"Wake" by Robert J. Sawyer (book 20) was a complete change of pace - from numinous fantasy/historical novel with a sense of myth to it, to straight forward science fiction in a very near future, practically today. The (main) protagonist of this novel is a 15 year old girl who's been blind from birth, and what happens when she's fitted with an implant that might let her see. Caitlin feels real (to someone who isn't a 15yo girl any more) - and she uses LJ, and email & IM in ways that feel real. I was a bit less convinced by the tech, in that apparently it lets her see the web because the part of her brain that would do sight has been re-purposed for web navigation because it's been such an important part of her interaction with the world. But I kinda didn't follow how this implant would make her visualise the web suddenly as opposed to whatever she was doing already, SPOILER and I wasn't sure how they managed to make her see reality in a simple change of software if the initial "problem" was her brain having re-wired itself? END SPOILER I just decided that fell in the category of "plot device" though & went along for the ride, the story is really about consciousness, and needing something outside yourself before you see yourself as a self, not the tech per se. This is referenced throughout - Caitlin is fairly obsessed with Helen Keller's life (being blind from birth it has resonance & interest for her, after all), but also there's a plot thread about a chimp who's been taught to talk with sign language and another (major - presumably the eventual point of the story?) thread about the web itself gaining consciousness. The book is very clearly the first part in a story - there's closure on some stuff by the end, but other plot threads are clearly set up for later stuff as well as parallels to the story of the book. A fun read, I will probably read the next two when they come out & if the library gets them, but equally it didn't make me go "want more nownownownow".
- Mood:
busy
"Black Ships" by Jo Graham; "Wake" by Robert J. Sawyer
"Wake" by Robert J. Sawyer (book 20) was a complete change of pace - from numinous fantasy/historical novel with a sense of myth to it, to straight forward science fiction in a very near future, practically today. The (main) protagonist of this novel is a 15 year old girl who's been blind from birth, and what happens when she's fitted with an implant that might let her see. Caitlin feels real (to someone who isn't a 15yo girl any more) - and she uses LJ, and email & IM in ways that feel real. I was a bit less convinced by the tech, in that apparently it lets her see the web because the part of her brain that would do sight has been re-purposed for web navigation because it's been such an important part of her interaction with the world. But I kinda didn't follow how this implant would make her visualise the web suddenly as opposed to whatever she was doing already, SPOILER and I wasn't sure how they managed to make her see reality in a simple change of software if the initial "problem" was her brain having re-wired itself? END SPOILER I just decided that fell in the category of "plot device" though & went along for the ride, the story is really about consciousness, and needing something outside yourself before you see yourself as a self, not the tech per se. This is referenced throughout - Caitlin is fairly obsessed with Helen Keller's life (being blind from birth it has resonance & interest for her, after all), but also there's a plot thread about a chimp who's been taught to talk with sign language and another (major - presumably the eventual point of the story?) thread about the web itself gaining consciousness. The book is very clearly the first part in a story - there's closure on some stuff by the end, but other plot threads are clearly set up for later stuff as well as parallels to the story of the book. A fun read, I will probably read the next two when they come out & if the library gets them, but equally it didn't make me go "want more nownownownow".
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