Plot: 3/9.
Allie, a pathosfinder, was dispatched to cure unfortunate Gladney whose both musical talents and original characteristics were lost in an attack from an extreme fan who admired Gladney’s talents so intensely that he intended to rob Gladney’s memory to become another Gladney, only to incur self-destruction owing to being two people at once.
Allie delved into Gladney’s mind and found the reason why Gladney failed in recognizing his own past work, encountered a bottleneck in convalescent creation sensed by his chief doctor, composed some incomplete music only through the revelation of his dreams about himself was because he subconsciously misperceived a doppelganger born of his own guilt and imagination as his real ego and thereby preventing him from truly accepting himself.
In the end, Allie helped him overcome the terror, incorporated the doppelganger and reconstruct his self-confidence, though he continued to sulk over the existence of the old self.
Core: 3/9. I disliked this work, for it’s absolutely a literal, abhorrent, and sacrilegious catastrophe to watch how Cadigan, an author keen on neologism throughout the context, converted the auditory information abundant in emotions into the flaccid literary form deficient in any entertainment, and therewith built a tedious plot with an uninteresting first-person perspective based on an illogical, fantastical world building brimful with unnecessary, dull details.
The original text indicated that the doppelgänger was a product of the hero’s own imagination stemming from his guilt over no longer being his old self and his newly acquired ability of perfect pitch after the accident, which I did not see any logic at all.
The Gladney-that-is has perfect pitch—that could easily translate to his being able to reproduce his old appearance.