Customer Reviews

Spin Control

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a sequel to Moriarty's 2003 Spin State, which I enjoyed very much. Catherine Li, now an ex-Peacekeeper, and her very dangerous AI lover, Cohen, are back, this time pursuing information from a Syndicate defector. The defector, a Syndicate clone called Arkady, has information about a genetic doomsday weapon powerful enough to wipe out humanity. He's defected to Israel, but the Israelis for some reason aren't buying the story, and have decided to sell it, and Ardady, to the highest bidder. And Li and Cohen have been hired to represent the interests of the Artificial Life Emancipation Front.

In alternating sections we get the current intrigue, with Arkady's confusion at life outside the space-faring clone Syndicates, and especially on old, tired, damaged Earth, Li and Cohen's struggles with their conflicting loyalties needs, and Arkady's last months in the Syndicates, building to the secret of the weapon and the cause of his defection. In Spin State, seen mainly through Catherine Li's eyes, the Syndicates were the ominous, monolithic, threatening Enemy. In Spin Control, seen from the inside, the ominous forces are still there, but it's altogether a more complex and conflicted picture--the Syndicates in some respects (by no means all!) represent a life governed by more humane values than what the UN offers to most of those living under its rule. There's also a good deal more--call it cultural diversity, call it personality differences--among the different clone Syndicates than Li, with her constricted view of them, could suspect. And it's in that diversity of cultural values that lies both the threat and the promise of what Arkady has come to tell someone who'll listen.

Spin State was a very good book. Spin Control is a better book. Highly recommended.

Unlike the previous reviewer, I liked Spin Control more than Spin State. In four hundred years, how will humans, post-humans, clones, and AIs coexist? This book explores those issues and throws in a bit of spy thriller, myrmecology, terraforming, complexity theory, Jewish culture, religious politics and much, much more. Very dense, character-driven hard science fiction. I'd also like to note that Arkasha is male, not female, as the Publisher's Weekly review suggests.

Not many sci-fi authors can successfully carry the banner of the hard-boiled tech noir first raised by William Gibson. Chris Moriarity of one of those few.

After enjoying the complex plot and dark environs of 'Spin State', I looked forward to diving into Moriarty's next novel. 'Spin Control' did not disappoint. Its plot is much tighter, even though much of it is told through a series of flashbacks and the over-the-shoulder point of view follows several different characters rather than just the heroine of 'Spin State', Catherine Li.

In 'Spin Control' Moriarty has given herself much more freedom to roam. She leaves behind the claustrophobic mines of Compson's World and sets out to explore the larger universe she has created. In 'Spin Control' we learn a lot more about the Syndicates and their way of life and are offered an intriguing glimpse into the personal history (histories?) of the AI Cohen. Li and Korchow still figure prominently in the story, but they don't dominate.

If you like William Gibson, Iain M Banks, or Richard K Morgan, you'll enjoy Moriarty's work as well. The territory will feel familiar, and you're not likely to find much that's new or groundbreaking. However, if you enjoy the genre or enjoyed 'Spin State', you'll find 'Spin Control' worth your time.

There are parts of this book, particularly the last 100 pages, that are hard to put down and will keep you reading through phone calls and well past bedtime.

Unfortunately, there are parts of the book that are also weak...or so fascinating that just by touching upon them rather than exploring them more...I was left unsatisfied and a bit perplexed. I agree with several of the reviewers that the parts of the book about the Syndicates were fascinating and desperately needed to be explored far more.

Also, the plot is almost ludicrously convoluted and the chart the characters draw up to get their own hands around the plot made me think first, Wow, neat idea, and then, Wait a minute...this is what's wrong, when's the last time I read a great book that had to include a chart of various characters and plotlines to keep me focused...? Never, that's when, and that's the fundamental problem.

The characterization is excellent, the setting perfectly spun (albeit depressing), and the writing top notch. Unfortunately, the plot spins a bit too much out of control, is too convoluted and thus ends up losing a lot of its punch...which then caused my enjoyment of the book to drop.

If you like Moriarity's earlier book, SPIN STATE, this is an enjoyable, if not great read. If this is your first look at Moriarity or this type of cyberpunk sci-fi, there are a lot better books out there to whet your appetite on.

After enjoying Spin State so much and seeing many positive reviews by other Amazon readers, I was really looking forward to reading Spin Control. What a disappointment! I knew that it wasn't going to be a sequel per se, but I did expect the same interesting plot, characters and social/technical context that Spin State offered. Instead I found a very confusing plot (I'm still trying to figure out what happened and why, a couple of days after finishing the book) plus a lot of talky lectures about complex systems that left me bored and further confused. I do agree with other reviewers that the characterization is better in Spin Control and the inside-Syndicates perspective provides an interesting counterpoint, but these factors weren't enough to redeem the novel for me.

This is the first Amazon review that I've written, motivated by the need to give a minority report balancing all of the five-star ratings found here. I'm happy that those reviewers loved the book, but personally I wish I had quit reading Chris Moriarty after his excellent Spin State.

Perhaps the most complex and intelligent science fiction novel I have read in many years. Full of great ideas, cutting edge genetics, and some serious thought about the nature of war, violence, security and duplicity. At times the burden of ideas overwhelms the plot and characters, which are just not strong enough to carry the burden. The absence of any moral valence left me cold towards all the characters, even the protagonist who effectively conveys the blank affect of a genetically-overbred clone. In the end the author's imagination is more entrancing than the story. But this is definitely an author to watch, and someone whose books set a standard for being informed, thoughtful and engaged with the kinds of moral issues we face in the 21st.
(speaking of which, the whole point of the book is that labels like 'gay' are just stupid, and if that is the most important thing you get out of this novel, I am really sorry you missed so much.)

Not since mid to late 1980s William Gibson and Bruce Sterling have I read a book that's nearly as well written and as grandiose in scope with regards to the potential impact that a computer-based technological future may have on humanity. With "Spin Control" Chris Moriarty has written what can be described as the finest post-cyberpunk space opera novel ever written, effortlessly capturing the gritty realism of William Gibson's street-wise "Sprawl" short stories and "Cyberspace" trilogy ("Neuromancer", "Count Zero", "Mona Lis Overdrive") with Bruce Sterling's hard-edge, almost dystopian, Shaper/Machinist cyberpunk space opera ("Schisimatrix"). Others, most notably Richard K. Morgan, in his Takeshi Kovacs series of novels, have come close to providing such a compelling, thoughtful piece of entertainment on humanity's post-human future. However, none have rendered such a scientifically firmly-rooted, realistic bit of extrapolation as Chris Moriarty has done, by relying upon important work in complexity theory, evolutionary ecology and the systematic zoology of ants, and by citing someone as important as distinguished evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson for providing the nonfictional roots of her elegantly realized post-cyberpunk science fiction novel (Indeed, much of the novel relies strongly upon a strong dose of evolutionary ecology and systematic zoology, which, undoubtedly will come as an unwarranted surprise to IDiots (Intelligent Design advocates) and other creationists who strongly doubt the scientific validity of evolution.). Best of all, Chris Moriarty is such a skillful prose stylist that her writing warrants favorable comparisons to the likes of both Gibson and Sterling.

"Spin Control" is the immediate sequel to "Spin State", which introduced readers to Moriarity's brilliant, exquisitely-realized future of off-world post-human Syndicates allied against a United Nations comprised of human colonies and an ecologically devestated Planet Earth that is still losing its human population, centuries after a rapid ecological collapse which led to both widespread human immigration from Earth and the mass extinction of many species of animals and plants (I have not yet read "Spin State", but am eagerly looking forward to it.). In "Spin State" readers where introduced to intelligence operative - and AI-enhanced clone - Hyacinthe Cohen and UN Peacekeeper Catherine Li; here in "Spin Control", they have returned, in subordinate roles, as representatives of ALEF (Artificial Life Emancipation Front), in search of one very special prize. His name is Arkady, a "clone with a conscience", a Syndicate myrmecologist (ant ecologist), who arrives on Planet Earth as a survivor of an ill-fated terraforming mission on the Planet Novalis, and a willing defector to the State of Israel with a dangerous, potentially deadly, weapon that could change the fate of humanity; an unknown genetic weapon which he "discovered" by accident on Novalis. However, the Mossad, Israel's Secret Service, claims ample disinterest, offering to bid him to the highest bidder: ALEF, the Palestinians, even the Fundamentalist Protestant religious theocrats now in charge of the United States of America. What will follow - as deftly told by Chris Moriarty in her riveting, almost ornate, yet rather poetic, prose - may determine the future of humanity not only on Planet Earth, but also in interstellar space, and the survival of the post-human Syndicates.

I thoroughly enjoyed Moriarty's first novel, Spin State. It was a rich mix of hard sci-fi ideas, action, and intrigue, featuring characters with compelling stories about life on distant worlds. I am sad to report, however, that the sequel does not live up to its predecessor.

Spin Control is primarily a tale of the murky war of espionage waged between Israelis and Palestinians several centuries from now. Arkady, an innocent from the galactic frontier, journeys to the ruined Earth, supposedly to sell a biological weapon he discovered during a terraforming expedition. For most of the book, Arkady is shuffled between the various intelligence groups bidding for the weapon. Between the cryptic interrogations, Arkady tries to unravel the Byzantine motivations of the people around him.

As befits an espionage novel, Moriarty aims for subtlety. Every character is mysterious, with hidden, inscrutable motives and conflicting loyalties. Unfortunately, the storyline is too subtle for its own good. Arkady meanders through a world of confusion, and so do we. You are never quite sure what the characters are trying to do, or why, or where the story is headed. In some books, that can be a good thing, building suspense and deepening the mystery. In Spin Control, however, the result is a muddled mess. The story doesn't make much sense, and as a result, it's hard to care about what happens. As the pages dwindled, rather than anticipating the climax, I found myself saying, "Let's get this over with." Not a good sign.

The best parts of the book were the long flash-backs, in which Arkady introduces us to the culture of the Syndicates, a space-based utopian society populated by a limited variety of mass-produced clones. Moriarty does a fine job of exploring their strange but believable society, and in those chapters, Spin Control is as interesting and innovative as its processor. Overall, though, the book was a disappointment.

It's unfortunate how often authors manage to get a book or two published, and take it as a license to get sloppy and tell their editors where to stuff it. At least judging by Moriarty's second installment, she hasn't succumbed to this trend and has only improved.

The protagonist(s) and world are carried forward from the first book, but there's enough of a gap to allow for a full novel to fit inbetween where it ends and this one starts, and this book does tell its tale largely from the viewpoint of a new character. The setting is our world, perhaps some five hundred years into the future, where a group of deep-space living cloned humans are in a state of war with normal space-faring humans, and then there are the poor sods left living on Earth. There is faster-than-light communication and travel, but it's kept prohibitively expensive to keep things interesting, and the progress of genetic technology mixes things up a lot more. The FTL issues are what the first book dealt with, this one takes place in an entirely different context and deals with new social and ethical issues.

In some ways the characterization isn't supremely deep and the interlacing of past and present chapters is a bit annoying, but those are relatively small complaints. In other aspects the characters are really rather deep and human, no matter what they are. There are issues of morality, of what it is to be human, of trying to find solace in a cold world where we are all alone, and they are all dealt with quite well. This, while maintaining a very good pacing and level of prose, and topping it all off by being excellent hard sci-fi, to the point where the ex-physicist in me is always tempted to look up the quotes, factoids and follow the "suggested factual reading" links at the back of the book.

The hard sci-fi aspect may (or may not) be a bit distracting to readers who do not have a science degree or knowledge of computer science and complex systems, but I doubt it really is necessary to follow the details; while the plot revolves around a technological MacGuffin, by the end you realize that the important things were somewhere else entirely the entire time.

There is perhaps excessive angst in this work, and perhaps partially because of its origins this book resonated with me better than many for a long time. It's not perfect literature, but it is darn good, and it gripped me tightly and gave me a very rewarding two days.

This was a tough one for me because of how much I enjoyed her first book, Spin State. I expected a lot more and was a bit disappointed. It honestly took close to 200 pages before I started somewhat enjoying this book, and then it wasn't until around 340 or so pages that I really got in to the story and was enjoying the book.

Why? Not really sure. The plot seemed forced in the beginning. The Syndicates were naively portrayed to some basic intuitive everyday occurrences. Some of the characters were portrayed as tough and competent, but their actions didn't fit who they were supposed to be. Aside from all that the story did pick up and some of the Moriarty we got in the first book checkered itself into this book. The spin, no pun intended, of the different characters interactions and parts they were involved in left the reader somewhat guessing and going, "ah...", which always helps. The speed of the book drastically picked up which left the reader wanting to read more.

One major disappointment that I don't quite understand is why Moriarty chose to have Cohen and Li as main characters and yet not use any of the history that was created in Spin State. As we read about them there is no reference to 3 years before, no history, no reference, nothing. Maybe around 300 pages in there is a quick reference to General Nguyen, who played a significant role in the first book. What we were left with instead was characters you are familiar with that you couldn't relate to at all! Moriarty would have been better off just using new characters instead of using old characters if she wasn't going to take advantage of the world they were in and the experiences they had in Spin State.

All in all the book lagged, then picked up, and had a few loose ends towards the end (which I suspect were meant to help lead in to the next book). The ebb makes this a 3 star, but the flow of the latter part of the book makes this a 4 star. A recommend none the less.

3.5 stars.