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Title: The Golden Age by John C. Wright ISBN: 0-8125-7984-4 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 14 April, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.97 (32 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Dazzling Vision of the Far Future
Comment: Author John C. Wright has received a lot of praise for this, his first novel - and deservedly so. Set millennia in the future, he envisions humanity at a time when its command of the physical world, already very advanced, almost pales beside its command of the world of mentality. People have the ability to alter their perceptions and memories, to achieve immortality by making backup copies of their minds, and even to change their mental architecture. This last ability results in a wide variety of physical and mental forms, each with a different set of capabilities, broadening the kinds of "people" who inhabit Wright's Golden Oecumene.
The effect of these and other advances is to render society completely free of crime and deception. People can tailor the way in which they experience reality, and can even choose to live within a virtual reality of their own making. In many ways, it's a Utopian vision that Wright puts forward, hence the title of the book. However, under this brilliant near-perfect facade, troubling questions remain.
What is the value of the privacy that citizens relenquish when they join the shared mind-space that makes Golden Oecumene society possible? How are the long-term prospects for humanity affected when no one has need or reason to strive for ever greater goals? And how can a society that has seen no war for thousands of years deal with an unseen and unexpected external threat? Wright tackles these questions and more through this tale of Phaethon, his protagonist, who discovers that he has been accused of deeds so threatening to the Oecumene that his memories of them have been erased.
Not only is The Golden Age enthralling for its grand vision of the future, but the tale of mystery and discovery that Wright crafts is compelling and quite enjoyable. I was drawn into this tale from the beginning, and never once lost interest. The only warning I would give a potential reader is that this is the first installment of a trilogy, and that more questions are asked than answered here. But having read the first two installments, I would say without reservation that this is a trilogy worth investing some time in.
Rating: 5
Summary: Ten Star Science Fiction!
Comment: Life, 10,000 years from now. Read this and you enter into a world of immortal beings where consciousness takes many forms as minds find many diverse vessels in which to inhabit. Nanotechnology, computer science, and other technologies have transformed civilization into a true golden age where Sophotechs (conscious computers who think many times faster than humans) control nearly everything. The group called the Hortators exhibit much control also, so is this really a golden age as it appears to be at first glance? The primary character here is a man called Phaethon, who has lost a good part of his memory as a result of a process of selective amnesia, a result of previous actions he cannot remember. He becomes obsessed with discovering the missing memories, with much intrigue along the way, and this is at the heart of a great mystery, brimming with passion and intellect, and ambition.
John Wright uses much reality based imagination here, this is far-future science fiction at it's best, without reverting to fantasy. I especially enjoyed the questions of personal identity and how that relates to whether or not a person is the original or a copy in cases of transferring minds from one medium to another, very thought provoking, speculation that will surely move from science fiction to reality someday, well done here. To use an old cliche', it does'nt get any better than this, with superb plot and character development. THE GOLDEN AGE is book one of a two book series, the concluding novel is THE PHOENIX EXULTANT, yet to be published.
Rating: 1
Summary: Software manuals are more readable
Comment: Others who have called this jargony and overwrought are dead-on. The result is borderline unreadable, plodding and uninteresting. If the Dune books are the zenith of unravelling a complex knot of economic, cultural and technological relationships in a compelling and interesting way, this book is the nadir.
The author needs to read and reread the New Sun books by Gene Wolfe and "The Last Legends of Earth," the fourth volume in A.A. Attannasio's tetralogy for lessons in elegance and subtlety as applied to describing advanced technology.
The old cliche, "Ask the man what time it is and he tells you how to build a watch," is an apt description of how most will feel when trying to grind through this.
Moreover, this book is representative of a disturbing trend of "review inflation" on this site and others. Soon every novel and musical recording on the internet will be rated "four stars" or higher.
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Title: The Phoenix Exultant : The Golden Age, Volume 2 by John C. Wright ISBN: 0765343541 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 19 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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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: The Golden Transcendence : Or, The Last of the Masquerade by John C. Wright ISBN: 0765307561 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 15 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Ilium by Dan Simmons ISBN: 0380978938 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan ISBN: 0345457714 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 02 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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