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title = "Soulminder - Timothy Zahn"
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date = 2018-12-13
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updated = 2021-02-12
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[taxonomies]
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tags = ["books", "timothy zahn", "scifi", "reviews", "stars:2",
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"published:2014"]
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+++
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[GoodReads summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21822375-soulminder):
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For Dr. Adrian Sommers, a split second of driving while distracted leads to
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tragedy-and obsession. His family destroyed, he devotes his entire being to
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developing Soulminder, a technology that might have saved his son as he wavered
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on the edge of death. Sommers's vision is to capture a dying person's life
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essence and hold it safely in stasis while physicians heal the body from injury
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or disease. Years of experimentation finally end in success—but those who
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recognize Soulminder's possibilities almost immediately corrupt its original
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concept to pursue dangerous new frontiers: body-swapping, obstruction of
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justice, extortion, and perhaps even immortality.
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<!-- more -->
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{{ stars(stars=2) }}
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What if souls really exist and we could capture them, store them, and then
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return them to the body? That's what this book is about (in a way, it's pretty
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close to "The Discovery" by Netflix).
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In one hand, the book is *not* about the fact that we have souls (or where they
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go after we die, and things like that), but how one tool, dreamed by someone,
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could be explored and turned into something completely different, and how that
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dreamer would feel about the misuse of his tool. This is a really interesting
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way to build characters in a story.
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On the other hand, I have this feeling that the author used the word "soul"
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just to create a fake controversy over the stories. If it was called "Brain
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tracer" or "Memory storage" -- which is what the device does, in the end --,
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half of the book would fall apart, because there would be no direct association
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with something it is mostly used by religions -- which, again, is used as a
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plot device to create controversies inside the book.
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As a side note, I got the feeling that either the author had ulcers while
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writing the story or was hungry while writing, 'cause most of the characters
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suffer, in a way or another, with stomach problems: "felt a knot in his
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stomach", "made her stomach churn" and things like that.
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Also, chapters are too episodic, and it gave me the feeling that the story
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wasn't wrote for a book, but for some TV series.
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