Mindkiller

Rating:
Summary: Excellent; a tightly crafted book that makes you think
Review: An excellent "didactic" book, this book presents the lives of two men in a world of the not too distant future that are getting a little too close for comfort to the secretive group that learned how the human mind works, and how memory can be erased. A very dangerous secret even to know about, for all involved.

The search for the "powers in control" quickly turns dangerous.

The story presents a world that is neither to utopic nor too dystopic, and thus quite believable.

The plot accelerates steadily to a dual climax for the two "streams of consciousness."

Spider Robinson's "Callahan" stories may be more readily approachable; Mindkiller seems to me to be his best novel.

Rating:
Summary: The author struggles to understand human nature.
Review: Perhaps the most annoying aspect of reading any Spider Robinson book, including this one, is witnessing the author's total failure to understand what makes human beings tick, in spite of obvious effort to do so.

This book contains a chapter which formerly appeared as a short story, in which a character describes how she was raped by her father as a child. Elsewhere, in another book, Robinson remarks that the rape story was told to him "verbatim" by the actual victim, whom he would love to hear from if she's out there somewhere. That fictionalizing her childhood trauma for the entertainment of his readers isn't the best way to get in touch doesn't seem to occur to him.

Rating:
Summary: The Power of Thought
Review: Reaching the ultimate 'high' has been the goal of a considerable portion of the human race for a very long time. The methods used to try to reach that point have ranged from an incredible variety of mind-altering drugs to deep meditation to self-induced hypnotic trances. So when a new way of reaching that high comes along, direct electrical stimulation of the mind's pleasure center via a surgical implant and a small external device, is it any wonder that a significant number of people would jump for it? And once connected, that there would be some who desire its pleasurable effects so much that they would die happy remaining connected while their bodies waste away from dehydration and starvation?

From this beginning idea (which has also been the subject of treatments by authors such as Larry Niven), Spider goes not just one, but several steps further. Seeing that this technology is just the beginning of deep research into how the mind and memory really work, he envisions that it would eventually lead to knowledge of how to erase selective memories, how to index and store them, and eventually how to transfer them from one person to another.

The story is wrapped around this idea, beginning from Joe, a man missing some of his own memories and totally hidden from society's identification systems, finding Karen, nearly dead, hooked to one of these pleasure tasps, and his slow succoring of her back to health. When they go on a crusade to destroy the maker of such hideously addictive devices, they stumble across information leading them to believe there is one man who controls not just these devices, but has the power to erase a person's memories at will, a power so immense, and so impossible to trace, that he can do anything he desires. As a parallel track, we follow the story of Norman, an assistant professor whose life is falling apart, from his marriage to his job, whose older sister mysteriously disappears one day, and his search for her. Spider does a good job of tying together these disparate threads, with a conclusion that may seem a little over-dramatic but which drives home his thematic points.

His themes deal with just how absolute power may not corrupt, but instead ennoble, but with an under-text of 'end justifying the means'; of a possible goal of really being able to understand how someone else feels by actually 'reading' their thoughts; of identity and right to privacy; of when and to whom loyalty should be given; and 'Chinese' obligations. Some of his thoughts on these subjects seemed a little facile to me, not completely thought through or all consequences investigated, but they are all, within the context of this story, very thought provoking.

Joe, Karen, and Norman are all very well realized characters, in many ways very reminiscent of some of Robert Heinlein's character types, which is not surprising as Spider honors Heinlein as one of his main mentors. These characters have strength, intelligence, and inner integrity; character traits that are rarely seen in many modern novels.

A good read, a few surprising twists along the way, but perhaps not a deep enough delve into the ethical and philosophical questions he raises to really make this an outstanding novel.

Rating:
Summary: excellant commentary on society and addictions
Review: the author is this generations Hienlen . this is one of his best works. a great plot with many twists. i didn't want the book to end.

Rating:
Summary: Loved this book
Review: This book is excellent, a science fiction mystery with multiple plot twists and fascinating ideas, and a positive, uplifting, the world will be a better place in the future ending. I loved the characters, and thought the characterization of the memory loss and the abused woman were amazingly accurate, close enough to my own emotions to make me have to set the book down for a bit and catch my breath. The book surprised me several times, a very hard thing to do, and I love reading all his work.

Rating:
Summary: A science fiction mystery novel set in Canada.
Review: This is one of those sci-fi books that isn't overtly about futuristic hardware, but rather is set in the not-so-distant future and concerns amplified versions of germane social issues from today. As a result, the character development and social aspects of the plot are more prominently featured. Due to its slow start, I was worried that this book might not pass my 100-page test (in which I abandon a book after 100 pages if I am not into it), but I found it slowly growing on me until I was committed to finding out what happened in the end. The ending has a nice twist to boot.

Rating:
Summary: A science fiction mystery novel set in Canada.
Review: This is one of those sci-fi books that isn't overtly about futuristic hardware, but rather is set in the not-so-distant future and concerns amplified versions of germane social issues from today. As a result, the character development and social aspects of the plot are more prominently featured. Due to its slow start, I was worried that this book might not pass my 100-page test (in which I abandon a book after 100 pages if I am not into it), but I found it slowly growing on me until I was committed to finding out what happened in the end. The ending has a nice twist to boot.