David Brin
The creative exercise in this book is the cheap and easy creation of
human 'dittos', copies of one's mind complete with a body, albiet one
that only lasts 24 hours. Once the life of a ditto is nearly
over, its creator can inload its memories, effectively allowing people
to experience multiple lifespans. Even the poorest people can
create at least one ditto a day to earn a wage as an unskilled
laborer. Others do more interesting things with their copies,
anything from selling them as specialized courteseans, to experiencing
thrills much too risky for a real body, to creating a team of
hyper-focused detectives.
The latter is the MO of Albert Morris, whose various selves
independently stumble onto some disturbing happenings that seem to be
unrelated at first - but when the creator of the primary dittoing
technology, his chief scientist, and the scientist's daughter are all
involved, things get interesting quickly.
Like Brin's other works, Kiln People starts at a reasonably fast pace
and maintains it for the entirety of the story. This is
especially impressive since his four first-person points of view are of
Albert and his three dittos, and the entire book only spans a handful
of days. The book is also nice and long, the paperback weighs in
at a meaty 567 pages. Brin continually delights with little
details of how dittotech has impacted society, though his prose is
nothing special and I was not particularly attached to any of the
characters. All in all, a good solid speculative work of science
fiction.
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Across known space, Humanity is a rare example of a species that
achieved sentience and a starfaring civilization without the evident
help of a Patron race. In the eyes of some aliens, this makes
them unique; in others, it makes them outcasts. Humans have
earned themselves a tenuous status in Galactic society, however, as
they had already Uplifted two other races - chimpanzees and dolphins -
by the time of First Contact.
With the gift of alien technology, Humans are exploring the environs of
Sol itself. Drawn into the Sundiver project by an alien friend,
the scientist Jacob Demwa soon finds that the sun may harbor the secret
behind Humanity's apparent lack of Patronage. But strange
behavior from everyone involved - Earth natives and aliens both - puts
the entire project at risk, and Jacob has the opportunity to sort
things out - if he can get his own fractured mind to cooperate with him.
Sundiver is a lovely mixture
of the hard sci-fi and mystery genres. The writing is solid, if
rarely evocative, and the primary character is lovingly fleshed
out. Secondary characters lack depth but work fine as they are.
The creative exercise of the setting - chains of Patron and Client
races, each with their own (sometimes hidden) agendas, flowing around
the 'orphaned' Human race, the latter still struggling with social
issues on a grand scale, opens up lots of possibility for future
works. The mystery element will keep even the sharpest of readers
guessing. Combined with hard sci-fi, this book was a very
enjoyable, relatively quick read. Fortunately, Brin has seen fit
to grant us several more titles set in this universe.
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Startide Rising picks up about 200 years after Sundiver left
off. The first mostly-dolphin starship crew is assembled and sent
on a survey mission. Uopn finding a huge derelict fleet of
unknown origin and sending a message home about it, several hostile
races hound the small survey craft until she crashes in the ocean of a
metal-rich waterworld.
Apparently, the hostiles are all quasi-fanatacial races who believe in
the eventual return of the Progenitors, the race or races who began the
practice of Uplift. It soon becomes clear that the fanatics think
the derelict fleet is a sign pertaining to the Progenitors, and they
want the location of that fleet badly.
The Earthlings struggle to repair their ship and escape before the
hostiles find them, but the untried crew must first face internal
treachery as well as the mysterious hazards of the planet. They
also encounter a number of oddities with the Library, the supposed sum
total of all sentient knowledge, that was made available to Earth races
by the Galactic civilization.
The overarcing plot of Startide Rising is
fairly straightforward; it's the subtleties of the crew's struggles
that make up the meat of the story. Brin continues with his
engaging writing, and the closing sequence of the books is composed of
wonderfully concerted episodes of action that make for a rousing
finish. Brin spreads out his character development this time, so
we have many more points of view to consider.
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The Postman has a rugged post-apocalyptic setting
based on a post-nuclear-war USA that almost - but not quite - survived
total collapse. Gordon, a loner who trades old tales of prewar
culture in bardic style for his meals, meanders about from village to
village, looking for someone who is trying to build something more than
a subsistence society.
Falling into misfortune, Gordon uses the uniform of a long-dead postal
worker to weave an elaborate lie that will enable him to survive.
Unwittingly, the false postman becomes a source of hope to the small,
isolated communities that have had no inkling that the nation ever
survived. That tremulous hope has its own war to survive before
it can really take root, though.
The writing of Postman is average, and the pacing
rather compact. I think Brin could've fleshed it out more without
losing the point of the story. Most of what Brinn does in a
little over 300 pages (paperback) is make interesting psychological and
sociological speculations. We get snapshots of half a dozen
communities, each with its own form of government; each of which is
permanently changed in Gordon's wake. The latter is what sets
this book apart from the few other post-apocalyptic works I've
read. It is a light snack of brain food, and I wish it had been
more.
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