WWW: Wake

By: Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by: Jessica Almasy, Jennifer Van Dyck, A. C. Fellner, Marc Vietor, Robert J. Sawyer

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Caitlin Decter is young, pretty, feisty, a genius at math - and blind. Still, she can surf the net with the best of them, following its complex paths clearly in her mind.

But Caitlin's brain long ago co-opted her primary visual cortex to help her navigate online. So when she receives an implant to restore her sight, instead of seeing reality, the landscape of the World Wide Web explodes into her consciousness, spreading out all around her in a riot of colors and shapes.

While exploring this amazing realm, she discovers something - some other - lurking in the background. And it's getting more and more intelligent with each passing day.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction written and read by author Robert J. Sawyer.

©2009 Ace (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The thematic diversity - and profundity - makes this one of Sawyer's strongest works to date." (Publishers Weekly)

"Unforgettable. Impossible to put down." (Jack McDevitt)

"Thoughtful and engaging, and a great beginning to a fascinating trilogy." (Robert Charles Wilson)

definately getting ready for a series...

I enjoyed this book. It is obvious that this is book one, as the entire book is setting up the premise for the rest of the series. The author presents his premise with credulity. In fact all of his assertions may be real as I have no idea whether what he postulates is real or not . He makes such a good case that he has my vote. Our heroine is a young blind girl, she has been blind from birth. This fact is important to the story as she has no preconceived notions as to what life looks like so she can see anything. The surrounding characters are also treated as three dimensional people which adds to the story. The readers do a good job with the voices and this is a very easy book to listen to.

Outstanding Performance

What made the experience of listening to WWW the most enjoyable?

Aside from the unique storyline?? The multiple performers really bring the story to life. Each voice is interesting, paced for the person they are portraying, and seem to enjoy what they are reading b

Who was your favorite character and why?

Miss Kaitlyn Dexter is a lovable teenager. I love the way the upbeat way she lives, compared to the way many moan and groan. She isn't the whinny teenager, but is a good role model for today's teens.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Awesome performance. I don't think that I would have interrupted the characters as well as the performers have. This is something that I don't often find in audible books.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Kaitlyn sees lightening really stood out to me. Hobo was also intriguing. When they talk about him being sterilized and when he first saw Virgil. Each piece of this storyline is well thought out and brings a new and fun perspective.

Any additional comments?

If you are looking for something other than the usual, this is a fun listen. I highly recommend.

Wonderful!

Loved it! Kept listening over and over and found something different every time. Can't wait for the tv series....there is going to be one right?

Surprise of the year trilogy!

This was a total suprise. I can't find the words to praise this masterpiece! It was a long time since I found a recently written book so exciting. Not only the topic focusing on blindness is fresh, the story is exciting, full of fresh innovative ideas. Of course the singularity idea is not new per se but it doesn't hinder the story at all, it enriches the thema. I couldn't wait for every next chapter. Jessica Almasy's narration is excellent, you can't wish for any better. It perfectly fits to the character. Her voice is also very easily comprehensible and pleasure to listen to. I can't recommend this book high enough to anybody who would like to see one of the possible outcomes of the inevitable singularity phenomenon.

WEB-Sight

Any audiobook that can make me get goosepimples and chills in pure excitement and adoration of the main character is one that can do so for another. The beginning of the story of Caitlin Decter takes us through her life as a blind teen struggling day-to-day with activities that us with sight, do so easily. Caitlin though, is able to navigate the internet (with the help of "JAWS") with ease and expertise.

Offered with the chance to take part in an experimental surgery to regain her sight by putting a small reciver behind her eyeball that transmits her scrambled human sight transmissions and unscrambles them before transfering them to the brain to be interpreted, she is let down as the experiment appears to fail.

As Caitlin discovers her "Web"sight/World view and mysterious other, there are numerous other individual plots thoughout. The entity becoming aware of "Prime" and the teachings that insue, Hobo the video sign lingual chatting chimp and a Chineese blogger unaware of the apparent ceace in out of country web-connection play a big part in tandem to her story.

All in all a great listen and will definately leave you wanting more from the WWW Trilogy.

Thoughtful and complex yet sweet.

What made the experience of listening to WWW the most enjoyable?

Often, I find the use of multiple narrators distracting but it worked flawlessly for this beautifully crafted story. The author uses an intertwining of seemingly unrelated stories to awaken something new. Most of all, the references by the main character to Helen Keller offers the listener (reader) a window into the birth of language and of consciousness itself.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Caitlin Decter is the quintessential brainy teen spitfire.

Which scene was your favorite?

The final scenes had me excited.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The audio book had convenient places to pause and pick back up.

Any additional comments?

Can't wait to listen to the next two books.

Sci-Fi done right. A movie for the ears.

This is an AI story that actually gives hope. Explores the mind, and it does it with heart...

amazing

loved the book and the presentation was one of the best so far. it's my first audio book with more than one narrator. and it really enhanced my experience and enjoyment.

Canada's Ray Bradbury

Sawyer's novels remind me of Ray Bradbury's writing for some reason. His novels work around a fantastic premise and then he builds in very human characters with their own flaws and shortcomings into the scene. His facts are incredibly well researched, rivaling or even outstripping Michael Chrichton in factual detail. He certainly beats Chricton in character development. I find myself learning a little something about the universe every time I read Sawyer.

In this book, Sawyer, is also (perhaps unwittingly) updating and reliving the premise of an old Bradbury short story called "Dial Double Zero", where an intelligence is spawned within the phone system.

In Sawyer's version, a "bicameral" intelligence spawns within the internet, a product of a Chinese telecom blackout -- and like Bradbury's "Dial Double Zero", this intelligence contacts a solitary human being. The irony in this story is that the 'web mind' can see, but can't hear, while Katlyn can hear, but is blind except for a new, web connected electronic eye implant and finds out that this growing web mind shares her one eye - perhaps in future novels we're lining up a modern day threesome of Greae Sisters from Greek Mythology? We shall see. There's still one loose plot thread for the next novel.

Unlike others, I thought the narration was excellent. This is a multi-narrator reading, which is not to be confused with a full cast reading or an audiodrama. The woman reading the voice of a 16 year old girl is also reading the voice of a Japanese coding expert, a middle aged Texas born mother and a quiet, yet kind father with his own issues. I found her voice both warm and endearing to the main character's personality, while quite capable of modulating the other character's voices quite clearly. The other narrators were also similarly skilled. The voice of the web mind could win an award for his performance.

Great for kids but....not mine I guess.

SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW! WARNING! I'm writing this for parents who want to get this for their pre-teen and teen children.

The story of WebMind was great. The characters were well thought out but in some cases sterotypical. The kid who tries to take advantage of Kaitlyn and then bullies Matt is one such case.

That said, the story revolving around WebMind is fantastic and extraordinary. I also enjoyed Hobo the chimp/benobo although his making a choice not to be violent was too far fetched for me, at least in this story.

Now on to the elephant in the room. Regardless of what a perfect world is or how the characters think it should be; parents encouraging their 16 year old daughter to first sext her bare breasts to her new boyfriend and then just days after first kissing a boy (not just this boy, any boy) they let their daughter her have sex with him, is not the mindset I want to instill in the world I live in.
The mother finding the sexting bare breast picture on her daughter's phone and sees the sext she sent to her boyfriend but when she shows the father, he is not only not upset, but he tells her there is nothing wrong with it. That is crazy in my book, sorry for the pun. Sure, they didn't tell her directly "Hey Kaitlyn, sexting is fine and by the way, having sex is great and we think you should have it now too" but their actions (and lack of action) spell it out very clearly. They knew full well that their daughter who was born blind and had just gained sight, had her very first kiss and sent naked pictures of herself to said boy. They also knew that just days after gaining sight, etc. she was going to have sex. They accepted it as a forgone conclusion.

I think the sexting and Kaitlyn losing her virginity added nothing to the overall story other than an irresponsible influence on many pre-teen and teen children who will read this book. I don't think books should be censored or banned. I read many, many books per year, sometimes two or more per week and I run across many situations like this but this one is different in that it is a book specifically geared for young girls. I don't know how to handle it other than by writing this review.

The above is why I dropped 2 full stars from the overall and 3 from the story, If those two situations were handled differently I would have given this book a full 5 star review. It was that good. It is not something I normally read but someone recommended the first book and I was pulled in. :)

Thanks,
--Wesley