Matthew Mather (1969–2022)

Doomsday thriller or romance and redemption novel? The astronomical cataclysmic proposed by the author is reasonably well researched. No obvious blunders committed. The cast of characters is fairly developed, sort of. The main character, if not exactly likable, does have something going for her (something murky and undefinable😅)
That brings me back to the various subplots that involve our leading character which are a major part of the package the author presents us with, yet somehow never quite manage to connect to the looming end-of-days scenario.

From the official book description: "A story of family and redemption set amid a brand new kind of cataclysm..."
Perhaps this was the intention of the writer, but perhaps carried away by the "sub"plot(s) the result is asking for a revised vice-versa formulation in the manner of "a brand new cataclysm set amid a story of family and redemption"

Perhaps the end of days should be the all-defining event of the story, consuming more of the storyline, getting more of the attention of the characters within. Be that as is may, this isn't my novel and, quite naturally, not all will agree with my observation.
In the end, I deem "The Nomad" readable and the author's 342 page effort is duly appreciated.… (mere)

Preface: I swear on my mother's iPad that I did not read any of the reviews or quotes at Amazon.com before writing this review, so help me Bezos.

Much has been written of how man and machine will interact in the future; whether it's Gibson's "Neuromancer", Stephenson's "Snow Crash", or any of a number of indie authors out there now. Matthew Mather's debut novel "The Complete Atopia Chronicles" takes artificial intelligence, distributed computing, nanotechnology, and the full range of humanity (hubris, love, addiction, selfishness, anger, happiness, etc.), portions them all into a blender, and mixes up the finest-tasting best-guess at just what Kurzweil's Singularity might be like.

Like all good SF writers, Mather extrapolates from our present global state of being (advertisements seemingly on every surface, the increasing effects of climate change, rising economic power of India and China) to build a world where distributed consciousness is in beta-testing and those chosen few are living fantastic lives both on a man-made independent island and in their own heads; but as good SF also does, we see how advancement comes with a price and no matter how much we build or how smart we think we are, in the end we are still human.

Of particular note is the device of telling each protagonist's tale in full before moving on to the next story. A more traditional approach would ironically skip from character to character, viewpoint to viewpoint, telling the tale as it unfolds; to truly obtain the full effect of each story occuring simultaneously one would need access to the distributed consciousness technology described in the novel. As it is we mere humans simply need to hold what we've read in our memory, but don't be surprised to find yourself scrubbing back to an earlier story to confirm that yes indeed, this is what was happening when that seemingly random thing occured; not to give anything away, that is. Of course, each tale of the Atopia Chronicles stands on its own and does not need the others to be enjoyed, or to educate.

Above all the future-gazing, techno-whizbangery and story-telling devices, the most important thing is the ability to tell a good story and to make you incapable of waiting to turn the page, which Mather accomplishes nicely in the Atopia Chronicles. While moving from one character wholly to another is jarring in the earlier stories ('Okay,' you say to yourself, 'why should I care about this guy? I still care about the last guy!'), as you keep reading you realize that your earlier friends are still out there, if only you could send a splinter off to check on what they were up to at that moment.… (mere)