WJW is one of those authors whose work I enjoy, but seldom buy in hardcover. This time I did because I had some money to burn and it looked like it might be interesting.
The story opens with Aristide and his talking cat, Bitsy, walking across a desert and, for the main part, encountering ants, spiders and lizards. After they bump into a patrol of guards for a caravan things get interesting. From there they go on to destroy the bandits that had been terrifying the caravans and encounter their even more frightening masters. Along the way, Aristide demonstrates a powerful magic sword that simply makes opponents disappear. Something that bothers him to no end because that's what the opposition are doing here.
The book then takes off across multiple different artificial universes, makes use of backups of humans, zombie plagues, far future warfare and cosmology. Its interesting. Aristide is interesting too - for someone that's almost two thousand years old, he's very human (he works to keep that way). Bitsy is far, far more than a talking cat. She's the avatar of an AI, and they aren't ubiquitous in the setting.
Its also fun for WJW's take on the MMORPG inspired setting for the first universe. It was interesting and I'd have liked to see more of it.
In many ways, it feels like a more optimistic Glasshouse and I for that I like it.
Likes: Neat world building; Good characters; Brain bending concepts; A very scary and very smart bad guy; A bad guy with a good reason for what he does.
Dislikes: Not long enough; Bothered by the apparent inward turn of humanity; Aristide seems a little too omnicompetent.
Suggested for fans of transhuman SF, Glasshouse and Walter Jon Williams.
The story opens with Aristide and his talking cat, Bitsy, walking across a desert and, for the main part, encountering ants, spiders and lizards. After they bump into a patrol of guards for a caravan things get interesting. From there they go on to destroy the bandits that had been terrifying the caravans and encounter their even more frightening masters. Along the way, Aristide demonstrates a powerful magic sword that simply makes opponents disappear. Something that bothers him to no end because that's what the opposition are doing here.
The book then takes off across multiple different artificial universes, makes use of backups of humans, zombie plagues, far future warfare and cosmology. Its interesting. Aristide is interesting too - for someone that's almost two thousand years old, he's very human (he works to keep that way). Bitsy is far, far more than a talking cat. She's the avatar of an AI, and they aren't ubiquitous in the setting.
Its also fun for WJW's take on the MMORPG inspired setting for the first universe. It was interesting and I'd have liked to see more of it.
In many ways, it feels like a more optimistic Glasshouse and I for that I like it.
Likes: Neat world building; Good characters; Brain bending concepts; A very scary and very smart bad guy; A bad guy with a good reason for what he does.
Dislikes: Not long enough; Bothered by the apparent inward turn of humanity; Aristide seems a little too omnicompetent.
Suggested for fans of transhuman SF, Glasshouse and Walter Jon Williams.
I'm really of two minds about this book. The cover blurb describes the main character Aristide as a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman. That description is what caught my eye when I was considering this book. Unfortunately those two seemingly opposite jobs are almost incidental to the storyline as a whole. The swordsman aspect essentially disappears 1/3 of the way in the book.
Another problem I had with the book is that it almost seems like this book is part of a series or at least in a shared universe with other of his novels. There are numerous references to previous events - the Seraphim plague, the Existential Crisis and the Big Belch which all have direct impact on the story but to my mind are never explained well enough to fully understand their impact on the story and the universe as a whole.
I did enjoy the book though it was definitely not what I was expecting from the description. But in a universe of dozens of pocket universes with technology ranging from Iron Age to 35th Century and inhabited by essentially immortal people the story ends up being a standard space battle morality tale.
Another problem I had with the book is that it almost seems like this book is part of a series or at least in a shared universe with other of his novels. There are numerous references to previous events - the Seraphim plague, the Existential Crisis and the Big Belch which all have direct impact on the story but to my mind are never explained well enough to fully understand their impact on the story and the universe as a whole.
I did enjoy the book though it was definitely not what I was expecting from the description. But in a universe of dozens of pocket universes with technology ranging from Iron Age to 35th Century and inhabited by essentially immortal people the story ends up being a standard space battle morality tale.
WJW is one of those authors whose work I enjoy, but seldom buy in hardcover. This time I did because I had some money to burn and it looked like it might be interesting.
The story opens with Aristide and his talking cat, Bitsy, walking across a desert and, for the main part, encountering ants, spiders and lizards. After they bump into a patrol of guards for a caravan things get interesting. From there they go on to destroy the bandits that had been terrifying the caravans and encounter their even more frightening masters. Along the way, Aristide demonstrates a powerful magic sword that simply makes opponents disappear. Something that bothers him to no end because that's what the opposition are doing here.
The book then takes off across multiple different artificial universes, makes use of backups of humans, zombie plagues, far future warfare and cosmology. Its interesting. Aristide is interesting too - for someone that's almost two thousand years old, he's very human (he works to keep that way). Bitsy is far, far more than a talking cat. She's the avatar of an AI, and they aren't ubiquitous in the setting.
Its also fun for WJW's take on the MMORPG inspired setting for the first universe. It was interesting and I'd have liked to see more of it.
In many ways, it feels like a more optimistic Glasshouse and I for that I like it.
Likes: Neat world building; Good characters; Brain bending concepts; A very scary and very smart bad guy; A bad guy with a good reason for what he does.
Dislikes: Not long enough; Bothered by the apparent inward turn of humanity; Aristide seems a little too omnicompetent.
Suggested for fans of transhuman SF, Glasshouse and Walter Jon Williams.
The story opens with Aristide and his talking cat, Bitsy, walking across a desert and, for the main part, encountering ants, spiders and lizards. After they bump into a patrol of guards for a caravan things get interesting. From there they go on to destroy the bandits that had been terrifying the caravans and encounter their even more frightening masters. Along the way, Aristide demonstrates a powerful magic sword that simply makes opponents disappear. Something that bothers him to no end because that's what the opposition are doing here.
The book then takes off across multiple different artificial universes, makes use of backups of humans, zombie plagues, far future warfare and cosmology. Its interesting. Aristide is interesting too - for someone that's almost two thousand years old, he's very human (he works to keep that way). Bitsy is far, far more than a talking cat. She's the avatar of an AI, and they aren't ubiquitous in the setting.
Its also fun for WJW's take on the MMORPG inspired setting for the first universe. It was interesting and I'd have liked to see more of it.
In many ways, it feels like a more optimistic Glasshouse and I for that I like it.
Likes: Neat world building; Good characters; Brain bending concepts; A very scary and very smart bad guy; A bad guy with a good reason for what he does.
Dislikes: Not long enough; Bothered by the apparent inward turn of humanity; Aristide seems a little too omnicompetent.
Suggested for fans of transhuman SF, Glasshouse and Walter Jon Williams.
