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"In Night Sky Mine, Scott weaves a complex future society, rich in political and economic detail, that contours the life of young Ista Kelly, the only survivor of a pirate raid on an asteroid mine. Ista is now a teenager, hip and computerwise. In fact, Ista spends a lot of her time in cyberspace, where AI programs reproduce themselves like rabbits and chickens and cats and sometimes like dinosaurs and mythical monsters. Scott has taken the cyberpunk subgenre of SF to another stage in Night Sky Mine, to a universe of cyberspace rich in self-replicating programs in danger of evolving out of human control." "This is the story of Ista's quest for her true identity in a future where you cannot live without an official identity. She must leave the security of her home on a trading ship and return in secret to the isolated mine where she was discovered as a baby. There she encounters and must overcome a menace hidden by the huge interstellar Night Sky Mining Corporation."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)
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In this story, humanity has taken to the stars. Corporations run the stations, governments control the planets, and travellers belong to non of this, doing
Additionally, "Hammals", semi-living, wild computer code, live in the spaces of the the computers. They can be useful, if you know how to make them safe, or they can destroy code, if ever let out of the wild space they live in. Ista is training to be a Hypothecary, someone who goes out to the wildnets looking for useful programs.
Its a good story - written in 1996, we have a diverse group of people, from the gay couple of Rangsey and Tarasov, to the dark skinned Ista. This world is not white, and for the most part, a person is judged on their family and corporations, not the color of their skin.
However, the book isn't perfect. I found it a bit wandering - not always knowing what is happening. Rangsey and Trasov's relationship felt more like close roommates, than a couple. I'm not sure if it because of the time the book was written, or if Scott wasn't that interested in writing relationships that was more sexual.
The first quarter of the book was all over the place. Jumping between the characters perspective was difficult to follow. On top of it, I kept getting them confused, especially Rangsey and Trasov. Once the book settled, it was a solid story. Characters started making sense, the narrative was interesting, and the setting was both familiar and not-familiar. Scott managed to make a fairly typical corporations vs free society story, but added her own twist on it.
The book was written in 1996. And, at times, the technology felt old. But the wildnet makes sense. Scientists are already trying to get programs to write themselves, and with some applications being millions of lines of code- code becoming "Wild" has truth to it.
So, ultimately, a very good book, one that isn't quite up to snuff for a classic, but it should be read anyway.
My Summary (2/5): Overall I didn’t get through even the first chapter of this book...soooo. I probably don’t even deserve to write a review of it. However, I felt like since Scott was one of the authors I was most
This book was incredibly dense and packed with a ton of sci-fi people, places, and things that are not explained at all. I only read the first 20 pages of this book but I think with all the re-reading and going back and forth trying to figure out what was going on, it took me nearly an hour to read that. I just did not have the energy for this. The first part was incredibly dense, a huge info dump, and still confusing as heck. I tried and I don’t have the energy to continue. I applaud those who made the effort to finish this, but based on reviews I’ve read things weren’t going to get better...so done is done.