Books

Dionysus Logged Out
Dionysus Logged Out
Q'Zids - The Devils
Isabella
Mystic In Ruins
Death Is Belligerent: A John Holmes Johnson Mystery
Q'Zids - The Devils
A Perfect World: (A Perry Richards Novel)
Fruitbasket from Hell
Fruitbasket from Hell
A Perfect World: (A Perry Richards Novel)
Ladies Don'T Undress to Die
High Times at Happy Ranch
Lethal Twins
Playing in the Mind of God: A Guide to the Ultimate Truth-This Book Changes Lives: A Guide to the Ultimate Truth-This Book Changes Lives
Process of Elimination: A Midwestern Murder Mystery
Murder in Barbados
Kelly McCabe: Slow Boat to Terror
Murder in Barbados
Death Down Under
Fatal Reunion
Symptom: Murder
Symptom: Murder
Multiple Listings
Multiple Listings

Average customer rating:

Intriguing
James David King is a Brave New American Voice
Back to the Future
Shameless Plug
Awesome Read

Dionysus Logged Out
James David King
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1413448879

Customer Reviews:

Intriguing.......2005-04-04

A MUST read if you were a teen in the eighties. And no doubt intriguing for all ages as the characters engage you and draw you into their lives and deep personal ideals and conflicts. Truely addresses the issues of a modern young adult. In fact, as I sit here and think about it, I am thinking it is about time to read it again - read it about 6 months ago for the first time. I am sure I will get even more out of it on the second read.

James David King is a Brave New American Voice .......2005-03-02

Dionysus Logged Out
By James David King
Review by Pi Ware

James David King's debut novel, Dionysus Logged Out, is a compelling and heart-breaking work of fiction. It renders all the desperation, emptiness and profound sexual desire of our teenage years so faithfully that the reader can't help but feel transported back, body and soul, to those awkward years. King's book is set in the ChatNet world of the 1986. (ChatNet is one of the world's first chatrooms--the internet before there was an internet.) The protagonist is Calvin Hildebrandt, a teenage computer geek whose ChatNet handle, Iron Man, represents the invincible superhero his childhood imagination wishes he could be. Calvin's troubles begin when his best friend and fellow ChatNetter, Gabriel, changes his handle from Spock to Dionysus and starts a seemingly fearless search for deeper meanings and his true self. Calvin, however, is trapped between following his friend across ethical lines (or are they simply boundaries his fear of change have drawn?) and imitating his straight-laced mathematician father. To further complicate matters, Gabriel begins dating Brooke, the goth girl Calvin has fallen for. And then, seemingly out of the blue, Gabriel commits suicide. Calvin's search for the reason, for the "root cause" of his best friend's death, becomes an investigation into what it is to love and what it is to betray.

King's prose is sparse and staccato. It rockets the first person narration through the novel, and the read is fluid, quick and impossible to put down. The characters are vivid and their portrayals strikingly honest. We read with amazement as teenage identities shift, morph, and revert, as the kids themselves reach out to fill their emptiness with sex, drugs, alcohol, or... ChatNet. James David King's vast knowledge of mathematics and computer programming creates a refreshing and rare voice in the protagonist, Calvin, who sees society, nature, relationships-virtually everything he comes into contact with in the outside world-through the Coke bottle glasses of computer programming metaphors. Dionysus Logged Out is not just a successful debut of one of America's bravest new voices in fiction, it's a geeky hovercraft transport to the very darkest part of the soul, and then, grudgingly, gracefully, a human ascent up the mountain of that soul's redemption.

- Pi Ware, writer/director, SOLITUDE, THE ACT

Back to the Future.......2005-02-22

James David King's Dionysus Logged Out reminded me of the time when our online communities developed from the BBS system-- the first chance for computer geeks to join a larger world of people who shared their interests. This novel about a group of Bay Area folks-- mostly teens, but some older-- struck a real chord for me with its focus on our inability to connect, sometimes even to those closest to us. The characters are vivid and realistic, and for those who remember this time, or want to learn more about it, Dionysus Logged Out is a must read.

Shameless Plug.......2005-02-22

An odd combination of high-tech and nostalgia. Whereas writers have long tried to tap into the speculative potential of the internet and virtual reality, this is a book that looks backward to gritty ways in which the internet was already effecting our lives well before the world wide web. None of the glitz of Gibson novels, or movies like Anti-Trust and Hackers; this is the real world of awkward adolescents, sex, drugs, and dialogue, strung together with a pastiche of pop-culture references. In the end though, it ends up being a touching account of the frailty of personal relationships.

Bound to be a cult classic. Since it's sold through an Independent publisher, too, you can have the rare pleasure of reading a book that NONE of your friends have. (And you can get the smug satisfaction of gifting it to those friends who think they know and have read everyting. Have you read the new Neal Stephenson book? That's so 2001, Haven't you heard about King?)

Awesome Read.......2005-02-22

This book is a must read, both dark and intriguing. If you haven't read it... READ IT!!!!

Books:

Books