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![Fool's War by [Sarah Zettel]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Cxa14EqNL._SY346_.jpg)
Fool's War Kindle Edition
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Katmer Al Shei has done well with the starship Pasadena, cutting corners where necessary to keep her crew paid and her journeys profitable. But there are two things she will never skimp on: her crew and her fool. For a long space journey, a certified Fool’s Guild clown is essential to amuse, excite, and otherwise distract the crew from the drudgeries of interstellar flight. Her newest fool, Evelyn Dobbs, is a talented jester. But does she have enough wit to save mankind?
In the computers of the Pasadena, something is emerging. The highly sophisticated software that makes interstellar travel practical is playing host to a new form of artificial intelligence, a living entity. And it will do whatever it takes to survive . . .
Displaying “the influence of Asimov’s robot stories and C. J. Cherryh’s elaborate, sophisticated spaceship adventures,” this is a science fiction masterpiece that asks the thought-provoking question, “What if the next great life-form with which we must contend isn’t from the stars but from our hard drives?” (Publishers Weekly)
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOpen Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Publication dateMay 21, 2013
- File size2449 KB
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From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From the Back Cover
Katmer Al Shei, owner of the starship Pasadena, does not know she is carrying a live entity in her ship's computer systems. Or that the electronic network her family helped weave holds a new race fighting for survival. Or that her ship's professional Fool is trying to avert a battle that could destroy entire worlds. And when Al Shei learns the truth, all she'll really know is that it's time to take sides...
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.Product details
- ASIN : B00CM17QMK
- Publisher : Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (May 21, 2013)
- Publication date : May 21, 2013
- Language : English
- File size : 2449 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 467 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,051,481 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #646 in Add Narration for $3.99 or Less
- #2,523 in Galactic Empire Science Fiction eBooks
- #7,892 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
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Turns out that Dobbs is also a troubleshooter for the Fool's Guild, watching out for any sentient AIs that may pop up, and getting the AI into a safe environment where it can't mess up the local computer systems, ships, or ecologies. A new AI has formed at the colony, maybe because of what the ship downloaded, and Dobbs has to make a first contact and isolate the AI. Things go all to hell, of course, as the ship's crew, Dobbs, and the Fool's Guild all try to control the situation.
This is a well-done story, and should be of interest to any hard sci-fi fan or computer weenies. It's easy to get invested in most of the characters, and the book is easily one of Zettel's best efforts, with a lot of twists and turns and a number of not-so-good guys.
Finally, this book (Kindle Version) has hundreds of typos, misspellings, and grammar mistakes that should be embarrassing for any author. I many times had to go back one or more pages to figure out what was being said or why a character's name was spelled differently. Ms. Zettel needs to get on the phone to her editor and rip him or her a new one. I checked some of the errors in a paperback copy of this novel and the errors weren't there, so whomever edited the Kindle version did a really lousy job and should go back to slinging burgers.
The real value of the book is its imaginative portrayal of artificial intelligences, some of which "go rogue" and head off into the connected universe with their own agendas. They have different, believable and fascinating personalities. The effects of the processors they run on, the bandwidth they travel through, and other aspects of their experiences are convincingly portrayed. Readers are left with a feel for why such intelligences have priorities and goals than human beings cannot easily understand.
This book is recommended for fans of space opera, artificial intelligence and of a good, hint-driven mystery in an unconventional setting. It is a worthy addition to your bookshelf or to the electronic reading device of your choice.
I had never read anything by Zettel before, but this book kept appearing in my "recommendations" from Amazon, so I gave it a try. I'm definitely not sorry. Kudos to Amazon and I'll be reading more of Ms. Zettel's work in the future.
It has the usual editing errors - is it thirty-six or thirty-eight hours; lose not loose, etc.
I'm knocking it down a star because there is one glaring problem - a lack of visual clues when a scene transition occurs. Usually within a couple of lines you realize this has occurred, but the normal convention is a few blank lines or some dashes or other typographical convention. The one that really caused me to deduct the star is when E is talking to S and T shows up.
"Yes, I do know what's going on," she said quietly. "But you're going to want to sit down before I tell you."
The characters are face to face and the scene shifts and that lose end in never addressed... the book continues as if nothing was said.
Seriously, folks, the price is just right, the story very surprising and well done, but the publisher should be mocked for this many text errors in one file. I suppose they consider the ebook a throwaway, which is remarkably shortsighted, even for a mainstream book publisher. It's also a pity because the author deserves praise and respect for her intriguing tale of machine intelligence run amok.
But no reader deserves to have to wade through so many mistakes in a text, particularly in the last half of the story. I was constantly trying to decide which missing word or tense was intended. Even the character's names are repeatedly misspelled. Not even a homicidal AI would be so cruel!
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