Last Book Foo of 2003!
Dec. 12th, 2003 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Oh yeah, I forgot, yesterday I...
Finished: The Light of Other Days, by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
Actually turned out to be much better than I thought it would. In the grand tradition of classic science fiction, takes a single imaginary breakthrough, and explores the consequences thoroughly (and of course, didn't make the mistake of that being the _only_ advance). Took a little bit of time to pick up, but once they actually made the discovery, I got through it very quickly. More and minor spoilery comments (including where I admit hypocracy) behind the cut tag.
The technology, of course, was a wormhole camera that allows anyone to look anywhere they want. Untappable, untraceable, works through walls, etc. The discovery amounts to a sudden and complete eradication of personal privacy, and things only get worse when it's discovered that not only can the cameras watch the present, they can be targetted to the past, too, forcing everyone to be aware of the possibility that what they do may not only be watched now, but by any interested person in the future. All set against the backdrop of a world which expects its going to end in 500 years with an undeflectable planetoid the size of a moon collides with Earth.
Some of the characters still didn't connect well to me, they seemed to change a couple of times when there's a time jump, in ways that didn't seem to be adequetely set up (sometimes they were ways that were hinted at for other characters). Also my usual problem of some of the minor characters being difficult to keep straight.
Another minor problem was some reliance of pop culture references. There is a throwaway mention of Geri Halliwell (the spice girl) as Secretary General of the UN, and of a second-generation clone of Michael Jackson being a terrorist.
Still, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I must admit, I'd shudder to think of such a technological breakthrough happening and becoming widely used. I like my privacy, I like the fact that once I can behave differently than I do outside. I can have secrets that aren't locked inside my own head. However, I'm also man enough to admit I'm a total hypocrite and would love to have personal, private access to the Wormcam. The varied applications of the device were pretty well thought out, but I think they missed a couple of obvious ones...for example, if the wormholes can transmit light, surely they could transmit highly directed bursts of radiation, becoming an untracable weapon you could target at anyone anywhere in the world. You could even be subtle about it and target their brain with a lower dose so they die of a brain tumor or something (cancer hasn't been cured in the book).
Anyway, it was a pretty cool story.
So, thus ends my last Book Foo of the year. Haven't decided yet what I'll start next, may pick up something Boxing Week.
Finished: The Light of Other Days, by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
Actually turned out to be much better than I thought it would. In the grand tradition of classic science fiction, takes a single imaginary breakthrough, and explores the consequences thoroughly (and of course, didn't make the mistake of that being the _only_ advance). Took a little bit of time to pick up, but once they actually made the discovery, I got through it very quickly. More and minor spoilery comments (including where I admit hypocracy) behind the cut tag.
The technology, of course, was a wormhole camera that allows anyone to look anywhere they want. Untappable, untraceable, works through walls, etc. The discovery amounts to a sudden and complete eradication of personal privacy, and things only get worse when it's discovered that not only can the cameras watch the present, they can be targetted to the past, too, forcing everyone to be aware of the possibility that what they do may not only be watched now, but by any interested person in the future. All set against the backdrop of a world which expects its going to end in 500 years with an undeflectable planetoid the size of a moon collides with Earth.
Some of the characters still didn't connect well to me, they seemed to change a couple of times when there's a time jump, in ways that didn't seem to be adequetely set up (sometimes they were ways that were hinted at for other characters). Also my usual problem of some of the minor characters being difficult to keep straight.
Another minor problem was some reliance of pop culture references. There is a throwaway mention of Geri Halliwell (the spice girl) as Secretary General of the UN, and of a second-generation clone of Michael Jackson being a terrorist.
Still, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I must admit, I'd shudder to think of such a technological breakthrough happening and becoming widely used. I like my privacy, I like the fact that once I can behave differently than I do outside. I can have secrets that aren't locked inside my own head. However, I'm also man enough to admit I'm a total hypocrite and would love to have personal, private access to the Wormcam. The varied applications of the device were pretty well thought out, but I think they missed a couple of obvious ones...for example, if the wormholes can transmit light, surely they could transmit highly directed bursts of radiation, becoming an untracable weapon you could target at anyone anywhere in the world. You could even be subtle about it and target their brain with a lower dose so they die of a brain tumor or something (cancer hasn't been cured in the book).
Anyway, it was a pretty cool story.
So, thus ends my last Book Foo of the year. Haven't decided yet what I'll start next, may pick up something Boxing Week.
