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Sister Alice
 
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Sister Alice (Paperback)

by Robert Reed (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
Price: £6.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Orbit (1 May 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 184149125X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841491257
  • Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 10.6 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 528,798 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #9 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > R > Reed, Robert

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Product Description

Review
'Robert Reed is the new century's most compelling SF voice' Stephen Baxter 'Compelling, exhilarating, ambitious' SFX 'An exhilarating ride, in the hands of an author whose aspiration literally knows no bounds' The New York Times 'An absorbing and stimulating novel' THE ALIEN ONLINE

Product Description
Some 10 million years in the future, in a galaxy heavily populated by humans and other advanced species, a thousand trustworthy humans and their cloned offspring have been granted an incredible power that they may preserve a peace that has endured for eons. They can build worlds wherever they wish and can terraform any wasteland. But the arrival of a woman as old as the great peace itself brings uncertainty and fear. For she brings with her a warning: the tale of an ancient crime that threatens to destroy the peace that has been so carefully crafted. A far-future epic of god-like humans and their colossal blunders, SISTER ALICE is a novel of incredible imagination from the author of the acclaimed MARROW. Find out more about this title and others at www.orbitbooks.co.uk

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome scope and inventiveness, 22 Jun 2005
By Rod Williams "hairybloke@aol.com" (London) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
Ord is apparently the youngest child of the Chamberlain family, one of a thousand families whose members - augmented by near-immortality and quantum cyborg talents - maintain a peace within the galaxy which has lasted millions of years.
We discover early on that the Chamberlains are not a family in the normal sense. Ord is merely the latest model in a series of clones that now number more than 22,000. Rank is assigned by what number the clone is in the chain, so when the Chamberlains receive news that Alice, their number twelve (and hence only the eleventh clone to be created) is to visit after an absence of millions of years, the family begin to speculate on her motives.
Once more, Reed has produced a novel on a grand scale, its timespan covering millennia.
In some senses it can be described as a 'Romantic' novel since it eschews - and this was also a criticism aimed at 'Marrow' - the current Classical fashion for tortuous explanations of quantum mechanics and string theory. The augments of the older members of the family are powered by masses of dark matter although the exact scientific principles are avoided, in this case a refreshingly welcome change.
The premise is also a Romantic one, since one cannot imagine - in however enlightened a society - civilisation handing over its reins to a thousand carefully chosen beneficiaries and their cloned descendants.
This novel could very easily have descended into a triumph of style over content were it not for Reed's complex strands of character motives and actions.
From one viewpoint it could be argued that this is an examination of what determines personality. At one point Alice remembers herself as a child, with her 'father', Ian, the original Chamberlain. they are standing in a stairwell of their estate house and Ian has given Alice some cloned feathers. All are identical, he tells her, and asks her to drop the feathers one by one over the balcony.
Although identical in every respect, the feathers are subject to the changing forces around them and so no two fall exactly the same way. It is a device by which Ian explains to Alice why her brothers and sisters, although genetically identical, are shaped into individuals by the Universe around them.
There are questions raised as to which is the real personality when an augmented human becomes 99% computer memories and 1% flesh. Later there are ethical questions raised about the morality of creating a universe in which Life can be cultivated if the price to be paid is the destruction of entire Star Systems teeming with sentient life.
This whole debate, however, is itself subverted when the reader realises that the entire sequence of events may have been part of a plan set in motion aeons before.
There are seldom any easy endings or answers in Reed's work. There are merely consequences which directly affect the protagonists, but it is to Reed's credit that the questions raised tend to linger in the mind and niggle away at us in the wee small hours.
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1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, 19 May 2003
By C. Donaldson "Ramorak" (England, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I was a bit dubious at first as trying to convincingly portray a human society 10 million years in the future has got to be nigh on impossible.

But this author manages to portray a future that is fantastical and yet believable. It is a future where humans are immortal and have the power of gods but are still fundamentally flawed.

What do Gods get up to when the raw power of a Sun is merely a trinket in their galactic toolbox? Read this book to find out.

The only reason I haven't given _Sister Alice_ 5 stars is that I found the conclusion a bit anti-climatic. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed it and heartily recommend you go and read it. :)

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1 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed on an epic scale!!, 17 Sep 2005
By Christoph Strizik (Sydney) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
After having read Marrow I was ready for the next big Robert Reed novel. However, I got extremely disappointed. I wouldn't say that Robert did any great character development in Marrow but he completely forgot about it in this novel!

Secondly, I clearly remember some Marrow reviewers who didn't like the arguable exaggerated dimensions (e.g. 15000 years later...). I can only recommend those readers to stay away from Sister Alice as far as possible - we are now talking about 'millions of years'. I found the constant exaggeration of space and time dimensions useless and not adding anything to the story.

The antagonists and protagonists in Sister Alice have god-like powers and are capable of performing everything you would imagine from a god. However, they still haven't mastered to fly faster than light which kind of doesn't fit if you read about all their talents and deeds!

The story was incredibly and full of potential, however, the delivery was rushed and also lacking the science part.

I am wondering what Peter F. Hamilton or Alastair Reynolds would have done with such a great plot...

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Incomprehensible
I read "Marrow" and enjoyed it greatly. I read "Down The Bright Way" and it pushed all the right buttons. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2007 by E. W. Collier

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed on an epic scale!!
After having read Marrow I was ready for the next big Robert Reed novel. However, I got extremely disappointed. Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2005 by Christoph Strizik

4.0 out of 5 stars Intresting
Arthur C. Clarke once said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Well this book seems to embrace Clarke's quote whole heartedly. Read more

Published on 17 Aug 2005 by Mr. A. J. D. White

5.0 out of 5 stars awe inspiring
This book is simply breathtaking in its scope and imagination. I was continually amazed by Reed's pace and ability to include so many ideas - ideas which could spawn whole... Read more
Published on 31 May 2003 by Cubeist

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