The Escapist is an enjoyable tale set in a future world where technology reigns supreme and the hacker is the ultimate criminal. It's a world where all the stupid ideas from today have found their consummation, and many of the good ideas seem to have slipped away.
The story itself evolves into an elaborate mess of seemingly disconnected agenda that the author skillfully draws together in the close.
If there is a criticism of this story worth making, it is probably restricted to a single scene in which the lead character is "humourously" sexually assaulted with a vegetable. The scene added nothing to the plot and I'm not sure making light of sexual assault is the wisest of approaches.
This story tries to be too clever. The shame of it is that it is actually quite entertaining until the closing moments when it descends into self-referential farce. There are shades of Robert Rankin throughout the weird tale, but the author doesn't quite achieve the level of engagement required to compensate for the disjointed post-modern psychedelia.
Which left me as a reader feeling somewhat frustrated (and that may have been part of the intent...)
Still, reading this is not an awful way to pass the time, and there are some genuinely entertaining moments.
Recent comments: User reviews
The Escapist is an enjoyable tale set in a future world where technology reigns supreme and the hacker is the ultimate criminal. It's a world where all the stupid ideas from today have found their consummation, and many of the good ideas seem to have slipped away.
The story itself evolves into an elaborate mess of seemingly disconnected agenda that the author skillfully draws together in the close.
If there is a criticism of this story worth making, it is probably restricted to a single scene in which the lead character is "humourously" sexually assaulted with a vegetable. The scene added nothing to the plot and I'm not sure making light of sexual assault is the wisest of approaches.
This story tries to be too clever. The shame of it is that it is actually quite entertaining until the closing moments when it descends into self-referential farce. There are shades of Robert Rankin throughout the weird tale, but the author doesn't quite achieve the level of engagement required to compensate for the disjointed post-modern psychedelia.
Which left me as a reader feeling somewhat frustrated (and that may have been part of the intent...)
Still, reading this is not an awful way to pass the time, and there are some genuinely entertaining moments.