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164th out of 223 books
—
38 voters
Recursion (AI Trilogy #1)
It is the twenty-third century. Herb, a young entrepreneur, returns to the isolated planet on which he has illegally been trying to build a city–and finds it destroyed by a swarming nightmare of self-replicating machinery. Worse, the all-seeing Environment Agency has been watching him the entire time. His punishment? A nearly hopeless battle in the farthest reaches of the...more
Paperback, 406 pages
Published
August 29th 2006
by Spectra
(first published 2004)
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California Vacation Read #1: The first of a disastrous selection of books brought with me for the trip. The plan to select books for this vacation based on how long I'd owned them and haven't yet gotten around to reading them was a terrible idea. Never. Do this. Again.
In many ways, this one had the distinction of being the least bad of the books on this trip, and yet it still only rates a two. The story had a great deal of potential (Chess game for godhood rights. God that smiles all the time.)...more
In many ways, this one had the distinction of being the least bad of the books on this trip, and yet it still only rates a two. The story had a great deal of potential (Chess game for godhood rights. God that smiles all the time.)...more
This was read to me by Michael over the course of more than a year, mostly in the car. Intermittentness is bad both for enjoyment/understanding of a story when it is a very cleverly-constructed mystery with layers and secrets and so forth (I'm sure it's much more exciting when you can keep enough track of what's going on to guess at some of the mysteries), and for remembering what interesting thoughts one might have had about it when one is writing a review.
There are some obvious drawbacks to th...more
There are some obvious drawbacks to th...more
A future history primarily focused on the interactions between humans and artificial intelligences (AIs), but also has other themes such as choice versus responsibility. It simultaneous tells the stories of three people from three time periods. The suicidal Eva is trying to escape the health care system that caused her depression. The corporate agent Constantine is trying to initiate a secret plan hidden from the AIs. The rich scion Herb is drafted into service by the Environmental Agency to pay...more
I picked up this book based on the summary, which seemed quite interesting. I was saddened to discover, however, that the writing is extremely poor. If you pick up this book hoping to have the author depict an interesting and nuanced SF world to you, you'll be disappointed: every description is bare-bones, more like a movie script than a book (of the kind 'He said this, she said that, he nodded, he walked home.')
I would definitely have passed this one had I known this before.
I would definitely have passed this one had I known this before.
Good, solid scifi with intrigue and maneuvering, and fascinating with no real overt action at all. Extinction is imminent, and some deaths are implied, but there's no killing "on camera". LOVED how the development of the plot was told from three different times over two hundred years. Got a little bit muddled at the end, though, as the timelines resolved into the latest "present". Probably more a matter of my expectations than failing by the author, though.
This was another random used-bookstore buy from a while ago. Recursion provides an interesting answer to Fermi's Paradox, and goes in some neat directions with the implications. Ultimately, however, the book, like so many sci-fi works, comes across as an extended dialogue that the author is having with himself on a number of subjects, this particular dialogue being both on the benefits of social engineering and on who should be trusted with establishing the baseline standards of said social engi...more
Oct 21, 2007
Nicholas Whyte
added it
http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2007/04/the_2007_philip.shtml[return][return]This first novel is an ambitious exploration of the future development of artificial intelligence through three viewpoint characters separated by decades in Ballantyne's future history (2051, 2119 and 2210), but sharing the problems of an intrusive nanny state and also a consistent uncertainty - extending to the characters' perception of themselves - as to who is human and who is an AI. However, I was left unconv...more
This was almost a surreal view of a future world where there are private space vehiles, reproducing machines, an all knowing AI and personalities that don't know they're copies. You are following three stories set at different time periods and it all kind of comes together at the end. Maybe in the following books it continues to explain but I didn't find the book absorbing enough to continue on.
Book was ok. It starts off pretty slow and boring, gets better about half way through. Not sure I would have finished the book if it hadn't been a book club choice.
I do find a lot of aspects of the book interesting, as far as the ideas go. However, just felt most of it was presented poorly. Also, the twists didn't really seem like twists. Pretty predictable.
I do find a lot of aspects of the book interesting, as far as the ideas go. However, just felt most of it was presented poorly. Also, the twists didn't really seem like twists. Pretty predictable.
I just finished this one at approximately 1:30AM on March 8th, 2007. It's plenty interesting, but not -exciting-. Definitely worth a read, and I'm interested in the sequel, but I'm not sure I'd ever want to read it a second time.
It starts out fairly simply but with a story spread out across three (or 4) distinct time periods spanning hundreds of years with characters that pop in and out of other periods and murkey motivations so that you're never certain of the motivations of any of them it gets fairly complex quickly.
Throw in the fact that some of the characters are imaginary, and it just spirals out of control.
It did have some interesting ideas about AI, and an almost luddite perspective about technology in general -...more
Throw in the fact that some of the characters are imaginary, and it just spirals out of control.
It did have some interesting ideas about AI, and an almost luddite perspective about technology in general -...more
I’m pretty sure it’s the idea that sold this book. It’s a good one, and I suspect the writer is either a computer programmer, or read up a lot on how to sound like one. It’s believable enough, but at times it seemed a bit forced.
The writing is serviceable, but not particularly grabbing or exciting. The idea he’s got here – which I can’t spoil without spoiling the book – is a good one. I only wish he’d written a more interesting story about it.
OK wait, that wasn’t quite right. The story is intere...more
The writing is serviceable, but not particularly grabbing or exciting. The idea he’s got here – which I can’t spoil without spoiling the book – is a good one. I only wish he’d written a more interesting story about it.
OK wait, that wasn’t quite right. The story is intere...more
This was an interesting story about AI's controlling humanity's future. It starts out kind of slow, but really grew on me. I found myself missing the characters when I was done.
Deep book, questioning reality, free-will, AI, and the existence of sentient alien life. The constant swapping of consciousnesses was a little odd and started to get old the third time it was used, but other than that, this was an excellent book
A little too hard core scifi for my tastes. I normally don't mind books jumping around and introducing different time periods, but I found it hard to care in this case.
What can I say? There was a typo within the first 20 pages. The characters were weak and I skimmed the last 30 pages. Lost interest about half way through but pushed myself to continue to see if it got better; not so much.
Really interesting science fiction novel. Engaging premise that keeps changing and developing. I really enjoyed it.
Oct 24, 2012
Debbie
marked it as to-read
Picked this up at Room of One's Own, because it looked potentially entertaining and was only $4. We shall see.
great book.
talks about interesting AI, alien, and super intelligence.
talks about interesting AI, alien, and super intelligence.
If I could picture the best sci -fi movie in my head that I hadn't seen but wanted to, this would be it. It's a book that should be a movie. Of all the movies that get the green light and get millions of dollars to be made, this should be one of them. The theme of a man covertly turning a planet into a disaster and while trying to get away, gets caught is only the begining. There's 2 other stories being told. If your not one that like multiple stories or characters, erase that idea. This book ma...more
2 stars. either the author was confused, or it was me.
A little hard to follow...
Feb 02, 2013
Mike Franklin
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction,
all-read
for what is, I believe, Ballantyne's first novel, I was really very impressed. Really good computer based hard SF, and a good story (though it did have a couple of weaknesses).
Not great, but not terrible. The first 3/4ths of the novel are confusing and the various characters have literally nothing to do with each other. The very end is interesting in much the same way as Westerfeld’s Evolution’s Darling or Blindsight--it’s an exploration of what it means to be intelligent, and what intelligent machines would mean (both to humanity and to themselves).
Mar 30, 2008
Nick0z
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Nick0z by:
Amazon List by Patrick Rothfuss
Shelves:
sci-fi
Most Sci-Fi I read was written decades ago. This book had interesting new ideas which haven't passed their prime while still keeping the quality of that old Heinlein/Asimov Sci-Fi books.
Apr 18, 2013
Kiki
added it
I'm about half way through the book. I'm enjoying it, but the end had better clear things up.
Micro-mechanized robotic city building gone wrong....so far it's pretty good.
First in a hard-SF series with an emphasis on von Neumann machines.
I really liked this book. The setting it implies is quite imaginative.
*BIB*
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Anthony Ballantyne, is a British science-fiction author who is most famous for writing his debut trilogy of novels, Recursion, Capacity and Divergence. He is also Head of Information Technology and an Information Technology teacher at The Blue Coat School, Oldham and has b...more
More about Tony Ballantyne...
Anthony Ballantyne, is a British science-fiction author who is most famous for writing his debut trilogy of novels, Recursion, Capacity and Divergence. He is also Head of Information Technology and an Information Technology teacher at The Blue Coat School, Oldham and has b...more
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Sep 14, 2010 04:21am