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The Big Brass Man
Sep. 20th, 2006 12:27 pmHi,
So I just finished up The Brass Man by Neal Asher. That means that I've read all the Polity novels in print. Between him and Banks, I'll have to lay off the star-spanning, transhumanist, sci-fi for a little while.
Right, so the book. Y'know how I kvetched that in Bank's Culture novels everyone up to, including and especially the protagonists seem to have a fetish for killing themselves off? By contrast, it's near impossible to kill off anyone in the Polity novels. If you aren't inhuman to being with, you've got some sort of technological back-up or doo-dad that keeps you going. In fact, while plenty of NPCs die, absolutely none of the heroes or villains actually die in this book -- actually, there are a couple of enemy ship AIs that go boom, but they themselves were merely spawned clones and who's to say that they didn't clone themselves? The main villain (himself back from the dead) only gets imprisoned "forever" -- yeah, like that'll stick.
There's at least one and possibly two more books to go before this particular series plays itself out. But I'm hoping that a.) they pull in some new characters, as in, fresh for this book and centrally involved in the action and b.) that we either stop flirting with some of the Deep Questions these kinds of books naturally run up against, or get into them wholeheartedly.
For example -- the whole "what does Death mean in a society that can forestall it indefinately?", "if I copy my brain into a machine after I die, am I still 'me'?", and "if AIs are so all-powerful and all-knowing, why hang out with humans?". That last question really shows up glaringly here. I grant that a vast AI may be much better at running human affairs than humans do, but that doesn't mean they would do so, or that they would be able to run things perfectly, or that they wouldn't make gigantic mistakes. The book takes the slant that the AIs are just waiting for humans to reach conclusions and take actions that the AI had conceived of and planned for long in advance. In fact, although there is some infighting among lesser AIs, the Big Brains have already planned for that as well. The AIs are pretty much one step ahead of everyone else around them and it's a bit irritating.
Also, the main hero is in serious danger of literally and figuratively becoming deus ex machina, thanks largely to unexplained jedi mind powers. Not a good sign.
Which sounds like I'm really down on it. But like I say, the book only flirts with these issues and for the most part, it's action and adventure all the way and those are up to the usual high standards for the Polity books.
So the book is definately worthwhile if you've read Gridlinked and Line of Polity and if you haven't start with those and you'll know if you care to read The Brass Man.
later
Tom
So I just finished up The Brass Man by Neal Asher. That means that I've read all the Polity novels in print. Between him and Banks, I'll have to lay off the star-spanning, transhumanist, sci-fi for a little while.
Right, so the book. Y'know how I kvetched that in Bank's Culture novels everyone up to, including and especially the protagonists seem to have a fetish for killing themselves off? By contrast, it's near impossible to kill off anyone in the Polity novels. If you aren't inhuman to being with, you've got some sort of technological back-up or doo-dad that keeps you going. In fact, while plenty of NPCs die, absolutely none of the heroes or villains actually die in this book -- actually, there are a couple of enemy ship AIs that go boom, but they themselves were merely spawned clones and who's to say that they didn't clone themselves? The main villain (himself back from the dead) only gets imprisoned "forever" -- yeah, like that'll stick.
There's at least one and possibly two more books to go before this particular series plays itself out. But I'm hoping that a.) they pull in some new characters, as in, fresh for this book and centrally involved in the action and b.) that we either stop flirting with some of the Deep Questions these kinds of books naturally run up against, or get into them wholeheartedly.
For example -- the whole "what does Death mean in a society that can forestall it indefinately?", "if I copy my brain into a machine after I die, am I still 'me'?", and "if AIs are so all-powerful and all-knowing, why hang out with humans?". That last question really shows up glaringly here. I grant that a vast AI may be much better at running human affairs than humans do, but that doesn't mean they would do so, or that they would be able to run things perfectly, or that they wouldn't make gigantic mistakes. The book takes the slant that the AIs are just waiting for humans to reach conclusions and take actions that the AI had conceived of and planned for long in advance. In fact, although there is some infighting among lesser AIs, the Big Brains have already planned for that as well. The AIs are pretty much one step ahead of everyone else around them and it's a bit irritating.
Also, the main hero is in serious danger of literally and figuratively becoming deus ex machina, thanks largely to unexplained jedi mind powers. Not a good sign.
Which sounds like I'm really down on it. But like I say, the book only flirts with these issues and for the most part, it's action and adventure all the way and those are up to the usual high standards for the Polity books.
So the book is definately worthwhile if you've read Gridlinked and Line of Polity and if you haven't start with those and you'll know if you care to read The Brass Man.
later
Tom
