As hard as it is to believe that it's been 25 years since Peter Emshwiller's cyberpunk classic first hit shelves, it's even harder to accept that it's been out of print for so long. Fortunately, in celebration of it's silver anniversary, it's now available as an e-book, complete with a new intro and a shiny new cover.Fortunately, the story itself hasn't changed, and neither has the telling. Levels: The Host still has that early 90s, edge-of-apocalypse, pulp sci-fi sort of feel to it, but it's su [...]

I've had a damn good run of reads recently and this may be the best of them. The first part in particular gave me one of those read until you literally cannot keep your eyes open kind of nights. The Host is set in a future when the United States have splintered and now most societies are split down the poverty line where the rich people live in the sunlight and the poor live about five stories underground. Only there's this subset of the rich who would like to go play in the gutter with the comm [...]

This was a freebie from amazon so I thought I'd give it a try. The idea behind the book was intriguing. The book built up to a pretty good peak but sort of plateaued a bit.The world has changed, countries and cities aren't what they used to be. There are physical levels to society, unlike today's class perceptions in people's minds. The main character Watley lives in the bottom level. But he has the chance to ascend one day if he can take a job "hosting", which pays a great sum. Hosting is allow [...]

I love this book! So different. Action filled. Great description of events and people. What an unexpected story from beginning to end.

Fantastic Plot, Outstanding CharactersThis was written 25 years ago and yet still has all the action, adventure, suspense, and weird dystopian future that readers could ever hope to encounter.This is the story of Watley Caiper, a man who lives in our distant future where Euroshima has wiped Europe from the map, the U.S. states are separate countries, or separate states have banded together to make a country. Watley lives in Manhattan, which is a country all by itself. They have walled in the fir [...]

The story of a good person hunted on false charges, forced to dig up unforseen layers of courage and cunning to survive until the next paragraph, is one that never gets old; and in LEVELS: THE HOST, Peter R. Emshwiller has come up with a fun and fresh variation on this theme.One key to this variation is the use of an innocent, surprisingly naive person who must learn to survive in a cruel environment without becoming cruel himself. That person, Watly Caiper, is a young man with a compelling drea [...]

This very much reminded me of Robert Silverberg's short story 'Passengers'. I haven't re-read it since 1970 so the likeness may only be the 'host' one. Great short story and this is also a nice piece of work.This book was originally written twenty-five years ago and with few changes has survived the journey well. Not all sci-fi can do that. The new world is vivid without long chapters setting it up and the altered use of words (such as rape and the F-word) is a great idea and adds a touch of fut [...]

Allegorical sci fi with comic and erotic paraphernalia. In future Manhattan, young man Watley Caiper wants to be a mom. But in order to counter the contraceptives in the water, he needs money, and the onluy way to get it is to rent his body as a Host. The hosting chores go from banal to lascivious--but murder is strictly prohibited. Guess what happens when Watley hosts! And it goes from there, with Watley trying to figure out who killed someone with his body! After this, check out the sequel, Sh [...]

Remember liking this a lot when I got a signed copy at an Icon scifi convention when it came out. Reminded of it again as I am reading Starters which is quite good, but reminds me way too much of this book mixed with Hunger Games, and Total recall so far

Would make an excellent movie. Recommended.

I wasn't expecting much since it was a free Kindle download, but wow, this blew me away.

nwhytevejournal/2705521mlThis 1991 novel may have been partly inspired by Frederik Pohl's memorable 1974 story "We Purchased People", with which it shares the concept of human bodies being rented out for use by other intelligences, the original owner helplessly aware as murder is committed by their hands. However it's not quite in the same league - where Pohl's protagonist is repulsive and has done dreadful things with the result that he is punished by being rented out to aliens, Emshwiler's Wat [...]

The two stars need explaining Compared to my other reviews this should get only one star (to make it more fair to my other two star ratings). But it is not that bad that I "did not like it". On the contrary. The dystopian ideas were novel and the overall plot interesting. But how the characters react made me more than once wince. Oh no, not like that. And the style was very repetitive. Almost every idea was rephrased several times in consecutive sentences. The book could have been made 3 times s [...]

Here Peter R "Stoney" Emshwiller pens a curious genderbending science fiction novel of the future in which "Rape" is a dirty word but the "F" word is not, one man's greatest dream is to become a mommy, gender is indeterminate among the faithful, while opennness about relations prevails everywhere but on the repressive Second Level where a repressive, supposedly pure bred society rules the roost. Thence comes the cries, "California!" "California!" and "Revy" for revolution's sake as the Ragman co [...]

The author suggested I read this, and I'm so glad he did. (I'm also glad I enjoyed it so. It's tough to avoid folks looking for feedback! This was a no-brainer!)I really enjoyed "The Host." It took a couple of chapters before I was able to see where I was and what was happening, but once the concepts kicked in I was all on board. Great sci-fi, great characters, and, for me, great life lessons, what strong science fiction does so well. Nicely done, Mr. Emshwiller.Give this a read, ya'll.d