6.6 /10 1 Votes
Originally published 2012 | 3.3/5 Goodreads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar The Paradoxical Psychotic, Inn on the Twenty Cookbook, Anna and Michael Olson Co, Tales From a Tin Can: The USS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Solace strange flesh
Strange Flesh is a novel by author Michael Olson, published by Simon & Schuster in 2012.
Contents
What does strange flesh mean in the bible part 01
Plot summary
The novel opens with a deceased programmer inside a device that has driven a hole saw through the back of her neck. We then meet the protagonist, a professional social engineer named James Pryce who works for Red Rook, a gray-hat security company. He attends a meeting at a giant media company, run by twins Blake and Blythe Randall.
James watches a mysterious video in which the Randall's half-brother Billy evidently electrocutes himself, but this turns out to be a ruse. Billy has "virtualized" himself in a virtual world known as "NOD" in order to communicate secretly with Blake.
The twins hire James to work undercover at a gamer colony called, GAME and there James uncovers other mysteries including a number of suicides among Billy's friends, known as "the Jackanapes".
It turns out that Billy has begun an ARG based in NOD at a replica of the castle from the Marquis de Sade's, The 120 Days of Sodom.
Finally, James penetrates a group working on a project they hope will usher in a whole new era of sensual technology.
Characters
Major themes
The novel is set in 2015 and fits into the near-future sci-fi subgenre.
The story spends time explaining technological contraptions and could be called a "techno-thriller" but its most important theme is sex, specifically virtual sex, also known as teledildonics
Reception
Reviews to the novel have been generally positive. Publishers' Weekly calls the novel a "head-spinning literary thriller... a rabbit hole of kinky cybersex and multilevel mystery." Booklist writes that author Olson "introduces “Imminent Teledildonics,” sexbots that employ next-gen virtual reality for revelatory virtual sex. Crimes, both high and low; bleeding-edge technology; and titillation: What’s not to love?" And Kirkus Reviews describes it as "A profane, heady thriller more startling and compelling than its individual components and influences might demonstrate."
Publication details
2012, English, Simon & Schuster (ISBN 978-1-4516-2757-2), pub date April 3, 2012, hardcover