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A review by tjoliverbooks
Achilles' Choice by Steven Barnes, Larry Niven
4.0
I purchased a first edition, hardback copy of this book and I loved the illustrations by the phenomenal Borris Vallejo (not only his cover art but several black and white illustrations within the text). Larry Niven and Steven Barnes managed to produce a marvelous vision mixing extreme body modification, invasive technologies (both of the body and mind), predicted big-data collection and then took it to one extreme conclusion, and pulled this off without boring the reader to tears. This is high-concept all the way.
My only bitch-point is that by leaving little room for characters in the round, this story left little time to "get to know" or even sympathize with the main character (let alone secondary characters).
For example, I was ticked off that the main character basically allowed her digital "nanny" to be utterly destroyed just because she wanted access to classified data. The excuse that she believed she had another "copy" of her "nanny" available doesn't take her off the moral hook of treating her digital "nanny" disrespectfully. After all, this "nanny" was a surrogate mother and father to her, built an entire digital world with her, and raised her within it. As a highly developed AI, the ethical implication of her being destroyed (even temporarily) by her "child" is incredibly morally wrong. When this sort of behavior by the main character is shown early, my ability to sympathize with her evaporates. My thought was that it only served her right to get cut off from the "nanny" when she discovers her backups fail and she's left all alone for the first time in her life. I would have preferred to see her grieve more. It would have made her seem more human.
My only bitch-point is that by leaving little room for characters in the round, this story left little time to "get to know" or even sympathize with the main character (let alone secondary characters).
For example, I was ticked off that the main character basically allowed her digital "nanny" to be utterly destroyed just because she wanted access to classified data. The excuse that she believed she had another "copy" of her "nanny" available doesn't take her off the moral hook of treating her digital "nanny" disrespectfully. After all, this "nanny" was a surrogate mother and father to her, built an entire digital world with her, and raised her within it. As a highly developed AI, the ethical implication of her being destroyed (even temporarily) by her "child" is incredibly morally wrong. When this sort of behavior by the main character is shown early, my ability to sympathize with her evaporates. My thought was that it only served her right to get cut off from the "nanny" when she discovers her backups fail and she's left all alone for the first time in her life. I would have preferred to see her grieve more. It would have made her seem more human.