It’s an average book. The plot is decently well placed. I had a hard time getting into caring for Caird because of the multiple personality thing. Partially because each personality was so different and so I never had the requisite ink to care for them. Partially because each personality was so different and violated common sense in that he subsumed the others so totally he couldn’t remember other days. And partially because toward the end of the book he becomes a complete multiple personality disorder nutcase, with his personalities fragmenting and talking to each other in his head.

(Full review at my blog) ( )

A benevolent but proscriptive world government manages overpopulation by putting 6/7ths of the world's population into stasis. People live their lives by a 'vertical calendar', where they are unfrozen for a single day a week. Millions of people only ever know Tuesday, or Wednesday.

This scenario sets the scene for a new type of criminal. A 'daybreaker' who moves from one day to the next, maintaining different identities in a society that has evolved so that each day has a different culture.

Dayworld's central idea is breathtakingly imaginative, and it was a real pleasure to encounter such a new idea. Unfortunately, the exotic set up is let down by the plot which was basically a fairly standard thriller. The world created by the author was underexploited, leaving the reader feeling a little dissatisfied by the end of the book.

The forward was strange. In an unusual act for the genre, the author speaks directly to the reader explaining some of the conventions of the world before the story starts. It seemed unnecessary, as the blurb on the back of the book established the scenario and the details unfolded quite clearly during the course of the book.

Despite the shortcomings, the book was easy to digest, delightful in concept, and worth the hours it took to read. ( )