Self-Reference ENGINE, by Toh EnJoe
May. 31st, 2015 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
essentialsaltesThis is not a novel.
This is not a short story collection.
This is Self-Reference ENGINE.
I gave up. There are a few smiles, a few hints of Borges or Doug Hofstadter, but more in a quoting sort of way than an organic sort of way. In an alternate universe I would have moved widdershins through time, molested a sock, and enjoyed this book. But instead, I gave up.
✓Book you started but never finished
✓with bad reviews
This is not a short story collection.
This is Self-Reference ENGINE.
I gave up. There are a few smiles, a few hints of Borges or Doug Hofstadter, but more in a quoting sort of way than an organic sort of way. In an alternate universe I would have moved widdershins through time, molested a sock, and enjoyed this book. But instead, I gave up.
✓Book you started but never finished
✓with bad reviews
If I seemed to imply at any time that this book makes sense, I am sorry. It does not.
I almost feel that people may rate it high simply in order to not look dumb, because this book is definitely not for everyone. This is an experimental sci-fi book organized as a loose collection of vignettes or short stories that roughly take place in the same fluctuating universe.
I believe this book is a cutting-edge experiment and an extended thought experiment on the space-time continuum. However, I can’t say I personally enjoyed it. Sadly, reading this work of high concept sci-fi just felt like a chore to me.
