November Books 8) Ersatz Nation
8) Ersatz Nation by Tim Kenyon. Another one of the ones sent me for review by Infinity Plus but I think I need to rant here about it before writing something more sober. The main character's lover gets kidnapped by the villains at some point we don't hear about and gets rescued at the end. The other main character is estranged from his wife at the start of the book and inexplicably reconciles with her half way through. The setting of the parallel world is completely unbelievable; we never find out enough about the motivation and means of the villainous computer in charge (itself taken straight from The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés I.10, I.12, I.43, III.59 and IV.51). I'm simply stunned that a quick Google turned up only one review that is as negative as mine is going to be and several glowingly positive ones.