January 15, 2024
Tavares (A Fractured Infinity) confounds in this jam-packed mind-bender set in an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind–style world where memories can be altered and erased. Professional memory editor Fox was employed by mega-company NIL/E to code better memories for his customers. Then came the terror attack that killed his husband, Gabe. The trauma leaves Fox with amnesia, so he checks into the Field of Reeds Center for Memory Reconstruction, hoping to regain what he lost. However, when the memories slowly begin to return to Fox, he realizes he was a “selfish, controlling asshole” to Gabe and discovers some shocking revelations that cause him to question his reality. From the start, it’s hard to keep track of all the tech that goes into editing people’s brains, and as more levels of memory and reality are exposed, things become even more slippery. While Tavares asks intriguing questions about what’s essential to humanity, there’s too much clutter to be able to think clearly about the answers. This is tough to get a handle on.
February 1, 2024
Fox is a memory editor who has lost his own memories after getting caught up in a neuro-terrorist bomb. His husband, Gabe, didn't survive the blast, and Fox checks himself into the Field of Reeds Centre for Memory Reconstruction in order to recover his memories and bring Gabe back, no matter the cost. Fox begins to access his memories from before the bomb but struggles to integrate the excerpts with his current reality. He finds himself pulled into an underground movement to solve the code that caused the memory virus and to locate Khadija Banks, the mother of memory editing, who disappeared years ago. Fox travels deeper and deeper into his memorystream in his obsessive quest to save Gabe and the rest of the world and starts to unravel as the edits to his memory are finally discovered. The race to save humanity from warring powers is compelling, but Fox's relationships with Gabe and himself truly drive the story. VERDICT Tavares's (A Fractured Infinity) worldbuilding is complex and fascinating in this kaleidoscope of a novel. The high-stakes science fiction is sharp and tragic, hopeful and thrilling.--Maria Martin
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 8, 2024
Until recently, Fox was one of the best memory editors of the world: a callous but passionate man whose marriage is failing even as he tries his hardest to save it. He lived in a world where everyone had their memories backed up to make them more or less immortal--but a terrorist attack wipes out his husband Gabe and Gabe's backup, making his loss even more devastating. His own memories are shaken, so he ends up at a rehab facility to fix what's been lost. But there are a lot of secrets being kept at Field of Reeds, and Fox has a lot to remember: more than one life lived, the real truths behind memory editing's foundations, and his relationship to outlaw genius Khadija Banks. Welcome to Forever gets convoluted at times, making it difficult to follow the time line of reveals about Fox's life and memory. But ultimately, it is a thought-provoking story about the nature of grief and nostalgia, a sf tale full of twists, and a charming love story.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.