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A review by borisignatievich
Nymphomation by Jeff Noon
2.0
Blurb: The air of Manchester is alive with blurbvurts, automated advertisements chanting their slogans. But the loudest of all is for Domino Bones, the new lottery game. Every Friday night the winning numbers are illuminated on the body of Lady Luck, the voluptuous figurehead of the game. For the winner, it is unimaginable riches, for the losers another week to wait for the bones to fall again. But there is only one real winner, The Company, which plays the city’s fragile expectations with callous ease.
A group of mathematics students are looking at the mind-numbling probabilities involved and searching for the hidden mysteries behind the game. They watch the city at work and at dangerous play and slowly uncover the sinister realities behind the mania. The Company is devouring Manchester – it has the nymphomation, an evolutionary process which has the power to take over the city’s dreams...
Comments: Picked this up because I really like dystopian stuff. Think the premise is pretty good, set in an alternative universe Manchester c.1999, even the police are sponsored by a Burger company - thought it would be a fun little read about company monodominance. Which I think it tries to be, but it doesn't really work. It just descended into personal vendetta, but I didn't care for any of the characters enough to give a shit what happened to any of them. The faux-probability stuff was kind of interesting, but not enough to carry the book. And the ending was a) a bit predictable and b) completely daft at the same time, where as those two things don't normally go together. Overall, a good concept with poor execution, which I'm always likely to give higher marks for than the other way round
5.5/10
A group of mathematics students are looking at the mind-numbling probabilities involved and searching for the hidden mysteries behind the game. They watch the city at work and at dangerous play and slowly uncover the sinister realities behind the mania. The Company is devouring Manchester – it has the nymphomation, an evolutionary process which has the power to take over the city’s dreams...
Comments: Picked this up because I really like dystopian stuff. Think the premise is pretty good, set in an alternative universe Manchester c.1999, even the police are sponsored by a Burger company - thought it would be a fun little read about company monodominance. Which I think it tries to be, but it doesn't really work. It just descended into personal vendetta, but I didn't care for any of the characters enough to give a shit what happened to any of them. The faux-probability stuff was kind of interesting, but not enough to carry the book. And the ending was a) a bit predictable and b) completely daft at the same time, where as those two things don't normally go together. Overall, a good concept with poor execution, which I'm always likely to give higher marks for than the other way round
5.5/10