Customer Reviews

Assemblers of Infinity

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

if you like a novel written with 3 to 5 interelated parallel story lines. then this one is for you. Primarily different groups of astronauts, scientists, military brass and nasa types running around making illogical decisions. A fast read because you want it to be over. I gave it an extra star for excellent editing.

This was a very fun story. Nanotechnology has always been a fascinating topic.. the potentials are amazing. Harnessing a story around the technology is sure to be a lot of fun.

And Anderson/Beason do not disappoint. Their basic approach is that mankind is on the edge of understanding nanotech, but not there yet.. and this can lead to disastrous consequences. When they are presented with alien nanotech.. and these aliens DEFINITELY know what their doing.. our ignorance and initial fumblings create a uninterrupted tension.

I'm a sucker for conclusive endings.. and this story doesn't have one... and I applaud them for it. It fits the story. You'll
enjoy the story, don't worry.

At moon, a huge radio wave array sits below lunar equator on the Deadalus crater. It never saw or heard Earth. The place was a perfect spot to study very low frequencies and avoid Earth side radio wave diffractions that would ruin delicate measurements. It was designed to function autonomously. Decades, because nothing was supposed to change at the moon. Yet, without warning the VLF data stream to Earth was cut. Silent. Nothing. The Moon base Columbus had to know what malfunction could cause idiot proof system to fail. A crew travelling with a moon hopper soon reached the site, but something was very wrong. A gigantic mine shaft plunged downward. It yawned like a giant mouth. And the crew couldn't see the bottom. How could anyone excavate a hole like that without Moon base detecting anything on their seismographs?

The story is about nanotechnology, both looking from the viewpoint of early experiments in Earth and comparing it against the advanced alien marvels found at the Moon. While the immense alien cave structure at Moon stays at center, the scientists try to figure out the ecology of the nanomachines and their purpose. And as the threat from military angle is starting to feel imminent, the science ethics to follow proper procedures is forgotten to make an crossbreed of human and alien nanotech. With consequences.

Two (2) stars. Written in 1993 this is Kevin Anderson's early 4th novel which was previously published as series in scifi Locus magazine 1992. It must have been different to read the story as the magazines appeared from mail slot. In a book form, the flow of the narrative feels like thick juice whose viscosity doesn't let go to fluently take it the to the next page. It's like tar. Even if you hope to get further, you still can't get out off it. In this regard the book feels heavy. The problem probably is that the nanotechnology presented in the story hasn't aged well to hold fresh. For the characters it can be debated if it is plausible for brilliant leading scientist to ignore all safety protocols and endanger whole of human kind with her nano breedings. The military aspect of nuking the threat, unless the problem is solved, is like putting a tripod to the story. That tripod is shorter than the other two (Earth, Moon). The final resolution, where readers are shown the purpose of the excavation cobbles, is not a fulfillment but standing at awe. It's tough to bite cheese to believe that the military threat is conjured away and displaced with a peaceful co-existence with the aliens. A book that may be best to left being dusted.

Normally I enjoy Kevin J. Anderson's works, but this is a difficult read. I hope the problem is Kindle edition only, but I'm constantly distracted by misspellings and typos that should have been caught before going to print. Mid story, there is an average of one error per page. The story, while interesting, drags at a snail's pace. The characters aren't particularly well developed or likeable. If I weren't so stubborn, I would have dropped this book within the first night's reading. Now I find myself plowing through a few chapters each night in the hopes that the finale will prove worthwhile.

The story takes off like a rocket. Here's a synopsis (In my own words of course):

It's just an ordinary day for the science team aboard the Columbus moon-base, until an eerie silence from the Array itself located on the far side of the moon requires two among them to ascertain and resolve the problem. No biggie, or so we think. And this, is where the story gets interesting - all short of three pages too! Before that time, the Daedalus Crater (home of the array) offered an invaluable opportunity to study unencumbered VLF radio waves. Now, it's home to trillions of tiny microscopic critters that were undetectable at first but are neverhtheless, busy @work building some ALIEN contraption.

This is a fantastic read. If you love hard science fiction that isn't too heavy, yet, interesting enough to hold your attention, then this is the book for you. Although I'll have to admit that some of the tangential character development stories in the background did seem to drag a bit and were a little common. There was one female character that I thought was pretty interesting as she showed elusive capabilities of clairvoyance, but was not given enough airtime. This notwithstanding, Assemblers of Infinity is about the wonders of nanotechnology and man's insatiable curiosity of the unknown. It has all the technical sciency jargon we sci-fi enthusiast can't get enough of along with good story-telling. The ending was great and left me wanting more but I'm not gonna spoil it for you.

SOME QUALIFYING TIDBITS:

This book came sharply into focus only after I read Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns and loved it! In fact, it's the only other science fiction saga outside the Dune chronicles that I revisit with any regularity. Incidentally, Mr. Anderson was nominated for the Nebula Award for his work here and I see why. Aside from acquiring degrees in both Physics and Astronomy, he's been a technical editor working with folks in the upper echelons of both the military & science communities, and not to mention, the executive branch. This is an impressive resume to say the least. Much of what you read on how we (humanity) might respond to such an event, falls well within the realm of possibility.

His mention of Erik Drexler, founder of nanotechnology, actually inspired me to read up on the guy and some of his theories. And that's probably one the best things about this book. Indeed, if any book can pique the interest of a reader beyond it's own borders then that's golden. This is my inaugural review of the very first book I've ever purchased from Amazon. So, I'm pretty excited. More than anything, I hope this review has been of some benefit to other potential readers.

Good physics. Good biology. Solid Science in general. Heck of a story too. Page turner. Could not put it down.

If you want to read some of Kevin J Anderson's books I would highly recommend starting with this one!! This book was nominated for a, very much deserved, Nebula award in 1994.

The basic story line involves a human moonbase crew discovering alien construction of some sort on the moon. They try to unravel the purpose of the construction while having to deal with a trigger happy military that is eager to destroy it before it can harm the Earth.

This is a very good read, quite the page turner!!

It was one of the best books i've read by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason

The author blurb at the back of "Assemblers of Infinity" claims that the writers are almost uniquely well qualified to tackle the scientific aspects of this story. I can't comment about the feasibility of nanotechnology as they describe it since that's not my area of expertise. I can say, however, that their depiction of how the scientific community works and responds to events is completely off base. To begin with, the story is set about twenty years in the future, when researchers on the Moon discover a gigantic construction being built inside a crater. They soon discover that it is the work of alien "nanocritters", tiny self-replicating machines sent by an extraterrestrial civilization. Authorities on earth recruit a scientist and send her to the Moon to investigate. Now here's one major problem. If we ever did encounter a working alien artifact like this, it would be a huge discovery and an enormous group of researchers from around the world would be convened to study it. Many science fiction authors seem to love the idea of a solitary brilliant scientist who single-handedly solves all the major problems in their story but folks, that's just not the way it works. There are other mistakes in this book as well, such as a different researcher who endangers the entire world by inexplicably ignoring basic security measures. Real scientists know better.

Other than that, I wouldn't necessarily say that this is a bad attempt at hard science fiction, just a really mediocre one. Most of the cast of characters is passable, but the writing leaves a lot to be desired. Rather than trying to end each chapter on a high note, the authors instead usually break with a character chatting or brushing their hair or something. Most of the dialogue doesn't really sound like people who are actually facing a dangerous crisis. However, I can't deny that the central idea of alien nanotechnology is pretty cool, and the climactic sequence is well written, although some of the mysteries set forth earlier aren't really explained satisfactorily. I'm feeling generous today, so three stars.

Two bad this isn't in print