Unfortunately, the most intriguing and thought-provoking issues are raised only at the conclusion, and even then, they’re given too-short shrift.
But as two best friends discover, the light of that miracle may be blinding the world to its horrors. The latter half of the book, which focuses on disastrous climate changes on Earth and the chasm that exists between joins and “solos” (those whose consciousness isn’t connected), is much more compelling, presenting two radically differing visions of humanity’s future. Steve Toutonghis debut novel, Join, is one of those science fiction books that stick with you much like the work of Philip K. Author Steve Toutonghi shares 7 things he's learned from the writing journey and from publishing his debut novel JOIN (April 2016, Soho Press). That's the promise of Join, a revolutionary technology that allows small groups of minds to unite, forming a single consciousness that experiences the world through multiple bodies.
Also frustrating is the author’s penchant for eliding the obvious-such as when two drives of a single join are having sex, and Toutonghi ignores the fact that, basically, the join is having sex with itself. After various professional forays, he began a career in technology that led him from Silicon Valley back to Seattle. The attempts to explain an essentially mysterious process can be tedious, and drives with names such as Chance 6 and Leap 2 are hard to keep track of. Their quest for answers-and survival-brings them from the networks and spire communities they’ve known to the scarred heart of an environmentally ravaged North American continent and an underground community of the “ferals” left behind by the rush of technology.In Toutonghi’s debut novel, “joins” are entities comprising pooled consciousnesses shared by any number of individuals, or “drives.” The social and interpersonal ramifications of this imaginative form of personhood are duly explored in the first part of this novel, but the going is not easy. But as two best friends discover, the light of that miracle may be blinding the world to its horrors.Ĭhance and Leap are jolted out of their professional routines by a terrifying stranger-a remorseless killer who freely manipulates the networks that regulate life in the post-Join world.
What if you could live multiple lives simultaneously, have constant, perfect companionship, and never die? That’s the promise of Join, a revolutionary technology that allows small groups of minds to unite, forming a single consciousness that experiences the world through multiple bodies. Soho Press, Incorporated, 2016 - FICTION - 328 pages.
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