James Halperin
I read this author's two books in reverse order, which didn't do much except dull my expectations for this book and provide me with some basic expectations about the plot of this novel; my expectations were, for the most part, duly met and even at times exceeded. I knew that Halperin is at best a lousy writer, but I was absolutely unprepared for the extremely dull and at times hilariously stiff nature of his prose. That's what I get for expecting retroactive improvement in his writing style; The First Immortal looks excellent compared to the writing in this book. Here again, however, we have a fundamental conflict for readers: Halperin's writing is sufficiently terrible but his ideas are again interesting and pose interesting questions, even if he does blatantly call attention to them while interjecting his own personal beliefs into every second of his future vision. Held to any reasonable literary standards, then, this book is terrible; I found it nonetheless quite enjoyable, though much more wooden and far more underdeveloped than his second novel.
The characters are all wooden caricatures with completely predictable and unrealistic actions and concrete beliefs that are relayed incessantly to the reader without much straight exposition to back them up. Everything is quite compact and fits rather neatly, making even the likable characters grating after a while and the reprehensible characters truly repellent. The Truth Machine does, however, look at world events on an incredibly grand scale and chooses adequately connected characters to drive them and, consequently, the plot. Even I was rooting for the main characters to triumph by the end of the book, though I found his stuttering distracting and remarkably unnoticed in situations where it should raise significant alarm. In fact, Pete Armstrong, the novel's protagonist (not to be confused with the author, per the author bio!), is actually rendered more dislikable by his distinguishing characteristics; when he is a wooden cutout he is somewhat tolerable. Other characters seem realistic only because Halperin operates in a world of sweeping generalities and needs those who populate his world to be easily understood. The characters of The Truth Machine, while absolutely driving its action, are almost incidental to the story being told, and while this leads to boredom and dissociation, it allows Halperin to focus his efforts on the ideas the characters unfailingly represent.
Halperin operates mainly in black and white, with generous doses of The Obvious Hammer thrown in for good measure. He is extremely transparent about his beliefs, including those on mandatory capital punishment and his minor obsession with cryonics. This rampant evangelism would be maddening were it not rendered absolutely laugh-out-loud hilarious by the appendices and the author's own extra sections. The former is a useful addition to the outrageously unbelievable premise of the narrative's construction while the latter, calling for readers of The Truth Machine to help make it a reality, actually made me laugh out loud. The book includes the hilarious author bio I described above, which notes the similarities between the author and his protagonist (one sentence is actually, "There the similarities end."); the acknowledgments section is certainly appreciative but clearly self-aggrandizing; and, true to form, the book contains advertisments for the World Futurist Society and the science of cryogenics. Halperin is, at the very least, always aware of himself and what he is doing.
Perhaps despite himself, then, Halperin has actually constructed an interesting, if over-executed, narrative conceit by having a computer narrate the book- while this is plausible given the vast technological developments he foresees, he doesn't include any relevant technologies in the body of the novel and often interrupts the flow of events with parenthetical notes that try way too hard to make the computer narrator believable. The footnotes, many of which (cleverly?) insult our own primitivism by explaining semantic differences to readers contemporary to the book's events, are equally unhelpful and actually call attention to the conceit rather than adding to its delusion. Funniest, though, is the computer's introduction, which seems to be an unintentionally ironic acknowledgment of Halperin's lack of literary finesse: the computer apologizes for his lack of literary flourishes, perhaps apologizing for the poor quality of the prose to follow and even the news timelines that begin each chapter, which are actually well thought out and perhaps the book's most redeeming feature.
I must admit, though, that even the flaws of The Truth Machine only add to its charm, and while it's bizarre to read about "future" events happening in a mythical parallel 2009, Halperin's visions are, again, quite interesting. He hits his main points pretty hard, and while I certainly disagree with him on many of them he does occasionally present the merit of the detracting sides and has clearly thought out his positions on the issues. He praises rationalism throughout without insulting religion (just the institutions, not the beliefs themselves), a nice change of tone from the current atmosphere and includes some debates pertinent to the book's main issues. And though the book's characters are unrealistic and two-dimensional, I found that they were still compelling in their own way as they shaped this potential future. It's shocking, too, to see the kinds of things Halperin got right and sobering to realize that certain timelines once seemed viable (no, we did not get an AIDS cure last year). This book is kind of a literary train wreck in its writing, but at the same time it is hard to look away entirely or even to dismiss Halperin's happy jaunt into the realm of speculative fiction. The Truth Machine is rudimentary in many ways but it tackles interesting moral dilemmas, however condescendingly, and is actually enjoyable purely as entertainment and brain fodder.
Grade: C
The characters are all wooden caricatures with completely predictable and unrealistic actions and concrete beliefs that are relayed incessantly to the reader without much straight exposition to back them up. Everything is quite compact and fits rather neatly, making even the likable characters grating after a while and the reprehensible characters truly repellent. The Truth Machine does, however, look at world events on an incredibly grand scale and chooses adequately connected characters to drive them and, consequently, the plot. Even I was rooting for the main characters to triumph by the end of the book, though I found his stuttering distracting and remarkably unnoticed in situations where it should raise significant alarm. In fact, Pete Armstrong, the novel's protagonist (not to be confused with the author, per the author bio!), is actually rendered more dislikable by his distinguishing characteristics; when he is a wooden cutout he is somewhat tolerable. Other characters seem realistic only because Halperin operates in a world of sweeping generalities and needs those who populate his world to be easily understood. The characters of The Truth Machine, while absolutely driving its action, are almost incidental to the story being told, and while this leads to boredom and dissociation, it allows Halperin to focus his efforts on the ideas the characters unfailingly represent.
Halperin operates mainly in black and white, with generous doses of The Obvious Hammer thrown in for good measure. He is extremely transparent about his beliefs, including those on mandatory capital punishment and his minor obsession with cryonics. This rampant evangelism would be maddening were it not rendered absolutely laugh-out-loud hilarious by the appendices and the author's own extra sections. The former is a useful addition to the outrageously unbelievable premise of the narrative's construction while the latter, calling for readers of The Truth Machine to help make it a reality, actually made me laugh out loud. The book includes the hilarious author bio I described above, which notes the similarities between the author and his protagonist (one sentence is actually, "There the similarities end."); the acknowledgments section is certainly appreciative but clearly self-aggrandizing; and, true to form, the book contains advertisments for the World Futurist Society and the science of cryogenics. Halperin is, at the very least, always aware of himself and what he is doing.
Perhaps despite himself, then, Halperin has actually constructed an interesting, if over-executed, narrative conceit by having a computer narrate the book- while this is plausible given the vast technological developments he foresees, he doesn't include any relevant technologies in the body of the novel and often interrupts the flow of events with parenthetical notes that try way too hard to make the computer narrator believable. The footnotes, many of which (cleverly?) insult our own primitivism by explaining semantic differences to readers contemporary to the book's events, are equally unhelpful and actually call attention to the conceit rather than adding to its delusion. Funniest, though, is the computer's introduction, which seems to be an unintentionally ironic acknowledgment of Halperin's lack of literary finesse: the computer apologizes for his lack of literary flourishes, perhaps apologizing for the poor quality of the prose to follow and even the news timelines that begin each chapter, which are actually well thought out and perhaps the book's most redeeming feature.
I must admit, though, that even the flaws of The Truth Machine only add to its charm, and while it's bizarre to read about "future" events happening in a mythical parallel 2009, Halperin's visions are, again, quite interesting. He hits his main points pretty hard, and while I certainly disagree with him on many of them he does occasionally present the merit of the detracting sides and has clearly thought out his positions on the issues. He praises rationalism throughout without insulting religion (just the institutions, not the beliefs themselves), a nice change of tone from the current atmosphere and includes some debates pertinent to the book's main issues. And though the book's characters are unrealistic and two-dimensional, I found that they were still compelling in their own way as they shaped this potential future. It's shocking, too, to see the kinds of things Halperin got right and sobering to realize that certain timelines once seemed viable (no, we did not get an AIDS cure last year). This book is kind of a literary train wreck in its writing, but at the same time it is hard to look away entirely or even to dismiss Halperin's happy jaunt into the realm of speculative fiction. The Truth Machine is rudimentary in many ways but it tackles interesting moral dilemmas, however condescendingly, and is actually enjoyable purely as entertainment and brain fodder.
Grade: C
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