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Title: Kipper's Game by Barbara Ehrenreich ISBN: 0-517-15779-9 Publisher: Random House Value Pub Pub. Date: 29 August, 1995 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $4.99

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Average Customer Rating: 3.33 (3 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: Kipper's Game
Comment: The most interesting novel to which I feel compelled to assign a two-star rating, if that's saying anything.

If it is supposed to be a science fiction novel, it is likely to disappoint most SF fans, except for those who really cherish something like K-Pax. Kipper, aka Steve, has been missing since making breakthroughs on a radical new computer game that is designed to be fun, but may also contain such wonderful secrets about the human experience that extraterrestrials will be returning to Earth to pick it up from ol' Kipper! This seems like a very interesting premise, doesn't it?--but the book actually deals with Steve's mother trying to locate her errant son, while also getting embroiled in schemes and skulduggery going on at her workplace, HEC, or (The) Human Ecology Complex. Actually, Della (the mother) does not so much get "embroiled" in the strange power-plays going on at the Complex, but more accurately, is played for a pawn by head scientific honcho, Doctor Leitbetter.

More and more, the intricacies of the plot all involve this Leitbetter in some sinister way. Della actually answers to a Dr. Hershey, but Dr. Leitbetter wants control of Dr. Hershey's "new disease" research, and so tempts Della into working against Dr. Hershey, by promising poor Della that he has valuable info about her son's whereabouts (Kipper used to work for Leitbetter at the Complex). Meanwhile, Leitbetter has Della's friend and potential lover Alex MacBride working on research about a forgotten German scientist, and possible Nazi sympathizer, who conducted human experiments to try to learn about the science of human pleasure. Danger erupts in MacBride's life, when a mysterious enclave of scientific (?!) gangsters race against him to acquire some of the German scientist's missing papers. And is any of this linked to Kipper's mythical computer-game which, at last report, supposedly was designed to activate the pleasure centers of the human brain?

The "new disease" that everyone wants to study slowly gets out of control; religious fanaticism disrupts procedure at HEC (nicknamed Hell); Dr. Leitbetter preaches that extraterrestrials can be expected to return to Earth ("return", because he maintains that Jesus, Buddha, and the like, were alien Visitors) to access our scientific knowledge once we're smart enough to encapsulate it in a perfect short-form that sums up all we have discovered; Alex keeps arranging dates with Della that he does not keep; Della's professional life falls apart as she spends time tracking her son and compromising her professional status by sabotaging Hershey for Leitbetter; and Leo, Della's estranged husband who originally drove their son Kipper away, may be in league with strange gangsters (who apparently have interest in Kipper's game, as well as documents written by dead German scientists).

So you have all these strange elements fused together, trying to make some point about science as a form of pleasure, but just as corrupted and misused as anything else that is supposed to represent our best features as a species (ie. love, religion, ambition). We do that which is pleasurable, and even the work of seeking knowledge gives pleasure, but like all other pleasures, it can be ruined, perverted.

That's the idea that I've tried to sift out of this slow-moving labyrinth of the bizarre and the mundane mixed together here. There is a sense that the book misses opportunities to really lay bare what it is trying to examine by spreading itself too thin. Cheesy suspense elements steal time from the philosophical content, which in turn is pushed aside by sputtering romantic filler, which competes with religious commentary, which is uncomfortably glued to the SF undercurrent which is so underdeveloped until the quick ending...that the overall of effect is of deepness missed.

In keeping with the confusion, let me say this is a two-and-a-half star book, with lots of three-star glimmerings ruined by two-star mundaneness. You decide.

Rating: 5
Summary: A fascinating, gripping, thought-provoking read
Comment: I read this book two years ago, and still cannot get it out of my head. While it is bleak, it is also inspirational. I had given up on the idea of a modern 'novel of ideas' until reading this novel, which was somewhat cynically marketed as a thriller. It IS a thriller, but in a deeper, more resonant way than a Stephen King or Tom Clancy.

You know those movies that promise you a glimpse behind the facade, a chance at seeing things you haven't before? Then, of course, the movie turns out to be a cheesy full-length chase scene? This was almost the opposite. A philosophical treatise in pulp form.

Rating: 3
Summary: Incisive, complex, but bleak
Comment: Barbara Ehrenreich's novel, KIPPER'S GAME is an incisive and complex, but, ultimately, bleak, thought experiment. The world she creates in this thoughtful technological thriller is intriguing and credible. In particular, Ehrenreich captures effectively the experience of the main character, Della, whose search for her son drives the narrative. Della's quest is more than just a plot device, however. She is at a cross-roads in her life caused by seemingly tragic circumstances that allow her the chance to flourish, if she can ask the right questions of herself. This character's personal challenge adds human depth to an otherwise grim social commentary about environmental and political ruin. Overall, Ehrenreich raises important issues and poses interesting problems. However, the scope of the novel is too ambitious and the resolution too unsatisfying to strongly recommend it. Fans of techno thrillers who prefer a philosophical bent to their plots are the best audience for this novel.