David Marusek

I gave up on this book halfway through. I almost never give up on books like that... but in this case, the book never connected with me.

The story, to the extent that there is one, is set on a future Earth that has been devastated by nano- and biological weapons. People live in cities, which serve as enclaves to protect them from remnants of past wars. We have a massive class divide, with cloned humans serving as virtual slaves and affluents who rule the world, all living in a police state set up in response to these weapons. Most people have AI assistants, who sadly aren't very intelligent. The affluents can live a long time, but happiness seems to elude them. Actually, pretty much everyone we see in the book seems unhappy, whether due to poverty, boredom, or something else. The author puts a great deal of energy into inventing and describing this future. However, the future we see is, well, rather depressing. To the extent that the book is primarily about this possible future, the book ends up being rather depressing, itself.

Or perhaps that's not the problem. Perhaps the problem is that the characters are, themselves, depressed and depressing. There is no character in here who I wanted to spend more time with; they are unsympathetic, shallow, empty-shelled, and unable or unwilling to do anything about it. There's no hero, no character to identify with and root for, no one to look up to. No one seems to have any particular passion or drive. Everyone is entirely too passive -- things happen to them, for no particular reason, and they don't or can't do anything about it. The characters are not subjects; they don't act upon the world; instead, they are the objects who are acted upon. They're like a rock who is stepped upon, eroded by time, gathered up and displayed for all to see by a collector, crushed by a mining operation into pieces... stuff happens, but it's not because of any of the characters. Actually, the characters with the most sense of personality are the AIs, but even they don't seem to have an independent drive of their own; they merely live to serve their masters. No one seems to have a sense of humor, and they all seem to be alone in the world. Sure, there are couples, but you don't see much love between them; folks have friends, but you don't see much of a bond or affection between them; you don't see them receiving emotional strength or support others. They're all on their own. When you add all of this up, it gets to be a real downer. Not what I'm looking for, for my entertainment.

The strong point of the book is the vividly imagined future. It's carefully thought out, credible, and well integrated into the book. But, well, I guess I need something more. Maybe a personality who makes me laugh or who I enjoy spending time with; maybe a plot that makes me turn the pages; something. This book lacks that... something. Oh well, maybe the author's next novel will be better!… (meer)