WWW: Wake

By: Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by: Jessica Almasy, Jennifer Van Dyck, A. C. Fellner, Marc Vietor, Robert J. Sawyer

Caitlin Decter is young, pretty, feisty, a genius at math - and blind. Still, she can surf the net with the best of them, following its complex paths clearly in her mind.

But Caitlin's brain long ago co-opted her primary visual cortex to help her navigate online. So when she receives an implant to restore her sight, instead of seeing reality, the landscape of the World Wide Web explodes into her consciousness, spreading out all around her in a riot of colors and shapes.

While exploring this amazing realm, she discovers something - some other - lurking in the background. And it's getting more and more intelligent with each passing day.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction written and read by author Robert J. Sawyer.

©2009 Ace (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The thematic diversity - and profundity - makes this one of Sawyer's strongest works to date." (Publishers Weekly)

"Unforgettable. Impossible to put down." (Jack McDevitt)

"Thoughtful and engaging, and a great beginning to a fascinating trilogy." (Robert Charles Wilson)

Fantastic.

Robert J. Sawyer is my favorite science fiction author, hands down. He delivers a kind of science fiction I've always enjoyed - one that breaks past the science in to psychology, sociology or morality, but is still grounded in excellent characters with whom the reader can easily connect.

In WAKE, we meet Caitlin, a young woman with a congenital blindness and a gift for mathematics. Her voice rings true, and when she is given a chance at sight via a new technology, she finds herself capable of "seeing" the internet. At the same time, other events conspire to bring a glimmer of consciousness to the net itself, and the two stories - Caitlin's sight, and the nascent entity's growth - parallel in a marvelously paced story that kept me going.

As the first book in a trilogy, there's ground work being built, and I was definitely left satisfied with the individual novel, but looking forward to where the story will head in the next installment, WATCH.

If you do enjoy listening to books, this one just bumped "Memoirs of a Geisha" from my #1 Listening Experience position. The multiple reading voices really added a performance depth to the reading that took something already great and made it all the more enjoyable. Bravo to the whole cast!

Sooooooo slow

What did you like best about WWW? What did you like least?

I really do find it interesting that I am a dissenting voice here, compared to most of the other reviews. The voice acting was good. It often can detract for me from a story to hear multiple real voices in and out of the book, but this one worked well. Unfortunately, it didn't help the very long dragged out parts in the story that really just seemed to go on forever without any cohesion in sight (seriously no pun intended, as opposed to the ones in the book).

I started to think/hope that would end up being like "cloud atlas" and there would be a whole "oooooooohhhhhh, clever" at the end... there wasn't. Another thing that really bothered me was the constant Interactive brands mentioned. I work in Interactive and already those things are crazy outdated for the most part (well, not Google of course ;)) so that lost a lot for me.

Don't get me wrong, I liked how the author put in technical information about how the web works, but at times it was too much and it didnt further the story even though it made me want to write it down to hand to people who ask me those questions day to day ;)

The story - it had promise, but I just cant bring myself to slog through 3 more hours of the online being's self awareness transformation or all the subplots that are so fleshed out and then just dropped unresolved. Maybe they will be in the next books, but I really cant bring myself to find out.

Can somebody just tell me how it all ends?

Would you recommend WWW to your friends? Why or why not?

I wouldn't recommend this unless they really have a lot of patience.

Which scene was your favorite?

The gorilla painting... what does that say?

Do you think WWW needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

It has a follow-up book, but I just cant see myself reading it. It needs one for sure as there were lots and lots of loose ends. Personally, I will just create my own ending in my head. That way I can save the 10 hours.

Any additional comments?

Good premise...

Really! Lemmed it

I lemmed it 2/3 through. I got tired of waiting for something to captivate me.

YA SF, already a bit dated

Robert Sawyer seems to write sci-fi novels in a classical vein but updated with contemporary science and modern tropes. Which is good when it works, but is also going to make them little time capsules like a lot of the old Asimovian and Heinleinian stuff. Unfortunately, Sawyer is no Heinlein or Asimov, so this was only an okay story. It's the first part of a trilogy, and I may read the rest eventually but it did not grab me.

The first problem is the main character, Caitlin. Caitlin is a teenage girl, and Sawyer goes out of his way to write her talking and acting like a teenage girl. But a very smart teenage girl, of course. So she alternates between being a math prodigy (with the online nickname of "Calcu-Lass") and a typical girl mooning over the school hunk and complaining about her embarrassing parents.

I have seen worse depictions of teenage girls written by middle-aged men (I'm looking at you, Heinlein), but Caitlin didn't seem entirely believable to this middle-aged man. She's just a little too perky and smart and perfect and teeny.

Caitlin is blind, so the first of the three main threads in this book concerns her gaining vision thanks to an experiment by a kindly Japanese scientist who figures out how to tap into her visual cortex. I can't speak to the authenticity of her depiction as a blind person learning to see, but the plot device here is that somehow, Caitlin also becomes able to "see" the World Wide Web.

What she discovers is that there is a nascent artificial intelligence "awakening" within the web. So there are many predictable parallels between Caitlin learning to correlate new visual images with things she's known her entire life, and the entity becoming aware of a reality outside itself.

The third thread doesn't even connect to the first two threads at all - it's the story of a chimp-bonobono hybrid demonstrating unusual intelligence. I.e., possibly a third type of "awakening" of a sapient being. This subplot doesn't go anywhere - it's obviously meant to develop events for the next book - which annoyed me because even if you are writing the first book in a series, you should make each one deliver some kind of payoff.

Wake is already dated - Sawyer drops a lot of real names for verisimilitude, so there are frequent references to Google, Wikipedia, LiveJournal (!) and iPod Shuffles (!), as well as contemporary celebrities, writers, and politicians. Written in 2009, that means this book is already referring to things a lot of teenagers will barely be familiar with ("Wait, people still use LiveJournal?"), and in ten years, people are going to be saying "What's that?" about a lot of his tech and brand references.

Basically, this entire book was setup for the real storyline, which is about the birth of a self-aware AI. As a Young Adult novel, I don't know how relatable Caitlin is to the average girl, but as a science fiction novel, I felt it was rather flat and lacking in drama. It was an okay read, but the rest of the series isn't being bumped to the front of my TBR list.

I did enjoy the audio production of this book - the different voices, male and female, and historical sound clips made it an enjoyable listen and did contribute to Sawyer's attempt to actually ground this story in the real world.

Everyone uses it every day for everything...

and we rely upon it to just work for us. No problems please. But have you ever thought about how it works, what would happen if it stopped for just a day, an hour, a minute? We don't thank our machines, but we do get attached, after all boats have names, and many people name their cars...as our machines become more and more a part of our life and help our tools to work better, faster, with increased efficiency. What do they want (we know what they need; electricity (fuel, food) and maintenance (health care?) Can you feel the start of new and interesting thoughts? This is why I gave the book 4 stars. I wish Stephanie Meyer had written it (have you read "The Host"? Another great, new, intriguing premise)

This is not the best book ever, but it is a unique and well thought out concept. This is one of those book series I am so glad I did not miss. The main characters are interesting and read real, (who is the main character? a sight impaired teen or the ...).

There is room for better written development of the other personalities, but they are excellently read, with a pleasant and correct sound. Why is there an "Obo" in the story? This character appears here and there, but is not woven into the story as well as the other...well, really not connected in any way... then appearing in a the climactic scene. This is where the book looses momentum badly, bogging down in a different story, with a different point made, a different meaning...this would be much improved with a better written and very solution. Here was a chance for the writer to create a well written intriguing... scene or section or half the series. The group that bobs in and out of the story could really reach out, grab your brain and make you think! This part is critical to the book, but reads like a side story, and oops, I realize I am talking about all three books..sigh... now you might have to listen to them all!

Consciousness with a twist

Any additional comments?

When I first began listening, I was concerned that a book written from the viewpoint of an almost-sixteen year old girl would be boring, but long before the ending I was fascinated not just with her intelligence and perceptiveness, but her humanness as well. How easily she might have been too "over the top" to be believable, yet each word, each sentence, each action all seemed to be totally under the writer's control while keeping the story natural enough to be believable and full of suspense and surprises. I loved the way the author wove intricacies and connections from multiple sources that dovetailed into a wholeness and a more mature understanding of consciousness. I think it would require an educated reader to appreciate it, but the story was so well told that I think even casual readers might enjoy it. The narrators did excellent jobs of reading, as well.

Great read, but with some nitpick problems

A captivating story, with many fascinating tidbits of real culture and science sprinkled throughout. However, it's mared by content reverent praises to religious superstition, like praising god for a doctor's hard work. And pseudo-scientific consents like the silly claims that humans didn't have consciousness until a few thousand years ago and that animals still don't. Science fiction can get away with all kinds of invented science, but the way it's presented here seems downright preachy and deceptive at times. Also, tripple colored cats are female and grass didn't exist until after the age of dinosaurs. That last was unimportant mistakes. But I hate pseudo-scientific, so the earlier part really bugged me throughout. Even so, loved the book!

Good Listen, But Could Drag on at Times

Enjoyed the book, which got me thinking but sometimes I would zone out with philosophical musings. I will probably read the next two books sometime, as the book ended with wanting to know what happened to other characters in the book and how everything will be related. I liked having the different readers.
Steve, if you are reading this, you wouldn't think there was much product placement if you compared it to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. NOW that was REALLY ANNOYING!

Intriguing

A little slow coming out of the gate. I kept waiting for the story to pick up which it finally did. So it was worth the wait.

Intellectual and heartwarming story

This is a story about two being waking up, from differing circumstances.

But... Narrators... don't whisper. I normally would have giving this narration all five stars, except... for the whispers. While dramatic, it means you have to be in the perfect listening conditions to hear the story, and that just does not happen that much.