Preface: I swear on my mother's iPad that I did not read any of the reviews or quotes at Amazon.com before writing this review, so help me Bezos.

Much has been written of how man and machine will interact in the future; whether it's Gibson's "Neuromancer", Stephenson's "Snow Crash", or any of a number of indie authors out there now. Matthew Mather's debut novel "The Complete Atopia Chronicles" takes artificial intelligence, distributed computing, nanotechnology, and the full range of humanity (hubris, love, addiction, selfishness, anger, happiness, etc.), portions them all into a blender, and mixes up the finest-tasting best-guess at just what Kurzweil's Singularity might be like.

Like all good SF writers, Mather extrapolates from our present global state of being (advertisements seemingly on every surface, the increasing effects of climate change, rising economic power of India and China) to build a world where distributed consciousness is in beta-testing and those chosen few are living fantastic lives both on a man-made independent island and in their own heads; but as good SF also does, we see how advancement comes with a price and no matter how much we build or how smart we think we are, in the end we are still human.

Of particular note is the device of telling each protagonist's tale in full before moving on to the next story. A more traditional approach would ironically skip from character to character, viewpoint to viewpoint, telling the tale as it unfolds; to truly obtain the full effect of each story occuring simultaneously one would need access to the distributed consciousness technology described in the novel. As it is we mere humans simply need to hold what we've read in our memory, but don't be surprised to find yourself scrubbing back to an earlier story to confirm that yes indeed, this is what was happening when that seemingly random thing occured; not to give anything away, that is. Of course, each tale of the Atopia Chronicles stands on its own and does not need the others to be enjoyed, or to educate.

Above all the future-gazing, techno-whizbangery and story-telling devices, the most important thing is the ability to tell a good story and to make you incapable of waiting to turn the page, which Mather accomplishes nicely in the Atopia Chronicles. While moving from one character wholly to another is jarring in the earlier stories ('Okay,' you say to yourself, 'why should I care about this guy? I still care about the last guy!'), as you keep reading you realize that your earlier friends are still out there, if only you could send a splinter off to check on what they were up to at that moment. ( )

Very interesting read (or listen rather). My main criticism would be that he tries to take on all points of view of all the major characters throughout the entire story line. This makes it a little tedious at times and I sometimes pined for him to just get to the point. That said, this novel does a great job of exploring the light and extremely darks sides of alternate/virtual reality. ( )

The Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will need a lot of work

If author Matthew Mather paints an even halfway accurate picture of our future in The Atopia Chronicles, one thing is certain—The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5) is going to need a lot of work. First, we’ll need to add the Sim Kid Syndrome, marked by an irrational desire to bring into the world bio-similar digital versions of oneself until your family resembles a small town. Loss of Neural Cohesion results from letting your proxxi drive your body too often. Phuture-Driven Hyperactivity is marked by frenetic action to avoid one’s demise as predicted by the Phuture News (note: more research is needed because these actions may be justified—perhaps the predictions are right).

If you’re thinking that’s a whole truckload of new terminology and technology, you’d be right and there’s a lot more in the book. But in general, all of it is the product of one thing: nanobots that attach to your nervous system (smarticles) so that they can change what you see, hear, feel, taste, and touch. And they can let other synthetic beings (proxxis) act on your behalf because they are, in a sense, you. So, imagine you can live anywhere you want with anyone you want (or at least, a bio-similar copy of that person) during any time period you want while copies of you take care of business. Sound a bit addictive? Sound like it could mess with your mind? And while in the novel this technological revolution is a last-ditch effort to save a dying planet, it parallels some of the current nanobot, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence research. Those similarities are just one of a number of real-world themes raised in the book, making it a very thought-provoking read. I loved that aspect of the work.

But while the book’s provocative concepts are a highlight, there are downsides. First, categorizing the novel in the hard science fiction genre is a bit of a stretch. Parts of its psychology are fantasy—perhaps some medical aspects too, although that’s not my background. Of course, that’s not a problem unless you were expecting hard science fiction. A second concern is that the book is poorly organized. Mather starts with a set of five vignettes that all occur at the same point in time, each from the perspective of a different character. Then, the second half of the book attempts to bring all these threads together. The result is confusing and produces considerable overlap. It’s a 500-page book that probably has 300 pages of story filled with characters that appear, sometimes to reappear, other times not.

While I find the themes in The Atopia Chronicles fascinating and some of them quite probable given the trajectories of today’s research, it was a laborious and often confusing read. ( )

Mind blowing Technology

The futuristic technology, virtual multi-verse and pssi, the polysynthetic sensory interface is absolutely MIND BLOWING. It has tons of potential but I did find the atypical structure and lack of a central protagonist hard to follow. But still, it's a very intriguing and compelling book. Matthew Mather has an amazing imagination and skill to weave it into interesting stories. ( )

This was a random pick from my "Recommended for You" section on Amazon. I was liking it quite a bit until about half was through when it started to transition from nice straight sci-fi to more of a dark thriller. And then there were so many characters and the POV jumped faster and faster between the characters that it just got confusing and hard to follow. ( )