โ Scribed by Kathleen Ann Goonan
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
In this exuberant if jumbled concluding volume of Goonan's Nanontech Quartet (Queen City Jazz, etc.), the microscopic machines of the 22nd century have gone beyond creating sentient cities and controlling all communications on Earth they are themselves evolving. When mysterious lights point to an alien presence and disappearing people arouse stark fear, three human survivors, including Argentine refugee Angelina, set out to solve the mystery and measure the threat to humanity. A lot of picaresque adventures ensue. Angelina's travels take her from an authoritarian Argentina across the Atlantic in a robot ship to North Africa, then in a mysterious one-way train to a nano-ruled Paris, accompanied all the while by a sapient doll (evolving toward humanity) named Chester. Nothing that happens to the other two, elderly Jason Peabody and his sidekick, Dania, is quite as interesting, until the Crescent City devolves into its original function as a spaceship and rides into orbit. As part of a grand scheme, humans and nanos eventually merge into a single entity linked to Earth. Readers new to the quartet will find the action hard to follow, while others may be put off by the author's at times less than polished narrative technique. Nonetheless, this classic novel of ideas, with state-of-the-art technology as its subject, remains the work of a powerful imagination with a superior command of language. (June 7)of Time.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
When Crescent City, the sentient hub of a world reinvented by nanotechnology and cosmic revelations, falls under attack by pirates, Jason Peabody, one of the few remaining humans who remembers a time when the world relied on external communications for connections, undertakes a journey to unlock the secret behind the changes that have come to the world. Accompanied by Dania, a visionary who preaches the art of "seeing," Peabody travels halfway around the world in search of the one man who can reveal the truth to him. Goonan brings her "Nanotech Quartet" to a satisfying conclusion as she draws together threads from previous novels (Mississippi Blues, Queen City Jazz, Crescent City Rhapsody) and links them through the personality of a determined and dedicated young man in pursuit of the truth. Recommended, along with other series titles, for most sf collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Library : Science Fiction
Universes : Nanotech Cycle [04]
Formats : EPUB
ISBN : 9780380977123
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