Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44076 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Synopsis
Spares - human clones, the ultimate health insurance. An eye for an eye - but some people are doing all the taking. The story of Jack Randall: burnt-out, dropped out, and way overdrawn at the luck bank. But as caretaker on a Spares Farm, he still has a choice, and it might make a difference.

Customer Reviews

totally loses track of itself - but is fun nonetheless
So 'Spares' by Michael Marshall Smith is at once a sci fi thrill ride of intricate cyberpunk proportions. It is fueled by a great idea and loads of invention - such as the sentient computer systems and viruses. all very interesting.
its well written and witty to the point of sniggering in places.
However, the premise of Spares begins as an interesting jaunt into the ethics of cloning and the spare humans it involves. This section is great (roughly the first 3rd) then suddenly Smith wants to write a different book, so he begins the second premise halfway through this one, an alternate reality you can enter where Earth's brain resides called The Gap. this story is more fantasyesque and very annoyingly, the clones story is almost completely...forgotten. The spares are mentioned every 30 pages or so from then on, but the book becomes some weird race against time in this drugfueled vietnam. The title and premise of the story is lost.
The postrationalised ending is very annoying - smith seems to not have known how to end it and tacked on a weird magicesque thing that leaves much to be desired and many holes.
overall, if you want a story about clones - like your led to believe on the blurb - avoid this book.
but if you want a well written, witty, noir-ish and fun rollok through a great science fiction detective hunt then you could do worse.
never gonna be a classic novel - coz its too messy - but its a fun read.
6/10 for the messy losing track story
8/10 for the writing.
equals 7/10

So Good I read it in German
Why add another review? - well, because its great to shout about a class act.

Horrific, Funny, Intelligent, Thrilling.

I have even chosen this as my first book to read in German - one way to make the lessons more fun.

Ps - enyone else notice that the film `The Island` with Ewan McGregor totaly rips this book off - not that Smith ever got the credit? Coincidence? - perhaps(not that the film is fit to polish the boots of Spares)

Been There, bought the t-shirt
I had to read this as the choice of the month for my book club. Science Fiction is not my favourite genre, and I have to say, that to disagree with almost everyone who has written a review of this book, it really didn't do it for me at any level.
This is a kind of Crime Noir thriller set in the future, and dealing with the usual science fiction preoccupations of a dystopian hierarchical society which has squandered most of its natural resources, and where humans are forced to live in giant space stations where they are only allowed access to certain areas depending on their social levels. I wonder why the class system is always so in evidence in these instances, and always plays such an important part as a plot device.
The hero, Jack Randall, is a burned out has been, whose family have been ground up in some hideous accident for which he bears guilt. He is also a casualty of war/military/police action, which has left him competent enough for his role in the book, but conveniently maverick enough to exist on the fringes of a society in which he can make some attempt to right wrongs and stop the 'voices' in his head.
This book also deals with the old chestnut of genetic engineering and body farming in which Jack finds himself an unwilling abettor, for which he must again, make amends.
The only good point about the book is the embracing of the Schrodinger's Cat/Quantum theory and the use of the parallel, ghost like universe of horror which manifests itself at alarmingly frequent intervals throughout the book. This was new to me, and as such made for interesting reading, but everything else has been said before.