Review: Very hard-core sci-fi; hard to follow; 2 1/2 stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 8, 2013
While I like some forms of sci-fi, stories that are very technical/mechanical are simply out of my league. "Information Cloud" is about as hi-tech as one can get and there was so much technical detail, that I had a very hard time following the story. The further into the story that I read, the more I felt like I was missing something important because the science became more and more complicated.Reading Peter West's book brought back to me an experience I had as an undergrad Psychology major taking a required course in Cognitive Psychology. My interest (as was most of the class') was in Abnormal Psychology with the eventual goal of becoming therapists. The problem was that the professor, who was a brilliant man, had no interest at all in working with people; he was trained -- and loved -- artificial intelligence and memory studies. His examples of things like feedback loops were all mechanical in nature and went over most of the students' heads. Getting a good grade in that course was a real struggle and I felt the same when I was making my way through "Information Cloud."Although the writing style was clear and easy to follow, and the imagery was very vivid and realistic, the material was so complicated that I really did not enjoy reading the book.  I would guess that if you are mechanically and technologically minded, you probably would like, or even love, this intricate book. On the other hand, if you are like me and are more interested in the interactions between people, even if they are not human, then I recommend that you skip this book.I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed are only mine.