The Review Within

Hey,

So last night I finished up The Noise Within by Ian Whates. It had its high points but just fell apart at the end.

The big problem is that this is the start of a series but doesn't advertise itself as such. Further, it reaches a really dumb cliff-hanger ending. Things are so unresolved that I wonder if it didn't suffer a fate like The Risen Empire where the publisher couldn't be bothered to give us a full story and just chopped things in the middle.

You've got Leyton, a secret agent for the United League of Allied Worlds who's an IG -- he's partnered with an Intelligent Gun that helps him accomplish his missions. You've also got Phillip Kaufman who's working on a complete human/AI interface. What draws them together is the appearance of a pirate ship called The Noise Within which seems to be equipped with advanced technology. A little sleuthing by Kaufman suggests that The Noise Within might actually be Sun Seeker the first, and only, AI-controlled ship built by Phillip's dad who went rogue during testing and now is back.

Probably the best part of the book was when Philip was being chased in his car and had to switch back to manual control to override traffic central in an attempt to escape. There was some very clever writing about the experience of re-learning to drive in very stressful situations. On the whole there was nothing awful about the book, the writing was pretty solid and the pace kept up at a good clip, but it never quite reached any conclusions before abruptly giving up and ending. Certainly it wasn't interesting enough to make me wonder when the next installment will be out.

later
Tom

The Review Within

Hey,

So last night I finished up The Noise Within by Ian Whates. It had its high points but just fell apart at the end.

The big problem is that this is the start of a series but doesn't advertise itself as such. Further, it reaches a really dumb cliff-hanger ending. Things are so unresolved that I wonder if it didn't suffer a fate like The Risen Empire where the publisher couldn't be bothered to give us a full story and just chopped things in the middle.

You've got Leyton, a secret agent for the United League of Allied Worlds who's an IG -- he's partnered with an Intelligent Gun that helps him accomplish his missions. You've also got Phillip Kaufman who's working on a complete human/AI interface. What draws them together is the appearance of a pirate ship called The Noise Within which seems to be equipped with advanced technology. A little sleuthing by Kaufman suggests that The Noise Within might actually be Sun Seeker the first, and only, AI-controlled ship built by Phillip's dad who went rogue during testing and now is back.

Probably the best part of the book was when Philip was being chased in his car and had to switch back to manual control to override traffic central in an attempt to escape. There was some very clever writing about the experience of re-learning to drive in very stressful situations. On the whole there was nothing awful about the book, the writing was pretty solid and the pace kept up at a good clip, but it never quite reached any conclusions before abruptly giving up and ending. Certainly it wasn't interesting enough to make me wonder when the next installment will be out.

later
Tom