- Hardcover
- Publisher: San Val (Sep 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1417715901
- ISBN-13: 978-1417715909
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Product Description
Product Description
From a stunning new voice in hard science fiction comes the thrilling story of one woman’s quest to wrest truth from chaos, love from violence, and reality from illusion in a post-human universe of emergent AIs, genetic constructs, and illegal wetware...
Spin State
UN Peacekeeper Major Catherine Li has made thirty-seven faster-than-light jumps in her lifetime—and has probably forgotten more than most people remember. But that’s what backup hard drives are for. And Li should know; she’s been hacking her memory for fifteen years in order to pass as human. But no memory upgrade can prepare Li for what she finds on Compson’s World: a mining colony she once called home and to which she is sent after a botched raid puts her on the bad side of the powers that be. A dead physicist who just happens to be her cloned twin. A missing dataset that could change the interstellar balance of power and turn a cold war hot. And a mining “accident” that is starting to look more and more like murder...
Suddenly Li is chasing a killer in an alien world miles underground where everyone has a secret. And one wrong turn in streamspace, one misstep in the dark alleys of blackmarket tech and interstellar espionage, one risky hookup with an AI could literally blow her mind. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
Spin State
UN Peacekeeper Major Catherine Li has made thirty-seven faster-than-light jumps in her lifetime—and has probably forgotten more than most people remember. But that’s what backup hard drives are for. And Li should know; she’s been hacking her memory for fifteen years in order to pass as human. But no memory upgrade can prepare Li for what she finds on Compson’s World: a mining colony she once called home and to which she is sent after a botched raid puts her on the bad side of the powers that be. A dead physicist who just happens to be her cloned twin. A missing dataset that could change the interstellar balance of power and turn a cold war hot. And a mining “accident” that is starting to look more and more like murder...
Suddenly Li is chasing a killer in an alien world miles underground where everyone has a secret. And one wrong turn in streamspace, one misstep in the dark alleys of blackmarket tech and interstellar espionage, one risky hookup with an AI could literally blow her mind. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Spin state has a lot of good ideas - the focus of the book is the interaction between the main character, a genetically engineered clone, and an AI. This is well done and both are strangely human and well developed.
The quantum theory underpinning the book is less well described, and although the author has obviously read a lot of books, it is clear he does not come from a physics background. Contrast the high concept stuff here with that of Alastair Reynolds, for instance.
However, this is a readable, enjoyable book, and if the characters continue to grow it will be a worthy series to follow.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I really must stop buying books this engrossing... the lack of sleep they're causing is slowly driving me mad!
The tale begins on an action-high, with a covert raid on an unlicensed "wetware" lab... a raid which goes wrong. Our heroine (a battle weary, genetically and cybernetically enhanced soldier) is given the classic get-out-of-jail-free suicide mission to investigate an unusual accident (and death) on the mine planet of Compson World. From this initial premise grows a complex and compelling tale of galactic politics, interplanetary espionage and secret agendas.
The characters and locations are elloquently described, providing the reader with a fully fledged mental picture of the scenes. The use of non-alien based lifeforms (purebred humans, genetically enhanced and modified humans and the ever popular AI characters) are well delivered although a good deal of page-inches are spent describing facial expression in an attempt to portray the underlying puppetmasters of the humanoid characters (under the control of almost any other character using the concept of "shunting").
Only one criticism on the story as a whole, which is the centralised concept of the quantum crystal structures which are the lifeblood of interplanetary travel - it all feels a little too Dune / Spice for comfort...
Overall, a very compelling read with fine pace, action, characters and a satisfying ending.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a workmanlike technothriller - enjoyable enough, but hardly living up to the promises of 'compelling speculative fiction' that I read in the reviews.
The story takes a while to get going, and I found myself 'tsk'ing over some of the engineering (the description of Alba's life support system in particular had me rolling my eyes - it didn't sound at all right). The characters are well described, but they all seemed far too normal to me; frankly, I felt the whole story could have been transplanted to a twentieth century diamond mine without losing much at all. The science fictiony bit felt like a veneer - a well applied, good-looking veneer, but a veneer nonetheless.
What Spin State does have is an action-packed, twisty plot, and characters who talk about relationships. Granted, even the AI groupminds sound like they've just stepped out of a Clive Cussler, but the pace is good, and the second half of the book scoots along nicely. Pick it up for entertainment, not philosophy.
The story takes a while to get going, and I found myself 'tsk'ing over some of the engineering (the description of Alba's life support system in particular had me rolling my eyes - it didn't sound at all right). The characters are well described, but they all seemed far too normal to me; frankly, I felt the whole story could have been transplanted to a twentieth century diamond mine without losing much at all. The science fictiony bit felt like a veneer - a well applied, good-looking veneer, but a veneer nonetheless.
What Spin State does have is an action-packed, twisty plot, and characters who talk about relationships. Granted, even the AI groupminds sound like they've just stepped out of a Clive Cussler, but the pace is good, and the second half of the book scoots along nicely. Pick it up for entertainment, not philosophy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good but Uneven
As other reviewers have suggested, this is an adventure somewhat along the lines of Richard Morgan or Neal Asher, not to mention Peter Hamilton, where an important element in the... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2007 by Roger Cawkwell
Fantastic read
Great book, good concept, hard science and believable characters. Mature and fully fleshed. Highly recommended.
Published on 4 Nov 2004 by Harper Lee
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