Review of Mindgame

[Bradley Shelvie]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Mindgame" by Kenneth Cantwell.]

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2 out of 5 stars

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Fred Oberman, exhausted from a business trip, checks into a motel for some rest. The next thing he knows, he's being detained and questioned by a detective called Pinhead, who accuses him of assaulting a woman named Claudette. The detective tells Fred that they will be taking him to the location of the alleged assault for further questioning. However, before he knows it, Fred finds himself a captive in a high-tech scientific research facility disguised as a hangar on a farm.

Surprisingly, Fred meets Claudette in the facility, who he learns is also being held against her will. She tells him that she was also tricked into coming to the facility after being accused of stealing from Fred, and Fred soon discovers that they are both being subjected to a series of tests. However, fearing the true purpose of this research is nefarious, Fred begins to look for ways to escape. He slowly begins to grow attached to Claudette, but can he trust her? Only time will tell in Kenneth Cantwell's Mindgame.

I really enjoyed the creative storyline of this book, along with the fantastic ending, and it's the main reason why I'm not giving it the lowest possible rating. The story focuses on Fred and Claudette's frantic attempts to escape from a science program called "the MAN," where unscrupulous researchers and scientists are attempting to gain control of the world by uploading human consciousness into their neural network. "MAN" is short for "Machine learning and Artificial intelligence Network." This was a really well-thought-out plot, a genius one at that. Also, the ending was epic, but that's just it.

Unfortunately, there were many other aspects of the book that were a disaster, which made me want to throw the book out of the window and into the trash can. First, there was a mix-up of tenses and narrative perspectives right from the first page, which made the book so confusing that I felt my brain would explode trying to understand it. There were numerous grammatical errors that were a real pain to get through, and the dialogue was way overdone. Fred's frequent nightmares felt out of place, and characters popped in and out randomly without being fully developed, such as Joseph, who is only mentioned a couple of times. Fred assumes so many identities from his dreams, such as Dr. Breccia and others.

Overall, I could name many other negative things about the book, including the philosophical parts that felt out of place, but the plot was creative and the ending was fantastic. However, due to the book's many flaws, I can only give it a rating of 2 out of 5 stars. If you love science fiction and don't mind the book's many flaws, this could be for you. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it until it has been improved and thoroughly edited.

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Mindgame
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