Critical Response
Reviewer Patrick L. McGuire praises many aspects of Genome in an essay in The New York Review of Science Fiction:
- It "illustrates some of the features of Russian sf in the early post-Soviet period, in particular its renewed acquaintance with Anglophone sf and with other features of Western culture."
- In the closing section, Lukyanenko hides a sort of acrostic message for his readers: "This novel is a parody of space opera and cyberpunk. The author values your sense of humor..."
- In other examples of humor, "Lukyanenko invokes American brand names. Alex eats at a McRobbins fast-food place (McDonald's has evidently merged with Baskin-Robbins) and stays at a Hilton. The hotel chain, as the author explains, has moved downmarket over time to a niche of minimal but decent lodging. Compare Heinlein's use of small-h "hilton" to mean "hotel" in Double Star (1956)."
- Various homages to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Peter Falk, Rudyard Kipling, Lois McMaster Bujold, and possibly the number 42.
Read more about this topic: Genome (novel)
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or response:
“An art whose medium is language will always show a high degree of critical creativeness, for speech is itself a critique of life: it names, it characterizes, it passes judgment, in that it creates.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.”
—Mary Arrigo (20th century)