Episodic, far-future yarn developed from short stories, from the veteran author of Starfarers (1998), etc. Before Christian Brannock dies, he uploads his own mentality into a computer, thus achieving immortality. Copies of him spread throughout the galaxy. Huge agglomerations of AIs, or nodes, begin the development of a galactic brain. Earth’s future inhabitants find they’re controlled by a node, Gaia, and can’t make war even if they want to. Millions of years later, Gaia severs her ties to the galactic brain. But since the solar system will soon be destroyed, the nearest galactic node, Alpha, wants to know whether it’s worthwhile expending considerable effort to preserve Earth. Alpha sends Wayfarer to investigate. Gaia creates an avatar, Laurinda Ashcroft, for Wayfarer’s avatar, Christian, to interact with while Gaia chats with Wayfarer. Another Wayfarer avatar, Brannock, goes exploring in a robot body. Gaia, however, is concealing things from both Wayfarer and Brannock: She’s been running simulations of alternate pasts and futures, “emulations” that result in great suffering for untold humans. She’s even re-created real humans and set them loose on the real Earth. When Brannock learns of this, Gaia attempts to subdue him. Christian and Laurinda, meanwhile, visit many emulations and become lovers. Lots of vivid vignettes but no discernible whole, with Anderson mostly struggling to define his concepts: “No human could have shaped the thoughts or uttered them.” Quite.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-312-86707-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
Scientific fiction enclosed in a frame — wanderer meets a tattooed man whose images foretell the future, leaving a space to preview the destiny of the viewer. Here is an open circuit on ideas, which range from religion, to racial questions, to the atom bomb, rocket travel (of course), literature, escape to the past, dreams and hypnotism, children and their selfish and impersonal acceptance of immediate concepts, robots, etc. Note that here the emphasis is on fiction instead of science, and that the stories — in spite of space and futurities — have some validity, even if the derivations can be traced. Sample The Veldt, or This Man, or Fire Balloons, or The Last Night In the World for the really special qualities. A book which is not limited by its special field.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1950
ISBN: 0062079972
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1950
Irredeemable in any world, real or virtual.
In this cyberpunk fiction debut, a massively popular online game has real-world consequences.
Ashley Akachi is a mixed-race woman who’s known as “Ashura the Terrible” to millions of fans of Infinite Game, which is watched around the world. In a near-future Florida that’s half drowned by rising sea levels, she sits inside a haptic chamber that converts her movements into gameplay in the ultraviolent competition. Former NFL player Kluwe (Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies, 2013) describes the game’s mechanics at length, at times giving the book the feel of watching someone else play a video game. (The game’s racist and misogynist online message boards also feature prominently.) Eventually, Ash uncovers a vast conspiracy involving not only Infinite Game, but also her love interest, Hamlin, who’s hiding a secret of his own. Unfortunately, there’s not enough space in this brief review to examine everything that’s obnoxious or distasteful in this novel, from its opening bullet-point infodump, lazily passed off as worldbuilding, to its eye-rolling last line. One may wonder if any women were involved in this book’s publication in any meaningful way. Only a male author could believe a woman thinks about “dicks” this often; when facing gender inequality, Ash huffs, “Must be nice to have a dick”; before castrating a would-be rapist, she scoffs, “You thought your dick made you a man? You’ll never be a man again.” Characters' attacks on Ash are all viciously gender-specific; in addition to being threatened with rape throughout, she's repeatedly called “slut,” “whore,” and “cunt.” Meanwhile, Ash herself reads like an unintentional parody of an empowered woman; she leers suggestively at a woman’s behind and then laments her small bust size, at length, before deciding “boobs are overrated.” At the book’s climax, Ash thinks that she’s “so tired of shitty men and their shitty dreams.” After reading this, readers will surely feel the same.
Irredeemable in any world, real or virtual.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-20393-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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