Customer Reviews

Limit of Vision

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

 

 

I've read all of Linda Nagata's previous books. As a group, all of her previous books were enjoyable and reasonably well written. The characters were well described and the plots were interesting. The only complaint that I had was that the books really weren't that accessible because of the level of technical detail. While I enjoyed her "hard science" approach in her earlier books, I think it also kept her from getting a wider audience. From that perspective, I think that _Limit of Vision_ is an excellent attempt to broaden her audience while still remaining true to her original "hard science" roots. In addition, I think that with each book, Nagata's ability to create a thought provoking and challenging story has increased.

_Limit of Vision_ is set in the near future. A trio of scientists has been working on a project for a corporation basically exploring the feasibility of using organisms named LOVs (since they exist at the limit of human vision) for any practical purposes. Unfortunately, the scientists are hampered because all biotechnology is strictly regulated b/c of a horrible sounding accident caused by biotech gone awry. So, their LOV experiment actually lives on a space station in orbit around Earth. Before the LOVs were taken to the space station, the scientists stole some of them and implanted them on their foreheads.

This book is about the unexpected and unpredictable consequences of that action. Some of the questions that were raised in the book include: what defines consciousness? At what point does an organism stop being "animal" and start being something else? If an organism has consciousness, then do we have the right to just destroy it? And if we don't destroy it, does it pose a threat to the very things that define us as humans?

It's not a perfect book. It does leave some loose ends. It might even be missing some details throughout the book. But, that said, I absolutely had a GREAT time reading this book. It read almost like a thriller rather than some dry biotech story. In my mind, it encompassed many of the things that make sci-fi fun to read - a fast moving plot, lots of technology well used, a real concern about what might happen in the future. With a little stretching, I could absolutely see the vision Nagata created in _Limit of Vision_ as being a realistic possibility of what our future might look like. I was also really impressed by the strides that Nagata has made in creating realistic characters.

I also want to stress that Nagata is not some "new SF author" attempting to re-write Bear's _Blood Music_. First of all, she's been around for quite a while. She has several other books out there that are really well written, although in a much different style than _Limit of Vision_. Second, Nagata has written about nanotechnology in basically ALL of her earlier books. She's not attempting to re-write _Blood Music_, she's continuing in exploring a subject that she's been talking about for quite a while. In my opinion, even if you just look at the quality of the WRITING, _Limit of Vision_ is a far superior novel.

I give mucho applause to Linda Nagata for her efforts in writing a book with so alien a plot. As an avid sci-fi and history reader, I'm always interested in moments of discovery and the unforeseen consequences.

The author takes us on a very interesting ride through this story of computer/living matter confluence, and performs many aspects of plot-building and character creation very admirably. I have to say that I was truly intrigued with most of the book.

The problem I have with this book is that it sounds like the author is trying to sound like a scientist without the benefit of being a scientist. A story this intriguing and mind-bending needed a lot of scientific extrapolation, and well-done extrapolation would have added a tremendous amount to the plot. I'm sure it sounds like I'm being picky, but this is very important for me as a reader. I don't want to have to fill in many, many details of the plot using my own belief system.

Another problem was the ending. Very shaky and ill-conceived. I think Linda Nagata was trying to establish a creative and dramatic climax, for which I applaud her, but there were so many issues in the book that were left unresolved. I had no true feeling of conclusion when I finished the book. I don't think Linda Nagata did either.

Great ideas, but it needed more focus, better scientific extrapolation, and more questions answered.

____________________________________________
I thought Limit of Vision was Nagata's best book yet -- she's gaining full knowledge & control of the novelist's toolkit. And I admire her essential sweetness of vision: that probems have solutions, & that most people, given half a chance, will act decently and kindly.

Except the bad guys, of course...

Hghly recommended.

Oh, and her website is well-worth a visit:
http://www.maui.net/~nagata

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman

Virgil Copeland's little conspiracy is turning into a nightmare. When he and his colleagues smuggled a few LOVs to Earth and used themselves as test subjects, Virgil never suspected that two of his friends would soon be dead, and he himself on the run from international law, on his way to the place where the mutant LOV colonies made landfall...

"A Limit of Vision" is confused. In the beginning it tries to be an edgy, sci-fi thriller, but soon slows down to a crawl and attempts to be a hard SF novel. The beginning features a moderately exciting escape sequence, a satellite crash, and a tidal wave, all in about fifty pages. Then the plot abruptly stops. All characters quickly and conveniently sort out into heroes and villains. The heroes suddenly become shallow and predictable, and what they're doing isn't very exciting: they farm the surviving LOVs in fish ponds, while the outside world tries to starve them out of their little reservation.

"Limit of Vision" treats its general subject matter - LOVs, an intelligent form of nanotechnology - in an extremely simplistic and straightforward manner, with no ambiguities. Despite having an incredible knack for mutation and problem-solving, they don't seem to pose any threat at all, and their "mind-enhancing" capabilities are hardly taken advantage of.

The book's tone is essentially dead. The narration moves quickly, but leaves no lasting impression. Characterization is lacking and follows predictable patterns: a blossoming romance between the male and female heroes (who would've thought!?); an enemy who becomes an ally, etc.

In a nutshell: lacking in both premise and execution.

_Limit of Vision_ by Linda Nagata is an interesting relatively near future science fiction thriller, one that was a little slow going and perhaps even choppy at first, with disparate storylines and at least at first with characters fairly light on detail, but about a quarter of the way into the book became a riveting narrative with a brisk pace, great tension, and a wonderful sense of escalation. Though at least one of the main characters remained to me at least not as well formed as I would have liked and I thought the opening was a bit too open-ended, revolving some but not all (or even most) of the story's problems, it was all in all an enjoyable book.

What is it about? I will try to avoid spoilers, but here goes. At first, we have two entirely unconnected storylines. The first plotline introduces the reader to two daring young researchers (so daring in fact that they are conducting experiments in violation of international law). These two men, Randall Panwar and Virgil Copeland, employees of a company called EquaSys based in Honolulu, are illegally experimenting with something called an LOV (acronym for limit of vision), a tiny symbiotic synthetic species that is basically comprised of an artificially-created neuron called an asterid housed in a transparent silicate shell (the shell not only protecting the asterid but also permitting optical communication, as the colonial asterids communicate with pulses of visible light). Originally developed to be transplanted onto humans (where they would be visible on the host's head - generally the forehead - as glowing gemlike structures, easily concealed in a person's hair) who suffered from unbalanced brain chemistries, the LOVs would help stabilize the neurochemistry and emotions of those that possess them. It was found however that the semi-sentient LOVs could mutate and produce unwanted results, including deadly ones. After a mysterious event which we never learn anything about (referred to as the "Van Nuys Incident"), the LOVs were confined to a low-earth-orbit research facility called the _Hammer_ so that they could not escape into the environment and possibly pose a threat to people or animals.

Unfortunately, Panwar, Virgil, and their friend Gabrielle Villanti illegally removed some LOVs and transplanted them on to their persons. Conducting experiments in secret, they are discovered when Gabrielle dies (this happens during the first few pages of the book so I am not giving away any big secret here). Though I thought it quite remarkable that their bosses did not recognize the LOVs that they implanted on themselves (later this is explained away by the fact that Panwar, Virgil, and Gabrielle worked in a very loose administrative environment with fairly minimal supervision), the reader is not given much time to ponder this as their actions set into event a chain of events that includes the public discovery of LOVs on Earth, knowledge of a mutation of an LOV colony on the station to something approaching real sentience, and its escape from the station to avoid destruction.

The second plot thread at first seemed to have nothing to do with the one involving the LOVs, Virgil, Panwar, etc. The reader meets Elsa Suvanatat, a roving freelance Thai reporter, connected to a distant agent online (Else, like nearly everyone else in the setting, uses a sunglasses-shaped and sized item of headgear called a farsight, a device that allows one to be online all the time, pull up large amounts of information, make use of a personalized nearly sentient and individually customized computer program called a ROving Silicon Agent or ROSA, and even see in the dark). Virtually broke, she comes across a strange story covering a cult-like, locally feared group of kids in Vietnam called the Roi Nuoc (a Vietnamese name that means "Water Puppets"). The Roi Nuoc are a group of orphans and street kids who are fiercely independent, leery of authority, nonviolent but not exactly working within the law, united by a ROSA that is both motherly and aggressive by the name of Mother Tiger. Elsa also meets an another important individual in the book, a Vietnamese man by the name of Ky Xuan Nguyen, a locally influential businessmen who she thinks is either the head of (or a head of) the Roi Nuoc or possibly one of their members grown into adulthood (as apparently all Roi Nuoc members are kids and teens).

I don't think I am giving away too much when I say that the escaping LOV colony ends up in Vietnam and the events surrounding it entangle the Roi Nuoc, Elsa, and Ky. At this point in the book the separate plot threads unite and the story becomes fast and very interesting.

All in all a pretty good book. As I mentioned, I don't think all of the story elements were resolved and while it doesn't necessarily beg for a sequel, it did have an unfinished feel to it at the end. The LOVs themselves are very interesting and it was fun to read about their evolution. I also liked the fact that the book was set in Vietnam, not exactly a common locale for science fiction stories. I also like the title, which on one level simply mentioned the subject of the book, the artificial lifeforms, but at another level addressed the main problem of the authorities and the powers that be of the book's setting; their limited vision of the potential uses and benefits of the LOVs as well asan appreciation for the LOVs for their own sake.

I was riveted for the first 60 pages or so... the implications of the story at this point are profound, a thriller which places the contest of ethics and science on stage. Then, inexplicably, Nagata changes pace and it slows considerably.

After losing the science/thriller pace, the story leaves doesn't drive to a full examination of the theme; other central characters, including the enigmatic "Mother Tiger," remain forever obscured by mystery.

Entertaining, but the utterly profound examination of the central question, having been abandoned, the novel languishes. After almost finishing, I left the remaining 40 pages or so many days before I summoned up the gumption to finish it.

It seems rewriting Greg Bear's excellent "Blood Music" has become madatory for every new SF author to come along. This kind of recycling normally wouldn't bother me because it's a great plot worth revisiting from another author's perspective. What does bother me is they never get it right. An escaped biotech, nanotech, whatever-tech agent which alters people's minds and threatens a new order of human evolution should be scary. But though it's touted as hard SF "Limit of Vision" reads like a juvenile adventure novel and rarely generates anything more than mild suspense. It doesn't help that Nagata saddles her rogue whatever-tech agents with the unfortunate acronym "LOVs" --a name I can't help but associate with either Barney the Dinosaur or disposable diapers. But these LOVs are serious things which atain sentience (surprise), tear up a space station and start reproducing themselves after outgrowing their chemical-dependence safeguards (yep, JUST like in Jurassic Park).

You'd think people would be a little hesitant to infect themselves with these LOVs (cute name notwithstanding), but not in this strange world where all natural human instincts are sacrificed to further the plot. Nope, in this world people can't wait to get their brains on the LOVs because LOVs "intensify your mood". Exaclty what "intensifying your mood" really gets you is never really nailed down, but it's a pale second compared to the host of freakish super powers imbued in "Blood Music" --or for that matter in any of the various Star Trek episodes of a similar plot. People may be willing to scrap The World As They Know It for an evolutionary upgrade, but it's gotta be a killer deal--imortality at the very least. I found myself rooting for the "bad guys" who spend the novel trying to stop the idiotic "heroes" from thoughtlessly passing out LOVs like M&Ms even as they're mutating into that thing on the book cover. In the real world our response to such an outbreak could be summed up in two words: Daisy Cutter, and we'd be right. But who am I to question the author's assumption that "intensifying your mood" is worth the risk of having your world overrun by giant spiders a thousand times smarter than you who just outgrew what they used to eat.

Nagata sets up the big questions in this book and then punts at the end. Her maturation as a writer happens right in front of our eyes but don't buy this book. The ending can only be described as 1) A cliffhanger designed to get you to buy the sequel, or 2) A failure of literary courage. In either case, this is editorial irresponsibility at its most heinous. Even the most transparent first book of a series resolves the major plot elements and answers the questions raised by the narrative. Not this time.
None of this would matter if Nagata had written just another media tie-in, dumbed down and evanescent as rime. But it isn't. As Norman Spinrad noted in his review in the March 2002 Asimov's, this is a spectacularly well-written tale for literate adults, all too rare in the current market. If you must have more Nagata, enjoy the setup but don't expect a payoff. It isn't there

Possibly the decade's boldest voice in speculative fiction. Most writers hobble and contort their ideas to fit a preconceived plot or theme, but Nagata's mind appears to be wired exponentially.

The idea of brain-enhancing implants is hardly new, but until LIMIT OF VISION, we had never seen a full-throttle treatment. Nagata carries the idea to its logical conclusion, and while the fears of the technologically timid are duly noted, they're shown little mercy by the steamroller of progress. The future is coming on fast whether we want it or not, and the author's point rings true: it's way more fun to be _on_ the steamroller than under it.

A scientist dies during a forbidden experiment with nanotechnology, and her death and a journalist's probe lead to the release of a science which may ultimately transform mankind in this gripping story of a technological experiment gone awry. Strong characterization and gripping twists of plot keep this fast-paced and hard to put down.