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Title: Kiln People by David Brin ISBN: 0-7653-4261-8 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.78 (54 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fans of Postman and Earth: this will rock your world.
Comment: Kiln People is what SF is all about. It's hard to describe in a few words, but it's a quasi-existential transparency-pushing SF noir crime thriller with a quantum Buddhist (my interpretation) take on the question of the human soul (quantum theology? transquantum theology?). Sounds like gibberish the way I've written it, but this is a great page-turner that will make you think hard about the cliched separations our culutre erects between issues of science and faith. David Brin doesn't like being told there's a field of knowledge inaccessible to scientific inquiry, and in addition to being a terrific SF thriller, Kiln People reads like a systematic proof of why science should never back off just because some theologians try to draw a line in the sand. The book also riffs on themes of social transparency raised in his book The Transparent Society. Read Kiln People, but read that next.
Rating: 5
Summary: Outstanding speculative fiction--and humorous too
Comment: At the World SF Society convention in Philadelphia last year, Brin read the first chapter of "Kiln People." I immediately knew that I would have to read it as soon as I could. And it was definitely worth the wait (and, BTW--it's 470 pages or so, not 336).
Brin's basic premise is that most people in society now have a way to mass-produce temporary "golems"--clay copies of themselves--that can function independently of their creators, and then fall apart after 24 hours; if they choose, the creators can download the golems' memories into their own brains. [So, for example, you could go to college, work a job, and go on vacation at the same time.]
Rather than explain the plot of the book (which is explained above), let me simply say that Brin did an amazing job with fleshing out the world in which "Kiln People" takes place. It is fairly clear that it's a world where golem technology has been accepted; just seeing his ideas of how humans would adapt to such a world makes the book worth reading. And, thankfully, he keeps the tone fairly light: there are just enough puns and jokes to keep a smile on your face, but not enough that the book verges on parody.
And while I have to admit that the ending does border, as some other reviewers have pointed out, on deus ex machina (as it does in "Earth"), it seemed like he laid the foundation for it over the course of the novel, so it doesn't come as a shock.
IMO, this is the best Brin book I've read (I haven't reached the Uplift trilogy yet, though), and I would highly recommend it to anyone, even people who don't normally read SF.
Rating: 3
Summary: A ditto's guide to life the universe and everything
Comment: WEDNESDAY MORNING'S POINT OF VIEW
In a meeting with the boss, while my rig sits at home reading this book which is about ME! But thems the breaks, dittos don't complain, there's no time really, when you only live for one day.
This meeting is really getting on my nerves, i feel an bearable urge to go to the park. I think I WILL go to the park. Oops, i'm out in the park- oh! does this mean I am a frankie? Sigh!
Meanwhile my rig is still reading this book- which i really should get my hands on. But only if I can read the whole thing in one day. If only life extension for dittos was being developed... but there are ethical reasons for that.
Might as well go see some people. Oh dear, someone is trying to kill us. But I am only a dit.
Woah, this is getting really strange. All the rules don't apply. I'm confused, this really shouldn't happen to a dit. Am I a hero? Who's the hero? Who is God? Where is God?
Ah- should have stayed home and read this book instead!
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Title: The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson ISBN: 0812545249 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 17 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson ISBN: 0553580078 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer ISBN: 0765345005 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 17 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan ISBN: 0345457684 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 04 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick ISBN: 0380812894 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 25 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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