false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175274758m/499429.jpg 499429 2 Counting Heads is David Maruseks extraordinary launch as an SF novelist: The year is 2134, and the Information Age has given rise to the Boutique Economy, in which mass production and mass consumption are rendered obsolete. Life extension therapies have increased the human lifespan by centuries. Loyal mentars (artificial intelligence) and robots do most of societys work. The Boutique Economy has made redundant ninety-nine percent of the worlds fifteen billion human inhabitants. The world would be a much better place if they all simply went away. Eleanor K. Starke, one of the worlds leading citizens, is assassinated, and her daughter, Ellen, is mortally wounded. Only Ellen, the heir to her mothers financial empire, is capable of saving Earth from complete domination plotted by the cynical, selfish, immortal rich, if she, herself, survives. Her cryonically frozen head is in the hands of her familys enemies. A ragtag ensemble of unlikely heroes join forces to rescue Ellens head, all for their own purposes. Counting Heads arrives like a bolt of electricity, galvanizing readers with an entirely new vision of the future. Its the SF debut of the year. 487556 2005 Counting Heads total:122|5:33|4:35|3:30|2:18|1:6| 122 437 263 38 4 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 22 12:13:26 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 22 12:34:45 -0800 2008 "On March 30, 2092, the Department of Health and Human Services issues Eleanor and me a permit...There was a baby in a drawer in Jersey with our names on it. We were out of our minds with joy."<i/>

The first paragraph of this book may go in my top ten all time opening par...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 09:46:37 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 10:18:35 -0800 2009 As a 'first novel' I found this book to be less than satisfying. While it's densely packed with all sorts of futuristic scenarios and interesting technological 'stuff', the plot is hard to parse. Partly due to a glaring lack of clear delineation of terminology he uses in th...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:38:42 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:38:42 -0800 2009 Critics compared this debut SF novel to works by Charles Stross, Rudy Rucker, John Wright, and even Philip K. Dick. Marusek examines present-day trends in technical and scientific advances, projects the social, biological, economic, and political consequences of such progress__and runs with it. Yet,...

more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 26 15:34:53 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 26 15:34:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Feb 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 13:50:57 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 19:24:06 -0800 2009 ...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Jan 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 20:33:57 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 20:39:40 -0800 2009 This is a novel I bought on publication four years or so ago, and tried to read many times and stopping after the brilliant novella introduction told by Sam, when it just degenerates in cold jargon that meant nothing to me.

Since I got an arc of book 2, I decided to get over once...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue May 12 09:53:38 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 09:57:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Sep 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 21:06:18 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 18 00:43:20 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun May 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 14 22:14:20 -0700 2008 Mon May 19 09:32:25 -0700 2008 Counting Heads reminds me of Charles Stross' <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17863.Accelerando>Accelerando in that every other page contains an idea guaranteed to twist your perception of the possible.
...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Oct 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 23:12:12 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 23:14:25 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Apr 15 09:53:33 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 18:26:29 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Feb 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 21:55:48 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 22:00:10 -0800 2009 Mind Over Ship is the sequel to this one.more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Oct 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 14:55:33 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 12:44:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Aug 11 09:55:37 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 11 10:01:28 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Feb 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 20:34:54 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 13:25:02 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Thu Aug 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 20:12:40 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 20:31:12 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 18 07:55:31 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 18 08:00:24 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 20:46:02 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 01 20:50:45 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Oct 06 15:14:44 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 15:15:16 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Mar 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 16:48:36 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 16:50:19 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=499429