When Gravity Fails (spoil away in this thread!)

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Have fun talking about anything here!

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

OK, just for Art, I am writing in the spoiler thread.

I am liking this book ok. I'm maybe about 1/3 of the way through. But it is not anything special. It does not read like SF to me, plus, I'm not crazy about the main character. Wavering between 3 and 4 stars. If I really decide it is worth it,

I might go for one of your completionist challenges, but I cannot say for sure yet.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

I like the book, but then I liked Rex Stout mysteries and the noir feel of the book

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Hopefully finishing today

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

I did finish this last week or even longer ago and I liked it pretty well.
But as I said in my review (view spoiler)[I was really disappointed by the end. (hide spoiler)] Z, I think you and I like it 3* for different reasons

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Kateblue wrote: "I did finish this last week or even longer ago and I liked it pretty well.
But as I said in my review "

Don't be shy to link your review here (I've read it, but in general). I see what you dislike about the ending, but it allows to start the next book as a standalone - if none of the current characters wants to have anything with him - there is a clean slate.

I liked moddies as a concept, even if they are too fantasy like - they have to be extremely detailed to actually be immersive and if anyone can be Nero Wolf just by inserting them, why not further progress with moddy of Einstein or Plank?

[Antti]

Didn't the mods just give you the personality but not other abilities of the recorded person? So using a mod of Planck or von Neumann wouldn't make you super-smart, not would it give you the knowledge of physics etc. they had. You would be able to think differently from normal, though, which might give you some insights when combined with your own knowledge base. I understood this was why Nero Wolfe moddy was useful to Marid.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Antti wrote: "Didn't the mods just give you the personality but not other abilities of the recorded person?"

However, a personality of Wolfe helps to solve the mystery, of Bond - to kill and to hide... where is this thin line between traits and abilities?

[Ed]

Antti wrote: "Didn't the mods just give you the personality but not other abilities of the recorded person? ..."

There seem to be different types. I'm reading book 3 The Exile Kiss now. It talks of some mods used as entertainment or porn. Others used to relieve pain or thirst or hunger. Others to give medical knowledge or religious knowledge.

Our hero has one implanted against his will that is used by someone else to control him by causing pain.

The more religious characters find them all sinful.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

I plan to squeeze-in the 2nd volume in my June reading

[Joe]

Finished just in time! I realize now that, in fact, this is the book I read WAY back... though I didn't recognize the title at all (maybe it was some sort of modified version).

Anyway, I love the mood and feel, but Audran is just not a guy I can get behind as a hero... he has all of the traits I dislike in people. He's an addict (and by choice.. he STILL took the drugs when he knew they wouldn't do anything), he gave up every priniciple he said he had over the course of the book, and beat up his girlfriend when he was having a bad day.

My impression of the mods is that they essentially turn you into that person, but of course for fictional or dead people, it's really simply the programmers ability and skill.. so you'd have to have a programmer with the intelligence of Einstein to make a valid one that could have his brain.

I do think the daddies that Audran got were a bit overpowered, they mentioned horrible side effects, but didn't really show them. (Sure, I guess he was in the hospital for a long time, but it didn't seem as bad as it should be).

All that said, I definitely wouldn't mind reading the rest of the series at some point (but not enough to buy them while the library's still not working.)

[Ed]

Oleksandr wrote: "I plan to squeeze-in the 2nd volume in my June reading"

I could get you that for free!

As I was reading volume 3 last night, I found a little coupon inside that said if I mail in proof of purchase for book 3 they would send me book 2 for free! Hurry, though. I have to send it in before July 1, 1991.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

There is a published Kindle book of the whole trilogy that goes on sale occasionally. You could check to see when it is on sale, Open Road/Early Bird/Portalist's sales change daily.

Here's a link. It's not on sale today . . . and in fact, the list price seems to have gone WAY up. But I'd say it does on sale every couple of months. I have quit checking their daily sales because they never add any new books. https://smile.amazon.com/Budayeen-Cyc...

they also put the individual books on sale sometimes

[Ed]

I've already read 1 and 2 and the book of short stories, so I don't need to buy any more. I just found that coupon unusual. I don't remember ever seeing that in any other book.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Ed wrote: "I could get you that for free!"

My time machine doesn't move in space and even in 1991 it was hard to get something into the USSR :)

[Allan]

I just now finished it, a month late. Just had to fit it into my schedule. I really enjoyed it, this is more the darker, edgier style I like. The SF part wasn’t extreme, although it was key to the story, but that didn’t bother me. The encounters with the killers were a little cut and dried but that really didn’t bother me that much.