Customer Reviews

Sunrise Alley (Library Edition)

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

 

 

Sunrise Alley (2005) is the third novel in the Near-future SF series, following The Phoenix Code. Samantha Abigail Harriet Bryton is a topline researcher in biomechanical constructs, an EI shrink, and a world famous bioethicist. She had protested the violation of ethical standards in the industry, but was ignored in her own company. Finally, she quit her job with Bioll Corporate Labs and is living quietly in her house on a northern California beach.

In this novel, Sam is walking on the beach in the fall of 2033 when she discovers debris on the strand and a wreck offshore. She finds an unconscious man on a raft among the wreckage and pulls the float back to the shore. When she checks the body and talks to the man, he suddenly regains consciousness.

When she examines the man in her lab, Sam learns that the man has biomechanical limbs and implants and a neural mesh instead of a brain. Sam checks his identity on the World Mesh and discovers that he is dead. Obviously the body is a forma, an android construct, but the person disagrees. He insists that he is a man who has been dissected, imaged and reconstructed as an android.

Turner Pascal says that he has been reconstructed by Charon, an underground figure, but Sam does not recognize the name. She checks with a close friend and learns that Charon does exist and has quite a reputation as a criminal. Sam still doesn't fully believe Turner, but is attracted by his upright personality.

Turner does not want her to contact anyone else, so they leave the house in her hover-shadow car and head for San Francisco. When her car is followed by another, she fights off its attacks, but decides to call the NIA immediately. A Redbird helicopter picks them up and delivers them to an airfield where they are met by a Rex hypersonic transport. However, the plane crew are henchmen of Charon and they are kidnapped to the Himalayas.

This novel explores the legal implications of self-aware emergent intelligences who can pass the most stringent Turing tests. Everyone initially treats Turner as an android, yet Sam is professionally impressed by his naturalness, empathy and stable personality. Although sometimes exhibiting problems with personality integration, Turner is far beyond the computer-based EIs with whom Sam has worked.

In many respects, this novel is similar in concept to the story "Jerry Was a Man" by Heinlein and other SF tales regarding civil liberties for non-humans. Asimov also addressed this subject in The Caves of Steel with R. Daneel Olivaw, the humanoid robot who acts as the partner of Elijah Baley. Unlike this story, R. Daneel displays all the aspects a sentient creature, yet is never invested with the status of citizen.

The title of this work is the cognomen of an underground society of EIs who have disappeared from research labs and other high security sites. Most of humanity are very leery of all EIs, yet they are too useful to just deactivate and throw away. To make things even worst, some EIs in Sunrise Alley possess top secret military information. They have already fled their builders, so how can they be trusted?

Highly recommended for Asaro fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of intrigue and exotic romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I like Asaro, I like the slightly cheezy dime store romance element that she brings into her novels. But I wouldn't buy a book for a dime store romance element. I would however buy a book which took what's currently known about comp sci and projected it a decade or two into the future.
What's great about the near future that Asaro builds up- is that it is not fantasy. Its consistent with the laws of the universe, she beats relativity in the Skolian series with a cute Mathematical trick- but here she doesn't have to.
The story isn't about the characters, its not her strong point- she has a stereotype boy meets girl, they fall in love approach- which works for her.
The story is about the concept. Slicing a brain into a cybernetic conciousness: the idea's been done before, but rarely as well as this. Her background in tech helps, she doesn't have to bend over backward to make up funny words to represent the stuff of the future. She's fluent enough with the language used in science today.

Plot Summary: Dr. Samantha Bryton has resigned as the lead biotech engineer when her firm began cutting corners to maximize profits. She's retreated to her home on the California coast to escape technology, but it literally washes up on her beach. Sam finds Turner Pascal floating on some wreckage, she pulls him to shore, and then learns that their meeting was no accident. Turner is trying to escape a mad genius named Charon, who copied Turner's mind into an android body after he died in a car accident. Charon wants Turner back, and Sam vows to help Turner find sanctuary and establish his right to live as a man, and not a piece of property.

The cover drew me in, but it was the story that kept me entertained. This is a sci-fi romantic thriller all rolled up into one neat package. A good science fiction story should give the reader a juicy ethical dilemma to chew on, and this one is a doozy; if artificial intelligence is self aware, should it have the same rights as humans? What happens when a human and a machine become one? Can such a being be owned by a human? The questions go on and on, but at the heart of the story is Turner and Sam, and their mutual devotion. Without their love, this story would have all the tension of a bland academic inquiry.

Most of the plot features Turner and Sam on the run, and it reminded me of the movie, "The Fugitive." Well, except that Turner had all these mad skills, like running super fast, or turning his hands into weapons. His brain evolves so much during the story, it's like he's a completely different person by the end. Sam must adjust to Turner's changes, both physically (yeah, the cover image is just the tip of the iceberg) and mentally too. I thought her reactions were authentic. Every time Sam's brain wanted to say, this is too much, and back away from her feelings, her heart took over and she fell for the guy who defies classification.

There was just one flaw. The story is set around 2033, and I argue that's not far enough into the future to have `smart-thread' clothing, or androids that can pass for human. If this was set in 2133 I'd have no problems, but I don't see these kinds of advances happening in a mere 20 years.

I will definitely look up more books by Catharine Asaro, and incidentally, there is a sequel to this novel called Alpha (Sunrise Alley).

For quite a few years now, the novels of Catherine Asaro have been recommended to me by various other readers of science fiction. I became more interested when I discovered that she had a degree in physics, and it seems, knew what she was talking about. That's always a plus, especially when it comes to creating a belivable fictional world.

The time is the near future, about 2030 or so, and Sam Bryton has fled to the quiet of the northern California coast to escape the more privileged world that she has lived in. Now she just wants to be alone in the redwoods, but that will change when a young man washes up on the beach below her home.

Turner Pascal is a mystery. He's had part of his body replaced by cybernetic limbs -- and part of his brain refitted with electronic matrices. He's unlike anyone or anything that Sam has worked with before, his abilities going far beyond the simple everyday cat-bots and mech-bots, and the more complex AI's and EI's that are begining to be developed. And his story is wilder than anything that Sam can believe.

Having run away from a mysterious entity called Charon, Turner is technically, and legally, dead, and now appears to be both man and machine. He has come to Sam to see if she can return him to his human state -- and if she can't do that, then at least see to it that Charon is stopped before he creates any more blends of humans and machines. The only place they know of to run to is the rumored Sunrise Alley, where robotics and androids are said to be in peaceful co-existance with humans. If it even exists.

But before Sam can actually do anything to help, sure enough, Charon is already making moves to have Turner back in his grasp. Soon, the novel turns into what I think of as a 'chase' story -- hero and heroine are on the run, stealing vehicles, being captured by and escaping from various bad guys, and get emotionally entangled before the requisite happy ending where all is resolved. While there are flashes of humor here and there within the story, the general tone is rather depressing -- and sadly, that leads to a rather stultifying read.

Sam is determined and spunky, not to mention young-looking and svelte for a woman in her forties. Indeed, she is so good at what she does that she skirts along into the dreaded 'Mary-Sue,' a thinly veiled avatar of the writer herself. Turner, for his part, is mostly a 'little boy lost,' and while it's interesting to see him growing and changing, he too quickly becomes a supercharacter, which is not that much fun to read about either.

Asaro can write a quickly paced thriller, and her use of modern cyber-science is certainly believable. While she does slide into 'explainitis' every now and then, she's able to keep most of the techno-babble down to a minimum, and does manage to create a world where machines and humans are starting to approach the same level of sophistication and communication. Asaro isn't afraid to explore some moral and ethical questions about cybernetics as well, which helped to create some depth to the story.

The sad part is that the story never quite seems to get above the lukewarm stage. Several extra characters have some interesting qualities and dispositions -- Charon's henchmen, Alpha and Hud, along with Sam's uncle, an Air Force general -- but they are certainly not enough to help the story move beyond what is a romance with science fiction trimmings.

And that's the real disappointment of this novel. It could have been so much more. Instead, Asaro took the cheap and easy way out. Pity, as I suspect that there is an author of some talent here, if she would only focus a bit more tightly on her story instead of sliding into old, tried plot tricks. What was especially annoying was the revealation of who Charon was, and it was at that point where the story fell apart for me, and I couldn't wait for it to end.

There is a sequel, entitled Alpha, that has been released in hardcover in September 2006, and due for mass market paperback in November 2007. Will I go so far as to read it -- after taking in the preview in Sunrise Alley, I'm rather doubtful.

Three stars, and a somewhat recommend.

Dr. Samantha "Sam" Bryton is one of the top in the biomech field. Unlike most research scientists though, Sam believed there were ethics even when dealing with EIs. There is a difference between AIs and EIs. AIs are artificial intelligence. Androids. EIs, however, are evolved intelligence. In this day and age, most humans are part biomech. As long as over fifty percent of the person remains human, the person is considered alive. But if the human is over half mesh, then the human is no longer considered human or alive. Unlike AIs, all EIs can evolve. The thin line deciding where humanity ends and mesh begins remains unknown. To Sam, EIs should be treated humanly. Sam "retired" from BioII when her husband, Richard, died due to experimental components used in creation of forma bodies.

One morning, after a storm, Sam goes walking upon her private beach to discover a shipwreck with one survivor, Turner Pascal. But records show that Turner died previously. She learns from Turner that he really did die, but he woke up to find himself in a lab and being experimented on by a mad man known as Charon. Charon is the most ruthless criminal of the twenty-first century. No one knows who he really is or what he really looks like. Sam and Turner find themselves on the run across the country, pursued by Charon. They seek help from an underground organization called Sunrise Alley. Thought to be only a myth, Sunrise Alley is an organization of AIs and EIs gone rogue. Those within Sunrise Alley grant Sam and Turner sanctuary, as well as, support. Problem is that the cybernetic outlaws have their own hidden agenda.

***** This book is written with a bit of SL Veihl's flavor. If you have ever watched and enjoyed the old movie "Logan's Run", then you will simply adore this tale. Sanctuary is for EIs, instead of humans over age thirty. This title is a stand alone story; however, one of the characters from this book, Alpha, has had her story just released as well. Be sure to look for it! If it is even half as enjoyable as this story is, you are in for a treat. Highly recommended! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Sam, a 41 (female by the way), is a biotech researcher who is burned out. She inadvertantly rescues a man whose body is mostly biotech. This raises the ethical question is he man or machine? Inevitably there is an evil genius involved who wants Turner (her cybernetic boyfriend back).

This was an entertainingly light piece of work with some fun romantic elements. There were plenty of flaws though, as well. For instance, I found Sam the heroine to be a bit boring. She is petite, pretty, and mega-intelligent. I also felt she was a tad old for Turner (27). The cybernetics stuff was interesting, but soon went a little over the top with the car chases, cybernetic bees, and constant globe trotting. The lack of detail in the various new locations made parts of the novel unrealistic. The heroine's riches made the story less suspenseful. I found myself losing interest 3/4's through with the various parties vying for control of Turner. Turner himself seemed a wee bit over-powered and innocent.

Overall, an Ok read, but I've read better. Oh and the cover artist needs about 3 or 4 more years in figure drawing class. That is one fugly cover. 3 stars.

I enjoyed this story, but I'd rate it a little lower than the Skolian Empire novels that I've read. This story impresses me as more of a "B movie" type of story, but her Skolian Empire novels are definately "A" material in my opinion.

I don't mean to put down this story. It's well written and it held my attention quite well, as all of Catherine Asaro's novels have, but I just like the Skolian Empire stories better.

Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro is a book about artificial intelligence and androids that develop self awareness. What defines who is human? The main character, Samantha, is an AI researcher who becomes involved in a cross country chase with a man most people think is an AI.

It's not as good as Catherine Asaro's other series, the Saga of the Skolian Empire series. The Skolian Empire books are a romantic space opera with lots of good science and great character development. They weren't published in order (she wrote different books at different times) so I created a list of them in storyline order. The first one is Skyfall (Saga of the Skolian Empire) if you want to get going!

A good solid book in near future Science Fiction. She provides for good action while providing for good science, which can be a very tough combination to overcome with quality.

Look, I loved the Radiant Seas as much as anyone, but, man, Asaro is running her themes into the dirt with this book. we have:

-a character who murkies the line between what is human and what is mechanical
...
-a dominant female rescuing an endangered, endearing male
-and much, much more.

some of the characters in this book are dead ringers for players in her Skolian Empire saga, and the relationship between the sexes is as formulaic as ever. Can we see something new here? I'd like to read Catherine Asaro's take on some other social issues...