Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)So there is a computer-like AI thing with an immersive VR interface. Does that automatically label the story cyberpunk? Most of it takes place outside the interface, while the data collected on the planet by the mediocre scientist Marcsson modify behavior of the AI in control of the colony's base, threatening the colony's existence. No one knows what's going on until the almost very end, and various factions create complications for each other, throwing around sabotage accusations. For the main character, Kalypso, it's all set to music. Or the lack of that. Picked on and abused by almost everyone, she holds the key to everyone's survival without knowing it.
None of the characters are particularly likeable, as they all are viewed from the objective point, emphasizing their human vices and failures. Math is merely called by name, there's none of it there to buffle the reader. Biology is present more strongly, requiring some basic knowlege of what algae are, as they compose all the visible life on the mostly liquid planet.
While some of the flow-of-conscience sequences aren't very interesting, the story in general is filled with overtones of psychedelic poetry. The AI functioning on the basis of Miles Davis's melodies alone is a wonderful idea, but there are also vivid paintings of the grim landscape, surreal encounters in both the reality and virtuality, and an implicit soundtrack detailed on the thank you list. Definitely a fresh non-standard work, and definitely worth reading. It may be called a classic one day. Don't forget to listen to the music!
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Tricia Sullivan's "Lethe" garnered her both a nomination for the prestigious John W. Campbell Award for Best New Novelist, and a place on "Locus's" 1995 Recommended Reading List. Now she delivers the riveting tale of a group of scientists who are sent to study a primitive planet. When the scientists' survival systems crash, the few who are left with their mental abilities intact realize that they're up against a collective alien intelligence that they may not live to understand.
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