Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but not a great story
Review: A fascinating book on the possibilities of evolution on a distant planet. Any sci-fi fan with an interest in biology will love this book!
Rating: 
Summary: The Future of Man?
Review: A fascinating book on the possibilities of evolution on a distant planet. Any sci-fi fan with an interest in biology will love this book!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Ideas In A Loosely Formed Story
Review: Although I enjoyed the book, I did get the strong impression that the plot was very much secondary to the ideas that Poul Anderson is interested in: human nature and evolution, artificial intelligence and its evolution, free will, destiny, etc. The fate of carbon-based intelligence vs. silicon-based intelligence is a theme in many books, fiction and nonfiction, and Mr. Anderson's contribution is very readable. You might try Hans Moravec's nonfiction speculations, or Dan Simmons' Endymion Series, or Robert Jastrow's now classic "The Enchanted Loom: Mind in the Universe" to name a few.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible book
Review: Completly disjointed, incoherent, depressing book. Don't waste your time or money in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible book
Review: Completly disjointed, incoherent, depressing book. Don't waste your time or money in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but not a great story
Review: Genesis is a well-written book containing much interesting speculation, but overall it doesn't hold together so well as a story. Most of the plot is unsuprising - I felt I could predict the characters' actions well in advance, and very little occurred in the course of the story that the characters could not control. I was hoping for a surprising ending in which Gaia's plan is revealed as something interesting and original, but in fact the ending is unspectacular and her plan turns out to be nothing remarkable. But the prose is very evocative, and the book is short and easy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Cosmic.
Review: Great SF, and the kind of novel I have been looking for on the SF shelves of late. I for one tend to avoid the popular series that so many SF authors crank out infinitum (although Anderson has done a few as well). I prefer single, self-contained novels, which indeed are rare in SF these days. Anderson's billion-year saga is an epic on a grand scale. Admittedly some of his scientific discussions are a little beyond me, but I did enjoy the quasi-religious overtones of the storyline and the cosmic issues it raised concerning immortality and the nature of our gods. A short, dense, fascinating novel that I will return to again.
Rating:
Summary: Is it Real or is it Memorex..?
Review: I am particularly fond of what has come to be termed "Hard" Science Fiction. As one who understands the concepts of quantum mechanics if not the math, I find it refreshing to read a book without wincing, if you know what I mean. I am reminded of the many errors that were made in "Sphere" (some of which, thankfully, were worked out for the movie, bad as it was). Be that as it may, I was not really happy with the diminishing returns I got from this book. The idea was good and, I suppose, there is validity in the way things eventually wound down, but it was disjointed and hard to read, the characters seemed made of paper mache, and, believe it or don't, it seemed rushed. Despite the fact that there were parts of the book that read so slowly I almost fell alseep at the switch. Thing is, I love Poul's writing. I thought Starfarers, for instance, was an excellent book, with characters so endearing that I was brought to tears more than once. Perhaps therein lies the problem; I'm used to better.
Rating:
Summary: Is it Real or is it Memorex..?
Review: I am particularly fond of what has come to be termed "Hard" Science Fiction. As one who understands the concepts of quantum mechanics if not the math, I find it refreshing to read a book without wincing, if you know what I mean. I am reminded of the many errors that were made in "Sphere" (some of which, thankfully, were worked out for the movie, bad as it was). Be that as it may, I was not really happy with the diminishing returns I got from this book. The idea was good and, I suppose, there is validity in the way things eventually wound down, but it was disjointed and hard to read, the characters seemed made of paper mache, and, believe it or don't, it seemed rushed. Despite the fact that there were parts of the book that read so slowly I almost fell alseep at the switch. Thing is, I love Poul's writing. I thought Starfarers, for instance, was an excellent book, with characters so endearing that I was brought to tears more than once. Perhaps therein lies the problem; I'm used to better.
Rating:
Summary: CREATURES OF CHAOS IN VIRTUAL REALITY
Review: I think Author pushed his own brain to the limit to create these human-like avatars of quantum chaotic celestial gods. Author says most of life processes proceed on a quantum level beyond human comprehension.. The story reminds me of Herman Hesse's GLASS BEAD GAME with the change that Galactic Brain Nodes are the players and poor human consciousness gets to be the glass beads. Poul Anderson realizes this when he says some games are beyond human words and some works beyond music. To make the incomprehensible less so the Author resorts to myth and metaphor. This doesn't work for me but Author had no other option given the outer space he was shooting for. Few writers attempt or succeed so well in finding patterns of comprehension in the swirling chaos of modern day linguistic strange attractors.The bright human characters in this story have become too dissipated for the normal reader to relate to. The characters are all humming "is that all there is?" Who can sit shadow watching, star gazing and waiting to be uploaded or assimilated into a galactic brain? It seems a stretch that God Gaia, God Wayfarer or Alpha would get teary eyed about a human love couple but then viewers still do choke up at these Hollywood endings. Still the conflicts are excellent and the mythical metaphors exceptional. I especially appreciated that an uploaded human mind is likened to a gene in the chromosome of a galactic god. If you really enjoy far out Sci-fi, like "modulated neutrino beams" and Star Trek holodeck drama played out on the mental screens of galactic gods, don't miss GENESIS.
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