Martin Higgins (1)

This was an enjoyable tale of a life completely transformed by waking up to what is beyond a mundane life of drudgery. I really loved seeing David's transformation from miserable misanthrope to someone who is happy and in tune with universal love. My favorite parts of the book were the synchronicities David followed and his training to develop his natural psychic abilities.

It felt like it ended kind of abruptly, and it felt just a little lacking in some ways. Maybe the metaphysical parts were just so good and interesting, I wanted more of them. Three stars for "liked it." It definitely had the potential for four or five stars from me in some parts.

Thank you to the author for providing me with a PDF copy for review. I hope he will continue to write.… (más)

Human+ is the story of David (no last name), a man who is tormented by his strange visions until he meets a mysterious group of people who have learned to use their skills to do amazing things. David has a psychic talent that sets him apart from humanity, and when he undergoes a rigorous training program under the guidance of FutureProof his talents blossom into unimaginable abilities. David basks in the benefits of his enlightenment until he’s initiated into the core team with Lawrence and Astrid, when he starts to suspect his skills may be used for nefarious purposes.

One point of clarification: I requested this book from the librarything Early Review because the excerpt from Kursweil (link) suggested the book was a scientifically based examination of the idea that humans already exist who have psychic abilities wrapped up in a fictional story. That’s not an accurate description; Human+ is a spy novel with spiritual/new age themes, and it’s a good read.

I really struggled with the first part of the story and the reason is surprising: Higgins is just too convincing in his portrayal of the main character David. The novel starts in first person perspective and it’s jarring and frankly unpleasant to read, which closely mirrors David’s emotional state. Now, I usually appreciate a novel that can make the reader share the feelings of a character based only on the prose style. It’s a cool trick and not many writers can pull it off. However I feel like using this tool so early limited my emotional engagement in the story. Reading through something that offputting before I was emotionally engaged in the story or the characters made me want to put the book down. It’s really unfortunate that Higgins employed this technique so early on in Human+ because many readers who would enjoy a good spy vs. spy novel are going to get stuck at David’s paranoid monologue.

The tone of the novel makes a complete 180 into fun reading after this first bit though. Once David gets into the FutureProof program and starts flexing his psychic muscles, he becomes a very cool character travelling in a cooler world. At this point in the novel the first person perspective is employed to great effect to make me like David and become further invested in his struggles. I think Higgins did a great job fleshing out a setting similar to the real world in a few brief scenes at the party. I liked the way the main character David experienced dreams, reality, and how easily he moved between the two. I would happily have read hundreds more pages venturing around, meeting other denizens of the psychic and future studies world.

I was surprised at how much I liked this book. The start is set in a completely different tone than the body of the book, the action doesn’t gain a whole lot from the new age enlightenment aspect, and the ending is jarringly abrupt. That being said, David is an interesting and relatable character when he sobers up and the world author Martin Higgins builds is beyond fascinating. On balance, I would love to read other books by Higgins in this setting.… (más)