From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Mar 20 20:53:22 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!news.funet.fi!news.eunet.fi!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: ecl@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper) Subject: THE BOHR MAKER by Linda Nagata Message-ID: <9503081419.ZM11230@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@netcom22.netcom.com Organization: The Internet Date: Sat, 11 Mar 1995 00:19:27 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 65 THE BOHR MAKER by Linda Nagata Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-56925-2, 1995, 325pp, US$4.99 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper Linda Nagata is one of the (surprisingly) small number of Asian- Americans writing science fiction today. (Offhand, I can think of only three others.) THE BOHR MAKER is her first novel (though her short fiction has appeared previously), and this story, which combines nano- technology and virtual reality concepts should fit right in with the current trends. Which is, of course, a bit of the problem. Nagata is a good writer, but the ideas all seem recycled from other books. There's a space elevator, and a group that believes in the Gaia concept, and an underclass living in slum cities, a female member of whom gets hold of an advanced technology and becomes a sort of messiah, and politics around the Indian Ocean. (Having just read Neal Stephenson's THE DIAMOND AGE, perhaps I found this even more familiar than it might otherwise have been.) Nagata's main character is Phousita, a young woman of the slums who lives with her "family" in an abandoned warehouse in a nameless city which the publicity material claims is in India, but by ethnic make-up seems more to be somewhere around what is now Malaysia, or perhaps Singapore. This sense of location is reinforced by the repressive government and strict punishment system. Phousita accidentally becomes "infected" with a "bug" that gives her healing powers even beyond what she realizes. But the bug is proscribed technology, breaking the chain of life by not just modifying an existing genotype, but by creating a new one. So Phousita is the object of pursuit of the government, as well as those who were releasing the bug in the first place. As I noted, there are many similarities to Stephenson's DIAMOND AGE (as well as to many other "nanotech future" books). But Nagata's writing is not as dense as Stephenson's, making THE BOHR MAKER more accessible to readers. My main complaint would be that Nagata starts out with a more interesting (to me) character than most in Phousita, then shifts the point of view to some more traditional (and less interesting) characters--the renegade scientist, the manipulative politician, and so on. I know you need these characters, but it seems a pity to me that Nagata spent so much time on them at the expense of her original character. Naturally, your opinion may differ, but in any case I would recommend THE BOHR MAKER for those who like the virtual- reality, nanotech sort of future. * The other three Asian-American science fiction authors I could think of are Ted Chiang, Somtow Sucharitkul (a.k.a. S. P. Somtow), and William F. Wu. %T The Bohr Maker %A Linda Nagata %C New York %D April 1995 %I Bantam Spectra %O paperback, US$4.99 %G ISBN 0-553-56925-2 %P 325pp -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "There are no scientific tests for race ... blood is blood, and bone is bone. Race is a con game. Don't play." --Will Shetterly From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Dec 8 15:44:36 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed.tip.net!cph-2.news.DK.net!dkuug!dknet!cph-1.news.DK.net!dkuug!dknet!icl.icl.dk!sw0198!news.icl.fi!news.eunet.fi!news.csc.fi!news.funet.fi!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!uhog.mit.edu!news!nobody From: "Evelyn C Leeper" Subject: Review: TECH-HEAVEN by Linda Nagata Message-ID: <9512061322.ZM10807@mtgppc04> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Keywords: author= Evelyn C Leeper Sender: news@media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 23:23:32 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 42 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:874 rec.arts.books.reviews:1102 TECH-HEAVEN by Linda Nagata A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper This is Nagata's second novel, and it is set in a more accessible future than her first (THE BOHR MAKER)--at least for one thread. In TECH-HEAVEN, the story revolves around cryonic suspension: the freezing of the dead in the hopes of reviving them when a cure for their disease or injury is found. Nagata takes the current discussion of this subject and uses it for a fairly straightforward future thriller sort of novel. This thread does not get much beyond the questions being asked already: Is it fair to spend millions to preserve the dead rather than to improve the lot of the living? What about the legal issues of rights and property? Is a frozen person really dead? It's the last question than Nagata expands on in her other thread, which follows the "soul" of the main character's husband, who has been frozen. Some may find this intriguing, but I found it unconvincing and difficult to follow. (Maybe the two go hand in hand.) The main plot is full of convenient characters and familiar concepts. For example, one powerful member of the main character's family is opposed to cryogenics, giving Nagata a ready-made conflict. Nanotechnology is the solution to the problems of thawing people out, as it seems to be to every problem these days, and so on. It's not completely predictable, but it's not full of a lot of surprises either. While this will undoubtedly be of interest to someone who already have an interest in cryogenics, I can't say that it did much for me. %T Tech-Heaven %A Linda Nagata %C New York %D November 1995 %I Bantam Spectra %O paperback, US$4.99 %G ISBN 0-553-56926-0 %P 368pp -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "The jawbone of an ass is just as dangerous a weapon today as in Samson's time." --Richard Nixon