David A. Ross (3) (1953–)

The most striking and impressive thing about The Virtual Life of Fizzy Oceans is the voice it gives to one of the most fundamental problems of our age. Was technology intended by evolution or God or both (depending on your existential leanings) or is it an accident, an aberration that fate's guiding hand could not foresee or control? David A. Ross' position on this is clear: Digital existence is something fundamental, human, even spiritual, an impulse towards new life that our culture cried out for "in the voice that once moved shadow over the Face of the Deep." For Ross, virtual life is a key to transcendence, a field of potential capable of bringing back the dead, eliminating the boundaries of space and time, and a place you can have a hell of a lot of fun.

During her virtual travels Fizzy Oceans, the novel's heroine, takes us on a tour of our collective history and potential future that is disturbing, imaginative, informed, and most of all, limitless. One of the primary concerns of the novel is the environment and climate change, both of which are woven into the narrative in such a way that the reader feels like they are learning about the dangers and damage the world is faced with without being instructed on them. Ross uses a diverse and impressively rendered cast of characters that includes Mark Twain, Saddam Hussein, Gandhi, and Jacques Cousteau to explore ecology, religion, literature, history, and the dissolving line that separates physical and virtual life. While some of the subject matter might appear lofty Fizzy Oceans and her digitized companions are very much concerned with every day people and the issues they face. The physical life companions who animate them are all in deep trouble. They are beaten down economically, spiritually, and the water is rising fast. For many of them virtual life is a haven that holds a hidden promise that they are only just beginning to grasp.

The Virtual Life of Fizzy Oceans is a book for a day that hasn't arrived yet. It is an age we should fear, embrace, run from, and hope for. It is an age David Ross and Fizzy Oceans have brought us closer to, close enough that we might just be able grasp the promises of it for ourselves.… (meer)

For me, this book was much easier to read than review. It was easy to read because it's intelligent and entertaining throughout, and it introduced me to the concept of virtual worlds which, though it's been around a while (lord knows how many hours my daughter has clocked up on The Sims) I've never so much as glanced at thus far.

Of course, 'The Virtual Life of Fizzy Oceans' takes the idea of a virtual world much further than The Sims, and Fizzy, the protagonist, finds herself on a journey of philosophical and political discovery, as well as investigating the differences - convincingly fewer than we might expect - between virtual and 'physical' life.

It's the philosophical and political content, however, that made the book a less than straightforward one for me to review. Many of the sentiments expressed chimed with my own, to the point that I experienced a sense of 'preaching to the converted'. But I think that's because of my age and, more particularly, my liberal arts education, which in a strange way make me a less than ideal reader.

It was, though, continually interesting and, on a couple of occasions, it was downright hysterical. The appearance of an unexpected guest at a public talk by an emulated 'Mark Twain' had me laughing out loud, and the fate of another emulation, slumped lifeless over a table due to the sudden disappearance of her 'physical life' counterpart at a key moment in her virtual life, was the kind of funny you're not supposed to laugh at but can't quite help. Maybe that's just my cruel streak, but the fact that I knew I shouldn't laugh at this 'virtual' character says something of the overall success of this very unusual book.… (meer)

The book is unusual with Julian Crosby in the present day who is looking to get away after he loses his job and his divorce by going to Hawaii where he buys a boat from a strange character. He also inherits the parrot from a friend of a friend who is moving to California. When Julian takes the boat out for a spin he gets stranded on an island where he meets a woman named Amie that he starts a relationship with until the two of them become separated and Julian figures out a way to get back to the mainland. Also in the book aviator Amelia Earhart is preparing for her trip around the world. This book is unusual in how it splits up the time and how two people from two different time periods get together. The love affair between Julian and Amie does not fully develop.… (meer)

In this day and age of lightspeed communication and technology that knits together a social media-fed world and blurs the lines of virtual reality and, well, real reality, David Ross' "Virtual Life of Fizzy Oceans" is a tonic. Through satire, whimsy, and a clearly defined central narrator, Ross paints a portrait of a world lived in escape as elements of history are plucked and observed in a kind hazy electronic dreamworld. The internet in its present incarnation promises us the ability now to visit any moment in time (via youtube, wikipedia, and other instant resources) but those moments are often divorced from context. Imagine a world where you can immerse yourself in those moments, not only divorced from their historical timeline but from your living room as well. That is Fizzy's/Amy's existence/escape. That is the utopian/dystopian setting Ross creates. The novel is a zippy (dare I say, fizzy) read, offering the reader both entertainment and provocation. Definitely worth exploring this virtual life as document by Ross' expert hand.

http://www.open-bks.com/library/moderns/the-virtual-life-of-fizzy-oceans/fizzy-c...… (meer)