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The Surrogates
January 29th, 2010 by Aldouspi

  • ISBN13: 9781891830877
  • Condition: NEW
  • Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description
The year is 2054, and life has been reduced to a data feed. The fusing of virtual reality and cybernetics has ushered in the era of the surrogate, a new technology that lets users interact with the world without ever leaving their homes. It’s a perfect world, and it’s up to Detectives Harvey Greer and Pete Ford of the Metro Police Department to keep it that way. But to do so they’ll need to stop a techno-terrorist bent on returning society to a time when people live… More >>

The Surrogates


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5 Responses  
  • William L. Peak writes:
    January 29th, 20107:19 amat

    It is a great pity that this thin gruel gets picked up for a movie deal when a much better exploration of this subject, Kiln People (The Kiln Books), gets passed by.

    Of course that book is deep and SciFi movies are generally shallow so…

    As to those shilling the graphic ‘novel’ now movie, PKD this ain’t, Cyberpunk…please! Throw your marketing talking points elsewhere. It is what it is. Those new to SciFi or just slumming from the SciFi channel, will enjoy this just fine. But don’t insult our intelligence by writing this up as the second coming of Asimov. This isn’t even Brin.

    Rating: 3 / 5

          Reply  
  • G. Arguelles writes:
    January 29th, 20108:26 amat

    Solid sci-fi very similar to the I, Robot film. No Lebouf in this book, though.
    Rating: 4 / 5

          Reply  
  • Robert P. Beveridge writes:
    January 29th, 201010:21 amat

    Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, The Surrogates (Top Shelf, 2006)

    It is by now a Hollywood cliché, not to mention a Hollywood truism, that the book is better than the movie. And that is certainly the case where The Surrogates is concerned. That said, in some ironic way, reading Robert Venditti’s original source material gave me a slightly greater respect for Jonathan Mostow’s bloated, listless adaptation. I can see why he made the changes he made, and some of them I actually agree with. (The two big ones, as it turns out, were direct contributors to the movie’s downfall, to the point where I may actually go back and revise my review to include a discussion of them.)

    If you saw the movie trailers, you’ve got a basic idea, but I’ll give you a rundown anyway: it’s 2054, and the world is populated by human beings who live vicariously through androids known as surrogates. The human flops down in a chair, puts on a headset, and bam, virtual reality. Surrogates work for their owners (allowing the out-of-shape to be construction workers, say), drink and do drugs for their owners (all the sensation with none of the withdrawal symptoms), have illicit affairs for their owners, etc. You get the idea. 92% of the world’s humans, we’re told, own and use surrogates. The rest are not too happy with this. In the metro Atlanta area where the book takes place, the head of the non-surrogate-using humans, known as the Dreads, is The Prophet, a mover and shaker in the anti-surrogate riots of 2039 who eventually agreed with the mayor of Atlanta that he and his Luddite pals needed to move out of Atlanta to a reservation seventy miles away. All of what I’m giving you here is setup for the actual plot, which involves two surrogates who we see being fried in the opening scene, and the two detectives assigned to the case.

    While no one would call The Surrogates a subtle book, in comparison to the movie it’s like a velvet glove. The main reason for this is that the movie changes the book anti-consumer message to something far more muddled, yet far closer to the surface (in the movie, the deaths of the surrogates travels back over the wires to kill their owners, which changes the whole nature of the movie’s plot). Venditti also has some strong words about addiction which are cut, rather brutally I might add, out by the changing of a few key scenes. They are the book’s most powerful (especially Venditti’s final panel), and the movie’s weakest. That Mostow failed miserably in his attempt to bring The Surrogates to the screen, and that the changes made to it were exactly the wrong ones, does not make Hollywood any less respectable for at least trying to take a very good, if transparent, indie piece and being it to the masses. It gives me some small version of hope that someone in Hollywood still actually cares about art. *** ½
    Rating: 4 / 5

          Reply  
  • Joshua Palmatier writes:
    January 29th, 20101:18 pmat

    I decided to buy and read “The Surrogates” because, of course, the movie was coming out soon and it had Bruce Willis in it, and I’ve lately been drawn into the graphic novel universe. So I said, why not? I’ve read a few other graphic novels and the concepts presented in this one were interesting.

    First off, the graphic novel is significantly different from the movie, so you should probably read it even if you have already seen the movie. It starts off with the same initial setup–some surries get zapped and detectives are there to investigate–but pretty much from that moment on it diverges from the movie. Characters are the same, but they don’t do what they did in the movie, tec. So read the novel, it’s worth it.

    The storyline is definitely interesting and pulls you along, weaving the actual detective work together with the life of the main detective, Greer. You find out about his relationship with his wife and how the introduction of the surrogates–androids that the user controls and that pretty much act out everyone’s daily life for safety reasons–has altered society and interpersonal relationships to a huge extent. The main idea of the surrogates is what kept me interested in the novel, although the plotline about who’s zapping surrogates and why also drew me in. The ramifications on every aspect of society if we did ever reach a point where the majority of the population lived their lives through surrogates is . . . astounding. And that’s why this graphic novel rocks.

    It’s also why it’s slightly disappointing. There are so many aspects of life that would change that what was presented in the novel seemed . . . limited. I loved the story and the novel, but when I was finished I felt that there was SO MUCH MORE to explore with this concept and I was disappointed that there wasn’t more, a volume 2 or something. I know there’s a prequel, and I will definitely read that, but I seriously hope that there will be more set in this world in the future because there is so much more left to explore.

    Since this is a graphic novel, I must also comment on the artwork: spectacular. The artwork was subtle and appropriate and a perfect amalgamation of art and photoshopping, especially regarding some of the SF elements that were incorporated into the artwork, such as realistic digital screens and such. At the same time, the artwork was extremely simple. The level of detail was appropriate and minimalistic, as well as the color palette. Some panels were sketchy and blocky, others were more finely detailed, and the ability of the artist to convey complex emotions through facial expression and such was astounding.

    So, overall a very good graphic novel, the only drawback being that the world created had SO MUCH potential that I felt there should have been much more done in this universe and with this plotline, so was disappointed when the novel ended. I’d love to see more from this pair, and even if you’ve seen the movie, I’d definitely suggest reading the novel.
    Rating: 4 / 5

          Reply  
  • Dao Deglemar writes:
    January 29th, 20101:41 pmat

    For some reason I initially didn’t find any appeal in “The Surrogates”. Even flipping through the pages, I questioned the quality of the art and the story. I don’t know why I started reading it but I did and soon I was completely engrossed in the story and read it from start to finish in one sitting.

    The main character is police detective living in a futuristic world. The book centers on a “Surrogate” technology, which let’s you buy a machine that looks and acts like a human being, while you from the comfort of your own bedroom can guide and see through the eyes of your Surrogate. You feel emotions pleasures, can go on dates and enjoy sex and food just like a regular human being. It’s the new escape.

    Someone has a deep issue with this and they start killing off surrogates. The book draws a good analogy on society and how people put on masks and loose touch on what it really means to be human. One of the best graphic novels I’ve read this year.
    Rating: 5 / 5

          Reply  


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