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Positron #3
Erase Me
In the latest edge-of-your-seat episode of "Positron," the Byliner Serial by renowned author Margaret Atwood, the dystopian dark comedy takes its darkest turn yet, pitting husband against wife and the human impulse to love against the animal instinct to survive.
Stan and Charmaine should have known better when they signed up for Consilience, a social experiment in which it’s the lawful who are locked up, while, beyond the gates, criminals wander the wasted streets of America.
The couple understand that to break the rules in so strictly regimented a place is dangerous; but, driven by boredom and lust, they do it anyway and betray each other and the system. As comeuppance, Stan finds himself the sexual plaything of a subversive member of the Consilience security team and in no time is made a pawn in a shadowy scheme to bring Consilience crashing down.
Meanwhile, his wife, Charmaine, is being held indefinitely at Positron Prison for her own sins. How far she’ll go to regain her good name and position is anyone’s guess, especially Stan’s. When he winds up paralyzed and tied to a gurney in the prison wing where Charmaine works, injecting toxic cocktails of drugs into troublesome Consilience citizens, will she save his neck or her own? Will she “erase” him permanently?
In "Erase Me," it’s every man—and woman—for him or herself. Erotically charged, morally complex, wickedly funny, and hailed as “shockingly believable” by "The Globe and Mail," Atwood’s "Positron" stories remind us that when a totalitarian state gets its grip on the human heart, marriage can be murder.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Margaret Atwood is the author of the internationally bestselling novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” as well as forty other books of fiction and nonfiction, including “The Blind Assassin,” “Oryx and Crake,” and “The Year of the Flood.” Her most recent collection of stories is “Moral Disorder.” She has written about utopias and dystopias in “In Other SF and the Human Imagination.” Atwood was awarded the Booker Prize in 2000 for “The Blind Assassin.”
Stan and Charmaine should have known better when they signed up for Consilience, a social experiment in which it’s the lawful who are locked up, while, beyond the gates, criminals wander the wasted streets of America.
The couple understand that to break the rules in so strictly regimented a place is dangerous; but, driven by boredom and lust, they do it anyway and betray each other and the system. As comeuppance, Stan finds himself the sexual plaything of a subversive member of the Consilience security team and in no time is made a pawn in a shadowy scheme to bring Consilience crashing down.
Meanwhile, his wife, Charmaine, is being held indefinitely at Positron Prison for her own sins. How far she’ll go to regain her good name and position is anyone’s guess, especially Stan’s. When he winds up paralyzed and tied to a gurney in the prison wing where Charmaine works, injecting toxic cocktails of drugs into troublesome Consilience citizens, will she save his neck or her own? Will she “erase” him permanently?
In "Erase Me," it’s every man—and woman—for him or herself. Erotically charged, morally complex, wickedly funny, and hailed as “shockingly believable” by "The Globe and Mail," Atwood’s "Positron" stories remind us that when a totalitarian state gets its grip on the human heart, marriage can be murder.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Margaret Atwood is the author of the internationally bestselling novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” as well as forty other books of fiction and nonfiction, including “The Blind Assassin,” “Oryx and Crake,” and “The Year of the Flood.” Her most recent collection of stories is “Moral Disorder.” She has written about utopias and dystopias in “In Other SF and the Human Imagination.” Atwood was awarded the Booker Prize in 2000 for “The Blind Assassin.”
53 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2012
About the author
Margaret Atwood
563 books91.4k followersMargaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
April 18, 2017
My least favourite story in the series so far. Even though the story was moving on, I just thought that it should have been more exciting or dramatic. I also wasn't desperate to move on to the next book as the story didn't really end on a high. I am interested to see how this story plays out so I will be finishing the series though. I'm hoping that the next story will come with some revelations that will shake the story up a bit.
I would recommend this series and I would read more by Atwood.
I would recommend this series and I would read more by Atwood.
October 22, 2015
I remain to be convinced of the wonders of serial short fiction. On the one hand, I like the idea of getting my fiction in doses – I read a lot of series after all – but I think the authors feel the pressure to include too much 'previously on' than they would in a conventional book chapter. But, with four to five months between publication of each chapter, the reader could be forgiven for having forgotten exactly what went on before. Hopefully Atwood will be putting this series through some judicious editing before it's considered for publication as a single volume.
All that said, this chapter (I can't bring myself to call them anything else) in her Positron series marked an important turning point in my relationship with both Stan and Charmaine. For the first time I found myself not finding them stupid and irritating. Instead I started to feel a bit sorry for them. Both trapped in this prison/community Consilience, they are becoming increasingly aware that they're just pawns in whatever larger game the Consilience security team are playing. Stan spends most of the story coming round from the injection that Jocelyn gave him in the previous chapter, unable to move, and waiting for whatever fate Charmaine will give him. Charmaine in her turn is finally allowed back to the job she takes such pride in: administering fatal injections to the original members of the Positron prison. Obviously, she can't afford to mess up her first injection no matter who it is.
Not much happens really, the things set in motion in the previous chapter come to fruition, but we knew, more or less, what was expected from both Stan and Charmaine. But that shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. Not every chapter in a novel can be action packed, or full of revelations. There have to be chapters that allow the characters to develop a little and give you a reason to keep reading. Erase Me is one of those.
All that said, this chapter (I can't bring myself to call them anything else) in her Positron series marked an important turning point in my relationship with both Stan and Charmaine. For the first time I found myself not finding them stupid and irritating. Instead I started to feel a bit sorry for them. Both trapped in this prison/community Consilience, they are becoming increasingly aware that they're just pawns in whatever larger game the Consilience security team are playing. Stan spends most of the story coming round from the injection that Jocelyn gave him in the previous chapter, unable to move, and waiting for whatever fate Charmaine will give him. Charmaine in her turn is finally allowed back to the job she takes such pride in: administering fatal injections to the original members of the Positron prison. Obviously, she can't afford to mess up her first injection no matter who it is.
Not much happens really, the things set in motion in the previous chapter come to fruition, but we knew, more or less, what was expected from both Stan and Charmaine. But that shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. Not every chapter in a novel can be action packed, or full of revelations. There have to be chapters that allow the characters to develop a little and give you a reason to keep reading. Erase Me is one of those.
January 21, 2013
I did not enjoy this installment as much as I did the previous two. Though I read the latter over a month ago, I remember them well--which is why it was difficult to keep up my interest in the re-tread that Atwood worked into most of the story. Were I to list what happens story-wise in this installment, I would have trouble reaching bullet-point five.
That said, Atwood's prose remains quite readable, and a larger story lurks beneath the mundane scenes that permeate this installment. I hope that Atwood blows things up soon and takes her characters into the bizarre territory that beckons at the edges.
That said, Atwood's prose remains quite readable, and a larger story lurks beneath the mundane scenes that permeate this installment. I hope that Atwood blows things up soon and takes her characters into the bizarre territory that beckons at the edges.
January 3, 2013
Atwood slowed the pace waaay down in Erase Me, and the Positron series is better for it.
Plot-wise, not a ton happens in this single. The events that were discussed at the end of Choke Collar came to pass.
What the series needed, and Erase Me provided, was the human element. Yes, Stan and Charmaine are still caricatures of people that are kind of horrible to one another, but now they have a bit of heart. Although they've betrayed one another both by choice and necessity, their failings are more relatable -- white-picket fence moral flaws.
I can't wait until Moppet Shop comes out.
Words Below
Plot-wise, not a ton happens in this single. The events that were discussed at the end of Choke Collar came to pass.
What the series needed, and Erase Me provided, was the human element. Yes, Stan and Charmaine are still caricatures of people that are kind of horrible to one another, but now they have a bit of heart. Although they've betrayed one another both by choice and necessity, their failings are more relatable -- white-picket fence moral flaws.
I can't wait until Moppet Shop comes out.
Words Below
January 25, 2013
I'm really enjoying "Positron". This installment was right on-target for me. Fast-paced, intriguing. Zeroing -in on Loyalty as its central theme.
"Erase Me" focuses more on Charmaine than on other characters, weighing the (possibly) terrible things she has done against the (absolutely) terrible things she must do. We see her pushed to an emotional breaking point. Up to this point she had been a fairly complacent citizen of Consilience, doing what she is told to do... But I have a feeling that, at the end of this episode, she may be more aware of her powers to flip that compliance-switch in her head.
This episode also further sets up the escape plan that is being hatched using Stan as a pawn.
I love that Atwood has fully embraced the digital age. She is bringing back the serial, which is such a perfect genre for e- reader audiences. Usually reserved for tv and comic books, the serial format makes it possible for this story to continue indefinitely (though, not likely) allowing Atwood to subvert an ongoing supply of topical interests and current events in her strange, distopian future. Sure, die-hard fans are going to end up paying more than the end- reader of the collection.... But that is the price of being an Atwoody.
"Erase Me" focuses more on Charmaine than on other characters, weighing the (possibly) terrible things she has done against the (absolutely) terrible things she must do. We see her pushed to an emotional breaking point. Up to this point she had been a fairly complacent citizen of Consilience, doing what she is told to do... But I have a feeling that, at the end of this episode, she may be more aware of her powers to flip that compliance-switch in her head.
This episode also further sets up the escape plan that is being hatched using Stan as a pawn.
I love that Atwood has fully embraced the digital age. She is bringing back the serial, which is such a perfect genre for e- reader audiences. Usually reserved for tv and comic books, the serial format makes it possible for this story to continue indefinitely (though, not likely) allowing Atwood to subvert an ongoing supply of topical interests and current events in her strange, distopian future. Sure, die-hard fans are going to end up paying more than the end- reader of the collection.... But that is the price of being an Atwoody.
February 4, 2013
I'm a little annoyed that the first 2 parts of the story are now 99 cents for Kindle and you can get all 3 parts for $3.99. I have now paid $2.99 for each part! Seems unfair for people who have been reading since the first one was published.
May 5, 2019
This was my least favourite entry in this series. I am really eager to see how this story ends and will absolutely read the conclusion but this was a bit of slog to push through.
December 30, 2012
So I seriously feel like the worst Atwood fan ever, for not knowing this whole experiment was happening. After I bought Choke Collar, I thought I was up on the whole Positron series. Then I happened to read an interview on NPR that sent me to the Byliner website, where I found this volume. I swear I read that this was supposed to be a trilogy, with the third volume titled "Moppet Shop." But Byliner tells me that one is still forthcoming (and NPR promises she's writing a "traditionally published" novel due out in the fall [which her twitter swears is the 3rd MaddAdam novel...eeeeee!!!]).
Anyway. I have to wonder if some reviews of Choke Collar prompted Atwood to add another episode to bridge the gap between Stan and Charmaine's escape. This story picks up precisely where Choke Collar ended -- Jocelyn drugs Stan and he wakes up strapped to the "relocation" table (he spends more than half of the story immobilized - and cranky). Charmaine is thrilled at having regained her position...until she enters the room and learns that her next assignment is Stan.
The first half of the story is really a character study. We get some more insight into Charmaine's motivations and also Stan's thought progressions as he waits on the table. They both begin to see the cracks in the Consilience model. Atwood also allows Charmaine to grow as a character. In the first two volumes, she's painted in pretty broad strokes (plus we mostly see her through Stan's eyes, and he obviously isn't feeling too charitable). She's certainly not the strongest-willed person, but she's also not just a flighty pushover. She takes pride in her work, rather than luxuriating in the power it gives her. She takes comfort in appearance and routine. It will be interesting to see how she deals with whatever is waiting on the outside. She can clearly tell that her life is not as perfect as she believed a few short months ago, but she's not quite ready to accept what that might mean.
I enjoyed this volume more than Choke Collar. In terms of plot, I suppose it reads even more like a placeholder volume than its predecessor. But as I've always been a fan of (well done) character-driven stories, I found this one to be a more enjoyable read. Plus this volume contained zero unnecessary sex scenes! I'm also not sure I would have wanted to jump right into Stan's adventure on the outside. This volume made me like Charmaine a lot more as a character...I think I'm more interested in following her than Stan.
Anyway. I have to wonder if some reviews of Choke Collar prompted Atwood to add another episode to bridge the gap between Stan and Charmaine's escape. This story picks up precisely where Choke Collar ended -- Jocelyn drugs Stan and he wakes up strapped to the "relocation" table (he spends more than half of the story immobilized - and cranky). Charmaine is thrilled at having regained her position...until she enters the room and learns that her next assignment is Stan.
The first half of the story is really a character study. We get some more insight into Charmaine's motivations and also Stan's thought progressions as he waits on the table. They both begin to see the cracks in the Consilience model. Atwood also allows Charmaine to grow as a character. In the first two volumes, she's painted in pretty broad strokes (plus we mostly see her through Stan's eyes, and he obviously isn't feeling too charitable). She's certainly not the strongest-willed person, but she's also not just a flighty pushover. She takes pride in her work, rather than luxuriating in the power it gives her. She takes comfort in appearance and routine. It will be interesting to see how she deals with whatever is waiting on the outside. She can clearly tell that her life is not as perfect as she believed a few short months ago, but she's not quite ready to accept what that might mean.
I enjoyed this volume more than Choke Collar. In terms of plot, I suppose it reads even more like a placeholder volume than its predecessor. But as I've always been a fan of (well done) character-driven stories, I found this one to be a more enjoyable read. Plus this volume contained zero unnecessary sex scenes! I'm also not sure I would have wanted to jump right into Stan's adventure on the outside. This volume made me like Charmaine a lot more as a character...I think I'm more interested in following her than Stan.
May 6, 2013
This is the third installment of the Positron serial story by Margaret Atwood. I'm told there's supposed to be another, but I haven't found any solid details, so I'm left just crossing my fingers. While this was a good episode of an overall serial, it felt incomplete.
This episode has Stan returning to the Consilience prison, where people struggling with crippling debt have sold themselves into a lifetime of living for one month in prison, one month with the illusion of freedom in a gated, self-sustaining community, throughout the year. Stan has found a loophole. Or, rather, his captor has. She works for security, and she's disillusioned with the system. So she's going to free Stan entirely by making it look like he died. At the hands of his cheating wife.
Stan has a good amount of uncertainty in the plan, and Charmaine's heartfelt breakdown over what she has to do is memorable. We're very much with Stan and Charmaine in this installment, where before readers might have felt distanced from their activities.
The parallels to 1984 seem a lot more pronounced in this installment than in the last two. Even some of the language spouted by the spokesman for Positron sounds Big Brotherly.
I hope there's more to the story. Because, while this does resolve the immediate conflict in a satisfying way, I still have a lot of questions about the overall picture. I'll be watching for news of another planned installment.
This episode has Stan returning to the Consilience prison, where people struggling with crippling debt have sold themselves into a lifetime of living for one month in prison, one month with the illusion of freedom in a gated, self-sustaining community, throughout the year. Stan has found a loophole. Or, rather, his captor has. She works for security, and she's disillusioned with the system. So she's going to free Stan entirely by making it look like he died. At the hands of his cheating wife.
Stan has a good amount of uncertainty in the plan, and Charmaine's heartfelt breakdown over what she has to do is memorable. We're very much with Stan and Charmaine in this installment, where before readers might have felt distanced from their activities.
The parallels to 1984 seem a lot more pronounced in this installment than in the last two. Even some of the language spouted by the spokesman for Positron sounds Big Brotherly.
I hope there's more to the story. Because, while this does resolve the immediate conflict in a satisfying way, I still have a lot of questions about the overall picture. I'll be watching for news of another planned installment.
May 30, 2013
In the third installment in Atwood’s Positron series, Stan finds himself at the mercy of a scary Consilience security team member as a result of his rebellion against the system. Soon he finds himself a pawn in a plot to take down the system. His wife Charmaine, meanwhile, is being held indefinitely in the prison system as a result of her own rebellion. These stories are hailed as a “dark comedy,” which I don’t really understand. I don’t find anything funny about this scenario On the contrary, I always come away from reading these novellas with a sick feeling in my stomach. I am not really sure about the psychology behind my coming back for more considering how creeped out I am about these books, but all I can say is that I have been a big Margaret Atwood fan for a long time and they are just really well written, strangely compelling, and they feed on my conspiracy theory nut tendencies.
June 15, 2013
Like a 1950s sitcom set in a fractured future, Atwood presents a woman, empowered by her work and concomitantly bored by her marriage. Her work as Chief Medications Administrator has given her a God complex: I am in control. I am the light. I am the darkness. I am what I choose to be, dutiful but bored wife, or "sluttish blonde she herself wouldn't speak to if they were standing in a checkout line together."
So, like Jocelyn and Stan, Charmaine is a double agent: slave to Consilience & her husband, and slave to her sexual persona & new boyfriend, Phil/ Max. This double life has made Charmaine neurotic, a Woody Allen with a needle in hand, ready to silence the stutterings of leftover wastrels.
Stan is dead and so, too, is God/ Charmaine, merchant of her own destruction. "Erase Me," indeed.
So, like Jocelyn and Stan, Charmaine is a double agent: slave to Consilience & her husband, and slave to her sexual persona & new boyfriend, Phil/ Max. This double life has made Charmaine neurotic, a Woody Allen with a needle in hand, ready to silence the stutterings of leftover wastrels.
Stan is dead and so, too, is God/ Charmaine, merchant of her own destruction. "Erase Me," indeed.
December 27, 2012
I have now read the three available in the Positron series - probably more accurately described as novellas rather than novels. Once again, Margaret Atwood is the queen of speculative fiction, portraying a world where ordinary citizens have voluntarily given up personal freedom in exchange for "security". Stan & Charmaine share their lives with another anonymous couple - alternating in their suburban house, with a month inside a prison, where Charmaine is the Chief Medicines Administrator and Stan, on the men's side of the prison, looks after the chickens. Skilfully drawing together ideas of freedom, responsibility, propaganda, groupthink, eugenics, among other ideas these are a thought provoking read.
January 1, 2013
I have been following this series on my kindle and I love it. I have always been a big fan of Atwood so i was not surprised that it was well written and disturbing and dark and comical and thought provoking. I liked seeing Charmaine's perspective this time. I love that each story is complete and yet works as a chapter in a larger work. Definitely one of the best recent examples of serialized fiction. My only complaint is that I have been purchasing each section as they come out and the cost of this one was more than a three-pack of the first three novellas, which just makes me feel ripped off. Now I feel like I should wait for an omnibus of all the stories in their final form in order not to be taken advantage of financially which makes me angry as I was enjoying the serial aspect.
March 3, 2013
Not bad, not bad. Curious to see where this goes in the next episode. I can't wait for Stan to get out of Positron and provide a glimpse of what outsiders think about it. I feel like they're living in a giant bubble and he needs to burst out and show us what's really going on in the rest of the world.
I'm torn about what I think will happen to Charmaine. Every time I think I may like her as a character, I change my mind. I can't believe she was going to kill Stan; I wanted her to try to find a way around it, but I guess that may have killed the plot of the story, so I can see why Atwood did what she did.
Looking forward to Episode 4.
I'm torn about what I think will happen to Charmaine. Every time I think I may like her as a character, I change my mind. I can't believe she was going to kill Stan; I wanted her to try to find a way around it, but I guess that may have killed the plot of the story, so I can see why Atwood did what she did.
Looking forward to Episode 4.
Read
September 30, 2014Atwood has created a creepy future with a super nanny state that makes 1984 seem tame in comparison. However like Anonymous in our modern times revolution in Atwood's dystopian future seems to be in the air. One of my favorite passages was when Stan was facing possible death and began pondering what he should have done different in life:
"He should have left the disintegrating cities, fled the pinched, cramped life on offer there. Broken out of the electronic net, thrown away all the passwords, gone forth to range over the land, a gaunt wolf howling at midnight."
How many times have I had this exact same fantasy?
"He should have left the disintegrating cities, fled the pinched, cramped life on offer there. Broken out of the electronic net, thrown away all the passwords, gone forth to range over the land, a gaunt wolf howling at midnight."
How many times have I had this exact same fantasy?
February 23, 2014
I'm forcing myself to wait a few days before I read each episode of Positron, because Margaret Atwood writes far far slower than I read. Sigh, it's going to happen. I'm going to read everything that's out and then I'll have to wait. Like HBO series. I should have just waited until it was over but the idea was too interesting.
In this episode, Stan and Charmaine are seeing more of the underbelly of Positron, and whether or not they have any autonomy against the events or demands. Can a person be erased? Replaced? Can you willfully submit to mind control?
In this episode, Stan and Charmaine are seeing more of the underbelly of Positron, and whether or not they have any autonomy against the events or demands. Can a person be erased? Replaced? Can you willfully submit to mind control?
April 24, 2016
The series is well written and would be a ripper if I could bring myself to care about the characters. The closest to sympathetic characters are also quite pathetic. Will Charmaine actually kill her husband? The suspense is well crafted, but you just don't care enough about either of them to care. That said, I'll keep reading the series as it does take some unusual twists. It will be interesting to see what surprises Atwood has in store for her characters next time, although I remain detached as a reader.
October 17, 2013
The third instalment continues very much in the same vain as the previous two, although this episode contains far more exposition than the previous two. That said, it is still very enjoyable and seeing how they both internally struggle to comprehend the events at the end of episode two is a lot of fun. If you are enjoying the series then you will probably enjoy this one also, but be prepared for a slightly slower pace as there is little to no action.
April 11, 2017
While good, this installment was much slower and less exciting than the previous two. It is definitely that mild lull period in books where some story is developed and characters are fleshed out more. The development between Charmaine and Stan is interesting and I want to so much to see how everything turns out.
Also I've never enjoyed hating a character more than I do Charmaine and this installment definitely centered a lot more on her.
Also I've never enjoyed hating a character more than I do Charmaine and this installment definitely centered a lot more on her.
January 15, 2013
I'm almost sorry I started reading this and I should really have known better because I know how quickly I always get sucked into Margaret Atwood's stories - and now I just don't know how I'm going to wait for the next instalment. Advertising says it's coming at some point in the winter - all I can say is hurry up - it's seriously addictive stuff.
February 28, 2013
While the third instalment of Positron is a lot slower, plot-wise, it does nothing to harm the series. In fact, it becomes emotionally charged in a way that the slow-burn of "Erase Me" brought to a boil. With a slightly different character focus, we get a less aggressive side of the story and see some very human writing.
In my own opinion, the best part so far of the series.
In my own opinion, the best part so far of the series.
January 24, 2013
Even more disturbing and engaging than the last volume, the third in the series speaks of emotion and consequence, and just where your loyalties lie in the end. We get to see more of what is going on with Consilience, and the story becomes more blatantly dark - the undertones that were already there coming slightly more out into the open.
January 25, 2013
I like this series, but I am NOT a fan of this short serial fiction resurgence. I feel like the minute I am getting into the story, it ends. And then I think, I paid $3.99 for this tease? I think I will wait until the entire tale is done and then buy the compiled edition. It's definitely something to put on your to-read list when it's fully finished, though!
June 2, 2013
I like the story of all three, however, not a fan of this singles/sections system with Amazon. If the story stops with this section, that would be great. However, I believe it will continue on and on and on, releasing sections at a time. If it is to continue, how about just coming out with a full novel?
May 26, 2013
For some reason I was thinking this was going to be the final installment in the series. But now that I'm reading other reviews, and based on what happens (or doesn't happen) in this installment I think that's not right.
I enjoy Atwood's longer form better, because that way when I get sucked in, there's resolution. I don't do well with a serialized story, I don't think.
I enjoy Atwood's longer form better, because that way when I get sucked in, there's resolution. I don't do well with a serialized story, I don't think.
January 3, 2017
Short, quick read but the pacing of the plot is painful. It's just been crawling along from episode 2-4. And episode 5 is not even available on kindle =(
I read this one after 4 because i thought it was a trilogy. I also read it with the knowledge that the final episode is not available except as a full novel so maybe that is why I enjoyed it less than the rest of the series.
I read this one after 4 because i thought it was a trilogy. I also read it with the knowledge that the final episode is not available except as a full novel so maybe that is why I enjoyed it less than the rest of the series.
January 5, 2013
I have to admit, with this instalment I found myself firmly enthralled. Perhaps it's because everything is slowed down, things are laid out, and we get a more realistic picture of our protagonists. Cannot wait for the next in the series.
January 6, 2013
OK, after Episode 2 of the Positron Series, I woke up and read this episode in one sitting this morning. As expected, it was fast paced and has left me waiting for the publication of Episode 4. Keep them coming Ms. Atwood!
January 7, 2013
I really wish I had some idea of how many episodes Atwood is planning on writing and on what kind of schedule, because really, it's impossible to have any meaningful thoughts about an unplanned work in progress.
The most I can honestly say is I'm still interested & still reading.
The most I can honestly say is I'm still interested & still reading.
January 31, 2013
This is the latest episode in Atwood's "Positron" - a near-future dystopian series comprised of a new e-book single release every few months. As always, creepy scary and weirdly humorous stuff. Looking forward to more of these!
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