Labyrinth of Reflections
Russian edition cover
|
|
| Author | Sergei Lukyanenko |
|---|---|
| Original title | Лабиринт отражений |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Series | The Labyrinth trilogy |
| Genre | Cyberpunk |
| Publisher | AST (Russian edition) |
|
Publication date
|
1997 (Russian edition), |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 480 pp (Russian edition) |
| ISBN |
ISBN ISBN ISBN |
| OCLC | 43679878 |
| Followed by | False Mirrors |
Labyrinth of Reflections (Лабиринт отражений) is the first novel in the Labyrinth trilogy of cyberpunk novels written by Russian science fiction writer Sergey Lukyanenko. The trilogy consists of Labyrinth of Reflections, False Mirrors, and Transparent Stained-Glass Windows. Between the second and third books, Sergey Lukyanenko authorized the release of a compilation of stories by other authors set in the same world as the trilogy.
The story is set in the near future, where a chance invention allows people to experience virtual reality without the need for costly hardware — a seconds long movie drives a person into a sort of psychosis, forcing one's subconsciousness to perceive a simple 3D game as real world. Soon after the invention, Microsoft and IBM build a virtual city on the Internet called "Deeptown" (named so after the street name for VR — the Deep), which anyone is free to log on and enter. The painted world becomes a second home for millions people — but some of them 'sink', i.e. forget to return to the reality and eventually die of dehydration. Only a small group of people calling themselves divers are capable of leaving the Deep at will. Gods of the virtual world, they help those who sink.
Philosophy of Deeptown — freedom for everyone, in all its forms — is so attractive for the main hero Leonid, that he considers himself the citizen of the Deeptown the first place, and only then the citizen of his country. When a being from the other world joins Deeptown, Leonid's dreams of freedom encounter a pressure of official and unofficial powers of Deeptown.
The second book brings more questions: Leonid realizes that Divers are phagocytes of the world of Deep... and the Deep, the thing he is serving for, is no more an abstract idea of freedom, but whatever it is, it exhibits freedom of will and the sudden flashes of arising artificial intelligence, which in the end leads to the higher level of interactions between Leonid and the Deep.
...
Wikipedia