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Kil'n People
 
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Kil'n People (Paperback)

by David Brin (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Orbit; 1st printing edition (2 May 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841491381
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841491387
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.6 x 4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 940,661 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #40 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > B > Brin, David

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Product Description

Review
Brin ("Foundation's Triumph", 1999, etc.) gives the medieval fable of the golem a thoroughgoing, agreeably tongue-in-cheek revamp. Aeneas Polom invented the process whereby nanoclay is kiln-baked into pseudolife, then imprinted with a human's unique Soul Standing Wave. The resulting golem, or "ditto," has 24 hours to accomplish whatever tasks the original wishes; its memories can then be recovered. Now, Yosil Maharal, a big-shot researcher at Polom's Universal Kilns, has mysteriously disappeared. Gumshoe Albert Morris animates three dittos: two general-purpose grays, one green for dull errand-boy duties. The green, a poor copy, goes "frankie" or independent, preferring to visit the beach rather than do Albert's shopping. Arriving at UK HQ, one gray encounters a Yosil Maharal ditto that claims it's all a mistake-but refuses to be interrogated. Albert's gray follows the Yosil ditto when it sneaks off, only to get zapped. Gray # 2, meanwhile, comes to a sticky end; real Yosil turns up dead, having apparently driven off a cliff. Original Albert investigates, only to be shot at by a Polom ditto. Albert's zapped gray wakes, a captive of the Yosil ditto, and finally gains some inkling of what's going on: Yosil has discovered how to extend a ditto's lifespan, and how to transfer the animating principle from one ditto to another-and even permanently from original to ditto. The Yosil ditto is actually the original in a ditto body! Intricate plotting, unflagging inventiveness, and a judicious sprinkling of puns and in-jokes: Brin keeps the pages feverishly turning and the tone light enough to evade the inherent irrationality of the premise. (Kirkus Reviews)

STARBURST
'The reader can just sit back and enjoy … the twists just keep coming …All in all KIL'N PEOPLE can hold its head high' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Kil'n People 3.9 out of 5 stars (14)
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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
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3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent science fiction, 10 Jan 2002
DAVID BRIN has always had a talent for inventing new twists to familiar science, and in Kiln People he's come up with a cracker.

Bursting with ideas, memorable characters and witty new slang, his novel propels us into a colourful and fully realised future. In it, the technique called "soulistics" makes it possible to imprint a copy of a human soul's "standing wave" into a specially prepared clay duplicate to produce short-lived autonomous copies of the original human. These "dittos" live for just 24 hours. Millions of people lead multiple lives and transfer memories back from their clay selves.

Albert Morris is a private detective who uses dits for his tedious assignments. His latest case begins as a simple ditnapping but soon turns into something far more profound as Albert comes up against not one but three evil geniuses using soulistics for their own ends. The plot makes frequent and knowing use of pulp fiction plot devices, but Brin explores the ramifications of copying human souls into disposable slave bodies. Fun to read and thought-provoking.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Brim full of ideas, but runs out of puff towards the end, 1 Jan 2004
By WJ Davidson (Edinburgh) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Kil'n People (Paperback)
As with many of David Brins works, this novel is set on a highly imaginitive and detailed future. The core concept is that people can make copies of themselves. These copies only last for 1 day and their thoughts and experiences can be 'inloaded' by the real person before the 'dittos' dissolve.
This is a lighthearted piece, but it also makes some interesting philosophical and metaphysical points re the nature of self.

The plot revolves around the investigative work of a private detective and this allows him to both explore and explain the world around him. There are a few plot devices..copies can't make copies; copies are not exact duplicates but can be enhanced or detracted from (for instance to make them more able to study or even to be more obedient)

There is a large touch of the Philip Jose Farmers about the novel though, particularly as the various plot threads come back together for the final denouemen. My main complaint being the levels of deux ex machinery, which I found a little hard to swallow.

In conclusion.
I noticed that one of the other reviewers mentions 'The Practice Effect' and I'd agree that they are similar works. Both start with an interesting premise, but have a relatively slight plot and neither quite live up to what I would regard as the mainstream SF works that DB has written (that is his The Uplift novels).
Worth reading, but not Mr Brins best work.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Great, yet thin, idea that runs out of steam..., 18 Oct 2004
By MrShev "mrshev" (Gloucestershire, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Kil'n People (Paperback)
The premise of this book is great - a society that creates clay avatars that can do your bidding, and in the case of the main character, private investigating. The puns come thick and fast and the there are loads of ideas, some of which are intriguing and downright prophetic...

...but, however great the idea is one feels that Mr Brin has hung the book on that idea and that alone, and although the idea is a strong one the characters and the plot are the puny friends who tag along and are not strong enough to stand up for themselves. I didn't really empathise with anyone nor care what happened to them. One thing that Star Wars taught us is that great science fiction, no matter how good the science is, needs to be great fiction as well.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Dances with golems
In the Morris Dance, raffishly-clad men silently gyrate around a great circle. Their colourful costumes are in stark contrast with their stern expressions as they dance their... Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2004 by Stephen A. Haines

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining
Perhaps the best way to encapsulate Brin's latest book is its own (UK edition) tagline: "A Future Thriller". Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2004 by N. Clarke

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb un-put-downable read!
I dont normally do this but I've just finished this book and have thoroughly enjoyed every word on every page... a truly excellent read. Read more
Published on 6 Aug 2004 by Adam C. Dale

2.0 out of 5 stars Disapointing from Brin
Although a mildly diverting read, this book simply failed to impress due to the inclusion of too many disparate themes (ethics, cloning, nature of god, ludism, tech. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2004 by yobmod

4.0 out of 5 stars Starts Great, Ends Terribly
Cloning is one of the classic themes of science fiction, raising all kinds of philosophical interesting questions about consciousness, ethics, morality, and the nature of reality... Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2003 by A. Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars Kil'n People
This is a well written, highly funny book that made me laugh out loud in places. The multiple dittos were cleverly written to portray the different fascets of society today, and... Read more
Published on 16 Jul 2003 by vikkiphillips

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably Brin's best book so far
I really, really like The Practice effect, but since reading Kil'n people I've had a hard time deciding which is better. Read more
Published on 16 Jun 2003 by athaclena

5.0 out of 5 stars Science finction at its best
I doesn't get much better than this -- an outstanding book. Brin takes a complicated story with a bewildering array of characters and produces a highly readable and entertaining... Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2003 by Mr. M. Wilson

3.0 out of 5 stars Feats of clay.
A futuristic fantasy with as much swash-buckling derring-do as any medieval romance, Kiln People features an intriguing mix of real humans and their clay dittos (or golems),... Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2003 by Mary Whipple

3.0 out of 5 stars Xerox Plus
There have only been a few serious attempts to meld the crime/detective genre with hard-core science fiction, of which Asimov's and Bester's works are probably the most well... Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2002 by Patrick Shepherd

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