I don't think that I haven't liked any of his books. If I hadn't seen his name on this I would not have known it was by him such is it different. Was it sci-fi? (That's normally a put down I find but not in this instance). Was it a thriller? Could have been. Either way makes no difference because it is a first class piece of work that is engaging and rewarding. You have to pay attention, no bad thing in a novel, and something I like.

If you have read other books by Mr Brookmyre you will like this one too. ( )

Ross is a regular employee at the slightly sinister Neurosphere corporation. A workaholic, he has given everything to the company, at the expense of his relationship even more poignant now, as his girlfriend is pregnant.

He volunteers to have a go on the new brain scanner, anything to avoid work for an afternoon, but when he emerges from the scanner, he is not in the office. In fact he is not in the real world anymore, but seems to be stuck in a video game call Starfire, a game that is a blast from his past. He has no idea as to why he is there, and more importantly can see no way of getting out. As he travels around staying alive, just, he realises this is a huge environment with thousands of games from his past, and sequels that have yet to be released, and that he is up against an enemy, the Integrity, who seem to know his every move.

Having read and enjoyed his previous book based on online games, A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away, I was l looking forward to reading this one. I like the style that he writes in along with his acerbic wit is normally quite funny too. This book caries on in the same vein, being sharp in its prose. Where it didn’t work for me was the plot. A book like this need to be fast paced, original and with a fairly big twist at the end, and while this had elements of these it didn’t all add up, which is a shame as it promised so much more. ( )

I'm a fan of Brookmyre, but this is a long way from his best work. It does not appear in the list of "Other books by the same author" in subsequent novels, which says something, possibly something along the lines of "Bedlam is science fiction and beneath your consideration". This is a marked departure from his 16 previous novels, which are mostly excellent blackly comic thrillers in the Tartan Noir genre (although some are SF-tinged). "Bedlam" is unmistakably SF of the "lost in virtual reality" sub-genre epitomised by the likes of Austin Grossman's "You" and Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One". I didn't enjoy "Bedlam" for much the same reason I didn't really enjoy the Grossman or the Cline: in a virtual world, the rules are fluid and the stakes don't seem that high; I find it hard to care about virtual characters. Also, in the manner of "Ready Player One", Brookmyre doesn't hide his passion for video games of an earlier time, which is fine if you share it, but to me it feels self-indulgent. The story lacks impetus: very early on the main character is abruptly transferred to a virtual world and spends half the novel effectively alone in a series of first-person shooters - which is great if you're playing, but not much fun reading about someone else playing - with no motivation or direction beyond wondering how he got there. It's also wordy, and makes its points in a convoluted and occasionally very awkward way - a common trait in Brookmyre's later books (due to a lighter editorial hand, perhaps). It's only in the latter half of the novel that actual peril is introduced, the writing improves a bit and a story takes shape, but by that point I was too far gone to enjoy it. Unrewarding. ( )

Enjoyable, it seemed a little less zany than some of his earlier crime fiction in many ways. The video game idea was well executed if not startlingly original (I had to re-read [Halting State] by [[Charles Stross]] directly afterwards, and yes, that felt fresher.
Interesting ideas included the possibility of multiple copies depending on uploaded time, and how real a copy feels (to itself) even though they might be living on in meatspace. ( )

I'm generally a fan of Christopher Brookmyre, but I'm afraid this one didn't really do it for me. I have to admit I prefer his Scottish-based crime novels, but I have enjoyed his other excursions into sci-fi; this time though, in spite of some good one-liners (which will go as far over the heads of any non-British readers as the computer gaming references did me)I felt the book only really picked up towards the end when Ross finally realised the true nature of what had happened to him. I could probably have guessed this, but I hadn't really been engaged enough to try. I have Brookmyre's latest Parlabane novel to read, so I hope that will restore my usual enjoyment in his writing. ( )