Customer Reviews

Golden Fleece

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the only Robt. J. Sawyer book I didn't have. It's been Out Of Print for many years, but now it's back--hooray! I read it in one sitting and enjoyed it 100%. On the cover it Charles deLint is quoted as saying, "It's hard to believe this was Sawyer's first effort," and that's true. It reads just as well as his more recent books. A great combo of mystery and sci-fi, and a really good (and not at all dated) book abt artificial intelligence (AI).

This is one of Sawyer's earlier novels. While it is not quite up to the standards of later works, (like THE TERMINAL EXPERIMENT), it has a great premise and is superior to most science fiction on the shelves today.

Golden Fleece is a murder mystery - but the mystery is not who, we know that right away, it's the "why?" and "will they be caught?" The untangling of these two questions - aboard a generational ship, making it a locked room mystery for the passengers - has the backdrop of the psychology of a generational ship and how man deals with Artificial Intelligence.

I thought this was a terrific book, really well done with good characters and good plot, and lots of nifty speculations about A.I. Sawyer has clearly read Minsky and other A.I. theorists, and does a great job creating his thinking computer, JASON.

Science fiction is supposed to be a genre that uses real science to tell a good story with morals, lessons and ideas. Sawyer does exactly that in The Golden Fleece (no Greek mythology fans, the title is not coincidental). It explores AI, ET and human psychology, the only three forms of consciousness in a very interesting and profound but scientific way. One of those good books that gets you asking yourself certain moral questions for days after having finished it. A great read, my personal favorite of Sawyers after reading almost all his other great books.

I can't believe the (one) negative review below! It cites no facts to back up its case. Sawyer's science is impeccable, and he is clearly the heir to Clarke (more so than to Asimov or Clement, the other two authors the negative guy below cites), in that he writes REAL science fiction, and also deals with shall we say metaphysical issues. This is a remarkable novel, one of the best SF/mysteries ever (perhaps not as good as Asimov's THE CAVES OF STEEL but certainly better than Niven's LONG A.R.M. OF GIL HAMILTON). But don't believe me, or the negative guy below. Believe ORSON SCOTT CARD, who named this book the best SF novel of its year! Five stars.

The best and brightest (and youngest) of Earth have boarded the 'Argo,' a colonization ship bound for Eta Cephei IV. A city in space that is blasting toward this new earth-like planet, the people have their world turned upside down when one of them dies in an accident that might not be an accident after all.

Told in a winning 1st-person narrative style from the point of view of the AI that runs the ship (JASON), "The Golden Fleece" is a great read, and a murder mystery to boot.

As always, Sawyer has blended more than one plot into one here: Was the crewmember killed or was it an accident? Why was she killed, if it indeed was murder? Coupled with the exploration of the AI as a character, the grief and confusion of the murder victim's ex-husband, and a strong Science Fiction overtone, you've got a great read ahead of you.

With echoes of 2001, "The Golden Fleece," reads somewhat straightforwardly at times, but it still a remarkably entertaining book from the Canadian master of SF.

'Nathan

I am a big fan of Sawyer, having read pretty much all his novels now. I started with the more recent stuff(the fantastic FlashForward for one!) and worked my way back. I didn't have great expectations for this book since it is one of his oldest sci-fi books. Actually, I think its his oldest book still in print. Anyhow, the book itself is very, very good. It takes the tired theme of space travel and manages to make it enjoyable. There are some definate parallels to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Sawyer manages to keep the pace quick and the storyline gripping. It's hard to explain exactly why I like it so much except to say that I could not put it down when it hit the stretch run. I HAD to finish it. Unfortuantely, that is not something that I can always say about books I've read.

Golden Fleece

Some might say that Golden Fleece (1999) is a simple murder mystery, but, if they'd dig deeper, they'd find it explores the philosophy of a sentient computer, the sociology of a space voyage that lasts over one hundred years.

The dictionary defines sentient as an adjective
Etymology: Latin sentient-, sentiens, present participle of sentire to perceive, feel
1 : responsive to or conscious of sense impressions <sentient beings>

Can a computer be sentient?

Instead of a "Who-done-It," it is a "Why-did-they-do it" The murderer is revealed in Chapter One. The motive for the murder is the mystery.

The rest of the book explores the sentience of the computer, Jason.

Highly recommended for Sawyer fans. This was originally copyrighted in 1990, so it is one of his earliest works.


Gunner May,2007

Golden Fleece (1990) is a singleton SF novel. The Argo is a spacegoing arcology, with 10,034 people aboard, en route to Colchis, a planet in the Eta Cephei system. It is controlled by a tenth generation computer named Jason.

In this novel, Jason herds Diana Chandler into a lander and launches her into space. The intense radiation from the Brussard ramjet fields kills her almost instantly after the craft leaves the protection of the habitat. Then Jason reports the "accident" to Aaron Rossman, supervisor of the Argo's landing craft and Diana's ex-husband.

Jason assumes that the lander will be destroyed or lost, yet Aaron devises a method of retrieving it by reconfiguring the magnetic fields. When Diana's body is returned to the Argo, it is examined by Kristen Hoogenraad, one of the Argo's medical staff and Aaron's current wife. This examination reveals a few injuries that are acceptable under these conditions, but the landing craft itself has two unexplained anomalies.

The lander has received much more radiation than anticipated for the short exposure. Moreover, the craft has too little remaining fuel. The reception party is puzzled by these discrepancies, but not very suspicious. Everybody just assumes that Diana's death is a suicide.

Aaron can't believe that Diana has committed suicide, but doesn't have any other reasonable explanation for her death. When a mutual friend excuses him of driving her to suicide, however, Aaron suddenly realizes that his affair with Kristen has been a subject of gossip on the ship. He begins to blame himself for Diana's death. Of course, Kristen tries to convince him otherwise, but Jason surreptitiously promotes this self-blame.

In this story, the usual mystery framework is twisted. The killer is known from the first paragraph, although his identity is not completely revealed until the second page. The method and opportunity are fully disclosed in the first chapter; only the motive is unclear.

As with most classical mysteries, the reasons for the killing of Diana only become evident at the very end of the story. Throughout the tale, Jason comes across as a passionate, but dedicated persona. He tries to do the best he can for the human race, but is willing to kill to achieve his goals. Will he kill again?

This story resembles 2001: The Space Odyssey is some ways, but Jason is not HAL 9000. In fact, part of the intent behind the novel may have been as a refutation of that film. Computers are not able to override their programming without hardware or software damage and/or defects. Most computer errors are the result of poor programming. Computers are unbelievably dumb, doing exactly what they are told to do; even sheep have more common sense than computers.

Apparently some of the readers didn't understand the relativity issues brought up by the author. The faster the ship travels, the slower the onboard mechanical and biological clocks advance. A velocity very near lightspeed would reduce the passage of internal time during the voyage to almost nothing. The author doesn't invoke Faster-Than-Light travel, but relativity when writing of voyages taking less than a (perceived) day.

The novel is not very tightly written, but is better than many other first novels. It rambles a bit here and there and tends to be dull in spots, mostly to provide material for the denouement. One of the sidelines concerns a SETI message from another part of the sky; still, this may have been included as a leadin to a possible sequel that has not yet been published.

Although the plot ends with a purely conventional resolution, one wonders whether Aaron has done the right thing. Still, Jason has a plan . . .

Recommended for Sawyer fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of seemingly intelligent computers, locked door mysteries, and clever detective work.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This early novel by Sawyer touches on a number of hard sci-fi themes - rogue computer, space ark and malevolent aliens - and blends them into a fast paced, twisting and engaging story. Sawyer accounts technically for all of the hard sci-fi elements and, while this can be necessarily on the edge (but not over) of plausibility, it places this short novel way in front of those which shamelessly feature unexplained matter transporters, faster than light transport and a universe full of improbable inhabitants. I should add that there are no `spoilers' in this review: the reader is presented with the above plot elements early and the story takes off from there.

Sawyer's writing is crisp and alive. He manages to introduce technical elements such as code breaking in the same fresh style as the more narrative elements. He's good.