Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38417 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Synopsis
Society in the twenty-third century runs smoothly and peacefully with the aid of Social Care operatives such as Judy 3. Meanwhile benevolent AIs, under the control of the near mythical Watcher, seem to have solved all mankind's problems, and with their aid humans have begun to explore the surrounding universe. But why does every AI that visits the planet Gateway commit suicide within just hours of arriving there? Justinian Sibelius has now himself arrived on the planet to try and find a reason. Yet how can someone with merely human intelligence solve a puzzle that has defeated minds far greater than his own - even that of the Watcher itself? And what if it should turn out that the Watcher is not so benevolent as people once believed? 'An exceptional first novel. A new British star has arrived to join the likes of Hamilton, Reynolds and Banks' Vector'.

Customer Reviews

Good book, but no ending!
I read this book a few months ago and I generally enjoyed it. There were quite a few interesting ideas, it was well written, and it kept my interest going most of the time. The big disappointment for me was that it didn't have a proper ending, instead you have to wait for the next in the series. I wasn't aware of this when I bought the book, and I found it infuriating that I didn't get a complete book for my money. It seems a lot of sci-fi books are part of a series these days, so perhaps it's not a problem for other people.

An Existential Roller-Coaster
This is a fine book about a future world in which multiple virtual realities exist alongside 'atomic' reality and a human being may choose to have multiple versions of themselves made (and where illegal copies of human beings may be made for the purpose of abuse and exploitation). The world is ruled by AIs who seem benign but may not be. Hyper-intelligent robots co-exist alongside human beings: strange subtle, devious, passionate robots, very much against the grain of what we expect robots to be like. Human and artificial intelligence alike face a strange new existential threat from beyond the galaxy.

Like its predecessor Recursion, this is a subtle, ambiguous book which really is about life, the universe and everything. It's full of thought-provoking ideas and not only ideas about only about robots and artificial intelligence (though Ballantyne clearly knows what he is talking about here) but about belief and certainty, good and evil, free will and determinism, childishness and maturity...

There are some great set pieces: the scene in the cave on Gateway, the showdown between Judy, Frances and Chris... At times it is nightmarish, at times absurd, at times touching and hopeful. Like all the best imagined worlds - and like the real world - there isn't a tidy edge to this fictional universe. It extends beyond the horizon. You could reread the book and find new things in it, or change your mind about what is really going on.

Highly recommended. I look forward to the third novel.