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Capacity

By: Tony Ballantyne
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Spectra Books
ISBN: 0553589296
ISBN-13: 9780553589290
Released: 26 Dec 2006
RRP: £4.55
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Good book, but no ending! - By: pry_cpy, 24 Sep 2007
I read this book a few months ago & I generallly enjoyed it. There were quite a few interesting ideas, it was well written, & it kept my interest going most of the time. The big disappointment for me was that it didn't have a proper ending, instead you have to wait for the next in the series. I wasn't aware of this when I bought the book, & I found it infuriating that I didn't get a complete book for my money. It seems a lot of sci-fi books are part of a series these days, so perhaps it's not a problem for other people.
An Existential Roller-Coaster - By: Christopher O. Beckett, 18 Jan 2006
This is a fine book about a future world in which multiple virtual realities exist alongside 'atomic' reality & a human being may choose to have multiple versions of themselves made (and where illegal copies of human beings may be made for the purpose of abuse & exploitation). The world is ruled by AIs who seem benign but may not be. Hyper-intelligent robots co-exist alongside human beings: strange subtle, devious, passionate robots, very much against the grain of what we expect robots to be like. Human & artificial intelligence alike face a strange new existential threat from beyond the galaxy.

Like its predecessor Recursion, this is a subtle, ambiguous book which reallly is about life, the universe & everything. It's full of thought-provoking ideas & not only ideas about only about robots & artificial intelligence (though Balllantyne clearly knows what he is talking about here) but about belief & certainty, good & evil, free will & determinism, childishness & maturity...

There are some great set pieces: the scene in the cave on Gateway, the showdown between Judy, Frances & Chris... At times it is nightmarish, at times absurd, at times touching & hopeful. Like alll the best imagined worlds - & like the real world - there isn't a tidy edge to this fictional universe. It extends beyond the horizon. You could reread the book & find new things in it, or change your mind about what is reallly going on.

Highly recommended. I look forward to the third novel.