Our verdict on sci-fi novel Every Version of You: We (mostly) loved it

The New Scientist Book Club continued to think about the inner workings of the mind with our November read, moving from neurologist Masud Husain’s look at the brain disorders of some of his patients, Our Brains, Our Selves, to Grace Chan’s sci-fi exploration of a world where citizens are uploading their brains to a virtual utopia, Every Version of You.

Following the stories of Tao-Yi – who is reluctant to leave our world, however ravaged by climate change, for the digital paradise Gaia – and her boyfriend Navin, who is one of the first to upload his brain, Every Version of You definitely caught the interest of book club members. It certainly did for me too: I felt this book delved into so many issues, from what makes a person themselves to what the meaning of home is, and from climate change to grief.

“I really enjoyed it. It was probably the best the club has chosen so far,” writes Glen Johnson on our Facebook group. “My knowledge of avatars is limited to the first movie of the same name so [I] was a bit confused for the first few chapters,” says Margaret Buchanan. “However, once into the narrative, I was enthralled by the book. I can understand the need to escape the mess that we have made on earth but I found Tao-Yi’s need to retain her substance and identity really believable.”

Judith Lazell also found this novel a “very enjoyable read”, and highlights something I was also impressed by: “I really enjoyed the ‘throw away’ moments and how the parlous state of the planet was described tangentially,” she says. Such a good point: I thought the way Chan made us piece together the dreadful reality of late-21^st-century Australia ourselves was brilliantly handled.

Of course, this is a book club of many members (over 22,000 of you now), so not everyone was as positive. “I loved this book but feel ambiguous about the ending,” says Linda Jones, while Jennifer Marano was also unconvinced by some of the details: “The climate situation as described in the book is very disturbing,” she says. “I just finished the book and felt very unsatisfied. There was some hope presented that the planet could regenerate with most of the humans uploaded to Gaia in cyberspace, but no mention of how the digital universe they are escaping to is being powered.”

Every Version of You has stayed with me for months (I read it back in May) as I pondered the many questions it raised – including, of course, whether I’d upload myself or not. I’m leaning towards not, as is Chan herself, as she told me in our interview, and it’s a question members have been picking over online. “In the current world – no, but if/when our world deteriorates to the same degree as in the book, that might be a different story,” says Steve Swan.

Karen Seers has an interesting take on this question. “When I started reading this book I thought I would have avoided uploading until I could be sure of the structure, politics and protocols of Gaia,” she writes. “Then I injured the ligaments in my knee and that changed my view a bit. I thought more about how I may be less inclined to want to remain in the current world if accessing it became very difficult.”

One of the things I really loved about the book was how it touched on disability through Navin’s pain and discomfort in the real world – a major driver behind his desire to upload to Gaia. This felt carefully and sensitively handled to me, and it also struck Niall Leighton.

“I think it’s to Chan’s credit that she makes an effort to address questions of disability and marginalisation (especially given some criticisms of other recent books!), although I think there is more to say,” said Niall in response to Karen. “If one rejects the premise that there is continuity of consciousness, what does that say about the decision to upload? There are huge contemporary issues about the ways we manage and potentially end physical and mental suffering, and also about the ways in which human societies are structured that make life unnecessarily difficult for disabled people.”

In his review of the book, Niall writes that he had “extremely mixed feelings” about this novel. “It’s a complex, layered work, commenting on a number of subjects of contemporary relevance, and there is no doubt it engaged my brain. In this, it meets my expectations of a good science fiction novel. Grace Chan has clearly worked extremely hard on her plot, characterisation and prose, and it’s an excellent book, if you like this kind of thing,” he writes.

“On the other, I’m not one of those people. It did prove to be another book meeting the apparently insatiable demand among publishers, if not among readers like me, for yet another person bravely facing yet another dystopian hell.”

This was something a few members raised – not another dystopia! “It’s an easy enough read, but I can’t say I’m particularly enjoying. It’s another dystopian view of the future and we’ve had a few of those this year, such as Dengue Boy and Circular Motion,” says David Jones.

For Phil Gurski, the book “grew on me over time (I was not sure I wanted to finish it at first)”. “While it was another depressing dystopian novel (end of the world due to climate change) it held my interest,” he writes. “One comment: the world where everyone is online all the time reminds me of when I commute on the O-train in Ottawa and I am the only one reading a physical book (and not staring at my cellphone!).” Note to Phil: I also look out for fellow readers on London’s Tube – and am pleased to note that I’m never the only one!

I hear you members about not wanting another dystopia – I suppose the issue is that science fiction is generally set in the future, and it’s more interesting if that future is better or worse than our current reality. I hope you’ll approve of our December read in any event, even if it does have shades of the utopian about it: Iain M Banks’s The Player of Games, after it saw off another Banks novel, Consider Phlebas, in a book club vote. Set in the interstellar, human-machine society of the Culture, this follows the great Jernau Morat Gurgeh. A master of every game he tries, the novel will see Gurgeh challenge himself with the infamously complex game of the cruel Empire of Azad, the winner of which becomes emperor.

Come and take a look at an extract here, from the novel’s opening, as well as a fascinating piece by the late Banks’s fellow sci-fi author Bethany Jacobs, in which she explores his “astounding” skill as a world-builder. And do join our Facebook group, if you haven’t already, to share your thoughts about all our reads.