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The Turing Test [Paperback]

Chris Beckett (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 29 July 2008
The Turing Test is the Winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2009 and Winner of the Edge Hill Readers Prize 2009.

These fourteen stories, among other things, contain robots, alien planets, genetic manipulation and virtual reality, but their centre focuses on individuals rather than technology, and they deal with love and loneliness, authenticity and illusion, and what it really means to be human.

With an introduction from Alastair Reynolds, author of the Revelation Space series.

Frequently Bought Together

The Turing Test + The Holy Machine + Dark Eden
Price For All Three: £17.91

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  • The Holy Machine by Chris Beckett Paperback £5.99
  • Dark Eden by Chris Beckett Paperback £5.03

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Product details

  • Paperback: 200 pages
  • Publisher: Elastic Press (29 July 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0955318181
  • ISBN-13: 978-0955318184
  • Product Dimensions: 14.8 x 21 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 241,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Astonishing diversity...Like a British Philip K. Dick. -- Strange Horizons

Beckett provides spaceships and robots in abundance, as well as deeply personal stories about the nature of humanity. -- Sci-Fi Online

Beckett should "be on the radar of anyone who professes concern for science fiction as a literary form". -- The Guardian

The Turing Test should satisfy readers interested in well-plotted stories centered around interesting characters. -- The Fix Online

The collection finishes with 'The Marriage Of Sky And Sea'...one of my favourite stories ever. -- SF Crowsnest

Review

Beckett should "be on the radar of anyone who professes concern for science fiction as a literary form".
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Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
9 reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A few rough edges, but generally an excellent collection 23 Aug 2009
By purplepadma VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
The content of the best of the stories in this collection has stayed with me since I read them a couple of weeks ago. In "Dark Eden", an incompatible couple find themselves stranded on a sun-less planet and are forced to consider their own insignificance - and that of humanity - in the context of a vast universe. In "Karel's Prayer", Beckett plays with the idea of "field induced copies" (created from "the precise imprint of [the] body on the suface of space time"), and whether the copy, who has no rights, has any responsibilities to the original. And in "The Marriage of Sea and Sky" an arrogant author, part anthropologist and part travel writer, sets down on a new planet which he intends to exploit for further fame. In his quest for new material and his desire to make all he encounters fit his theories, he grossly misreads a social situation and finds himself forced to go native...

I saw a positive review of Chris Beckett's collection in one of the broadsheet weekend sections and ordered myself a copy with high expectations, which have on the whole been met. The collection includes a few loosely linked stories set in future Londons with recurring characters, interspersed with standalone works, and fuse the sociological/psychological though-experiment elements of what is sometimes referred to as "speculative fiction" with the harder, cyber elements of specific techologies of the future. Most are generally well-executed, but I had the feeling that a more literary-minded editor might have polished them into truely five star works of fiction. The collection is also slightly let down by some poor proof-reading. But I have no doubt that I will be re-reading it, and will seek out more of Beckett's work.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A welcome collection of Chris Beckett's short fiction 9 Jan 2009
By Sarah A. Brown VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
I read some of Chris Beckett's excellent stories in Interzone in the 1990s - `The Welfare Man' is particularly memorable. So this new collection is very welcome. These stories are witty, intriguing, absorbing and (unlike much recent sf) consistently readable. One of the things I like about Beckett's fiction is his willingness to return to familiar sf themes - a world (nearly) without men, the impact of AI on humans and their relationships, encounters with alien societies - and give them a new twist. I strongly recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys reading sf.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars This is the science fiction that I remember fondly. 5 Sep 2009
By KJ44
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Too many SF books today are bloated and/or weak, I struggle to find modern SF that I enjoy. I recall reading stories years ago that were short, intriguing, atmospheric - and they left you feeling pleasantly surprised at the end. The Turing Test contains stories that bring all that back.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A string of little gems 3 April 2012
By Nigel Seel VINE™ VOICE
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
The city is wrecked; abandoned. As you walk the streets avoiding the potholes, unremitting rain invades the roofless, crumbling houses. And then you turn on your implants: suddenly you are surrounded by lights, traffic, people! The modern, perfect metropolis bustles around you - people stop and stare, murmuring at your insanely high resolution. Sometimes they spit the word `physical'.

You are old and spiteful; you lure a young delinquent to your home in the suburbs. He is raw, uneducated - has no idea that he lives in augmented reality. Your elderly husband objects but he's easy to manipulate. You're going to take this kid's illusions away one by one; wait till he finds out where he really is, and what part of him is all that remains in the real. And there is nothing he can do about it.

Part `The Matrix' and part horror, this is the world of two of Chris Beckett's stories in his collection `The Turing Test`, just released on Amazon Kindle.

We travel with Cardinal-Major Illucian of the 32nd Pristine Guard to a most secure prison island. The warrior Half-and-Half has been imprisoned for one hundred years but the legendary soldier is unchanged. The war is going badly for the Empire and his duplicitous skills are needed again. In vain the immortal explains: `So the Emperor thinks he can make use of me, does he? Doesn't he know how I got my name? I'm Half-and-Half! Whoever I serve, whoever I have dealings with, I do them just as much harm as I do good and just as much good as harm.'

The Emperor thinks he can `channel the warrior in the right direction', just like all his predecessors. To this end, Half-and-Half is fitted with an antimatter bracelet which can be remotely detonated - and sent off to reverse the tides of war.... Read more ›
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing 27 Feb 2011
By Andrew
Format:Paperback
I was never really into SF. I got this book as a Christmas present from my mum (not sure why really) but Im glad she did. I instantly fell in love with it. Each story is exceedingly addictive and different. The majority of the short stories have more than enough mileage in them for a novel so it pained me to see them coming to an end after 20 pages!

So its fair to say that Im now a fan of SF, or at least of Chris Beckett. I immediately bought his two other novels (Marcher and Holy Machine) which so far are exactly what I was hoping for!

So thanks to Chris for helping me discover a whole new genre of fiction!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Brimming With Ideas 17 Jun 2013
By Syriat TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Turing Test contains 14 short stories which whilst definitely Science Fiction have much to say about our current world and where it is headed. The 14 stories are sometimes linked, with similar characters or worlds. They include a world where the solution to environmental disaster is a alternate reality closely aligned to the Matrix, a world where copies of people can be made, a universe where people can 'shift' between alternate realities and many more. Some have twists in the tale, other just leave you thinking.

Always well written these stories make you long for Beckett to explore these worlds further and in novel format. They are a tantalising glimpse of worlds which he seems to have developed quite a long way. The characters are always interesting and the stories always involving. The Kindle version is slightly flawed in that you can't navigate between chapter, you have to read page by page. That's a minor flaw when every story is so rich and rewarding. Not since Michael Marshall Smith's rather excellent collection What You Make It has a British Science Fiction writer deliver short stories so well. Its well deserving of the awards its getting and is a very good read indeed.
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