In the Company of Mind

By: Steven Piziks

Narrated by: Kevin Pierce

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Lance Blackstone's father has used his son as a guinea pig in illegal medical experiments and punishes Lance when the experiments go wrong. His mother knows what's going on, but does nothing to stop it. And Lance loses chunks of time. Days or even weeks sometimes pass while he sleeps. He finds himself in strange places with no memory of how he got there. Odd objects show up in his room and he has no idea where they come from. Total strangers treat him like a close friend. Voices argue inside his head. And then one of the voices speaks directly to him, a voice that claims to belong to an artificial intelligence. Lance has a chance to escape what his father has done to him. But first he must confront his past and the secrets buried in his mind.

©1998 Steven Piziks (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Brutal, Mind Bending, and Brilliant

This is darkly difficult material; if you’re debating whether or not you can handle sexual, physical, and emotional brutality, do not choose this novel.
If you’re certain you can stomach it, you’ll never forget this story.

Very dark, but interesting.

This book was very interesting, but also extremely disturbing. I believe the book summary should have came with a trigger warning. I was very surprised by how dark it got, and then it got even darker. There were points when I wasn’t sure if I could finish due to scenes depicting rape and molestation of a child. That being said, the darkness is realistic to those who suffer from multiple personalities or other similar disorders relating to extreme trauma.

The psychological speculation between multiple personality disorder and that of AI was very interesting, and I enjoyed the growth the main character goes through with embracing his multiple personalities and then the attempt to integrate with them by facing his trauma. Overall, the story itself kept me interested till the very end.

Definitely Needs Trigger Warnings

Interesting study of multiple personality syndrome, but Audible really, really, really needs to tag this extremely dark material for repeated elements of brutal rape, physical and emotional child and spousal abuse, and some racism. Definitely not YA material.

I quit at the rape scene in chapter two!

I don't care what this book is about—I don't think the writing is particularly good, and the narration is far from great.
However, I'm not going to waste another minute listening to this trash. I'm personally offended by the rape scene in chapter two, and I don't care who knows it.

Piss Poor

Couldn't get past the first excessively long chapter... The writing is absolutely horrible.... I could write a better product, and I'm a reader, not a writer... Save your money or credit... This is a horrendous audio book, and I'm now off to scrub my mind w/ the proverbial/metaphorical brillo pad... I only wish I could give it less than 1* - if ever a book deserved 0* this is the one...