Customer Reviews

The Silicon Dagger

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3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I wanted to like this book; I wanted to go with the author down the libertarian/encroaching government theme. But the book is awful.

The characters are less than 1 dimensional. So few motivations for the characters' actions are presented that it became a farce by the end. You could have fun only by creating reasons out of thin air for the characters actions. Kind of like Mad Libs as you read -- except you paid for this.

The plot is alternatingly high-speed and dead stop.

Neither of the 2 "breakthru technologies" are explained even a little bit. The reader is just told "hey, we invented this".

And the ending is so rushed, so contrived, and yet so open-ended it punishes you for having made it to the end.

Awful stuff.

Gentle warning: tiny spoilers

Boy, this book had me hooked right away. Williamson's interesting and promising premise is enhanced by his excellent writing style and flair for drama. I didn't get enough sleep for a couple of nights; I couldn't keep from reading on.

However, though I won't explain the plot of the book, I must say that the ending is rushed to its [semi-] conclusion. With a Perry Mason-style unbelievable admission in a kangaroo courtroom, a lot of good reasoning and plotting is essentially thrown away.

Furthermore, a good portion of the latter half of the book involves the main character watching television and browsing content on the "infonet" (while in jail). Although the infonet and TV stories further the plot for the reader, there is a reason that there aren't a lot of books, movies, or TV shows about watching TV and web surfing. It's boring to "watch" people watching.

Ultimately, Williamson has opened so many doors by the end of the story that he can't close them all, despite his rush to the end. It's obvious that he left some of them open to pique the imagination of the reader. I can't imagine, however, why he leaves a romantic entanglement floating in the wind as the story closes. It's just symptomatic of the novel as a whole.

The main thing that irritated me about this story is it was too real. What this means is that it is not good fiction. You have a main character that sits in jail for a good portion of the latter half of the book and does nothing to clear his name. I would have preferred that he do what he was sent there to do and that is "investigate". All that happens here is he lets the events unfold around them and the major players do the unraveling for him. I guess I am jaded by all of these "one man against the world - to save the world" stories but it would have been nice to have the main character get more involved in the unraveling instead of just sitting there. I also found it unreasonable that the main rival to Clay had a hand in exonerating him. One final note - the "shield" portion of the story was a little hard to handle because it was not explained credibly. This is my first Jack Williamson novel so I will have to read some more to get a feel for his writing style. Overall, I would have to say that this one leaves me unshure of whether to read more of his works.

At first I thought the author was trying to cash in on the antigovernment movements (maybe have it sold by that publisher that advertises in Soldier of Fortune), but then I kept reading. Rather than being another "one man saves the world" or propaganda for militias, this is a work that promotes freedom and responsibility in a believable way. It may use science fiction in a rather limited way but it shows the need for humanity and Constitutional law even in a libertarian paradise.

I bought it after reading the words of praise from other writers, most notably from Arthur C. Clarke, whose comments on the front cover put him on par with Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein? You gotta be kidding me! Now I wonder if this was the same Arthur C. Clarke of the Space Odyssey fame or some guy whose name is the same as Mr. Clarke and was paid a dollar to write those words.

Save your money and buy a bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol instead. It'll help you with books by other writers like Mr. Williamson.

The wacko 'Leftists extremists', are stridently going to proclaim their independence from the wacko 'Government extremists'. This time science has given them a 'weapon' that may allow them to succeed, the impenetrable shield of Science Fiction. The 'Government' can't put down the rebels, if the army can't reach them...

This one is not a keeper. The 'Good' guys are in a fog, or just wacko. The 'Bad' guys have no idea. (The main 'Bad' character stands up in court, confesses that he did all of the things he has been framing the 'good' character for through the entire book, and commits suicide. In a spat of remorse for crying out loud.) The Hero instantly falls in love from a photo, and spends the entire span of the book in romantic fantasies about how his life could be with the woman who has spoken maybe 5 sentences to him. This book basically just took up time... Maybe Williamson wrote it when he was a teenager, and just put it out again.