Here, Anthony's usual blend of fantasy and science fiction takes us to an alternate universe where the geometry of worlds themselves take on the form of the Mandelbrot set. Unfortunately, he spends a lot of time talking about fractals, the Mandelbrot Set and Julia Sets though he seems either to not understand these subjects very well or simply to be unable to explain them clearly. (I think it is probably that he doesn't understand them very well. The many popular math books on these topics seem to have spread a lot of confusion and disinformation.) | Contributed by
Jennifer S.
Anthony seems to be using this novel (and the rest of this series) as a pulpit for his own views on the origin of life. His character development is also somewhat weak, although his plot is definitely creative. Read only if you don't mind being preached to, and want some light bathroom reading.
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One part I like is the description of why the main character did not initially recognize the fractal nature of the world around her. It was because
| (quoted from Fractal Mode)
…people had plowed out most of the knobs, near the village, so as to use the land for crops. Man always did mess up the scenery. [But where she was later] the mountains were shaped like boulders with smaller boulders perched on them, and smaller ones on the smaller ones, and so on without end. It was weird — but also true to the Mandelbrot set as she remembered it. True to the entire science of fractals and Julia sets.
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