6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Read!, May 4, 2005
This review is from: The Resurrected Man (Hardcover)
Would a person's copy be considered alive? Would a copy's murder be considered a crime? The Resurrected Man realistically shows how this particular technology could both positively and negatively impact a future society, including an almost terrorist group opposed to d-mat on moral grounds. The Resurrected Man is a fast-paced blend of science fiction and mystery. I spent several nights staying up too late so I could finish just one more chapter. I highly recommend this novel.
Laura Lehman, SF/Fantasy Editor at Bellaonline.com
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Twinmaker Murders, December 21, 2006
This review is from: The Resurrected Man (Hardcover)
The Resurrected Man (2005) is a standalone SF novel. In 2069, the matter transmission network covers more than seventy percent of the planet. The d-mat is used not only for personal and freight transmission, but for replication of material goods.
In this novel, the man was awakened by a dull, but persistent murmur. His body hurt everywhere and his limbs were too cramped to move. He found himself lying beneath the surface of in a pool of water. He was not breathing! Suddenly he erupted from the water in terror.
Hands reached out to support him as he coughed up the fluid in his lungs. The voices identified him as Jonah McEwen and, when his eyes cleared, he found himself facing Marylin Blaycock. Now her hair is not blonde and she is not working for him, but for the police.
Jonah has been missing for more than three years under a privacy seal. The police had not come to his apartment to rescue him, but to investigate another crime. Now they suspect him of killing the victim. The medics take care of his immediate needs and then the officers start interrogating him. When Jonah recognizes their approach, he refuses to answer any more questions. Then they show him the remains.
In this story, the Matter-transference Investigative Unit (MIU) is an official branch of the Earth Justice Commission, but is funded by Kudos Technologies Incorporated (KTI), which owns the d-mat patents and operates the d-mat network and other related services. The MIU believe that the body in Jonah's d-mat booth is the sixteenth Twinmaker killing.
A composite image of the Twinmaker victims looks very much like Marylin Blaycock as Jonah knew her. Moreover, the first case occurred one week after Marylin joined the MIU, about six months prior to his awakening. The Twinmaker victims are tortured to death, but somehow the victims themselves are still alive. The Twinmaker seems to be kidnapping a copy of the victims when they use the d-mat, but leaving the originals alive and unaware of the crime.
The novel raises the question of whether users of the d-mat are the same persons after they arrive at their destinations. A few people refuse to use the d-mat, calling it the death-mat, and even some of those who habitually use the system wonder whether they are gradually being changed by such usage. Complicating this issue is the method of resurrecting victims of accidental or intentional deaths; for an exorbitant price, the person can be reconstructed from network records into much the same body.
One of the characters is an Artificial Intelligence called QUALIA. Es is based on twenty Standard Human Equivalent processors designed to induce consciousness. SHE is not just a spearcarrier, but an integral part of the plot, with Es's POV running throughout the story.
This story does not include any new technology per se, for matter transmission, duplicate bodies, virtual minds, and artificial intelligence are old themes in SF (see Gallun's People Minus X (1957) and Pohl's Gateway series). However, the manner in which such technology is used to commit these crimes is rather unusual. Still, one of the crimes per se is most unusual, but you will have to read the book to find out the nature of this crime.
This work is by no means the first novel by the author nor it is even his first solo effort, but his works have not been readily available in the USA. That has changed recently, especially for his collaborations with Shane Dix. Amazing how American publishers are finally discovering the authors down under.
Highly recommended for Williams fans and for anyone else who enjoys futuristic detective stories.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
interesting future mystery, September 12, 2005
This review is from: The Resurrected Man (Hardcover)
Jonah McEwen is a suspect in a series of murders he knows nothing about, having spent the last 3 years in a state of hibernation. This makes it an interesting book to get sucked in to, as the main characters don't know what happened during a critical period of time, and the reader does not know exactly how the murders are possible, not being familiar with the details of how the key technology works. The murders were commited using d-mat, a transmitter that transforms someone into information which is then rematerialized at their destination. Many people have qualms about having this done to them, but eventually holdouts are in the minority due to d-mat's convenience. "All I see are zombies", says a leader among the holdouts, referring to the majority of society. Jonah points out that these sorts of arguments have been made for every new form of technology. The book raises more questions than it can answer, but I mean that in a good way.
I would like to add that if you enjoy this book you might want to also read David Brin's "Kiln People", which brings up similar questions.
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