Customer Reviews

Genesis

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In the far future, humans only inhabit the stars as personality simulations, subroutines in vast, powerful artificial intelligencies that form a "galactic brain". One such uploaded mind is Christian Brannock. As an engineer, he helped build the first great works in space and was one of the first to work in intimate symbiosis with the AIs who, rather than man, colonized the stars. On Earth, the reigning intelligence is Gaia, a computer that rules human affairs and also posseses, in its libraries, presevered human minds it uses to ruin elaborate simulations of real and alternate histories.

Millions of years pass in this novel's almost Stapledonian sweep, and the galactic brain becomes concerned about the seeming obsession of Gaia with Earth history, her secretiveness, and her unresponsiveness to their proposal on whether the now geologically ancient Earth should be saved from a bloated sun, a test run for greater galactic engineering to come. A version of the Brannock mind is copied and sent on his way to Earth.

There he, and a slightly different copy, attempt to figure out what Gaia's up to. One version, inhabiting a robot's body, explores the dying Earth. The other engages in talk and travel with Lucinda Ashcroft, a personality inhabiting Gaia.

This novel puts together, in a surprisingly successful way, just about all the strains of Anderson's previous works from the epic sweep of Tau Zero (SF Collector's Edition) (Gollancz SF collector's edition)to his heroic fantasy to the uploaded minds of some of his most recent science fiction to alternate histories and time travel. The novel's sense of true tragedy is not new to Anderson, but, as the title hints, there is an unexpected theological flavor that is rare, but not unknown, in his work.

This novel should not only satisfy any fan of Anderson's but also serve as a good introduction to the rest of his work.

This is really a set of short stories, loosely connected byt a story line spanning billions of years. The first vignette shows Christian Brannock exploring the surface of Mercury. The environment is far too harsh for human survival, even with ordinary kinds of environmental support, so Brannock explores as part of a man/metal team with Gadget, a robot with intelligence of its own. His close, even warm relationship with silicon intelligence makes him a unique candidate for the greatest exploration of all - the stars. Even if the distance is too great for the human body to traverse, Brannock's mind is recorded in a robot explorer. As much of a man as ever could reach the stars does.

After a winding and relatively peaceful set of interludes, Brannock, or something like him, returns to Earth. Its planetary intelligence has been acting oddly, in the eyes of the machine minds of nearby stars. The machine intelligence that includes Brannock is sent to investigate. After a billion years or more, they find the one thing they never expected to see ...

... but find out for yourself. This is as good as SF gets: intelligent, based on sound science, and built around characters that I can empathize with. There's nothing spectacular here, just good, thoughtful writing.

//wiredweird

This book deals with the future assimilation of humans into electronic existance ,much like the famed "Tommorow and tommorow" of Charles Sheffield. True ,it's lingering taste is more emotional ,as Gaia trys to give the human-race the choise to live ,because she is more human then all other nodes in the galactic-brain ,but in the science-fictional aspect I feel "T&T" has been more wild ,maybe more ingenius. I've been more dumb-founded by the sheer influence of Drake Merlin on the universe ,Than touched with the understanding of Gaia's motives.

Maybe it's only me ,though I'm not a "only hard" sci-fi man ,but I believe "T&T" and "Genesis" investigate the same sector of the future ,and although "Genesis" is an excellent book - "T&T" is better. Still I recommend "Genesis" it as a great read.

When I read this book I immediately thought of Olaf Stapledon's book "Last and First Men." Both books are very well written, explore some very interesting ideas, and cover such a wide swathe of time that you really have no individual characters to identify with. They are almost closer to history books than they are to science fiction novels (merely an observation, not a criticism).
Having said that, "Genesis" does maintain some characters throughout the book, and somehow this makes it easier on the reader when Poul Anderson starts to really push and question what it means to be human, both mentally and biologically (if you can make that distinction).
This is not a light summer read. It is good solid science fiction that pushes the reader outside of his or her comfort zone and into a world where "human" is not a clear-cut concept, but is more a question of perspective.

Poul Anderson creates a very interesting and thought provoking future. The story spans forever and makes you wonder about consciousness, God, where the human race is heading, etc. Our main characters get uploaded into super computers. One goes space exploring and one helps to manage the Earth. Unfortunately, we don't follow these characters as much as I would like. The story rambles a bit, but definitely worth reading for those interested in the big issues.

What a delight. A complement to "Terraforming Earth" and a contrast to the wretched "Foundation" series.

Given the vast timescale and the number of characters, one has to expect character development to be less deep and cut the author some slack. There are bound to be shortcuts, but the novel is nice combination of literary writing and Hard Science Fiction.

The book might be fast-paced for a reader not familiar with the notions of hard sci fi, so it might be better for some to read other books before this one. I can see that those who are not aficionados of hard SF might not enjoy it.

In this book, space travel and communications take tens or hundreds or years, at least. It recognizes that, the Earth will not be able to support life at some reasonably well-defined point in the future and that complex life (people) will die out before then. There is a nod to climate change due to the passage of the solar system through dust and gas and to mankind's ability to alter global climate. There is mention of the next ice age. (Check out the nonfiction "Life and Death of Planet Earth" if you want to know more.) It features machine sapience. It recognizes, that, if physics and mankind's technology, economics, and politics allow interstellar travel, it is theoretically possible to colonize the galaxy over the course of millions of years.

Poul Anderson ought to be ashamed of himself. He took the worked-to-death theme of sentient machines, presented the same dead-tired ideas in a grandious backdrop - I suppose that was an attempt to make his readers think he said something new - integarated them loosely with some old short stories of his and called it a "new" book. What little story the book has lurches along until Anderson apparently got tired of writing and quit. It certainly had no ending in the normal sense of a novel. At times, Anderson's prose is almost poetry. It flows beautifully. Unfortunately, when examined for meaning, it's often complete nonsense. Add the fact that the only two characcters in the book are two dimensional strawmen that Anderson made no effort whatsoever to flesh out and what you get is a real stinker. The only interesting aspect is whether Anderson is a cynical old man trading on his reputation to grub some easy money or whether he's really that far over the hill.

I am particularly fond of what has come to be termed "Hard" Science Fiction. As one who understands the concepts of quantum mechanics if not the math, I find it refreshing to read a book without wincing, if you know what I mean. I am reminded of the many errors that were made in "Sphere" (some of which, thankfully, were worked out for the movie, bad as it was). Be that as it may, I was not really happy with the diminishing returns I got from this book. The idea was good and, I suppose, there is validity in the way things eventually wound down, but it was disjointed and hard to read, the characters seemed made of paper mache, and, believe it or don't, it seemed rushed. Despite the fact that there were parts of the book that read so slowly I almost fell alseep at the switch. Thing is, I love Poul's writing. I thought Starfarers, for instance, was an excellent book, with characters so endearing that I was brought to tears more than once. Perhaps therein lies the problem; I'm used to better.

Genesis is a well-written book containing much interesting speculation, but overall it doesn't hold together so well as a story. Most of the plot is unsuprising - I felt I could predict the characters' actions well in advance, and very little occurred in the course of the story that the characters could not control. I was hoping for a surprising ending in which Gaia's plan is revealed as something interesting and original, but in fact the ending is unspectacular and her plan turns out to be nothing remarkable. But the prose is very evocative, and the book is short and easy to read.

A fascinating book on the possibilities of evolution on a distant planet. Any sci-fi fan with an interest in biology will love this book!