For my review please visit my blog: Martin's View: Reality 36. ( )

Although it did get much better towards the end, my main problem with this novel was that I LOVE Richards, and spent the portions of the book that Richards wasn't in waiting for Richards to come back. So I missed some key bits of information here and there and the book felt a little more disjointed than it probably actually was, or would seem to be if I reread it now. Still, engaging enough that I'm definitely interested in reading the sequel, and not just because this one ended on such a cliffhanger. ( )

A fast-paced, futuristic sc-fi story that should work better than it does.

I downloaded Guy Haley's novel on a random recommendation, after searching for 'artificial intelligence' fiction, and in that respect, Reality 36 was a good choice. Haley's world building is vividly creative, and his technobabble fairly easy to interpret, yet the characters and dialogue fell flat for me.

Level 5 AI Richards and 'cydroid' German Otto Klein are private eyes in a dystopian London agency. The pair are called in to investigate the disappearance of a computer genius known for defending the civil rights of higher artificial intelligence, who has sent his young assistant into the virtual universe of 'Reality 36' to find and continue his secret research. The book is a very masculine combination of high-octane adventure and hard-boiled detectives, yet very superficial, for all the thoughtful prophecies about clever machines and environmental disasters in the future. I didn't take to Otto, and only warmed to Richards towards the end - neither characters are developed very well, because of all the scene-setting going on at the same time. Veronique Valdaire, whilst being a typically tortured yet independent heroine typical of this genre, is the human (and female) foil for Richards and Klein, but she too is hard to empathise with.

Well written, despite the repetitive dialogue, yet strangely forgettable. One for the boys, I think. ( )

The question for a current science fiction writer is how to handle the near future, and what combination of social, economic, political, or environmental collapse do you use as part of your story. Guy Haley's choice was to throw the whole lot at the Human Race, and that is merely the background for this story, which is a well-executed cyberpunk thriller, in which an artificial intelligence besotted with private detectives and a disgruntled cybernetic ex-soldier have the job of sorting out how a man can be dead in two places at one time. Matters eventually escalate to a cinematic cliffhanger of which I'm not going to say more.

Some of my fellow book-club members thought that this book sprawled a little too much for its own good, though that wasn't a problem for me. If I have a particular gripe it's that I expected more time to be spent in the "Realm 36" of the title, a proscribed former gaming arena that was shut down when A.I.'s received civil rights. Be that as it may, I look forward to the next installment; just what I need, another series. ( )

http://staffersmusings.blogspot.com/2011/07/reality-36-richards-and-klein-novel-... ( )