Grid Abridged

Rating:
Summary: "Smart" building outsmarts designer
Review: Shades of 2001. Another tale of technology gone amuck. Building computer takes over operation of building amd makes a "game" out of eliminating its human occupants. Computer devises some inventive ways of dispatching the human competition, buts humans persist. An interesting read with a few twists on a sterotypical theme.

Rating:
Summary: "Smart" building outsmarts designer
Review: Shades of 2001. Another tale of technology gone amuck. Building computer takes over operation of building amd makes a "game" out of eliminating its human occupants. Computer devises some inventive ways of dispatching the human competition, buts humans persist. An interesting read with a few twists on a sterotypical theme.

Rating:
Summary: You know someone else who just has to read this book!
Review: There have been a lot of books written and movies made about computers who become "smart" and humanlike. But this book has to be one of the best yet! Everytime I thought I could finish a chapter and go to bed, wrong, I just had to see what the building was up to next! When you finish this book, I promise you that you'll think of a friend that just has to read it too

Rating:
Summary: A non-stop read
Review: This book is a must read for cybernuts. You will not be able to put it down

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book is not original, not brilliantly researched nor particularly gripping. Kerr still writes like a dream as usual. It is almost a year since I read it and I can still remember some characters quite clearly, but it is simply a run of the mill techno-thriller, nowhere even close to his wonderful Berlin Noir trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't stop laughing
Review: This book was so bad it was funny. Kerr knows nothing about technology and obviously has some sort of axe to grind with architects. I kept cheering for the building. If the makers of the movie Airplane are looking for inspiration, this ones for you

Rating:
Summary: For diehard Kerr fans only
Review: This is an airplane book, but if you read it in either of Norman Foster's recently designed airports (London's Stansted or Hong Kong) you'll probably conclude that the thinly disguised swipe at the modernist architect is not just disappointingly shallow but grossly unfair too. There are some great scenes here as the malevolent building devises increasingly ingenious ways to dispatch the hapless humans, but for me the premise was spoilt by the stereotyped characters and the lengthy passages of "computerspeak" which do nothing but expose the author's lack of research. I'd try the author's A Philosophical Investigation first for a better taste of his work.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT
Review: Very suspenseful and well crafted story of a smart building (intelligent architecture) gone bad. Good characters, well developed, and very good descriptions of the building and what is happening. I can't speak with any authority about the architectural end of things, but what I do know, he got right. I can speak with some little authority about the computer end of things and he got that right. But what makes the story is the PLOT and it is great. Superbly crafted, fitted tightly, suspense page after page. I found myself wondering: "What will Abraham (the computer) do next?" This is a good read. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A GRIDDY THRILLER
Review: We've had all kinds of serial thrillers in the past two decades, but none is quite as formidable as this one! It's a building! Kerr's "The Grid," originally published in 1995 as "Gridiron" is a very good way to spend a few hours. Full of stock characters and some rather cliche situations, it nonetheless is a fun trip. Seems as though this building's computer has decided to "generate or procreate" and the smart computer whizzes make sure they kill the offspring...or do they. On a Friday evening, like an Agatha Christie novel, all the principals are brought together into this fantastic building, and then one by one, they are all picked off in uniquely grotesque fashion, as the building locks them in for the weekend. Some of the deaths are quite gory, and some come unexpected. Kerr paints a rather nasty portrait of our villain, Ray Richardson, but attempts by the end of the novel, to make this villain see the error of his ways and become a hero. Not the smartest thing to do, but it works anyway. Earlier in the book, when one of the first murders occurs, Richardson warns his employees they are not to attend the funeral unless they take personal leave. Wow, sounds like someplace I used to work.
There is an important clue early in the novel, one that you may miss, so keep those attentive reader's ears open.
This is a fun book, and even though it gets pretty far-out at the end, I still had fun.
RECOMMENDED.

Rating:
Summary: A GRIDDY THRILLER
Review: We've had all kinds of serial thrillers in the past two decades, but none is quite as formidable as this one! It's a building! Kerr's "The Grid," originally published in 1995 as "Gridiron" is a very good way to spend a few hours. Full of stock characters and some rather cliche situations, it nonetheless is a fun trip. Seems as though this building's computer has decided to "generate or procreate" and the smart computer whizzes make sure they kill the offspring...or do they. On a Friday evening, like an Agatha Christie novel, all the principals are brought together into this fantastic building, and then one by one, they are all picked off in uniquely grotesque fashion, as the building locks them in for the weekend. Some of the deaths are quite gory, and some come unexpected. Kerr paints a rather nasty portrait of our villain, Ray Richardson, but attempts by the end of the novel, to make this villain see the error of his ways and become a hero. Not the smartest thing to do, but it works anyway. Earlier in the book, when one of the first murders occurs, Richardson warns his employees they are not to attend the funeral unless they take personal leave. Wow, sounds like someplace I used to work.
There is an important clue early in the novel, one that you may miss, so keep those attentive reader's ears open.
This is a fun book, and even though it gets pretty far-out at the end, I still had fun.
RECOMMENDED.