It seems like there’s something in the air with all the outrageously negative reviews floating around lately–some fair, some not. The latest example is Liesl Schillinger, who displays a completely tone-deaf misreading of Karen’s Wit’s End in this week’s New York Times Book Review. (My take over to the right and down in the Read Read sidebar.)
iO9’s review is still the best one I’ve seen. Here’s a snippet:
While there are no aliens here, or artificial intelligences who come to life, Wit’s End manages to skirt the edges of science fiction themes beautifully, hinting at the ways our lives have become the stuff of science fiction without us noticing. It takes a book like this to remind us that the high-tech fracturing of our identities is also, weirdly, something that can make us whole.
Even though it’s negative, that New York Times review makes me want to read the book — it sounds intriguing.