Proxies [Hardcover]

Laura J. Mixon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

A broad, fascinating SF novel of murder, intrigue, family loyalty, and humanity's first steps to the stars, set in an immensely plausible near-future American Southwest scorched by global warming.

Advanced biotech and brain-to-machine interfaces have melded in a secret project, creating full convincing human-shaped machines guided by faraway pilots -- "proxies". But who has the controls -- and why?

Scientist, engineer, environmental expert, and computer-game designer Laura J. Mixon lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Laura J. Mixon's 21st century is a far cry from utopia; pollution and global warming have begun to ravage the planet and drive a cowering populace indoors. Gangs of violent, dispossessed children prowl city streets, fresh foods are hard to come by, and average temperatures reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit. But along with the bad side effects of technology come the good: scientist Carli D'Auber's stunning advancement in communications allows people to send their consciousness across vast distances and interact at the other end through a remote device called a waldo. Most people are familiar with the small, trash-can-like waldos... but in a secret crèche, children are being raised to pilot humanoid versions called proxies, and they're being instilled with a deadly serious ideology. Can Carli, hunted by a renegade proxy with incredible strength and a frighteningly simplistic agenda, stay alive long enough to figure out what's going on? Part mystery, part human drama, and part a fantastic blend of cybertechnology, cloning, and telepresence, Proxies will keep you on your toes till the end.

From Publishers Weekly

In the 21st century, humanity's high-tech civilization is tottering from the impact of global warming at the same time it is about to launch the first interstellar expedition. Meanwhile, a secret project in which proxies (artificial human bodies) are controlled by the minds of people with major birth defects?people who have spent their whole lives in artificial environments (as "creche babies")?is about to be exposed. Scientists behind the project seek to rescue the creche babies by hijacking the starship. And so evolves an unusual combo of cyberpunk, hard-SF and techno-thriller that's distinguished by brisk pacing, creative world building and deft handling of characters. Mixon's new novel (after Greenwar, 1997) is demanding, and sometimes nearly inaccessible, due to the sheer number of characters and to lapses in their motivation as well as in the tone of the narrative. The application of technology has flaws as well: If anti-matter power plants are small enough to be used in proxies, why haven't they shown up elsewhere? This reads like a novel into which ideas were loaded a trifle faster than the author could organize them, resulting in a story that's as jumbled as it is absorbing.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312854676
• ISBN-13: 978-0312854676
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,225,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Proxies is a wonderful example of Modern Cyberpunk!, November 19, 1999

By 

Krista (COLLEGE PARK, MD, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Proxies (Mass Market Paperback)

Proxies extends the ideas Mixon presented in her earlier novel, Glass Houses. Both books show characters manipulating robots remotely through a computer interface, but in Proxies, the characters come out of the gutter, the traditional home of cyberpunk, and go into secret back hallways of governmental intrigue. Proxies not only gives a rich, wonderfully detailed depiction of the future, it also includes a great murder mystery and a politcal thriller. Add to that a touch of romance, a bit of multiple-personality dissorder, and the usual cyberpunk street scenes, and you have this fabulous novel. Although parts of this book are somewhat confusing to read because of the way Mixon chooses to represent certain characters' thoughts, the fabulous conclusion is definately worth the effort. I highly recommend this novel and recommend that people who enjoy it try Pat Cadigan's TEA FROM AN EMPTY CUP, Melissa Scott's THE SHAPES OF THEIR HEARTS, or N. Lee Wood's LOOKING FOR THE MAHDI. Together these four texts point the way towards the future of cyberpunk fiction.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Old Wine in New Bottles, May 20, 2000

By 

lb136 "lb136" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Proxies (Mass Market Paperback)

But the wine sparkles. Mixon takes a classic pulp-fiction mad scientist plot, adds to it a neat political thriller riff, and some cyberpunkiana, and then tarts it up with some perceptive, sometimes tongue-in-cheek speculation on what the world might look like in the mid 21st century (a MacDonalds on an orbital space station is my favorite), makes sure her characters are sexually and ethnically diverse, and serves up a potent brew indeed.

Carli D'Auber is the intrepid heroine who everybody's after, and not always in their own bodies, either (hence the title); the mad scientist and her team are hideously kinky, while Carli's friends are seriously flaky. The multiple point of view plot will leave you dizzy (I doubt even Mixon could have explained it the day she turned it in to her publisher, let alone today), and grasping at loose ends. But no matter. You'll be entertained all the way.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Refreshing Science Fiction, September 9, 2008

By 

John Jacobson - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Proxies (Mass Market Paperback)

The ideas presented in this book are interesting and engaging; it's the first science fiction book I've read in a while that didn't feel like a transcribed version of a cheesy space action movie. The focus is not on needless action or fancy gadgets, but rather how society is transformed by technology.

The setup is as follows: two key technologies, a device that can transmit data instantaneously and a brain-computer interface combine to create robots that human beings remotely pilot as if they where in their bodies. The continued advancement of this technology begins to tear basic social fabrics as the line between physical and virtual blurs.