soledad penadés

I first read this book translated to Spanish, in 1993. It really fascinated, and terrified me. Then I forgot about it for a while but a few months ago someone mentioned some article about brain implants and I remembered about this book. Then I was browsing the sci-fi section at Powell's in Portland and turned around and... bam! there was this book, looking at me!

So I bought it and read it again. And mmm, it hasn't aged too well. Most of the characters feel too plain and clichey, some computer aspects look a bit undeveloped, even by then standards, while others just sound plain silly and verging on the comedy side, and there is also an alarming dose of sexism spread all over the book. I haven't read more books from Crichton, so I don't know if this is a constant in his work, but it felt a little annoying and distracting.

The fact that the book feels outdated means that either Crichton was a visionary or that he didn't go far enough in the fiction in sci-fi.