On My Way to Paradise
Author: Dave Wolverton
Year: 1989
Abstract:
Angelo Osic, a morphogenic pharmacologist from Panama, discovers a woman with her hand torn off. So, he decides to help
her out. He is then besieged by assassins and genetically restructured humans who are barely human, and has to travel to
a planet far away from Earth. There, he will wage war, not just a genocidal war against neo-Japanese barbarians, but a
war against his own mind. The woman he helps, may wind up destroying him, if he can't find the answers he needs.
| Advanced Mind |  |
| Exploration/Quest | |
| Military/Fighting | |
| Horror | |
| Magic | |
| Advanced Technology | |
| Time Travel/Alternate History | |
| Science | |
| Aliens/Beasties | |
| Contemporality |
Other books in this series:
None
Spectre's Review
I must say I was quite pleasantly surprised by this book. Probably my favorite thing about it was how you wanted things to
go well for the character, but then they don't. It just seemed to me that the story told the Author what to write,
characters and events evolving realistically. Also, there were so many 'little things' that really added depth to the
story as a whole.
Another idea that intrigued me was the level of virtual reality described. It became apparent that the VR technology could
easily be used to reprogram people, and in fact it was. I found the plethora of other technology quite interesting as well.
The technology itself was not necessarily interesting, but that technology's difficulty to understand as perceived from
different characters is what I enjoyed.
On My Way to Paradise also portrays something very uncommon in the sci-fi world today. A 'minority' hero. Out of the
past 50 books I've read, only two immediatly come to mind that featured a non-white as the hero (or protagonist, depending
on your perspective). Vernor Vinge's Marooned in Realtime and Wolverton's On My Way to Paradise. I found this
perspective refreshing because it was different.
Wolverton maintained consistency very well. I didn't like some of the people/technologies/plot twists, but it didn't matter
a damn what I wanted, Wolverton wasn't writing to please me. Which in fact, pleased me. It is military sci-fi, romance,
sociology, psychology, and a great many other details. I must say I'm quite impressed. This one is a keeper.
Date posted: 2000 03 30
Spectre's Rating
Definitely one of the best to date.