I actually read the combined Atopia series. Blue Skies is the first vignette. I'm torn about the rating because I think that some people will really love this and others will hate it. If you are interested in contemplating how "cyberspace" and distributed consciousness might affect humans, you may really enjoy this. I found it to be thought provoking. The ideas Mather has about things that could happen (what if we mutually inhabit other people's bodies? what if we could have virtual children who appeared to be entirely real? what if we could splinter our consciousness so that we could be in many places at one time? what happens if we no longer have any need for our real bodies?). He also considers very dark ideas, some of which are the flip sides of the previous list. And others are even darker such as what happens when child abusers can reach children in virtual reality? And what happens if a sociopath can distribute his consciousness into many other beings? For me, the dark parts of this were too horrifying. But what bothers me the most is that I didn't feel any connection to any of the people. It may be the writing technique which is first person from many different perspectives, but I had trouble following the characters. Mostly because I didn't care enough about any of them to care who they were. So I found the book thought provoking but disturbing and thought it had very little appeal as a cohesive story. Interesting story and I really enjoyed the beginning. But as the book progressed, I felt that it was confusing, not well defined in places. I loved Cyber Storm, but this was just ok, IMHO. I am looking forward to what Matthew does with the sequel, yes it was good enough that I will read the next one. Not saying that I didn't enjoy it, I did, I just got lost a couple of times and had to push through to finish in some parts.
What do You think about Complete Atopia Chronicles (2012)?
Just did about 60 pages and then no more. Not catching. Perhaps some time later.
—natalliejo
