Customer Reviews

Silver Screen

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

 

 

It's true that this book doesn't present any really new ideas, but it handles the ones it's taken on with a strong writing style and a good story. This is not a great book, but it's a good read. If you don't like or relate to Anjuli after the first chapter, give up, this is not the book for you. Otherwise, take it with you on your next long flight -- it's about that level. Not quite fluff, but nothing too taxing either.

I am not much of a review writer. I will say I picked this book up several years ago and did not get very far before putting it down.

This time it was more interesting at the beginning and ever more interesting as the story developed. The end was a surprise to me although some of you may see it coming. I found myself wanting to email the author and ask her if I got it right.

If you have read her most recent series you will find this book slower moving. Nonetheless I think it is worth the time to read it.

When Roy Croft kills himself, O'Connell is forced to remember the strange half-friendship that she had most of her life with the crazed genius. However, his death never allows for any closure, because Roy seems to have started something that will pull her in before he died...

The book features the standard sci fi plots-- anarchist hackers, AI rights, strange mental abilities, and questions about the boundary of being human.

It was not bad, this book. However, I found very little about it that really stood out. It seemed as if Robson did a very good survey of the Cyberpunk and speculative fiction and turned out a book to formula. Uninspired, but readable.

...or so the book should have been called. Admittedly, I did buy this book because it did look like it followed similar ideas to William Gibson's brilliant "Neuromancer", but what I did not expect was to read a book that ripped off all Gibson's ideas. In fact, I was amazed at how blatant some of the stolen ideas were. For example, in Neuromancer there is a scene where Case watches Moly's progress on a dangerous mission through her eyes with the help of computer implants. In Silver Screen, Anjuli watches Augustine's progress on a dangerous mission through his eyes with the help of computer implants. And there are more similarities, I won't even begin to draw comparisons between Wintermute and the Shoal, but if you have read Neuromancer, get ready for deja vu when reading this.

As a direct comparison to Neuromancer, this book doesn't measure up. Silver Screen is far less intriguing or exciting as Gibson's dark vision of the future. By itself, it is slightly intriguing, but I found my mind wandering off as I was reading - the characters themselves didn't appeal to me greatly and I found trouble in caring about what happened to them.

To sum up, this novel didn't hold my interest to greatly because it was similar to the great sci-fi classic "Neuromancer" and the characters didn't appeal to me.

Justina Robson probes the possibilities of artificial intelligences emerging as life forms, in a compelling series of new novels. I read "Natural History" first, then "Silver Screen" (twice), and now I am in the midst of her latest, "Living Next Door to the God of Love."

I came to this author having been a big fan of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and Bruce Sterling. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I found plenty of fresh new ideas in Robson's work. She even works in the 11 dimension constructs from the latest in nuclear physics theories.

I recommend this book and Robson's other work to anyone who is in the market for some challenging science fiction.

Justina Robson's SILVER SCREEN has been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and tells of one Anjuli, who has a number of problems: a too-good memory, a boyfriend whose job is turning him into a cyborg, and struggles with machine intelligence. All her problems seem to center around a basic question: in a world where computer and man are becoming closer, what does it mean to be human? Strong characterization keeps this first-person futuristic story fast-paced and compelling.

Smart kid AI defense.


Or smart young adults, really. In the beginning this book has a 'school for the gifted' in a future setting, but nowhere near as extreme as the X-Men, or the Battle School, or even the institution in Shiras' Children of the Atom. This one is more of a corporate competition type of place.

The book focuses on one of these children, there largely because she has perfect memory, being able to recall anything from her past. This makes lots of exams etc. rather easy.

The other important characters and a brother and sister, the former becoming a brilliant if unconventional and unstable AI researcher, and the other bailing. The last is the latest generation of the AI owned by the company they work for, known as 901, or Nine for short.

A slow starting book builds to a rather more surprising conclusion with a trial for the rights of an Artificial Intelligence these people work for, and the latter part of the book is certainly worth waiting for. It has biodroid power armour, too.