Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Tor (New York, 2002). 1st edition, 1st printing. 460 pages. $25.95.
Description
Al Morris is a private investigator. Actually, he's lots of private investigators. For he lives in a world in which every person, every day, can be in any number of places at the same time. It's the world of dittos. It is our world. Welcome to the future. In a business where information is the currency, Al's dittos are loaded. And with a number of cases on the go at once, it is crucial that Al keeps track of what's going on. What he doesn't know is that he is about to be drawn into a plot that could throw this delicately balanced world into chaos. It seems that the technology has been developed for dittos to replicate themselves. It seems that real people may no longer be necessary. And, suddenly, it seems that mankind's dream of immortality could turn into a nightmare. Look out for more information about this book and others at www.orbitbooks.co.uk… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
I just finished reading this book - and I couldn't put it down. It has a fast pace, and it is not at all as dark as I suspected it to be, and it does make you think- if you could download yourself into any number of short lived "Clay" people and then upload the experience, How does that work
While the book is thick, it doesn't lag. Half way through, I wasn't sure if this was going to end up being a detective story set in the future, or a world changing sci-fi story. It kept me thinking. The one thing I would have liked to change is the ending - it seemed a bit rushed, and I would have liked to see more of a close on the ethics of the Ditto's (Copies).
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ethically. Is each copy of "you" a separate entity? Does it deserve rights? What about the You copy that ends up cleaning the toilets?While the book is thick, it doesn't lag. Half way through, I wasn't sure if this was going to end up being a detective story set in the future, or a world changing sci-fi story. It kept me thinking. The one thing I would have liked to change is the ending - it seemed a bit rushed, and I would have liked to see more of a close on the ethics of the Ditto's (Copies).
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LibraryThing member karl.steel
Very baggy prose reminiscent of Piers Anthony. Detective plot necessarily a novelist's kludge, as it automatically allows for secrets, revealing, quests, and a final big reveal (that virtually never justifies the length of the quest).
Conceit pays insufficient attention to corporeal character of
Conceit pays insufficient attention to corporeal character of
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cognition: how do sensory distinctions between clay and flesh create different subjects? Instead, primary distinction between Albert and his dittos is the degree of intelligence and skill alloted to each: the low-grade green is slightly stupider than the grays which are a great deal stupider than the black golem. As a result, the novel remains in a transhumanist, transcendent groove. Show Less
LibraryThing member reading_fox
An interesting premise whereby "real" humans can duplicate themselves and have the shortlived copies perform menial tasks. Society is vastly different though strata are still clearly defined and power breads corruption as ever before..... a gripping read like all Brin's work.
updated:
Very enjoyable
The concept of what to do with your free time now that your ditto is available to do the hard day's chores is taken in interesting directions. And the difference in sanctions applied when "real" human flesh is at risk is equally well covered, along with all the requiste change sin laws that this new social life has required. Society evolves without much complaint, providing tomorrow is pretty much like today.
Albert Morris is a private investigator, he (and his dittos) spend most of their days tracing ditknappings - where celebreties have their copies stolen and cheap reproductions made. He gets invited by the inventor of dittotech, to investigate the disappearance of one of his chief researchers. This investigation runs in many parallel lines. The prose splits inot realAlbert and the various dittos that are used, each with their own chapter. It can be a little confusing but is basically very well done.
Thoroughly enjoyabel read, whodunnit, and thought provoking on the nature of society and human interaction.
updated:
Very enjoyable
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on re-reading too. There are some great references to contempary history that I missed the first time around. The Pentagon has become the Doedecahedron!The concept of what to do with your free time now that your ditto is available to do the hard day's chores is taken in interesting directions. And the difference in sanctions applied when "real" human flesh is at risk is equally well covered, along with all the requiste change sin laws that this new social life has required. Society evolves without much complaint, providing tomorrow is pretty much like today.
Albert Morris is a private investigator, he (and his dittos) spend most of their days tracing ditknappings - where celebreties have their copies stolen and cheap reproductions made. He gets invited by the inventor of dittotech, to investigate the disappearance of one of his chief researchers. This investigation runs in many parallel lines. The prose splits inot realAlbert and the various dittos that are used, each with their own chapter. It can be a little confusing but is basically very well done.
Thoroughly enjoyabel read, whodunnit, and thought provoking on the nature of society and human interaction.
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LibraryThing member wfzimmerman
An enjoyable story set in a "one-off" universe about clay cloned people. Seems like a transitional book for Brin, who doesn't seem to have really figured out his Next Act after the Uplift Series.
LibraryThing member break
This is the first book I read based on a LibraryThing member's recommendation. Several people said I should read it, because based on my extensive review in LT on the original golem story and my interest in science-fiction it was a natural candidate to add o my reading list. I admit I was a bit
The basic concept is fascinating: in the not too distant future a new technology allows people to create limited clones of themselves. These copies are made of clay, similarly to the original golem. Unlike the original though these can be imprinted with a custome combination of one's mind, skill and memory. I have to refrain using the word "soul" for two reasons: it is not clearly defined in the first part of the book and in the later part it gets it own meaning, which does not entirely coincide the usual understanding.
Another major difference between the golem of the past and the golem of the future is that the latter (usually) expires within a day. People can opt to upload the golem's memories and experiences to their own body, thus allowing having more experiences in a single lifetime and some of these are from places and conditions that the human body would not survive.
I was surprised to see to the extent the author thought through the social implication of a world, where every single human can have several copies of her or himself running around. The social changes were convincing enough for me. If the measure of good science fiction is that its universe is coherent, including the newly invented laws and newly implemented ideas, than this book passes my muster. Its outlook is unexpectedly positive with contained wars (9-5, in predetermined areas only), omnipresent free time, and access to the technology for everyone. But the utopia is balanced with free-ranging capitalism and all its problems.
I was less impressed by how the ethical, psychological and philosophical implications of this brave new world were covered in the book. The basic idea was so terrific that I think it would have deserved a more thorough explication in these areas. How does it change the human psyche, what kind of new problems might arise, what it means being human in this new world, what the definition of life is. All these areas were touched upon the book, but for my taste not dealt with satisfactorily.
As murder mystery go this was well-written. It had plenty of twists; the readers' idea of whodunit shifted often enough to make it a page-turner. It was an exciting noel, with novel ideas, although I found none of the characters likeable enough to really care. Also, there was not much change in them. They were introduced in a certain way and by the end of the book they have not learned anything, had no real reason to change. In short it was not about character development, but about storytelling. The story was told fine though.
There were plenty of direct references to the original golem story. There the rabbi who created the clay-man who could move, but had no soul or words was called Maharal, here the scientist who invented the clay-cloning technology was called Maharal. The duplicating machine in the novel is called tetragramatron, which is a technical term for the sacred; four letter word known as G-d's name. Obviously the idea, that limited, but functioning copies of humans can be made from clay is the basic connecting element.
There are significant differences though. The word "emet" (truth in Hebrew) was important in the original story as writing this world on the golem's forehead made it alive. The word shows up in the novel as well, but only three times (one of those being the subtitle of chapter 57) and not fully integrated into the story line. In the old Prague version of the story the Jewish community and the Maharal's daughter needed to be saved from evil outsiders, here the community and his daughter needed to be saved from him. There the reason for the existence of the single golem was protection. Here the reason for the millions of golems was money and convenience.
I liked more elements of the book than not. The repurposing of the golem concept, the connection to the original story, the frantic murder-mystery were all to my liking. However the lack of deeper investigation of the new ethical landscape, the lack of people I could care for, the lack of learnable lessons made the book far from perfect. Just like golems are far from perfect of humans.
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hesitant, because the only book I read in the past from Brin (Sundiver) I didn't like. I found that overcomplicated writing, technology for technology sake, without a grander theme or lesson developed. But because of my dual interest in Jewish mysticism and scifi I could not miss out on this book.The basic concept is fascinating: in the not too distant future a new technology allows people to create limited clones of themselves. These copies are made of clay, similarly to the original golem. Unlike the original though these can be imprinted with a custome combination of one's mind, skill and memory. I have to refrain using the word "soul" for two reasons: it is not clearly defined in the first part of the book and in the later part it gets it own meaning, which does not entirely coincide the usual understanding.
Another major difference between the golem of the past and the golem of the future is that the latter (usually) expires within a day. People can opt to upload the golem's memories and experiences to their own body, thus allowing having more experiences in a single lifetime and some of these are from places and conditions that the human body would not survive.
I was surprised to see to the extent the author thought through the social implication of a world, where every single human can have several copies of her or himself running around. The social changes were convincing enough for me. If the measure of good science fiction is that its universe is coherent, including the newly invented laws and newly implemented ideas, than this book passes my muster. Its outlook is unexpectedly positive with contained wars (9-5, in predetermined areas only), omnipresent free time, and access to the technology for everyone. But the utopia is balanced with free-ranging capitalism and all its problems.
I was less impressed by how the ethical, psychological and philosophical implications of this brave new world were covered in the book. The basic idea was so terrific that I think it would have deserved a more thorough explication in these areas. How does it change the human psyche, what kind of new problems might arise, what it means being human in this new world, what the definition of life is. All these areas were touched upon the book, but for my taste not dealt with satisfactorily.
As murder mystery go this was well-written. It had plenty of twists; the readers' idea of whodunit shifted often enough to make it a page-turner. It was an exciting noel, with novel ideas, although I found none of the characters likeable enough to really care. Also, there was not much change in them. They were introduced in a certain way and by the end of the book they have not learned anything, had no real reason to change. In short it was not about character development, but about storytelling. The story was told fine though.
There were plenty of direct references to the original golem story. There the rabbi who created the clay-man who could move, but had no soul or words was called Maharal, here the scientist who invented the clay-cloning technology was called Maharal. The duplicating machine in the novel is called tetragramatron, which is a technical term for the sacred; four letter word known as G-d's name. Obviously the idea, that limited, but functioning copies of humans can be made from clay is the basic connecting element.
There are significant differences though. The word "emet" (truth in Hebrew) was important in the original story as writing this world on the golem's forehead made it alive. The word shows up in the novel as well, but only three times (one of those being the subtitle of chapter 57) and not fully integrated into the story line. In the old Prague version of the story the Jewish community and the Maharal's daughter needed to be saved from evil outsiders, here the community and his daughter needed to be saved from him. There the reason for the existence of the single golem was protection. Here the reason for the millions of golems was money and convenience.
I liked more elements of the book than not. The repurposing of the golem concept, the connection to the original story, the frantic murder-mystery were all to my liking. However the lack of deeper investigation of the new ethical landscape, the lack of people I could care for, the lack of learnable lessons made the book far from perfect. Just like golems are far from perfect of humans.
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LibraryThing member TadAD
I'd give this book a weak recommendation. It's a good mystery based upon a great premise: the perfection of technology allowing humans to make disposable copies of themselves (called dittos) for tedious or dangerous work. Unfortunately, Brin was not able to stick to the mystery but wandered off
The mystery portion of the story is well done. There are a lot of subplots weaving back and forth and, while some are more obvious than others, there are enough twists that you'll probably be kept guessing right up to the end on some things. There's not as much tension as you might find in an "ordinary" mystery simply because threats to a ditto usually aren't that big a deal...the human will just make another. I must confess, however, that I did find myself rooting for green Albert to succeed; even though a ditto, he had the most interesting personality in the book. Real Albert also manages to get himself in trouble eventually and that ratchets up the suspense level a bit.
** NB: Some minor spoilers in the next paragraph **
I found the mysticism of the book less satisfying. By-and-large, the backdrop of this book is a technological science fiction story and the vague spiritualities just didn't fit into that framework. Brin has been guilty of this in some of his other works and I wish he'd stop—he doesn't do "humans evolving to a higher consciousness" very well. He tries to be grand but just comes across as a bit pretentious.
Brin has done better if you're new to him. If you like his other stuff, give this a try.
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into some mysticism that really detracted from the story.The mystery portion of the story is well done. There are a lot of subplots weaving back and forth and, while some are more obvious than others, there are enough twists that you'll probably be kept guessing right up to the end on some things. There's not as much tension as you might find in an "ordinary" mystery simply because threats to a ditto usually aren't that big a deal...the human will just make another. I must confess, however, that I did find myself rooting for green Albert to succeed; even though a ditto, he had the most interesting personality in the book. Real Albert also manages to get himself in trouble eventually and that ratchets up the suspense level a bit.
** NB: Some minor spoilers in the next paragraph **
I found the mysticism of the book less satisfying. By-and-large, the backdrop of this book is a technological science fiction story and the vague spiritualities just didn't fit into that framework. Brin has been guilty of this in some of his other works and I wish he'd stop—he doesn't do "humans evolving to a higher consciousness" very well. He tries to be grand but just comes across as a bit pretentious.
Brin has done better if you're new to him. If you like his other stuff, give this a try.
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LibraryThing member Fledgist
Now what if we could live through avatars of clay.
LibraryThing member Karlstar
Based on an interesting concept - what if you could create limited duration 'clay' clones of yourself, every day if necessary, and send them off to do things, then absorb their memories at the end of the day? How would that change your life, and what happens when you and your copies get caught up
A fascinating book, not Brin's best, but still good.
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in a giant conspiracy, some of them involving copies of you that you thought had long expired!A fascinating book, not Brin's best, but still good.
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LibraryThing member laileana
Good book-a very cool what if? scenario, relevant to the fast paced, high-stressed lifestyle we live today. With all of our modern conveniences including: easier, safer life style conveniences-washer, dryer, dish washer, cars, public/mass transit, electricity, plumbing, grocery store, fast food-
If you had Kiln People you could. Brin takes us to a future Los Angeles and to the life of Detective-for-hire Albert Morris. Albert begins his Tuesday with three "dits" or dittoes. Two Greys to do "quality" follow up on some of his detective assignments and one "low level" Green to do dishes, laundry, etc while he catches up on some much needed rest. So begins a week long adventure the likes of which he could never have imagined.
This book is good on many levels. First, you have the sci fi what if society, next you have excellent characters-which are mostly versions of the main character-yet it works really well and finally you have a classic "whodunit" type detective novel. I liked the caste sytem for the dittoes myself-highest mental functioning-ebony, highest sensuality functioning-ivory, highest general intelligence-grey, most common worker drone-green. The book was fast paced and interesting until the end which kind of sucked. I still liked the book but wish the author had just gone ahead and ended the story and left the whole "soul enlightenment" stuff alone.
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theoretically we should have lots of free time-time NOT spent washing clothes by hand, growing and canning our own food, walking or taking a horse to and from work, etc. In reality, we work more and are under more work and lifestyle stress than our ancestors who were farmers and walked or rode horses into town. What does such a high stress society call for? Disposable versions of yourself, of course. What if, you really could be in more than one place at the same time? What if you could go to work, clean the house, run errands, do chores AND stay at home in bed resting all day-all on the same day?If you had Kiln People you could. Brin takes us to a future Los Angeles and to the life of Detective-for-hire Albert Morris. Albert begins his Tuesday with three "dits" or dittoes. Two Greys to do "quality" follow up on some of his detective assignments and one "low level" Green to do dishes, laundry, etc while he catches up on some much needed rest. So begins a week long adventure the likes of which he could never have imagined.
This book is good on many levels. First, you have the sci fi what if society, next you have excellent characters-which are mostly versions of the main character-yet it works really well and finally you have a classic "whodunit" type detective novel. I liked the caste sytem for the dittoes myself-highest mental functioning-ebony, highest sensuality functioning-ivory, highest general intelligence-grey, most common worker drone-green. The book was fast paced and interesting until the end which kind of sucked. I still liked the book but wish the author had just gone ahead and ended the story and left the whole "soul enlightenment" stuff alone.
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LibraryThing member conformer
Kiln People is the book that finally allowed David Brin to exploit his least-known talent; humor so dark it's black. Not that the book is a comedy, but the delivery of its situations are enuf to border on the absurd at times.In the future, almost anyone can duplicate themselves into a cheap clay
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golem to send off and do their dirty work for them. As a private detective, Albert Morris goes thru more than his fair share. In Kiln People, he and his various temporary selves uncover a palimpsest of cover-ups occluding a basketful of conspiracies that culminate in a slightly goofy becoming-one-with-the-universe climax.What makes Kiln People unique is that its told from several different perspectives. But since all the POVs are first person, and they all come from Morris' duplicates, they're all technically the same perspective, just shifted in time and space. If you took Show Less
LibraryThing member LaurieRKing
Does exactly what sci fi was designed to do, present us with a distorting mirror that shows us a true face. This is actually above a 5.
LibraryThing member TheCrow2
Welcome to the brave new world... where everyone can copy his/her 'soul' to short lived 'claymen'. One of the most well-thought future in the shape of a detective thriller but in the end turns out that it's far more than a simple crime story... in almost every aspect.
LibraryThing member sturlington
In this hard-boiled detective novel set in the future, Brin gleefully plays with the concepts of identity and immortality. In this future, we have figured out how clone short-lived, clay versions of ourselves, which can then go out and do the work while the originals enjoy lives of leisure. Since
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the copies are expendable, they are often assigned risky tasks or sent out to do chores or other drudgery. But since the copies possess all the memories and consciousness of the original, they are cursed with a knowledge of how brief their lives are, and their only fulfillment comes from making it back home to download their memories into the original, in that way achieving a kind of afterlife. Layered on top of all that is a mystery told from the points of view of a private investigator and several of his copies unraveling a complicated conspiracy case culminating in a plot by a mad scientist to achieve godhood, and this becomes a very complicated plot indeed. Good thing Brin tells it with a sense of fun and humor. Show Less
LibraryThing member roguecoder
excellent. very inventive. funny.
LibraryThing member isabelx
Oh, never mind. I'm always just a bit grumpy getting up off the warming tray, grabbing paper garments from a rack and slipping them over limbs that still glow with ignition enzymes, knowing I'm the copy-for-a-day.
Of course I remember doing this thousands of times. Part of modern living, that's all.
Society has undergone a major change since the introduction of golem technology. Using a cheap home kiln, people have the ability to create clay 'clones' of themselves. The clones, known as dittos or roxes (Xeroxes?) are brightly coloured to distinguish them from rigs (originals) with the colour signifying their role; you can produce high quality blacks for research, executive greys as representatives, cheap greens to run errands, etc. There are limitations to the technology, as dittos only last for 24 hours before disintegrating, but the ditto's consciousness can have a certain continuity, since if they return home before the day is up the rig can upload their memories if s/he wants to. Due to the introduction of dittos, most jobs are done by dittos and most real people live a life of leisure or become perpetual students.
The hero of this tale is one of the few people with a marketable skill who do have jobs. He is Albert Morris, a detective who can work on lots of cases at once by using dittos. When a woman employs him to find out who killed her father, who was a senior research scientist at Universal Kilns (the company who invented golem technology), realAlbert and various ditAlberts find themselves caught up in a deep-seated conspiracy.
A very interesting concept and fascinating descriptions of ditto technology and the resulting society, but the plot did rather fizzle out at the end. Definitely the best 30p I've spent at the library book sale recently!
I do that sometimes - underestimate the quarry. Nobody's perfect . . . and you can get lazy when such mistakes are never permalethal. It kind of makes you marvel at those detectives of olden times, who confronted and confounded remorseless evil while equipped with just one life. Now those guys really had it.
This book is also known as Kiln People, but Kil'n People is a betteer title really, as that apostrophe changes the emphasis of the title to imply Killing People as well as Kiln People.
Of course I remember doing this thousands of times. Part of modern living, that's all.
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Still it feels like when my parents used to hand me a long list of chores, saying that today will be all work and no play . . . with the added touch that Albert Morris's golems have a high chance of getting snuffed while taking risks he'd never put his realbod through.Society has undergone a major change since the introduction of golem technology. Using a cheap home kiln, people have the ability to create clay 'clones' of themselves. The clones, known as dittos or roxes (Xeroxes?) are brightly coloured to distinguish them from rigs (originals) with the colour signifying their role; you can produce high quality blacks for research, executive greys as representatives, cheap greens to run errands, etc. There are limitations to the technology, as dittos only last for 24 hours before disintegrating, but the ditto's consciousness can have a certain continuity, since if they return home before the day is up the rig can upload their memories if s/he wants to. Due to the introduction of dittos, most jobs are done by dittos and most real people live a life of leisure or become perpetual students.
The hero of this tale is one of the few people with a marketable skill who do have jobs. He is Albert Morris, a detective who can work on lots of cases at once by using dittos. When a woman employs him to find out who killed her father, who was a senior research scientist at Universal Kilns (the company who invented golem technology), realAlbert and various ditAlberts find themselves caught up in a deep-seated conspiracy.
A very interesting concept and fascinating descriptions of ditto technology and the resulting society, but the plot did rather fizzle out at the end. Definitely the best 30p I've spent at the library book sale recently!
I do that sometimes - underestimate the quarry. Nobody's perfect . . . and you can get lazy when such mistakes are never permalethal. It kind of makes you marvel at those detectives of olden times, who confronted and confounded remorseless evil while equipped with just one life. Now those guys really had it.
This book is also known as Kiln People, but Kil'n People is a betteer title really, as that apostrophe changes the emphasis of the title to imply Killing People as well as Kiln People.
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LibraryThing member SimonW11
People have found a way of making disposable short term duplicates of themselves whose minds they can barring accidents reabsorb. It is carefully plotted with the author obviously enjoying the challenge of using multiple viewpoints for the same person. Things move along briskly for the most part
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and bad puns litter the plot. probably his lightest novel since The Practise Effect. I doubt it will have the influence some of his other books have had the uplift series Or The Postman for example but it is a thoroughly professional work by someone who is always worth reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member PMaranci
This is a tough book to review.
It's good. Quite good. But David Brin has written better.
Kiln People is extremely clever, funny, original, and memorable. It presents a very original idea: a future society in which people can temporarily spin off copies of themselves in clay duplicates, "inloading"
At the same time, there's no denying that it's not first-rate Brin. For any other writer (except the greatest ones), I'd give this book a strong 4.2. But I expect more from Brin, so I'll give it a 3.8.
It does tend to get a bit metaphysical and
It's good. Quite good. But David Brin has written better.
Kiln People is extremely clever, funny, original, and memorable. It presents a very original idea: a future society in which people can temporarily spin off copies of themselves in clay duplicates, "inloading"
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the memories from those golems at the end of the day. And in that setting, it incorporates a nicely-handled detective story, as well as more puns and obscure references than you can shake a stick at.At the same time, there's no denying that it's not first-rate Brin. For any other writer (except the greatest ones), I'd give this book a strong 4.2. But I expect more from Brin, so I'll give it a 3.8.
It does tend to get a bit metaphysical and
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LibraryThing member dgphilli
Clever book where technology has advanced to the point of post-singularity. People can duplicate themselves and perform all of the menial tasks using their copies freeing themselves to do more interesting things. At the end of the day your ditto uploads itself into your brain and you’ve just led
Albert, the protagonist becomes involved in a murder mystery and he and his multiple dittos become the focus of this book. The multiple viewpoints that David Brin weaves together makes it a fascinating journey
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2 (or more) lives for 1 day. These archetype dittos are made of clay and last one day. Albert, the protagonist becomes involved in a murder mystery and he and his multiple dittos become the focus of this book. The multiple viewpoints that David Brin weaves together makes it a fascinating journey
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LibraryThing member longhorndaniel
Makes you want to vote for/against (I keep vacillating) stem cell research; cloning and that whole thang!! But would love to see this movie made!!!!
LibraryThing member ariatracker
This is a brilliant read! Mystery, adventure, science fiction, and philosophy all rolled into one. Mr. Brin never lets his reader get lost in the story; it has a marvelous sense of place, excellent world building, and one of the best 1st person POV I have ever read. The second time I read it, I got
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even more out of it! Show Less
LibraryThing member MikeRhode
Curiously readable, but not one of his best. An odd mixture of SF and Noir.
LibraryThing member librisissimo
Substance: Kiln people are clay bodies animated with copies of the original's brain; more than one can be active at a time. So, the hard-boiled PI has clay-mation clones doing his leg-work, and the plot gets complex from there.
Style: Keeping all the lines of narrative under control was a challenge
Style: Keeping all the lines of narrative under control was a challenge
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well-met. Characters are full-formed (including those that are just a "ditto") and the action is fast-paced, balancing the slower philosophical and personal narrative. And the mystery / suspense plot is well done. Show Less
LibraryThing member BooksOn23rd
I have to admit David Brin wrote a damn fine book. Humorous, insightful, exciting and thought-provoking, it has an amazing description of what one might find beyond our corporeal homes - if our souls really do reach beyond to some other plane of existence.
LibraryThing member BooksOn23rd
I have to admit David Brin wrote a damn fine book. Humorous, insightful, exciting and thought-provoking, it has an amazing description of what one might find beyond our corporeal homes - if our souls really do reach beyond to some other plane of existence.
LibraryThing member yonitdm
Wonderfully immersive world! I enjoyed the philosophical questions raised, some even in passing. The variety of colorful characters were interesting without overburdening the plot. The end went a bit further into than I felt necessary, bit overall a great read.
Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 2003)
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Finalist — 2003)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Shortlist — 2003)
Locus Recommended Reading (2002)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2002
Physical description
460 p.; 6.26 inches
ISBN
0765303558 / 9780765303554
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