====== Cyber Seed quadrilogy 1: Sycamore ======

The main character seems to find a remarkable amount of time in the first few chapters to //make soup// while he's supposed to be catching a bus, but once we get to the end of chapter 9, the story seems have settled down into [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EODUWQ6|The Circle]], and the reader is left wondering whether it's then going to turn into [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08RP1D1JQ|1984]], [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0846568FN|The One]], or [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HBTSLC1|The Warehouse]].

By chapter 32 (of 63 in the first book of the series), the story is just a few variations away from being a cross between [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EODUWQ6|The Circle]] and [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08CXPCQ4Z|The Matrix]], with hints of both [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08RP1D1JQ|1984]] and [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003HV0TQE|Minority Report]].  At the start of chapter 37, the story even mentions "putting people into a matrix", and is heading very much towards [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005CVWWJY|Ready Player One]].

Not very many chapters further on, it has now morphed into a sinister combination of [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EODUWQ6|The Circle]], [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005CVWWJY|Ready Player One]] and [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VWQCK4K|Permanent Record]].

I have to admit, that by chapter 54 (or sometime shortly before) the story really has become quite engaging, and there's a clear aspect of "what happens next?  I need to keep on reading" to the book.  It's certainly very well-written in that respect.

All in all, by the time you get to the end of the book, you feel that there really was a story there, and it's worth going on with.  By this point it feels like an amalgam of [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EODUWQ6|The Circle]] and [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079YGW2RQ|Vox]], heavily influenced by [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VWQCK4K|Permanent Record]] and with mild (but unpleasant, not like the original) hints of [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005CVWWJY|Ready Player One]].

Let's see how the [[Sycamore 2|next]] [[Sycamore X|three]] [[Sycamore XL|parts]] go.

Sycamore is followed by [[Sycamore 2]].

===== Notes =====

Coming back to the text itself, though, the author has an unfortunate penchant for apostrophes, as in:

  * "You're job was having the idea, and a damn good one it was." (chapter 17)
  * "An image appeared in the centre of his vista and was quickly duplicated, with only a few seconds passing until one of the avatar's grew by four inches." (chapter 25)
  * "When someone gets a Seed that let's them become whoever they want, you better believe they're going to become it." (also chapter 25)

He makes up for it on occasion with omission, such as:

  * "The //we//' caught in his throat but it had to be said." (chapter 43).

The grammar is occasionally questionable, too, as in:

  * "There doesn't have to be sides, Jacobs." (chapter 51)

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