Wake

by Robert J. Sawyer

Book Overview

Although Caitlin Decter is blind, she can effortlessly surf the Internet by following its complex paths clearly in her mind. When she receives an implant to restore her sight, instead of seeing reality, the landscape of the World Wide Web explodes into her consciousness.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0441016790
• ISBN13: 9780441016792
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Ace Books
• Length: 356 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.3" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A great novel of an emerging internet intelligence

The first book of the trilogy, Wake, introduces Caitlin, a girl blind from birth but who has been surfing the net since she was a year and a half old. Wake also depicts the awakening of an internet entity. When Caitlin is given a chance to try a new technique that might help her see, it succeeds, but at first she can see only the internet. Even that first sight is depicted in language that beautifully portrays her first impressions of sight and the later description of her actually seeing will bring tears to the eyes of even the most jaded of readers. From there Caitlin helps the internet intelligence gain in knowledge and understanding even while she is learning all the wonderful aspects of seeing for the first time. I won't go any further in describing the plot but I'm betting you'll be as enthralled as I was while reading the first book of the trilogy, and like me, will instantly go order the next book in the series. Sawyer is one of those authors with the ability to look at things differently or perhaps more accurately, see deeper into themes that have been used before, such as artificial intelligence.

Great book!!!!

I absolutely LOVED this book! I couldn't put it down, but yet I didn't want to finish it. It includes a lot of cool, nerdy math concepts, game theory concepts and musings on the WWW. Although it is really "heady," the story would be very entertaining to even those who have no great knowledge in these areas. I have now found a new beloved sci-fi author in Robert Sawyer!

Sawyers Best

Wake is thought provoking,a good read and an introduction to modern thought on human perception / pattern recognition. The side-play concerning the heroine and her father is not well done and raises more questions (such as why did her mother marry this bozo?)--however the concept of growing up with contrasting affecting by ones parents is a valid one. The plot is pure science fiction and points to a plausible future maybe 30 years from now. The reader should pause now and again to think abut the issues Sawyer brings up on modern thought / science. Wake held my interest to the end and is a kind of "feel-good" book. I can recommend it with out reservation

Only the beginning and more wonders to come

Robert J. Sawyer's "www.Wake" opens up a few cans of worms and leaves us with a cliffhanger at the end so we can all speculate on what happens next. Without giving too much away, a brilliant but blind teenage girl is enlisted by a Japanese scientist for experimental eye surgery and when it is all done, a lot of interesting things occur. Meanwhile on the other side of the country there is a gorilla painting pictures of its caretaker and in China there is a suspicous avian flu outbreak that results in the Chinese government covering up some drastic action it took to deal with it. I expect Book Two will deal with these secondary issues in a bit more detail and find a way to link them to the main story. Sawyer's writing style is approachable even for those who are not big Sci-Fi readers. Certainly the science is there (and accurate) but his books tend to deal more with the culture of the day and the way the characters respond to that while the science flutters by in the background. This was an enjoyable start, a fairly quick read, and I am looking forward to the next one.

Sawyer Delivers a Winner!

I was so thrilled to get an early copy of this book shipped to me by the author himself. Thanks Robert! The book didn't disappoint. Caitlin, a teenager blind from birth is a math genius and an internet whiz. She is a candidate for a special procedure being offered by a scientist in Japan that may give her a chance to see. Caitlin undergoes the procedure, which has different results than were expected. One of them being that another apparent life form is brought to a type of consciousness. As the book progresses some parts of each chapter are told in first person by the new life form. As it starts to slowly learn, what it tells becomes more complex. As an aside, a hybrid ape named Hobo has apparently picked up some independent art interpretation skills that no other ape has ever had. I don't want to give too much of the rest of the plot but two books are discussed a great deal throughout and a lot of the plot seems to paralell. One talks about the two halves of the brain being united in the first human to create self-awareness and the other is about the teaching of Helen Keller by Anne Sullivan. Not all is resolved by the end of the book and it looks like that this book will have at least one sequel. I can hardly wait for it. This series looks as good as the Hominid trilogy that Robert so masterfully presented. Thank you Mr. Sawyer for another intriguing series!