology: conformity and convenience versus innovation and interconnection.
Disclaimer: I am personal friends with the author but will do my best to provide an impartial review.
Kat Menali lives in a society that conducts most of its meaningful interactions in a simulated virtual reality game-turned-lifestyle known as TruWrld2, so much so that real life outside of the simulation is now referred to as World One. But Kat yearns for something more, a personal connection that goes beyond what virtual reality can offer.
Eva is looking for people like Kat to join her cause. Eva is part of a group of people known as subversives who are trying to build a life for themselves outside of the mandatory virtual world. She is helping raise her partner Sodi's son, who is unregistered with TruWrld2, and thus illegal.
Meanwhile, a data-obsessed employee of the tech monopoly Servi-Mod is attempting to stamp out people like Eva and Kat who throw a wrench in his perfectly predictable numbers.
This book is built on intricate and well-thought-out world building with complex characters, some of whom are more likeable than others (Sodi's mistreatment of his son and lovers made him less sympathetic to me despite being instrumental in the movement to overthrow the technological oppression).
One of the most interesting aspects to me as a linguist is the way the author incorporates her own Choctaw heritage into the culture of the subversives' community. According to a note at the end of the book, she modeled their speech patterns on Chahta Anumpa, the Choctaw language. That was definitely an element I was curious about while I was reading.
She also makes a number of interesting literary decisions, such as withholding a character's name from the reader until the moment when the character begins to define themself and stop living for others.
I love the depictions of female leadership in this imagined future, from the mayor of Kat's city, to the brief glimpse of the CEO of Servi-Mod. Good and evil, women rule this world.
Over all, a very impressive debut from Vail Henry.
Disclaimer: I am personal friends with the author but will do my best to provide an impartial review.
Kat Menali lives in a society that conducts most of its meaningful interactions in a simulated virtual reality game-turned-lifestyle known as TruWrld2, so much so that real life outside of the simulation is now referred to as World One. But Kat yearns for something more, a personal connection that goes beyond what virtual reality can offer.
Eva is looking for people like Kat to join her cause. Eva is part of a group of people known as subversives who are trying to build a life for themselves outside of the mandatory virtual world. She is helping raise her partner Sodi's son, who is unregistered with TruWrld2, and thus illegal.
Meanwhile, a data-obsessed employee of the tech monopoly Servi-Mod is attempting to stamp out people like Eva and Kat who throw a wrench in his perfectly predictable numbers.
This book is built on intricate and well-thought-out world building with complex characters, some of whom are more likeable than others (Sodi's mistreatment of his son and lovers made him less sympathetic to me despite being instrumental in the movement to overthrow the technological oppression).
One of the most interesting aspects to me as a linguist is the way the author incorporates her own Choctaw heritage into the culture of the subversives' community. According to a note at the end of the book, she modeled their speech patterns on Chahta Anumpa, the Choctaw language. That was definitely an element I was curious about while I was reading.
She also makes a number of interesting literary decisions, such as withholding a character's name from the reader until the moment when the character begins to define themself and stop living for others.
I love the depictions of female leadership in this imagined future, from the mayor of Kat's city, to the brief glimpse of the CEO of Servi-Mod. Good and evil, women rule this world.
Over all, a very impressive debut from Vail Henry.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews