Sunday, August 22, 2010

The End of Mr Y ~ Scarlett Thomas

The End of Mr Y is a Victorian novel written by Thomas Lumas.  It contains a recipe for an elixir which transports the drinker to the “Troposphere” (or ‘mindspace’ as termed by the mysterious Project Starlight).  In the Troposhere you can jump into other people’s minds and delve into their memories and secrets.  There are, however, dangers and these come in the form of two blonde American agents from the defunct Project Starlight who want the recipe.

Ariel is a fan of Lumas’  work and finds a copy of this rare book in a second hand book store.  The page containing the recipe to the elixir has been torn out but when packing up her mentor’s office (he has disappeared) the page floats from a book that he had said to forget about when doing her thesis.  Ariel takes this as being a sign.  She makes up the elixir and travels to the Troposphere, but over time she is pursued by the two agents who will stop at nothing to obtain what they want.

I found the first half interesting and exciting but then it just started to ‘blither’ on and I began to lose interest.  Ariel’s narrative voice is that of a whinger and she swears way too  much.  I don’t like her!

The ideas throughout the novel are not all original.  ‘Mindspace’ is like ‘Cyberspace’ and the two agents are reminiscent of Mr Smith and his cronies from The Matrix.

The End of Mr Y had the potential to be a pretty good read, but it became a fizzer. 

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