Queen of Angels
Jun. 22nd, 2019 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfbiterGreg Bear - Queen of Angels
(This is repost from LJ)
The year 2047 is coming. Nanotechnology is commonplace and forensic investigators can examine the crime scene molecule by molecule. Recycled organic waste has replaced oil.
Medicine can manipulate the brain; therapy (ie. nanotech brainwashing) has become a common requirement for some jobs. Selectors, vigilantes, use illegal imported Hellcrowns to brainwash those criminals the justice system has apparently treated too leniently.
Former US "law and order" president Raphkind turned his country into a police state and used Dominican soldiers before his death (note that the book was published 1994).
So a popular poet Emanuel Goldsmith commits a murder and disappears. Three people are mixed up with the case; dolphin-skinned detective Mary Chou, Goldsmith's former groupie Richard Fettle and brain researcher Martin Burke - even though they never meet each other. And in addition to their stories, the fourth narrative tells about the AXIS, an AI probe sent to the Alpha Centauri; its messages have recently arrived. It has discovered something that resembles ruins and its Earth-bound copy is trying to make sense of it all.
And some people are concerned about the binary millennium when 2047) (11111111111 in binary) turns into 2048 (10000000000).
The theme of the book seems to be awareness and identity, even in the case of AXIS. And whether the punishment is more important to those who are punished or those who want to punish someone.
Even so, the AXIS storyline is separate, connected only with its theme. It has no bearing on what happens elsewhere.
(This is repost from LJ)
The year 2047 is coming. Nanotechnology is commonplace and forensic investigators can examine the crime scene molecule by molecule. Recycled organic waste has replaced oil.
Medicine can manipulate the brain; therapy (ie. nanotech brainwashing) has become a common requirement for some jobs. Selectors, vigilantes, use illegal imported Hellcrowns to brainwash those criminals the justice system has apparently treated too leniently.
Former US "law and order" president Raphkind turned his country into a police state and used Dominican soldiers before his death (note that the book was published 1994).
So a popular poet Emanuel Goldsmith commits a murder and disappears. Three people are mixed up with the case; dolphin-skinned detective Mary Chou, Goldsmith's former groupie Richard Fettle and brain researcher Martin Burke - even though they never meet each other. And in addition to their stories, the fourth narrative tells about the AXIS, an AI probe sent to the Alpha Centauri; its messages have recently arrived. It has discovered something that resembles ruins and its Earth-bound copy is trying to make sense of it all.
And some people are concerned about the binary millennium when 2047) (11111111111 in binary) turns into 2048 (10000000000).
The theme of the book seems to be awareness and identity, even in the case of AXIS. And whether the punishment is more important to those who are punished or those who want to punish someone.
Even so, the AXIS storyline is separate, connected only with its theme. It has no bearing on what happens elsewhere.
