The extremes

New author for this week was Christopher Priest. To be completely factual though, it was not a random choice like the other authors I had decided to read before. A few weeks ago I saw the movie 'Prestige' and was intrigued enough to pick his book 'The Extremes'.

It is one of those book that can't be pegged and leaves you feeling extremely uneasy. There is the grief and sadness that permeates throughout the book. But, what struck me most as I stared into the rain after reading the final pages was how plausible the premise was. The concept of virtual reality and reconstruction of events in a VR environment or to borrow a trekkie word - a 'holodeck' seems shockingly reachable. A few connections to the appropriate neurons and clever programs and voila - 'extreme experiences'.

Would I want to 'use' the holodeck. I probably would. But would I know enough to realize later what was real and what was virtual. The ending was - not predictable - more inevitable and reminded of 'Vanilla skies'