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What's New
Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| Scott Westerfeld |
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Our Ranking Evolution's Darling proved
to be one of those books that after you finished it, you find yourself actually
pretty surprised at how much you enjoyed it. First off, I am always pleased when
I find a new author that impresses with the first book I read. Second, the subject
matter in this is actually out there enough, that I think it will scare a few
people off. I'm sort of surprised it didn't scare me off to be honest, but I'll
get into that in a second. Third, I happened to read this in a single day while
stuck in a bad hotel in France, trapped in the hotel bar and unable to get the
free cashews everyone else seemed to be enjoying at the time. (Bitter? Yes, but
that is a tale for another time) The main core of this book is about intelligent
life and what dictates a creature, or a devise to be considered sentient. Westerfeld,
very subtley offers up several issues around what should be considered intelligent
life. A lot of this centers around the main character, Darling, who is an artificial
intelligence that gained sentience while being somewhat of a nanny for a young
girl. But, to be honest, the most fascinating aspects of this philosophical writing
is what Westerfeld does to the humans, basically turning the theory against them.
There are some very nice aspects to this, most revolving around what truly is
a soul, and what is memory and what is a life, artificial or not, truly worth.
The philosophical aspects of the book were wonderfully written and woven into
the plot. Now, the plot is actually very basic but the plot is really just a means
to explore the issues I listed above and for Westerfeld to explore his characters.
And, for his characters to literally explore each other. Let me just put this
out there simply; There is a lot of sex in this book. And what I'm sure
will be very disturbing to some, is that this isn't really basic sex. Westerfeld
describes in fairly brutal detail some of the acts that are performed, and well,
just to turn off a few others, the sex isn't strictly around humans (or unfortunately
around adults). I only put this out so bluntly because I know that a lot of people
will pass on this strictly due to these aspects. But I have to admit, if you can
get past it, this books is actually pretty amazing. Also, what makes it tough,
is that the sex pieces to the book truly do explore the realms of sentience at
a new angle and add to philosophical questions that Westerfeld poses. So, overall,
this is actually a very well written book that will really leave you thinking.
However, if you are offended in any way by some less than normal sex scenes, you've
been warned. Stay real clear. Otherwise, this is probably one of the more thought
provoking books around artificial intelligence I've read in a long time. I will
be grabbing some of his earlier work to give it a try. |
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Our Ranking Evolution's Darling was one
of those books that stuck with me for a while after I finished it. I really enjoyed
Westerfeld's writing style and was truly looking forward to picking up his newest
book, The Risen Empire. Now, I'm going to get my complaint with it out very early
in this review. I knew going into the book, that this was part one of a two part
series. Upon receiving the book, I was a little surprised to find that it was
only about 300 pages. However, despite my expectation that when you have a series,
the books are generally fairly long (and hence the need to break them out into
sequels) I went on a read the book. The writing, the story, everything about the
book completely aside for the moment, I was pretty aggravated when I finished
this to learn the it basically ends in mid story. Nothing wraps up. There is no
logical break. The book just ends in mid-story. Now, maybe I'm alone when I say
this, but when I spend $18 for a book, I expect it to be able to stand on its
own as a book. I understand fully the concept of a series, but I am spending $18
for a novel not a serial comic book. This is why this book will not be
rated higher than 3 stars, and to be honest, (with no offense to Mr. Westerfeld,
since I can only assume this was his publisher's brilliant idea) why I won't be
buying the second book of the series. And to be honest all of the above is a total
shame, because this actually is an extremely well written book. Westerfeld manages
to create a good blend of space opera, action, and technology along with a solid
story line and as in Evolution's Darling some very well done characters. The story
centers around a galactic empire's (The Risen Empire) struggle to hold off an
invasion by a smaller, but more determined race known as the Rix. The Rix, probably
can best be described almost as religious fanatics, however their god is much
more tangible than most. The god is an artificial intelligence, that once released
onto a planet has the ability to consume all of the technological infrastructure
of that planet, almost becoming the infrastructure. The Rix are determined to
release this AI across the galaxy, which, obviously the Risen Empire is dead against.
Westerfeld has a pretty amazing technical vision in this book, especially around
the potential of nano-technology. The book opens up with a rescue mission that
is trying to be conducted from space. From the tiny nuances to what I think are
pretty new concepts, Westerfeld writes a very imaginative and suspenseful scene.
When the scenes are action based, they are done extremely well. However, some
of the middle scenes do tend to drag on, especially those that center around some
of the philosophical issues of the Risen Empire. While these scenes were probably
necessary for the background and motivation of the Empire, they went way too long
(especially for a 300 page book). Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book
until I got to the last 40 pages when I realized this thing was just going to
end with nothing resolved. Without that issue, this is probably a 4 star novel.
Westerfeld is an obvious talent and I look forward to whatever he releases after
he finished this series. Hopefully his publishers realize that publishing this
way is a mistake. Books are just too expensive now. If I ever do read the second
piece of this series, it'll be from the library and not my bank account.
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