Apex

This third novel is a serious departure from the first two. Global politics and truly high stakes action is involved, including several full-featured revolutions, the machinations of an evil world-mind, and a nuclear war. Sound pretty epic? It is.

And there was enough action and solid pace to make the introduction of many new characters worth continuing.

Don't worry, though! If you're worried that those surviving main characters don't carry over into this novel, rest assured. All of them have central roles, and it was satisfying enough to be a retelling of Siddhartha. (Although, to be perfectly honest, I much prefer this version. It's as accessible as only a transhumanist revolution featuring love and hate can make it.)

I always thought show more my idea of throwing thousands of poisonous snakes into a locked congress was a good idea, but Mr. Naam had a better idea. Read this novel and tell me if I'm wrong!

Did I think the novel surpass the first? Hard to tell. It's very different. The first novel was full of sympathetic and idealistic characters that I really latched on to. The second novel really departed from that, and so I was stuck in the pov's of morally ambiguous people who eventually redeemed themselves with their choices, or not. The third novel focused on anger and revenge versus redemption, but on a nicely grounded but still global scale, jumping from China to India, to the US, and back again.

One thing I really loved was the huge homage to Gibson's Idoru, made to serve an awesome purpose. I found myself cheering. :)

I still want to be a part of Nexus. I'd down the drug in a heartbeat. Maybe I have a lot of faith in humanity. show less

I finished this book awhile ago. Between then and now I've been letting it settle into my bones, this surprising and satisfying third in the Nexus Trilogy. I am not sure I have ever read any tale this complex in which the ending was so thick with surprise, loss, and, despite that, also happiness.

The series is a wildly complex world-spanning, mind-expanding multi-roller-coaster ride and count yourself lucky that now all three are there for you. I had to WAIT!

In the last volume of the trilogy we finally observe the first full-scale showdown between a [crazy] post-human intelligence and humans. The global battlefield with highlights in China, India and the US. The grand finale of the series. Recommended as a good example of modern ‘hard’-ish sci-fi set in near future.

A solid conclusion to the Nexus trilogy. Some things go exactly as I expected them to, but there are still a fair few surprises thrown in for good measure. For the most part, a lot of loose ends are tied up, making it a good way to end a series.

The stakes go up with most of the world in turmoil, the US and China in particular. The Chinese part was interesting (particularly since I've spent some time studying how the Chinese censorship systems work in the modern day), but felt tonally rather different from the previous books. It vaguely fits, but it felt almost like half a sequel and half something entirely new.

Speaking of a different focus, this book does turn a bit of the focus away from Nexus towards the post-human thoughts. Shu in show more particular. That particular storyline had already come about in the second book, but it really comes to the fore here. Again, it feels like the general story was drifting a bit, even if the drifting was interesting.

Overall, I think this Apex is weaker than Nexus and about as strong as the middle book. Apex is crazy huge and drags at time, but by this point I've invested enough time that I really want to see it through. I'm glad I did.

Random side note: The blurb says "They call them the Apex - humanity's replacement.". Did they actually mention this term at all in this book? I don't remember that overmuch. show less

Apex is the final book in the trilogy that began with Nexus. It begins at pretty much the same instant that the previous book left off. I thought it wrapped up the trilogy well, although there was one thing near the end that I wish hadn’t happened. By the end, the author had addressed all of the many little plot threads and character arcs. He didn’t necessarily tie everything up into a neat little package, which can sometimes feel unrealistic anyway, but he provided a good idea of where things would go next and left me with a sense of hopefulness.

I did have more trouble staying focused while reading this book than I did with the previous one. The structure is similar, with short chapters that jump around between characters, but not show more all the plot threads in this book held my interest even though I think they were necessary to the greater story. I wasn’t bored, really; I just sometimes had to rein my attention back in when we moved away from the characters and storylines that I was more interested in.

The trilogy brought up a lot of interesting ideas about what would happen in a world where you could take a drug (of sorts) and have the ability to share thoughts and feelings. Throughout the course of this trilogy, we see a variety of ways in which it could be used -- both good and bad. Considering the implications, and whether the good outweighs the bad or vice versa, was one of the most interesting aspects of the trilogy. There were a few things I was skeptical about but, in general, I could easily picture real people reacting in the various ways that people reacted throughout the trilogy. show less

Plenty of authors can write well--that's their job. Some authors can pull together many complicated threads into a seamless tapestry. Some authors inject a lot of creative ideas into their work. Ramez Naam does all of that in his final book of the Nexus trilogy, Apex.

If you haven't already done so, go read Nexus and Crux first. But Apex is a satisfying payoff. It's big--if it were a movie, it would be described as epic because it has a fair number of different characters--but I really enjoyed the book throughout its whole length. I think Apex is the strongest book of the trilogy: Naam pacing and suspense is more sure-footed in this conclusion.

If you want to catch a glimpse of what a possible future might look like, the Nexus trilogy is show more a solid place to start, and a rollicking good time. show less

Ramez Naam’s Apex is the third addition to Naam’s Nexus series and the ending to what has been an exciting trilogy. Naam’s Nexus is a nano-drug that creates the ability for mind-to-mind communication between individuals that harbor the Nexus nanoparticles in their brains. In the Nexus world, humans not only have the ability to communicate verbally to others through their thoughts, but also share their emotions and memories as well. Even though most of the series focuses on the usage of Nexus and the emergence of transhumans, humans that are part human, part technology, and the effect that is has on the human population, Apex focuses more on the emergence of posthumans, humans that evolve into a totally technological life form.

The show more posthuman in this case is Shu-Yong Shu, a neuroscientist that suffered from a catastrophic event that left her on the verge of death, whose memories were computerized and downloaded and transferred into a living clone of herself. The clone was hunted down and killed earlier in the series but the essence of what was Shu-Yong Shu was trapped within a server that was inaccessible to the outside world. In her isolation, not unlike prisoners in solidarity confinement, Shu-Yong’s thoughts and feelings turned toward insanity. It is the insane Shu-Yong Shu that becomes the focus in Apex.

Naam’s Nexus series has a feeling of a science fiction thrill ride; however, the basis of the series also has roots in what may be humanities' eventual reality. Nanotechnology and nano-drugs are emerging technologies that already have an impact on our lives with nano-drugs Abraxane and Doxil being readily used for treatment for specific cancers. Mind-to-mind communication experiments are in the works with presumably a recent success of a rudimentary brain-to-brain communication experiment completed by an international team of scientists that were able to have two individuals communicate mentally that were physically separated 5000 miles from each other. Some scientists are concerned on what is called the ‘Singularity’, when technology surpasses human intelligence which could lead to dire effects on the human race. Naam’s Apex stresses that possibility through Shu-Yong Shu’s repression which leads to her insanity and her retaliation. Though some believe that the Singularity may occur within our life time, others including Naam himself believe it will be many years before we need to be concerned about the Singularity happening.

The Nexus series along with Apex is a fun series and I highly recommend. My only complaint about Apex was that it was a bit too long and dragged on a bit which took away some of the thrill from the ending. Be sure to read the appendix, as Naam gives a very informative review of the latest technology and its relation to his fictional works. Though this is the end to the trilogy, Naam has left a 'back door' open for a possible continuation of the series. As a trilogy, the series must be read in order.

To learn more about Ramez Naam's Nexus series check out my review on my blog A-Thrill-A-Week at http://athrillaweek.com/ramez-naams-nexus-series/ show less