Implied Spaces

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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 813 EAN: 9781597801256 ISBN: 1597801259 Label: Night Shade Books Manufacturer: Night Shade Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 264 Publication Date: 2008-06-11 Publisher: Night Shade Books Studio: Night Shade Books
Customer review of: Implied Spaces Customer Rating: Summary: Good entertaining story, but lacks focus Comment: I read this book in 3-4 days, tops. It was very enjoyable reading, as I have been a big fan of WJW ever since his first short story in Omni. Great fun: evil villains, dashing swordsmen in a World of Warcraft type setting, AI sidekicks, big combat scenes... But I don't think it measures up to his best books like Aristoi, Voice of the Whirlwind or Angel Station. One problem is that he starts throwing out what could be fairly serious themes: re-incarnation, the relationship of self-aware AIs to humankind, contrasting the achievements of the talented few to the more frivolous masses, the nature vs. nurture of ethics. But none of these ideas are explored in any depth. The AI debate is a case in point as it postulates a radically different relationship than say Banks' Culture Minds. But the discussion is over in one paragraph. WJW is good at "big concept SF" and he is also good at just writing good adventure novels. In Dread Empire and City on Fire, he told good stories, without any philosophical ambitions. Aristoi is the opposite - he has a _few_ great ideas and treats them brilliantly in what is probably his best novel to date. In Implied Spaces, whose main protagonist often reminded me of Aristoi's, he just throws out a lot of neat ideas and doesn't do anything much with them. Left that way, those ideas get in the way, because they leave you wanting more, much more. The ending was also somewhat abrupt and anticlimactic so that worked against the "pure story" approach. In sum, Implied Spaces ends up neither fish nor fowl, but remains enjoyable nonetheless. You would expect nothing less of WJW, but you might expect more. Customer Rating: Summary: A bit of a rehash but an enjoyable rehash Comment: Walter Jon Williams isn't really breaking any new ground here, although it takes a little while to notice. The prologue is three chapters long, far too long, but stick with the book because it gets more interesting. The story is set a millennium or two in the future where humanity has used massive AI supercomputers orbiting the sun and wormhole technology to created artificial pocket universes where most people live. The main character is Aristide, a scholar who investigates what he calls "implied spaces", the areas which are accidentally created when these pocket universes are designed. During such an exploration he uncovers evidence of a plot against civilization and the rest of the book deals with efforts to foil this plan. The major strike against the book is that it's clearly derivative of Williams' previous work, most notably Aristoi which also featured an immortal poet/scholar/adventurer who was trying to foil a plot against civilization. The character of Aristide also owes something to Williams' novel "Knight Moves" which had a protagonist who was instrumental in revolutionizing the world. For good measure he throws in some of the grand space opera battle tactics which he employed recently in the Praxis series. Even the notion of backups in case someone dies is cribbed from "Voice of the Whirlwind." The major new idea that Williams plays with here is the intriguing notion of mind altering plagues which can rewrite someones personality. But that said, the fact is that the book is so well written and the story so engaging that you don't care that it's not the most original fare. Or at least I didn't. It IS somewhat similar to Aristoi in that, even in the face of the most dire peril, the main character never seems to be too perturbed. In this sense it's a very light adventure tale, but still engaging at the same time. Much of the enjoyment comes from trying to piece together what's going on and observing the chess like moves which civilization and its enemies engage in. Especially if you're a fan of Williams' other work I'd recommend "Implied Spaces." Customer Rating: Summary: Post-cyberpunk/Post Human Science fiction Comment: If you've read my reviews, you know I've got a thing for WJW. This work is a piece of solid science fiction writing. It is not space opera, it is not really high adventure. It posits a universe where manking can create wormholes and pocket universes with relative ease and takes us for a fun ride down that rabbit hole. Government, human relations, and man's place in the universe are all fodder for this book. This work is similar to WJW's Aristoy than his adventure works. if you remember that going in you will appreciate the piece. If you enjoyed Glass Houses, Aristoy and similar post human science fiction, then buy this book. Customer Rating: Summary: Pure Fun Comment: After some less than stellar books in the past few years, Walter Jon Williams has returned to form. Implied Spaces is a deliciously enjoyable exploration of a world created by a master of the craft. If there were an award for creating the most outrageously megalomaniacal Evil Genius, it would go to Walter Jon Williams for this book. The "evil genius confronts hero and forces him to listen to his dastardly plan" scene had me howling with laughter. I can't reveal the details, of course, but let us say that the man has a grudge, and desires to lodge a complaint. Regrettably, doing so requires the mental enslavement of the entire human race, but what is that but a mere inconvenience to a zealot filled with a sense of divine mission? Another noteworthy accomplishment is that Williams has managed to tell a story containing a talking cat that is neither juvenile nor saccharine. (Indeed, who would have thought that a talking cat might be a useful adjunct to accomplishing the seduction of nubile women?) I fondly hope that our hero undertakes further exploration of "implied spaces" in a book yet to come. Customer Rating: Summary: not unreadable Comment: I just wasn't that impressed with this book. While it had some interesting ideas, they were kind of a hodge-podge of technologies thrown together without any rhyme or reason. Want AI, it's there. Want wormholes and bubble universes, got that too. Functional immortality, check. Nano tech, sure thing. Heck, we even got zombies! I also found the characters very one dimensional. While the hero has a back-story, it's slightly implausable. I could get over that if there was any type of inner conflict to explain why he does what he does. After all, he's the oldest human alive, there have to be SOME inner deamons to drive him. The other characters, including the love intrest, were so paper thin I had trouble remembering who they were. It's always hard to build tension in a book where the characters are immortal, but it can be done. In this case though, even during a multi-universe war, there's always the knowledge that the worst that can happen is he'll be restored from a backup minus a few months memories. Not excatly the right motivation for a white-knuckle thriller. Overall, this book misses on both the small and the large scale. However I'm glad to see books like this out there. After too many years of sequels and fantasy taking over the sci-fi label, it's good to see authors taking up the challange of 'real' science fiction again. In this case it's a miss, but not a horrible one, just not to the level of some of the masters of the genre.
Editorial Reviews: Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, is a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself. Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmesssa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.
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