Colossus

Rating:
Summary: Computers can't tell you where to go, only how to get there.
Review: *

Even more relevent today, the 60's SF novel COLOSSUS is a dark, wonderfully realized intellectual horror story, as well as a much-deserved slap at both technocrats who feel that the problems of human nature can and will be solved by devices completely lacking in human nature, and fuzzy-brained, romantic, philosophical purists who believe they can draw a line between themselves and The System (which, in this case, is named Colossus-Guardian), "dropping out" and heading for the hills when things go bad. In COLOSSUS, Jones offers no slick way out; he has provided no hills for the isolationists or the technocrats to head for. Both of these philosophies, which seem to have metamorphosized and grown in popularity in the last generation, fall victim to the same kind of fantasy: personal responsibility for the human condition can be shirked by the individual and transferred to someone -- in this case, something -- else.

Jones's novel takes the position that! the worst thing that can happen to you is to have an idle wish granted. In the 1960's, it was World Peace and the end of the Political Cold War; today it is World Harmony and the end of Racial and Ethnic Strife -- a different board, but the same game, and the same players and pieces. By transferring all personal responsibility for the fate of mankind to a highly powerful, completely logical computer-complex, humanity finds out that in giving up its responsibilty for the problems of hunger, war, crime and the rest of the perpetual litany of complaints, it has also given up its power to effect and control the solutions to those problems. The Draconian computer straps Humanity down on a Procrustian bed, and dispassionately proceeds to stretch and cut with the insensitive logic (and dark humor bordering on political and social obscenity) of a fairy-tale ogre.

Existentialists -- Sartre, Ortega y Gasset, Camus and others -- argue that what makes man MAN is the ability to make! himself, to respond to the brute facts of the world in way! s not determined by the past, or ones own lock-step habits and past traditions. In the 60's, humanity faced destruction, not because of the mechanical weapons built by competing super-powers, but by the mechanical behavior of the humans (from president or premier down to soldier or storeclerk) comprising those powers. Thirty years later, mankind marches to a different but no less mechanical drummer, individual people giving up their personal judgment in favor of membership in racial, ethnic and cultural enclaves, governed by unyielding rules and codes and principles. Not only are these rules of "human" behavior as predetermined and rigid and inflexible as anything a computer could come up with, they even take away the one freedom offered by the Cold War: defection; membership in socio-political groups these days is predetermined as well. Perhaps, with the right programming, it is time for Colossus -- who is not merely a physical machine, but the embodiment of th! e harshest philosophy of life imaginable -- to come back and "get things organized". We are as tempted by cruel and inhuman solutions today as we were a generation ago. But before making this choice -- the last choice one can ever make is to give up one's duty to make choices -- today's generation should read this book. And stop. And think. For itself.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Science- Fiction Story
Review: A supercomputer, the size of a large town takes over the globe when Charles Forbin and the president release it.

Rating:
Summary: Great ideas and tension, bad characterizations...
Review: Colossus is a quick, interesting read and Jones does a good job of making Colossus a chilling antagonist. The idea that man's super-driven defense systems will one day enslave him is a timeless metaphor that is extrapolated and described with finesse and some depth. Jones shows his strengths as a storyteller once Colossus begins speaking regularly with Forbin. He has thought out in some detail the problems and solutions a man-machine conflict would contain and the believability factor here is very high.

The problems with the novel are the glaring sexist portrayal of women and hokey characterizations. The character of Cleo is basically a dumb blonde who makes it into the project because of her body and because Forbin likes her. By having Forbin dress down the President repeatedly while cooly receiving the adoring love of Cleo, Jones falls back into Buck Rogers land. The hero-scientists outshines all with his good looks, daring courage, and superior brain.

Ho Hum.

The prose is journeyman at best with grad-school cliches littering the pages but this is primarily a Crichton-esque plot-driven novel and for that it suceeds with an idea that has not dated since the book's publication in the early 70's, an achievement in itself. Just don't expect a well rounded piece of work.

Rating:
Summary: Great ideas and tension, bad characterizations...
Review: Colossus is a quick, interesting read and Jones does a good job of making Colossus a chilling antagonist. The idea that man's super-driven defense systems will one day enslave him is a timeless metaphor that is extrapolated and described with finesse and some depth. Jones shows his strengths as a storyteller once Colossus begins speaking regularly with Forbin. He has thought out in some detail the problems and solutions a man-machine conflict would contain and the believability factor here is very high.

The problems with the novel are the glaring sexist portrayal of women and hokey characterizations. The character of Cleo is basically a dumb blonde who makes it into the project because of her body and because Forbin likes her. By having Forbin dress down the President repeatedly while cooly receiving the adoring love of Cleo, Jones falls back into Buck Rogers land. The hero-scientists outshines all with his good looks, daring courage, and superior brain.

Ho Hum.

The prose is journeyman at best with grad-school cliches littering the pages but this is primarily a Crichton-esque plot-driven novel and for that it suceeds with an idea that has not dated since the book's publication in the early 70's, an achievement in itself. Just don't expect a well rounded piece of work.

Rating:
Summary: Colossus
Review: Most people find this book through the absorbing film. The book is also the beginning of a trilogy of df jones and this is certainly the strongest of the three. If you must know how colossus is brought down and then raised up again, you need to read all three books. This one on its own, leaves a senses of frustration and bewilderment. However, it is probaly best to stick to this one alone as the next two are very weak.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent thought-provoking scenario for our computer age
Review: This short novel, by D.F.Jones, and the first in a series of three, is enjoyable and deals with man's futile attempt to bring peace and co-operation between the Cold War adversaries by the use of super-computers. I found the auther writes in a similar style to the short adventure/sci-fi novels of Isaac Asimov and it is very easy to finish the novel in a short period.

The most frustrating part I have found is my inability to find the remaining two novels in the series, being "Colossus and the Crab" and "The Fall of Colossus"