Poltergeist, by Kat Richardson
pros: good writer, good series; interesting premise, well handled; same group of characters as before, but with different emphases; noirish detective novel feel; only a hint of romance; really works in the city and its quirks and personality; coffee addiction worked in as small detail, including Starbucks
cons: not a lot gets resolved; love interest was there as a plot device; Harper’s personality and circumstances could have used more details; too long since I read first book in series
misc: Greywalker Book 2; Harper Blaine; Seattle; psychokinesis; research project; fake experiment
ISBN 0451461509; 352pp; pub. 2007
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Alpha, by Catherine Asaro
pros: interesting story idea; interesting characters, especially Alpha; dogfight; Jamie (grandaughter); future technologies, esp. nanomedicine
cons: sometimes stilted writing style; contrived plot at times, esp. attacks on the general’s life and Charon’s return; doubt about Sunrise Alley; ending was coy; androids and machine intelligences are more interesting than people or plot; doesn’t discuss what seems like an obvious problem – if you get your neural pathways transferred to an android’s body, don’t you still die? The immortal android is just a copy of the original. If you don’t die, which one is the real you?
misc: General; prodigy; self-determination; self-programming; love; courage; F-42; Banshee; fighter pilot; mesh; nanotechnology; android; robot army; nanomedicines; cardiac arrest; angina; aging; evolution of artificial intelligence; sequel to Sunrise Alley
ISBN 1416520813; 288pp; pub. 2006
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Chimera, by Will Shetterly
pros: Well-written futuristic detective novel; Chase “Max” Maxwell; the Infinite pocket; Zoe Domingo (jaguar chimera); good plot, good action, believable situations; Mycroft; futuristic details; world with chimera everywhere; Max251’s hospital stays; the future’s version of recycling; in retrospect, Max’s reactions to Kris Doyle’s taste and smell during their lovemaking marathon; Max’s self-image as a “knight in grimy white armor”
cons: hard to tell if Zoe was very smart or if she was just impulsive; chimera rights and AI rights completely replace issues of civil rights for other minorities but their status never gets explained super androids role in police and high society isn’t as well-explained as it should have been; a megalomaniac like Chain probably wouldn’t have liked having so many copies of himself floating around since he wouldn’t be able to centrally control them all; final showdown was a too explosively violent for their survival to be believable, but it was cool
misc: AIs; gene-splicing; indentured servitude; Little Angels; gambling; Crittertown; riot
ISBN 031287543; 285pp; pub. 2001
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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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Messiah Node, by Lyda Morehouse
pros: continuation of an excellent series; tends to tie previous 2 stories together; threat of impending apocaplyse feels real and drives plot very well; AI as a messiah; Maizombies; angel characters; dragon AI developments; good ending; more of Mouse and Page
cons: not many; Michael is still annoying; would have liked to see more of angel Gabriel and Dee; ended too soon
ISBN 0451459296; 352pp; pub. 2003
Fallen Host, by Lyda Morehouse
pros: continuation of an excellent series; AI is one of the main characters; different spin on Lucifer as a fallen angel and his relationship with God; different spin on Inquisitors; consistent development on idea of organized, established religions as goverment; great heroine; angel characters; Mai and her polka band, Yakuza, the mob; street society in general
cons: characters from previous story are only bit players; Lucifer is a little overdone; I’d like to have seen more of the other angels and Mecca; certain characters die; Page and the dragon AI tend to upstage everyone else
ISBN 045145879; 352 pp; pub. 2002
Archangel Protocol, by Lyda Morehouse
pros: fast-paced, exciting story; unusual spin on familiar angel idea; likable characters; interesting world and premise (Medusa bomb, glass city, mutated humans); Mouse’s AI; use of AI as a character; virtual angels; LINK society and unLINKed computing and people; excellent, unusual series; each title in series has different viewpoint
cons: Michael was a little annoying; didn’t like the ending; religions as evil or bad guy; unsatisfying resolution to virtual angels threat; Out of print
ISBN 0451458273; 352 pp; 2001
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