Lisa Mason

Summer of Love is a beautiful work of literature encapsulated within the science-fiction genre. It invites you on an emotionally jostling roller coaster ride.
Lisa Mason is a prolific author who weaves a time-travel story that delves into many underlying themes at a micro and macro level during the famous "Summer of Love" pandemic in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco, in 1967.
The author also descends underneath the epidermis of the street's kaleidoscopic and "groovy" ambiance to reveal what is show more and what is not through each character's eyes -- and whether or not we can rely on hope to wake us up the next morning.
I felt the characters (even the secondary ones), the moments, the sights, the sounds and the smells of the time. As if I myself was time traveling. I found myself not only reading but tasting each word; sometimes going back to read a sentence, a paragraph or a page again.
This is a novel I will not hesitate to recommend. show less

I just... couldn't finish reading this. Some of the characters were interesting, but some were so frustrating I started skipping over large portions of their tales. The book comes across as preachy, like it has a strong but subversive political agenda, so I put it down halfway through. Might try it again someday, but who knows.

Not as bad as expected. A part of the Storybundle, I wasn't going to read it at all because I don't like time travels generally, and I don't much like romances either. TBH to get the most out of this 'you had to be there, man'. It's set in the Height-Ashbury during the 70s summer of Love, as the title implies. Quite a few of the references and famous moments probably went over my head. I do wonder if the author genuinely experienced time there, or is just going form second hand reports. show more

Anyway the plot is fairly basic. A time traveller has to ensure a 14yr old girl gets through the summer of love relatively unscathed as her descendants go on to become world president, but it's an era of flux, and the possibilities are high that the universe could collapse instead. He ahs very littel details about her, the first problem is finding her. We alternate between his and her viewpoints and experiences. Once you've got the gist it all flows fairly well if somewhat predictably - no great effort is made ot avoid paradoxes because this is the way it's always been. show less

Heavy with jargon and the development of a complex JIT legal system, it was a bit hard to get through the first third of the book, but I found the character development of the artificial intelligences interesting and the narrative begun to flow well as the story progressed. A real cyber-romp exploring consciousness and legal ethics. Painful at times to read about a devolved San Francisco of the future where only the elite can escape or ignore the unruly and chaotic city that is dangerous to show more flesh-and-blood and machines alike. show less