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Stuart's Reviews > Radix
Radix (Radix #1)
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by
Stuart's review
bookshelves: cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic, fantastic-weird, superhuman-powers
Oct 20, 2021
bookshelves: cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic, fantastic-weird, superhuman-powers
Completely incomprehensible - either a work of genius, madness, or an overly-fertile imagination
I've had this in paperback since WAAAAY back in the mid 1980s when I was a teen, and for some reason I was always on the cusp of reading it and never got it. It was also because the audiobook was available cheaply that I gave it a go. Would love to say it was an incredible work of genius, and that I deeply regret not reading it much earlier - but that would be a lie.
It starts out as a post-apocalyptic far-future Earth survival tale, but from 1/3rd in it dives off the deep end, plunges into talk of wild and wooly cosmological god-minds, alien extra-dimensional beings, ancestral human consciousness, enhanced mental state mutations caused by out of control radiation, and THEN it gets more weird. The words started to flow across my ears in an unintelligible flow that I never recovered from.
I remember thinking that Philip K. Dick's Exegesis was some pretty out-there crazy-ass shit, but this book takes that and dumps it in the kiddie pool. You want the deep end, this is it.
I've had this in paperback since WAAAAY back in the mid 1980s when I was a teen, and for some reason I was always on the cusp of reading it and never got it. It was also because the audiobook was available cheaply that I gave it a go. Would love to say it was an incredible work of genius, and that I deeply regret not reading it much earlier - but that would be a lie.
It starts out as a post-apocalyptic far-future Earth survival tale, but from 1/3rd in it dives off the deep end, plunges into talk of wild and wooly cosmological god-minds, alien extra-dimensional beings, ancestral human consciousness, enhanced mental state mutations caused by out of control radiation, and THEN it gets more weird. The words started to flow across my ears in an unintelligible flow that I never recovered from.
I remember thinking that Philip K. Dick's Exegesis was some pretty out-there crazy-ass shit, but this book takes that and dumps it in the kiddie pool. You want the deep end, this is it.
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Reading Progress
May 17, 2013
– Shelved as:
to-read
(Kindle Edition)
May 17, 2013
– Shelved
(Kindle Edition)
June 15, 2013
– Shelved as:
galaxy-spanning
(Kindle Edition)
June 15, 2013
– Shelved as:
fantastic-weird
(Kindle Edition)
August 30, 2014
– Shelved as:
dying-earth
(Kindle Edition)
October 16, 2021
–
Started Reading
October 16, 2021
– Shelved
October 16, 2021
– Shelved as:
cyberpunk
October 16, 2021
– Shelved as:
post-apocalyptic
October 20, 2021
– Shelved as:
fantastic-weird
October 20, 2021
– Shelved as:
superhuman-powers
October 20, 2021
–
Finished Reading
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by
spikeINflorida
(new)
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rated it 5 stars
May 02, 2022 09:26AM
This was definitely a cosmological "deep end" story. A psychedelic mash of everything you described...and I loved it. This is Attanasio's masterwork. Check out Wyvern for more of an old school adventure.
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Yes, listened to Last Legends of Earth and then Wyvern after this. The former was another mind-bender, but the latter was a swashbuckling adventure that had a lotof substance👍
I was very disappointed with the Radix sequels. I'm currently reading Hunting The Ghost Dancer. Another mystical world of clashing cavemen and ghostly spirits. What was Attanasio smoking?
Well, he has been a spiritual explorer for many years in Hawaii, so the possibilities are endless☺️
