Hydrogen Steel
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By Orin Thomas
Format:Paperback
I really enjoyed this story by Bedford, author of the must-read Time Travel comedy "Time Machines Repaired While You Wait". In Hydrogen Steel Bedford weaves together a coherent universe, plot, and characters. It's like Blade Runner as if it were written by an amalgam of Charles Stross (particularly Glasshouse) and John Scalzi (particularly Android's Dream). I enjoyed the surprises - a lot of sci-fi these days feels like it is on rails, treading the same ground as books before it - Bedford keeps things moving without you feeling at any time that the plot has run off the rails. Pick up this book - you'll be glad that you did!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars
5 reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gem of a novel
12 July 2007
By Paul Lappen
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Zette McGee is a private investigator, and former cop, in a habitat on Ganymede. She abruptly retired from the force, rather than risk exposure of a personal secret. McGee is called out of retirement by a frantic phone call from android Kell Fallow, who knows her secret, and who swears he did not kill his family. Before Fallow can reach her, he is killed by a bomb in his gut.
At every step in the investigation, McGee, and Gideon Smith, a friend with a shadowy past, are stopped cold. It is the work of a firemind called Hydrogen Steel. Think of an artificial intelligence that has had eons of time (about a hundred years in human time) to grow and evolve. It can do a lot more than just read minds, for instance. Wherever they are, it can disable their ship, leaving them stranded in space. It can infect their neural implants with all sorts of major viruses. It can send an android that looks identical to McGee to destroy her residence. It can create intruders out of thin air, then disappear into thin air, to kill anyone it wishes. Hydrogen Steel can also infect McGee and Smith with bombs identical to the one that killed Fallow, forcing them to get quantum scans of their brains, and those scans downloaded into new bodies.
Hydrogen Steel's mission is to prevent any release of information regarding how the Earth disappeared years before. There wasn't any rubble from its destruction, just "poof." Another firemind, Otaru, finds out the truth, but knows that it will not survive the expected battle with Hydrogen Steel.
This is a gem of a novel. It's a really good mystery/thriller; how does anyone deal with an entity that can reach into your DNA, and do something nasty? It's also quite mind blowing, and is very much worth reading.
At every step in the investigation, McGee, and Gideon Smith, a friend with a shadowy past, are stopped cold. It is the work of a firemind called Hydrogen Steel. Think of an artificial intelligence that has had eons of time (about a hundred years in human time) to grow and evolve. It can do a lot more than just read minds, for instance. Wherever they are, it can disable their ship, leaving them stranded in space. It can infect their neural implants with all sorts of major viruses. It can send an android that looks identical to McGee to destroy her residence. It can create intruders out of thin air, then disappear into thin air, to kill anyone it wishes. Hydrogen Steel can also infect McGee and Smith with bombs identical to the one that killed Fallow, forcing them to get quantum scans of their brains, and those scans downloaded into new bodies.
Hydrogen Steel's mission is to prevent any release of information regarding how the Earth disappeared years before. There wasn't any rubble from its destruction, just "poof." Another firemind, Otaru, finds out the truth, but knows that it will not survive the expected battle with Hydrogen Steel.
This is a gem of a novel. It's a really good mystery/thriller; how does anyone deal with an entity that can reach into your DNA, and do something nasty? It's also quite mind blowing, and is very much worth reading.
5.0 out of 5 stars
great
12 Mar 2013
By Patricia Bousquet
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
great book wish it would keep going and going,love hy-tek had alot of good stuff it was just a goog read!!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mind-bending hard SF mystery
20 Nov 2012
By Deborah
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
what an incredible mind-bender! to start with, this seemed similar to Bedford's first novel, Orbital Burn - likeable female central character faced with a mystery she needs to solve, dealing with her own personal dramas at the same time as chasing clues and dodging bad guys, with a high-tech science fiction background. But while Orbital Burn has some clever twists, Hydrogen Steel is like one big twisty carnival ride of high-concept messing with the characters' (and the readers') minds. A great read, just make sure to strap yourself in and hang onto some sense of reality
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4.2 out of 5 stars
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