Nick SaganCritiques

DNF.

Han pasado 18 años y los sobrevivientes ahora son adultos. Un Halloween amargado y desilusionado ha optado por exiliarse pero sus compañeros buscan repoblar la Tierra y construir la civilización. Son la última, la mejor y quizás la única esperanza de la humanidad. Sin embargo, una división ideológica los ha dividido en dos sociedades muy diferentes: una busca resucitar a la raza humana, la otra mejorar la humanidad a través de la manipulación genética. Así, nace una nueva generación de niños, pero, a medida que maduran, se hace evidente que no todo anda bien. Alguien, o algo, se está moviendo contra ellos, incluso cuando Black Ep, la plaga que se cobró millones de vidas, regresa en busca de nuevas víctimas. Los sobrevivientes deben trabajar juntos, pero para salvar el futuro, Halloween primero debe dejar atrás el pasado...

Ambientada en pasado mañana, Idlewild comienza cuando un joven se despierta con amnesia: no puede recordar quién es y no reconoce nada a su alrededor; todo lo que sabe con certeza es que alguien está tratando de matarlo. Sin estar seguro de en quién puede confiar, se reencuentra con ocho compañeros, todos los cuales están siendo entrenados en una extraña escuela dirigida por una figura enigmática llamada Maestro. Trabajando para descubrir la identidad de la persona que ha intentado asesinarlo, el joven rápidamente comienza a desentrañar una serie de verdades, dejando en claro que está en juego mucho más que su vida.

It seemed to take a good while before the plot really grabbed me. I probably got through half or 2/3 of the book before I found I couldn't put it down. Not as good as the first book in this series, but still enjoyable, although if I could've been patient it would've been a better buy as a paperback.

This book was wonderful! Great imagery and ideas.

Only read half of it. Not my style...

I'd forgotten entirely whatever I'd read about this book when I finally started it, which made the disorienting opening surprisingly effective. A person wakes up, in pain and somewhat to be surprised to be alive, with complete amnesia. He slowly pieces together who and where he is, or so he thinks, but unexpected layer after layer of reality reveals itself. I haven't read any science fiction in quite some time, and this was a good reintroduction. Author Nick Sagan is the son of Carl Sagan, so I imagine I can expect his science, at least, to be convincing!½

Kids at virtual high school discover that they are only the survivors after plague kills everyone else.

This was a pretty good read, with quite a nice plot twist.

I couldn't really get into this book for some reason. Which is a little surprising as I see a lot of myself in Halloween. I will probably read the next 2 books I'm the series, but I'm not going to rush right out and get them. The present tense chapter openers and past tense narration was a bit confusing (especially as the present tense text took place in the past before the past tense narration... sheesh), but did serve to give an impression of the urgency of that present tense time. Some major character motive points are left open at the end, and all in all it was just a rather unsatisfactory ending to an okay book.

Idlewild is very Matrix-esque. It starts when we meet a confused young man, who appears to be in a dark sinister place, and who seems to know as little about his world as we do. It's all very confusing (for him, and for us) but also intriguing. It seems to be a chilling place on the one hand, but as things develop we see that it's actually a place of friendship and fun......until things start to go Pete Tong.

The confused young man we meet on the first page is Halloween (how cool is THAT for a name?!!) and in his little corner of the world everything is orange and black. The colours are his 'call sign' or 'gimmick' and help distinguish him from his friends who each have their own colour combo's and quirky names.

However, his circle of friends and the world as he knows it are about to become thrown into disarray and come crashing down around him. He comes to the realisation that his survival depends on what amounts to nothing more than computer pixels. He realises that his world is actually a lot smaller than he first thought. A LOT smaller.

He's not who he thought he was, his friends and teachers are not who he thought they were and his life depends on being able to work out what's real and what's not.

Confused? So was I......but it's a great confusuion! I loved this book! I haven't read anything like it before and I'm so glad it's a three-part'er. I like the character Halloween a lot in this first installment and can't wait to see where he goes from here. This is a great book to lose yourself in. It's one of my favourite subjects in works of fiction; apocalyptic, end of the world scenario with a bit of plague and 'last man standing' thrown in for good measure.

I didn't realise when I read this that Nick Sagan was Carl Sagan's son (how could I NOT have known, with a name like that? Duh!), but I don't think it would have made much difference if I'd known in advance because I've never read any of his dad's books to compare with. He's a talented author and regardless of who his dad is, he's got a book here that holds up well against some of best SF writers around.

A quick, fun, genre mixing read. There's not a lot of seriously original ideas, but the crazy combination of genre tropes and plot twists that change the nature of the novel every other chapter keeps you guessing right up until the end, even when you think you know what's going on.

I know that's vague, but it's hard to talk about it without giving any spoilers away. Suffice to say it'd make an excellent SF/Fantasy action adventure.

A good read; psychological; not mindfucky but mindmessy; what is real? How do we handle all the variables and create the perfect tool?

Can't get into it. Maybe I liked Idlewild too much. Maybe I miss the very missing character. Maybe I'm not the least impressed by the "scary" character with the quirky voice. Maybe it's simply that it's a sequel.

One thing, though: 30-odd years into a future with no humans, there'd be no marketplaces left, much less ones still holding market smells in their undamaged pavement. Sorry, but sometimes the disbelief snags on something as it's suspending.

I listened to Idlewild (Book 1) in 2008, and had a hard time connecting with any of the characters. In this book, it was easier for me to connect the characters, and I thought a lot of the ideas explored were more interesting than the ones explored in the first book. In both books, I didn't find the inner monologs believable, but it's hard to tell if the writing is at fault or the readers when you're listening. I wasn't crazy about the ending, but I see now that there's a third, so perhaps, I'll feel differently if I ever get around to it.

Halloween wakes up disoriented, confused, with no memory, and is temporarily paralyzed. All he knows is someone (something?) is trying to kill him via electrocution, but he has no idea how to even begin to investigate.

Slowly but surely, our protagonist reunites with his friends and his environment, the pieces of the puzzle slowly clicking into place as time moves forward. Plagued by intermittent holes in his memory, Halloween re-integrates himself back into the land of the ... living?

Sort of.

Quickly we learn that Halloween and his quirky and enigmatic friends are living in a inter-conscious virtual reality termed IVR (Immersive Virtual Reality) where they are receiving an education unlike anything they'd find in the "outside" world. With virtual nannies, instructors, vampires, and the ability to travel anywhere in the world instantaneously, what could be better? What could go wrong?

Pesky time to interrupt and remind the reader of the paralyzing electrocution - a failed, yet very much attempted assassination.

Through searching for simply his own memory, Halloween uncovers an epic reality nobody could have imagined. Peeling back multiple layers (a la Inception) bring the reader to a shocking and haunting realization, and hurl our cast of characters into a sobering pit of responsibility that they won't all survive.

Nick Sagan's Idlewild is disorienting at first, and fairly so given the state of our protagonist. I am confused as much as Halloween is. As the light of understanding brightens slowly upon him, so do I gain my bearings and try to make sense of this world around me. As the story progresses and the intensity increases, I find myself enlightened and darkened at the same time. What a wonderful thing to gain understanding, but when what you're understanding is fraught with danger and the threat of being buried alive? You long for a sense of normalcy. My emotions were highly charged while reading this book, and I am already well into book #2. I look around and appreciate the world around me, all the while wondering if what I'm perceiving is what really IS.

Ten teenagers attend a new kind of boarding school in the Michigan town of Idlewild, in which they are plugged into a virtual reality world 6 days out of seven, spending their free time there as well as their lessons. When Halloween (aka Gabriel Hall) suffers amnesia after a rogue power surge and Lazarus disappears with the unconvincing explanation that he has graduated early, the children start to wonder whether the machine intelligences that teach them and control the virtual environment, might be responsible.

I liked the way that the reader gradually realises what is really going on, at the same time as the characters are also struggling to figure it out.

This sequel to "Idlewild" is narrated by Pandora, Halloween, Penny (one of Champagne and Vashti's daughters), Hadji (one of Isaac's children) and a mysterious character called Deuce. Now in their mid-thirties and living in the real world, the six surviving ex-pupils of Idlewild School are scattered about the globe; Vashti and Champagne in Germany, Pandora in Greece, Isaac in Egypt, Halloween in Michigan and Fantasia who knows where, if indeed she is still alive.

Vashti, Champagne and Isaac have taken on the responsibility for raising the next generation, although the women and Isaac have vastly different approaches to their task, while Pandora is responsible for maintaining their machinery and virtual reality systems, and acts as a peacemaker to keep them communicating.

Grade: 6/10Thoughts: It had potential, but ruined itself for me near the end. I did like the idea of living in your mind in a different world, but WHY they were there is the problem I had with the book.

In style somewhat like The Adoration of Jenna Fox in that we get a few pieces of the puzzle at a time, and have to work them together ourselves. That's where the similarities end though. Idlewild is a very dark dystopian book. I was fascinated and disturbed at the same time, and can't quite figure out if I actually liked the book or not. I think it falls into the "I'm glad I've read it, but I probably won't read it again"-category.

I've never been fond of non-endings, so that was a bit of a disappointment. I can see how it would fit the rest of the story, but still felt I was left with too many unanswered questions.

I love this series so much I can't even tell you how badly I want everyone in the world to read it.

Light reading.

When I started reading this, I had a distinct mental image of the exact setting described in the first few pages. And that mental image kept going through the whole novel.

The story, a mix of sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, and loss of innocence is good for YA and adult readers alike. As I was reading, I couldn't decide which it section it fit best in...before I gave up. A good book is a good book so who really cares?

Halloween is our main character and immediately, he's not exactly the best narrator, considering he can't remember anything. I thought this would irk me, and it did at first but soon I was just as curious as he was to figure out what was going on.

The interludes with the characters in italics slowly clues you in on what's going on and soon you'll have an idea at the same time Halloween does. I enjoyed the twist, though I figured it out before I think I was supposed to.

The second twist, however, took me by surprise. Though the ending, in my opinion, was a bit anti-climactic, I will still read the second book in the series. I think it'll be a good one!

Sci-fi, mystery or pseudo-thriller, Idlewind had me hooked from the beginning. You never know what twists and turns the plot will take as you follow an exploration of the mind which truly makes you question the reality of life itself. I found it so hard to put this book down that I read it in a single day. Gripping.

A man awakens with no memory of who he is, or where he is. But he's sure someone is trying to kill him. As he slowly recovers his memories and hunts for his assassin, he is forced to look more closely at his own world and discover the deeper truths of who he is, and why.

This is a brilliant take on post-apocalyptic fiction, taking place in part in a convincing immersive virtual reality. Fast paced, and filled with tantalizing clues, this is both imaginative and deep. Exactly what sci-fi should be, and a worthy inheritor to the Sagan name.½