Rating: 
Summary: Pass on this one.
Review: Somehow, this book was selected as a 2000 Locus award winner. A very questionable choice, IMHO. The book is not terrible, but, I can't recommend it. It starts off slow and finishes little better. The concept is good and the writing is not bad, but it just doesn't come together in an exciting/interesting fashion. This said, Paul Levinson does show promise with his style and imagination. I hope his next book is better.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice premise, painful writing
Review: The premise of Paul Levinson's "The Silk Code", subcultures exploiting low tech but high science genetics through the ages, provides more than enough interesting material around which to tell just about any kind of story. But, like so many other first-time science fiction novelists, Levinson writes in first person and never shows you something when the main character can think it instead. Sometimes even that's too much: "A soft, pervasive light engaged us as we walked inside---keener than flourescent, more diffuse than incandescent, a cross between sepiatone and starlight maybe, but impossible to describe with any real precision if you hadn't actually seen it, felt its photons slide through your pupils like pieces of a breeze." (p. 35, paperback). Levinson seems to take the "science" part of "science-fiction" a little too literally. The dialog isn't any better, and is often indistinguishable from a character thinking to himself: " 'Ah, we come full circle--this is where I came in. Alas, we unfortunately are not the only people on this earth who understand more of the power of nature than is admitted by your technological world. You have plastics used for good. You also have plastics used for evil---you have semtex, which blew up your airplane over Scotland.' " (p. 38) Levinson spends far too many paragraphs with the main characters simply wondering what'll happen next, summarizing what's already happened, and stating the obvious. Read the sample from Amazon, it might be all you can stand.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting story - a great read!
Review: The Silk Code is a great book -- an intricate plot, with wonderful descriptions of Amish country and a voyage from China to Spain via Madagascar in 750 AD., ending up with a fast-paced mystery about Neanderthals today. The book has very life-like, well-written characters, most especially Phil D'amato, a New York detective who is faced with very weird cases that aren't at all easy to solve. I couldn't decide if this book was more science fiction or mystery -- it's both, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: fascinating and exciting
Review: This book uncovered a world I never knew existed -- I grew up in Pennsylvania, and saw the Amish, but I never imagined the possibility that they could do some of things they do in this book. I also loved the part about the ancient world -- it becomes real to you. My grandfather used to talk about how much he loved science fiction. I bet he had stories like this in mind.
Rating:
Summary: Silk Code hangs by a thread
Review: This book was extremely disappointing. The characters were one-dimensional, existing only to advance the plotline (or to be murdered). Most of the dialogue is tedious and explanatory. The 'science' appears to be based more on wishful thinking than reality. If you're looking for a good, tightly written hard sci-fi story this is NOT the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: exciting, stimulating, fast moving
Review: This is science fiction at its best. An intriguing story, real characters, evocative scenes. Mystery and weirdness. i loved this book.
Rating:
Summary: Original, thought-provoking, compelling
Review: This remarkable novel contains one of the great rarities of popular literature: A truly original idea, namely that "advanced technology" need not involve computers, rockets, lasers, indeed machinery or electronics of any kind. Living as I do among the Amish, it never occurred to me that these amiable but seemingly backward people might harbor secrets as old as time itself, that in their own quiet way, their organic technology might leave ours in the dust. After reading "Silk Code," I did a little investigating of my own (following in the footsteps of forensic sleuth Phil D'Amato) and found that many of the ideas presented in the book-- i.e. Mendelian lamps utilizing specially bred fireflies, herbal remedies designed to counteract food allergies, long-range communications by means of trained insects-- are indeed based on actual Amish research and practices. Author Levinson obviously did his homework.
The novel ideas and spine-tingling revalations don't stop there, but are threaded through "The Silk Code" like the rogue genome of the title. Levinson's knowledge of ancient cultures and philosophies, his knack for creating quirky and intriguing characters, and his ease with the Film Noir world of the hard-bitten investigator all add up to a wonderfully compelling debut novel, a worthy winner of the Locus Award. But be warned: You'll never look at fireflies dancing on a summer night quite the same way again...
|
