Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Capacity / Tony Ballantyne


Capacity

(category: science fiction)
book 2 of a trilogy ? by

Tony Ballantyne

published by Pan Macmillan in 2005, read in August 2009

Agamedes' rating: 6 out of 10


Agamedes' opinion:

This is apparently the middle book of a trilogy. When I read, “Judy’s story will be completed in divergence” I was surprised: I had not missed a book 1; I had hoped for an ending; I had not even considered that the unlikeable Judy was the main character. Not that any of the characters were really likeable. More like, creepy, possibly evil. I was hoping that Helen would win through. The rest, as far as I care about them, could all have their processing spaces switched off. This is hard and complex SF. It does begin to make sense, somewhere after half way through. But it’s such a fantastic -- though believable, I guess -- world that I keep thinking, If this can happen then why not that? So much Big Brother control and continuous observation, yet the various characters still manage to think that they have self will. Readable but not particularly enjoyable.

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