ClichÇd, melodramatic, and thuddingly plotted—but, still, this novel by a Grand Old Man of sf and the world's leading expert on artificial intelligence contains some of the best extrapolation on the nature and creation of AI ever offered in fiction. In 2023, Brian Delaney, under contract to Megalobe, has just achieved a breakthrough in AI when someone engineers the theft of his research and murders all involved. Brian alone survives, but a bullet has destroyed much of his brain. Using Brian's own research, neurosurgeon Erin Snaresbrook grafts an advanced computer into his brain, reintegrating neural pathways, allowing access to memories to the age of 14. Brian learns to interface with the CPU, and downloaded databases become part of his memory. While the army keeps him a virtual prisoner for security and searches for the perps, the new, improved Brian creates a new, improved AI, named Sven. Meanwhile, a criminological AI named Dick Tracy begins to uncover clues to the raid and, once integrated with Sven, sports a new product—a robot gardener—that's programmed with Brian's AI code. Brian finds a clue to his would-be murderer's whereabouts in the programming and engineers his and Sven's escape. Travelling to his native Ireland, Brian then discovers that he can interface directly with Sven. Having found the criminal mastermind, he reveals Sven's existence to the world—and goes back to work a free man. While the authors offer a difficult and realistic resolution- -Brian's machine/mind interface makes him progressively less human- -they also remind us that it's the future with lines like: ``Nostalgia music played quietly in the background, ancient classics by the antique old-timers U2.''
Pub Date: Aug. 25, 1992
ISBN: 0-446-51565-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An unremarkable forbidden-love story that pursues only superficially the strong situations it sets up. Reuben S. Sweetbitter, half-Choctaw, half-white, 24 years old, lives in turn-of-the-century East Texas in a sort of limbo. He grew up with his mother and her family (his white father was never spoken of) and knows Choctaw tales, words, and ways. But he also knows how to act like a ``negro,'' because after his mother died he found shelter with a black family. They sought to cure Reuben of his ``heathen'' habits by teaching him to read the Bible, so he speaks as well as most white folks and can almost ``pass'' with his light complexion. His chameleon-like talents are a help when Reuben decides, justifiably, that it is safest to stay as invisible as possible as he moves from town to town in search of work. But in Three Rivers he falls in love with a white lawyer's daughter, Martha, and they steal away together. After months on the run, the couple settles in with a wealthy woman who thinks herself a liberal for accepting an interracial relationship. But years later, with a guest house and two kids, Reuben still acts as a chauffeur and practically walks a pace behind. Martha resents being shut out of the society she was born into, while Reuben awaits the day when her brother arrives to strike him down. These are powerful themes that should have been explored, but the characters never pose any questions that might reveal their deepest sentiments. If TriQuarterly editor Gibbons (Five Pears or Peaches, not reviewed) thought the addition of chapters containing contemporary opinions on lynching and Choctaw histories of creation would add weight to his story, he was wrong: These sections merely serve as a distraction from the annoyingly shallow characters. Preachy and long-winded.
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-913089-51-6
Page Count: 440
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
The Godmother (1994) wasn't, alas, about female mafiosi, but introduced a suburban fantasy of good and bad fairies, frog princes, wicked stepmothers, talking cats, and characters from the brothers Grimm. In this equally cutesy, drippy sequel, the Godmother, Felicity Fortune, takes rock star's daughter Snohomish Quantrill on as her apprentice. To learn her trade, Sno must travel to Ireland, land of Felicity's roots, enjoying adventures heavily dependent on blarney, time warps, and mashed Celtic lore set forth in such deathless prose as: ``The actual road to Elfland. It was a heavy moment and I felt a little dizzy there for a bit.''
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-441-00252-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
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