Short-listed for the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Science Fiction Association's Best Novel Award, "Silver Screen" presents an...
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Apr 16, 2009
Jason
rated it: 
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
Although this is by no means a regular occurrence yet in my life, I do now have a growing amount of appropriate yet friendly relationships with publishing companies out there, where they simply send me review copies of books instead of me having to track them down through the local librar More...
Although this is by no means a regular occurrence yet in my life, I do now have a growing amount of appropriate yet friendly relationships with publishing companies out there, where they simply send me review copies of books instead of me having to track them down through the local librar More...
Sep 06, 2011
Alan
rated it: 
I didn't realize this until I was almost through with it, but Silver Screen is actually Justina Robson's first novel, first published way back in 1999, although the edition I ran across in Powell's City of Books is a somewhat newer reissue by the American Pyr imprint. Which explains a lot—both my impression of this book as not quite as polished as Robson's more recent work (say, Mappa Mundi, which I thought was stunning), and also what seemed such oddly labored descriptions of artificial intelli
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May 15, 2010
Linda
rated it:
Friend Joel recommended Justina Robson - not this book, but I like to read an author new to me in order. This is Ms. Robson's first, published in 1999. The first few lines grabbed me, and then I got a little dizzy. The kerning and font were disorienting, and it was so weird I got up to look at other books to see if it was that much different. It is. The words are far apart, the letters almost as wide as tall...squarish. For a couple pages I couldn't decide if I was going to be able to actually r
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Aug 01, 2010
David
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I finished Justina Robson's Silver Screen today, and it was pretty good. Robson asks a lot of interesting questions about the nature of consciousness, specifically in the area of machine intelligence, and she's clearly spent a lot of time thinking through possibilities. No mere Turing test for her! Her heroine, Anjuli O'Connell, is much more of an Alice than a Dorothy, thus keeping in the British tradition of the protagonist who is done to rather than the one who herself does. I was surprised at
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Aug 24, 2009
Deirdre
rated it: 
I'm very glad I intercepted one of Justina Robson's books en route to another library becasue this too was a very good read.
In a near future England where clever children are sent to a school to learn faster, Anjuli O'Connell is an exception, among all the exceptionally bright she's different, she has perfect recall, a memory that logs everything (would have made an exceptional librarian!). Her school friends carry over to her working life, partially because she can decode what the More...
In a near future England where clever children are sent to a school to learn faster, Anjuli O'Connell is an exception, among all the exceptionally bright she's different, she has perfect recall, a memory that logs everything (would have made an exceptional librarian!). Her school friends carry over to her working life, partially because she can decode what the More...
Feb 12, 2009
It was a little hard for me to grasp having never read science fiction. The topic of AI along with the emotion and legality of AI as property made for a really good, but slow read for me.
Nov 05, 2011
Ashvin
rated it: 
Eh, maybe I wasn't in the mood for this one. I usually give books about 20% or so and, if reading it is a chore, then I stop. I gave this one a little longer because a friend had recommended it. Unfortunately, I just didn't care about any of the characters or the plot or anything. "Silver Screen" is Robson's first, or at least a very early, novel, so maybe she gets better. Either way, it's in the "read" shelf because I'm done with it, and also in my newly created "didn't
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Dec 28, 2010
Simeonberesford
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Uh Cyberpunk I suppose and literate. She might be worth keeping an eye on but she isnt there yet.
Jul 30, 2008
Wendy
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One of the best AI books I've ever read. The only thing I felt was a little off was the handling of the character Augustine, who never seemed like he quite fit properly into the narrative, although maybe that was intentional.
Mar 12, 2008
Ferret
rated it:
A good look at the legal and emotional ramifications of singularity, with an unsatisfying and abrupt ending.
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