Sunrise Alley, by Catherine Asaro
pros: fast-paced; interesting premise and situations that illustrate dilemma; futuristic technology; likable AI entities; questions of age differences; Turner’s story; from Baen’s free library
cons: a bit too much detail in sexual interactions between Turner and Samantha; weak romance – it seemed contrived to drive the point of humanity of an AI/EI; apparent omnipotence of Charon (bad guy) was convenient, his failures were also very convenient; overall the story felt rushed
misc: electronically augmented clothing; orbital jets; underground community of machine intelligences, androids, and robots; military
ISBN 1416520791; 448 pages; pub. 2006
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I’ve had Ms. Asaro’s work recommended to me by a couple of people whose views are usually pretty reliable. The same folks who also like Charles Stross and Vernor Vinge. Does SUNRISE ALLEY fall into the “post-human” category, a tributary of SF I find intriguing…and terrifying? I also like Dennis Danvers’ books, the kind of future he posits. The next 50 years are so are going to be interesting times indeed…
I’m not really sure. I have read Vernor Vinge, albeit years ago, but I have not read the other two authors. This book is worth reading for the premise alone. The “post-human” aspect is implied, and it has a lot of potential. I wouldn’t put this author in my “must read” list but she’s not in the “definitely avoid” list either. I am going to read Alpha soon, which is the follow up to this one, and then I will know if it’s worth reading any more of Asaro’s work, and how far she will take the “post-human” aspect. So far for me, the bottom line about this author is that the romance elements pretty much detract from everything else.
You might enjoy reading “Mockingbird” by Walter Tevis, based on your comments. This is probably out of print, but worth the effort to find it.