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23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Copying consciousness courts confusion, April 17, 2005
This review is from: Mindscan (Hardcover)
This book shows why Robert Sawyer is today's pre-eminent science fiction writer. Always keeping speculation in tight rein, he nevertheless exhibits a wide-ranging imagination. His stories are always a good read, yet filled with information. He understands the human condition, displaying that insight with a variety of characters. Even the protagonist-narrator isn't entirely predictable. Others, who seem understandable [but never a stereotype!], spring surprises. He builds the episodes of this story with finesse - no small feat given the characters are 400 thousand kilometres apart.
Jake Sullivan, scion of a Toronto brewery fortune, has a problem. The blood vessels in his brain might unexpectedly explode. It happened to his father during a family fight. The result isn't terminal. It leaves the victim in a vegetative state. Jake decides to take advantage of a new technology to bypass the threat. He'll have his mind scanned and his consciouness copied into an almost indestructible artificial body. Immortality, that quest so long followed by fragile humanity, may be imminent. His "shed skin", the original, flawed body, will be shipped to the far side of the Moon to live luxuriously until "natural causes" prevail. The relocation abandons a lonely dog, a confused girlfriend and a concerned mother.
As might be expected, a threat looms. Give a lawyer an opening and another courtroom drama enfolds. What says the law on two minds of one person? Sawyer has done courtroom scenes before in "Illegal Alien". He surpasses himself with this one as the concepts of consciousness are thoroughly explored by the contending sides. Sawyer is at his best in having characters explain philosophical or scientific stances. Thankfully, in this examination of determining who we are, Sawyer manages to shift the issue of the "soul" out of the hands of the clergy. His defender of that concept would seem inappropriate, but the character expresses the idea fervently.
The resolution of these issues is, amazingly, left for the reader. Sawyer has always avoided absolutes. He has his passions - the Toronto Blue Jays and enjoying Fate's gift of being Canadian, among others. While those are important and worthy of admiration and satisfaction, the issue of humanity in general looms significantly in his work. He is outstanding in dealing with controversies in a balanced narrative. And the story line itself will keep you reading to the end. A true "page-turner". [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating piece of speculative Sci-Fi, April 11, 2005
This review is from: Mindscan (Hardcover)
Robert J. Sawyer's "Mindscan" tackles the human dream of immortality with a twist. Think for a moment what you would do if you could upload your mind, your very being, into a durable, android-like body. In Sawyer's futuristic world, the Immortex Company allows the wealthy to do that. However, your human body is shipped to the dark side of the moon to live out your natural life in luxury. When you die, your uploaded self can live on for an eternity back on earth.
Immortex doesn't bother with informing the uploaded copy that the real one has died. But due to a bizarre coincidence, the death of prominent writer Karen Bessarian (who uploaded her mind due to old age)is reported to her flesh and blood son, who didn't particular care for her uploaded form. He forces the matter into Probate Court for the reading of the will. The uploaded Karen says, "No way, I'm still alive" and the matter becomes what amounts to the trial of the 21st Century.
In the meantime Jake Sullivan uploads his mind because he had a rare, incurable disease. Wouldn't you know it? They find a cure and he demands to go back to Earth and continue his life but Immortex puts the kibosh on that idea.
Sawyer writes great Science Fiction and presents it in such a way that it sounds almost plausible. His characters are real and believable. His plots move along smoothly and are easy to read. The trial scene is gripping. It's no wonder that he has won Hugo's and Aurora's and has been nominated for Nebulas. "Mindscan," which is actually an embellished version of his Analog short story "Shed Skin," fits right into the award-winning category. Highly recommended.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What if ... ?, June 3, 2005
This review is from: Mindscan (Hardcover)
Robert J. Sawyer returns to his most typical format: a novel that digs into the human consequences of a plausible technological innovation. And very good it is! _Mindscan_ is SF in the classic mode of Asimov, Heinlein, early Niven, and those guys--a thorough and involving speculation, a good story, and a novel that will get you to ask some interesting questions. The setup has been used before (Greg Egan, for instance, is a recent practitioner), but Sawyer gives us a much better look at how real people might really feel than any other example I've seen.
The best part of _Mindscan_ is its fair-minded and articulate presentation of both sides of the issue. (This almost counts as a Sawyer trademark; other authors should take note.) This is a great technique in a what-if novel. It brings you, the reader, into the story, and makes you wonder: What do I believe? Would it really work that way? Is that a valid argument? And, most fundamentally, what would *I* do?
If _Mindscan_ has a weakness--or, at least, a lack of strength--it's in the resolution. It's not that it's badly done; a lesser writer, for instance, would introduce a technological fix that makes everything come out happy, and Sawyer doesn't do that. However, the ending neither (a) resolves the questions raised in the book, nor (b) demonstrates that they're fundamentally unresolvable. Instead, the characters are allowed to postpone dealing with them. They avoid the issues, instead of either deciding them or coming into conflict over them. After such a strong set-up, I'd have liked a more thought-provoking climax.
There *is* a little bit of a surprise ending. However, it concerns a subplot which is a minor contributor to the rest of the book. It would have been stronger if the subplot were either strengthened and integrated with the main story, or excised entirely. It's certainly not the case that the book is too long! (Sawyer has tried to do a little too much with his books before now. His _Frameshift_, for instance, is a very fine novel, but it has about one idea too many wedged into it.)
All the same, that still leaves _Mindscan_ as very good science fiction. Sawyer won some awards for his recent "Neanderthal" trilogy. I don't think that's his best work; the contrast between the (good) Neanderthals and (bad) us is too black-and-white. _Mindscan_, on the other hand, really does merit some awards, particularly compared to most of what shows up on the ballots. This is the stuff that gets 13-year-olds reading SF in the first place, but written with a fully adult sensibility. We need more of it.
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