I Am Sleepless: Sim 299
By Johan Twiss
The first thing I noticed about this book was the cover. You’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but I knew right away that this would be different from probably everything I’ve ever read. In a way, I was right.
So what is this book about?
Well, a lot. The not so unique part is that its another human experiment type of thing. Basically all the experiments usually die but our protagonist has somehow managed to live longer than any other subjects, thus we have a story. Ok, Twiss, for the sake of your-average-sci-fi I was willing to overlook the redundancy of the basic plot to the story. But to make up for that, there’s a colorful cast—characters that come in all shades and handicaps, and there are elements to the characters that you probably won’t find in any other book.
One of the things I liked and disliked about this story was the author’s allusion of many things. MUCH of the story is hinted at but not quite explained or further explored. By the end of the book it’s all brought together very well but you’re kind of stringed along for most of the beginning. If you’ve ever read a few of my other reviews, you’ll know one of my pet peeves is those gosh darn info dumps. I hate them. But the opposite of that is what I got in this book. Nothing was just handed to me, I actually had to read and pay attention to discover the story hidden behind the details and planted within the unique characters.
I didn’t mind it, as it was a refreshing departure from the usual page load of ‘everything you need to know!’ that I usually get from sci-fi/fantasy books. But I wish there had been more of a happy medium—that’s me just being nit-picky though, not a serious offense from the book.
There’s another race in the book, called Ethos, which are big ugly things. I’ll admit I’m not giving them much justice as they’re far better detailed in the book but that’s the gist. In a way, that’s kind of cheating. I mean, when I was told that the book had a colorful cast I was thinking wonderful minorities not made up creatures but I guess that works too.
That’s just one of the things you’ll love or hate about this book, there are many surprises and many elements you will not expect to see. I enjoyed the book, though it may have been a little too much on the sci-fi side for me. But I don’t see a reason why someone else wouldn’t like this.
*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*