Every day, Daniel Schroeder breaks his father's heart.
The two of them have always been close, which makes it all the more difficult to break the daily news: the last five years were nothing like Big Dan remembers. They're both professionals in the memory field--they even run their own memory palace. So shouldn't they be able to figure out a way to overwrite the persistent false memory that's wreaking havoc on both of their lives? Daniel thought he was holding it together, but the situation is sliding out of control. Now even his own equipment has turned against him, reminding him he hasn't had a date in ages by taunting him with flashes of an elusive man in black that only he can see. The Elijah character makes no sense. Not only does he claim to be straight--which has never piqued Daniel's interest--but he's appearing in manufactured memories in which he's never been programmed. Is it some quirk of the circuitry, or is Daniel's desire to connect with someone clouding his own memory? |
I discovered Jordan Castillo Price's creative writing through her PsyCop series and have been curious on reading of her stuff even since. In 'The Persistence of Memory', Daniel operates a run-down false memory stimulator facility called Adventuretech. Daniel runs into a mysterious man while running some of the mnem's, and the two eventually figure out what is real and what isn't between them. Kind-of. Meanwhile Daniel has to deal with breaking bad news to his father every day because his life has been ruined by a false memory permanence.
The world-building is both far reaching and creative. I definitely haven't read something like this before - but I will say I was confused for at least half of it. There's made up tech stuff involved with the memory/dreams, and this takes up a large portion of the book. There's not much devoted to the romance angle really, other than a potent moment at the end, but the author introduced an unusual Autistic character as a love interest, which I give kudos to.
I liked Daniel and the writing, although the story didn't grab me much yet. The mnem stuff is artistic but it's not something I find fascinating. It took up more of the book than plot development for the main characters, but they seem come through real and interesting enough. I'll read the next book eventually, that has even higher ratings.
Book Quotes:
"The mall at Christmastime was not for the faint of heart."
