Reviews

Altered States by Paddy Chayefsky

maxmagee's review against another edition

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4.0

Great story, you've got to give this book credit for that, but in this particular case there's no real reason to read it when you can just watch the highly visual movie instead.

emma_behrens_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

scheu's review against another edition

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4.0

A quick read. Not fundamentally different than the film; Ken Russell traded some of the introspection of the novel for Ken-Russell-visuals. It made me want to revisit Terence McKenna.

akenny614's review against another edition

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3.0

Read this one in two days as it is super short, and despite it's unbelievability, was very engaging. The use of big words was a little out of control, but I suppose that went along with the intellectual brains that were the main characters. I have not yet seen the movie.

cdeane61's review against another edition

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4.0

Exceptional - really gets you thinking about the nature of consciousness, has made me eager to see the movie.

Mind altering drugs always make for a good story element (in my opinion) Michael Gruber's Night of the Jaguar is a good example.

Both of these stories rely on South American shamanic practices for their story lines and are equally as fascinating, albeit vastly different.

evanmc's review against another edition

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2.0

Somewhere in here there's a story I want to know. Its buried under mounds of useless technical detail, translucent and cliched character development, and a twist that is handled in such a ham-fisted way that I nearly stopped the book completely with less than 50 pages left. It really is a shame, because the opening sequence to this novel got its hooks into me deeply and quickly. The concept of the isolation chamber, research into the far corners of physiology, it had the makings of a cool, creepy plot. Sadly it just didn't work. I wish that I could have Rod Serling re-write this, because his subtlety would have turned this into one hell of an entry into the Twilight Zone series.

meubanks's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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