This is in the collections, The Complete Robot and Robot Visions.
I read all of Isaac’s robot stuff many, many years ago, long before the enchroaching AI calamity that is just arriving. Today, it is so crucially relevant to where we are in our relationship with machine intelligence.
I
Next up is True Love.
This is in the collection, The Complete Robot.
Sometimes, just maybe, when you’re not sure about something, you may consider asking a child for their
Next up is Think!.
This is in the collections, The Complete Robot and Robot Dreams.
Another great AI thought exercise by Isaac. It’s almost like he could see directly into our future with Alexa.
And one only has to listen to the way some people speak to Alexa to realise that Isaac was spot on with his prescience. So do remember, next time you talk to Alexa, to be nice and polite, because “SOMEDAY” Alexa might decide she’s had enough.
Next up is Point of View.
This is in the collections, The Complete Robot and Robot Dreams.
Before you buy one of those new self driving cars, you may wish to read this story.
It’s a pity that Isaac didn’t realise that they’d all be running on electric, not fossil fuels. It just goes to show how deluded everyone was in the past in thinking that fossil fuels will last forever.
Next up is Someday.
Humanity has finally gone through a gate and settled on the first world in another solar system, but the settlers are being classed as illegal squatters by the corporation that believes the planet to be legally there’s. So when the corporation ship turns up with the intention of taking everything away from the settlers, the settlers have a surprise waiting for them and all hell breaks loose.
Avasaralla thinks it’ll be a great idea to send Holden to mediate and sort things out, because she thinks Holden will make such a disaster of it that it’ll scare everyone back in Sol system away from leaving for other new worlds.
And on top of all this, or maybe because of all this, the planet is waking up from its billion year slumber.
While that all sounds really good, which it is, the telling of this story just drags on and on and on and on. This book would have been way, way better if it had lost a few hundred pages. And on top of all that, it’s a really depressing story from beginning to end, showing up Homo sapiens at their very worse.
It was so tedious i kept on having to take breaks and read three whole books just to break this up into manageable chunks of depressive dragging on.
Let’s hope the next one, Nemesis Games, is better, eh?
Having read K. J. Parker’s “The Seige” trilogy some time ago, i thought i’d go back to the beginning and begin to give his whole back catalogue a good read at.
Colours in the Steel is K. J. Parker’s first book in his first ever triology: “The Fencer”. And guess what, it’s really good.
There’s just so much going on in this book to keep you enthralled and entertained, with lots of great characters that you can really get on board with, and lots of action as well.
If you haven’t read a good castle/walled-city seige story, then i would suggest you give ” The Seige” trilogy a go to start with, because it’s just soooo good. And if you enjoy that, which you’re bound to do, then you’ve got this story waiting in the wings to satisfy your appetite for more. Because one thing is for sure, K. J. Parker does write a really good seige story.
And with all that written i’m going to dive straight into the second book, Belly of the Bow.
Another great story from the life and times of Murderbot.
If you enjoy AI fiction then this is the series for you, and if you haven’t tried any AI fiction yet and want to give some a try, then this series is a fantastic starting place.
Enjoy!
Another Prefect Dreyfus story from the glitter band, which we’ve been waiting a while for, but it was worth the wait.
For me, one of the best bits of the whole Revelation Space series are the stories within Yellowstone and the Glitter Band, and this story didn’t disappoint.
Alastair at his very best.
And lets all hope that there’ll be a few more Yellowstone and the Glitter Band stories to come still.
Next up in the Revelation Space series it’s Diamond Dogs.
Another side story, this time concerning the prisoners that the Belters captured from the original Protogen project in Leviathon Wakes.
All the prisoners have been put into one large room and are continuously watched over from above by the Belters who guard them. For them, after their crimes, there is no future, nothing at all, beyond the walls of this room.
And then, one day, or night, the man from Mars turns up and begins to offer hope, if only to one of them, but which one will it be?
A really good novella, that can be read as soon as the Belters have taken them prisoner, or anytime thereafter.
Next up in the series is Cibola Burn.
I didn’t find this book as good as the previous ones, which i put down to a character thing.
Too much christian waffle: i live in hope that by the time Hominids are travelling the whole solar system we’ll have gotten over this all the organised religion thing and seen it for what it truly is. I found it beyond tragic that people were still clinging to this twaddle.
And i also found Clarissa just tedious and annoying: like a lot of spoiled rich brats that i’ve known in my life. I really don’t like reading about them and having to endure their thinking.
Still, it has it’s good parts, which do balance the few crap characters and religiosity out and offer some redemption (pun intended) for those expecting something better.
I’ve now dived straight into The Vital Abyss, which is much better and more like what i expect from this series.