Author: Guy Morpuss
Published: 2021
Target audience: Adults (Appropriate ages 17+)
In a near future where overpopulation has spiralled out of control, one solution is for individuals to combine into a ‘commune’. Five minds sharing one body, each awake and in control for four hours at a time. It’s an extreme choice, but one that permits the five people to collectively live for nearly 150 years and transfer to a new body every few decades.
Alex, Kate, Mike, Sierra, and Ben have already spent twenty-five years together in what was once Mike’s body. Despite the rules they have for considerate coexistence, their frequent personality clashes, endless bickering, and one rogue member’s habit of making unilateral decisions has made for a rocky but ultimately tolerable shared life. Wanting to obtain more funds to buy upgrades for their next body, they travel to a 'death park’ where months and years can be gambled like money in immersive simulations and games.
But things go wrong when Kate accepts an dangerous offer, and one of their members disappears. What is happening in the death park games? Why is their commune being watched? How do their pursuers know so much about them? And how do you escape a murderer, when you may very well be sharing a body with them…
Review:
Action-packed and gripping, ‘Five Minds’ is a speculative fiction thriller and the debut novel of English author Guy Morpuss. The story’s unique premise and fast pacing makes for an engaging read as Alex, Kate, Mike, Sierra, and Ben scramble to figure out who is targeting them, and why. A stand-out strength of the book are the competitions the five must complete as they search for answers in the death park. The games include simulations, logic puzzles, races against time, moral dilemmas, and more, and will have readers hooked with each new injection of tension and danger. There is a sense of desperation, resignation, and unpredictability that permeates the setting and characters which only heightens each time the commune must take up another life-threatening challenge.
'Five Minds’ also showcases fascinating world-building as the story unfolds in a resources-depleted future populated by androids, hedonists, and government-mandated lifespans. While not robust enough to withstand more than a cursory examination, the book’s world-building is rich in novelty and possibility, and lends itself well to an engrossing thriller mystery plot.
Unfortunately, the intrigue fostered by novel’s innovative setting and murder mystery narrative is undermined by how unlikeable the protagonists are. Each chapter follows a different main character’s perspective, yet their characterisations rarely extend beyond being basic archetypes - Alex is the unappreciated everyman, Kate is a long-suffering peacemaker, Mike a self-absorbed jock, Sierra a promiscuous drunk, and Ben is a numbers-obsessed gamer. None of these characters have any driving goals, charisma, or sympathetic desires to effectively convince readers to be become invested into their journey and survival. Despite having shared a body for 25 years, the five seem to barely know each other, and their personalities and values haven’t changed since their first meeting at the age of 17. Their interactions and decisions would be more believable if they were still teenagers navigating their first year as a commune, not fully-fledged adults already a quarter of a century into their co-existence.
In lieu of character development or nuance, the five come across as shallow, catty teenagers who have no consideration for the feelings and lives of anyone else around them, and who are obsessed with the fact that Alex was fat when he was a younger. Such characterisation negatively affects the book, as the story’s twists and reveals do not have the emotional impact they should when the audience hasn’t been given a reason to care what happens to the characters. Another factor which may hurt audience engagement is the repeated use of the term ‘schizo’ to refer to the protagonists’ commune situation. Despite the narrative lamp-shading to excuse it, readers may find the use of the derogatory term alienating and off-putting.
‘Five Minds’ is a book with a lot of promise, but ultimately fails to reach its potential. Despite its intriguing premise and setting, the lacklustre characterisation relegates this book to an interesting yet forgettable read.
Excerpt:
…We almost died last night. Sierra’s drinking is slowing me down. She entered me in a game without even asking us. And couldn’t resist getting a dig in about Montreal again [attached]. Can’t she just let it go?
Love you, Alex.
Sweet, needy, bitchy Alex. He needed to let Sierra’s antics wash over him. She felt no guilt, and every time he reacted she got what she wanted. We all needed to forget what happened in Montreal and move on.
There was a group message from Alex complaining about Sierra being drunk in a bar again. What did he expect? Why we had put them together I couldn’t remember. She probably seemed exciting to him when he was seventeen. But being next to one another in the cycle did not mean you got to do anything together. It just meant that the one who followed got to clean up the other’s mess. And Sierra left a lot of mess.
He wanted an hour of her time…I hesitated, then voted yes. The less time Sierra has in the death park the more chance we had of winning.