Dreaming in Smoke [Mass Market Paperback]

Tricia Sullivan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 1998

Kalypso Deed is a shotgun, riding the interface between the AI Ganesh and human scientists who solve problems through cyberassisted Dreams. But she's young and a little careless; she'd rather mix drinks and play jazz. Azamat Marcsson is a colorless statistician: middle-aged, boring, and obsessed with microorganisms. A first-class nonentity--until one of his Dreams implodes, taking Kalypso with it.

Now Ganesh is crashing, and nothing could be worse. For on the planet T'nane, it is the AI alone that keeps the colonists alive, eking out a grim existence in an environment inimical to human life. To save the colony, Kalypso must persuade Marcsson to finish the Dream that is destroying Ganesh. But Marcsson has gone mad, and T'nane itself has plans for them both that will alter their minds--and their world--forever.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Remember the first time you picked up Neuromancer, Snow Crash, or Mirrorshades and found yourself bewitched by the succubus of cyberpunk, enthralled by new worlds and dimensions, your imagination pummeled into impossible configurations? Nowadays, the term conjures up recycled nightmarish visions of Blade Runner-esque cityscapes, and humanoids either hyped up on technodrugs or jacked into the mainframe. In fact, these have defined the genre for so long that you may not realize that other possibilities exist until you read Dreaming in Smoke. How many SF books have you read that combine cyberpunk, hard science, and worldbuilding in one smooth, gripping volume? Tricia Sullivan, praised as one of the finest new talents in the field by David Brin, has crafted an utterly fresh view of our interaction with artificial intelligences. Her characters, the protagonist Kalypso, the scientist Marcsson, the AI Ganesh, and the unyielding alien planet T'nane are drawn in vivid, seductive detail, while the plot evolves in an exquisitely riveting course toward uncharted horizons, breathing new life into old ideas. At last, cyberfiction has escaped the confines of dark, fetid futures, matured beyond the adrenaline and attitude, and is free to reach into all areas of SF and the universe at large. --Jhana Bach

From the Publisher

"One of the field's major new talents."--Locus

Praise for Someone To Watch Over Me:

"Recalls some of the best recent work of Bruce Sterling...intelligent, rigorous, hip."--Locus

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Spectra (May 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553577034
• ISBN-13: 978-0553577037
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,264,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listen to the Music, June 3, 2000

By 

Igor Koyfman (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming in Smoke (Mass Market Paperback)

So there is a computer-like AI thing with an immersive VR interface. Does that automatically label the story cyberpunk? Most of it takes place outside the interface, while the data collected on the planet by the mediocre scientist Marcsson modify behavior of the AI in control of the colony's base, threatening the colony's existence. No one knows what's going on until the almost very end, and various factions create complications for each other, throwing around sabotage accusations. For the main character, Kalypso, it's all set to music. Or the lack of that. Picked on and abused by almost everyone, she holds the key to everyone's survival without knowing it.

None of the characters are particularly likeable, as they all are viewed from the objective point, emphasizing their human vices and failures. Math is merely called by name, there's none of it there to buffle the reader. Biology is present more strongly, requiring some basic knowlege of what algae are, as they compose all the visible life on the mostly liquid planet.

While some of the flow-of-conscience sequences aren't very interesting, the story in general is filled with overtones of psychedelic poetry. The AI functioning on the basis of Miles Davis's melodies alone is a wonderful idea, but there are also vivid paintings of the grim landscape, surreal encounters in both the reality and virtuality, and an implicit soundtrack detailed on the thank you list. Definitely a fresh non-standard work, and definitely worth reading. It may be called a classic one day. Don't forget to listen to the music!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What Hard Work!, August 9, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Hernando, Mississippi) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming in Smoke (Mass Market Paperback)

I love Trish Sullivan's work; I was absolutely enraptured by Lethe. But Dreaming In Smoke had me drowning in math, strange arguements, and a world that would have been better served if the author (luv ya, Trish, really!) would have spent less time on the mechanics of the colonist's existance and more on the mechanics of their emotions. The biggest problem with the book is that I really didn't feel like Azamat Marcsson was much of a threat or why the book spent so much time revolving around his experiments. Not to admit a cheesy past addiction to Nintendo or anything, but dern, I wanted to know more about what life was like for Ganesh during this crisis, it's almost as if the sky was falling, but nobody bothered to spend enough time talking about how and why. And yes, what WERE the fights with the dead? And yes, I would wait and buy it second-hand as well in hindsight.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't do it for me, January 28, 2001

By 

C. Bickford (Round Lake Beach, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreaming in Smoke (Mass Market Paperback)

I never got the hang of disjointed surrealistic novels. This is definately one of those. It seems to meander in various directions, and I never once got the hang of what exactly was going on, or what was supposed to be going on - if anything.

It also suffered from a fault that many futuristic novels have. It seems that references to past events stop about the present time, and go back from there. Few novelist bother to fill in enough backstory for references to the past after the novel was published. It's a minor thing, but it can annoy me at times.

It had the elements of an interesting story, but I couldn't put it together well enough to enjoy the novel. If this is your sort of novel, you'll like this one well enough. It isn't mine, so I didn't.