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Silver Screen (Paperback)

by Justina Robson (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Tor; New edition edition (10 Mar 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330375660
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330375665
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 549,709 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

This first novel by a young British author offers an enjoyably different, even subversive, slant on AIs and cyberspace. Insecure and overweight heroine Anjuli O'Connell is a flawed genius whose photographic memory makes her worry about how human she is. Her best friend, after all, is the quirky corporate AI named 901--successor to past versions of 900, the mysteriously disaster-prone 899, etc. A human friend dies to upload his mind into cyberspace, seeking that SF dream of bodiless immortality ... which doesn't work as expected. Another pal interfaces with terrifying biomechanoid weapons- suits that pull their wearer into mental symbiosis, a new "I" continuous with the old but different: "Where does life end and the machine begin?" Meanwhile 901's grasping multinational owners OptiNet, and the Machine-Greens who preach AI liberation, seem equally murderous. As 901's humanity or otherwise becomes a case for the Strasbourg Court, expert witness Anjuli is targeted by assassins and entangled in the hunt for a Hitchcockian McGuffin known as the Source, perhaps literally the secret of life. This requires a hair-raising solo commando assault, in that biomech suit, on a cult church's heavily fortified abbey bunker. Robson's plot zigzags in unexpected directions, especially with revelations about the Source; there's tragedy and trauma, but happy surprises too. An impressive SF debut. --David Langford


Product Description

Ray Croft may or may not have been a genius. On his death he left behind a court case that could destroy everything he had worked for, and a rival who's about to live out Roy's dream, but turning himself into a machine. He also left a special mystery which only one person alive can solve.

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Customer Reviews

27 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (6)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (27 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious and ... excellent., 7 Jul 2001
It's one of the wonders of the artistic process that a single piece of work can provoke so many wildly varying responses. I fall firmly on the positive side of the fence, and am happy to recommend this as an excellent first novel. One of the book's strengths is, as the blurb says, its subversive nature; it seeks to tell a tale, rather than fit a genre or lend itself to a particular section of a bookshop. To achieve this whilst dealing with thought-provoking issues is a real coup. There's no destiny, there are no heroes, just a group of people making the best of a world which is always two steps ahead of us in the evolutionary race, making the goal of enlightenment as impossible as it ever was. At the end of the story the world hasn't been saved, the world goes on, yet the transormations made by the main characters, and the insight we gain into their world, makes the read worthwhile and pleasurable. As Homer Simpson once put it, it's just a bunch of stuff that happened.

Congratulations on a superb book.

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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Boring, seems to lack a plot, has a few good ideas, 24 May 2000
Despite some slightly intriguing concepts (undeveloped and they've all been done before, i.e. problems of sentient AI-Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Memes-Snow Crash, Cybertech-Neuromancer et al), the books is highly dated despite its recent publication, boring and was a real chore to read as it seems to lack a plot. Having read it twice in some places, I still have no idea what the character aims were. The characters highly one-dimensional or badly developed and are simply entirely unconvincing. A huge disappointment, its high point is a one-liner about playing poker in zero-gravity and the playing tokens (chocolate mints) being arranged in constellations of wealth.
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6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars "I loved Neuromancer so I copied all it's ideas", 5 April 2002
By A Customer
...or so the book should have been called. Admittedly, I did buy this book because it did look like it followed similar ideas to William Gibson's brilliant "Neuromancer", but what I did not expect was to read a book that ripped off all Gibson's ideas. In fact, I was amazed at how blatant some of the stolen ideas were. For example, in Neuromancer there is a scene where Case watches Moly's progress on a dangerous mission through her eyes with the help of computer implants. In Silver Screen, Anjuli watches Augustine's progress on a dangerous mission through his eyes with the help of computer implants. And there are more similarities, I won't even begin to draw comparisons between Wintermute and the Shoal, but if you have read Neuromancer, get ready for deja vu when reading this.

As a direct comparison to Neuromancer, this book doesn't measure up. Silver Screen is far less intriguing or exciting as Gibson's dark vision of the future. By itself, it is slightly intriguing, but I found my mind wandering off as I was reading - the characters themselves didn't appeal to me greatly and I found trouble in caring about what happened to them.

To sum up, this novel didn't hold my interest to greatly because it was similar to the great sci-fi classic "Neuromancer" and the characters didn't appeal to me.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Rather than Gripping
I do like to read authors in chronological order & am prepared to put up with first novels being perhaps not as polished as these from seasoned authors. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Roger Cawkwell

3.0 out of 5 stars "I loved Neuromancer so I copied all it's ideas"
...or so the book should have been called. Admittedly, I did buy this book because it did look like it followed similar ideas to William Gibson's brilliant... Read more
Published on 5 April 2002

1.0 out of 5 stars This is poorly written, not thought and clumsy
This book should have been sat on and reedited heavily. It is full of simple errors (people screaming while dying of blood loss, judges allowing uproar in court, fight scenes... Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2001

1.0 out of 5 stars An ambitious but flawed novel
This young author obviously has bags of talent and enthusiasm, but Silver Screen is a sad indication of the decline of the publishing industry. Read more
Published on 26 Jun 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended Read
I would recommend this book to all who like Sci-fi. Interesting and very enjoyable. When will we see AI's such as 901? It would be cool.
Published on 17 May 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Unusually captivating
I'm not a big fan of AI or near-future novels, but this is a tale of both that I found utterly absorbing, because the characters were so well-realized and the main character so... Read more
Published on 22 April 2001

1.0 out of 5 stars An unrealistic depiction of weight issues
Anjuli, the main character of this book, is meant to have a weight problem which has persisted since her childhood. Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2001

1.0 out of 5 stars Reading this book is a complete waste of time.
Anjuli O'Connell is meant to be a young British Asian woman working with AIs in Leeds and various other places. Read more
Published on 27 Jan 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, thoughtful, moving.
A great prose style, intelligent themes and a gripping story make this one of the best SF novels I've read in recent years. Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2000

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, unoriginal and carelessly written
Silver Screen is far from being a professionally written novel, and it breaks no new ground. If you like cyberpunk, you'll find nothing new or interesting here. Read more
Published on 4 Dec 2000

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