cybernetics » Cybermage

This is the action packed first book in a new cyber-thriller series, Autumn Rain.

It starts out as one of those super action packed first scenes in a Hollywood Block Buster but here it feels like it never stops. Put a handful major characters, one mega conspiracy or two and the intrigue and mysteries of a Le Carré cold war spy thriller into the mix and splatter it out on a canvas of world-wide insurrection, high technology and dystopian cityscapes and you have a feeling what this book is.

In the 22nd century, the first wonder of a brave new world is the Phoenix Space Elevator, designed to give mankind greater access to the frontier beyond Earth. Cooperatively built by the United States and the Eurasian Coalition, the Elevator is also a grand symbol of superpower alliance following a second cold war. And it’s just been destroyed.

With suspicions rampant, armies and espionage teams are mobilized across the globe and beyond. Enter Claire Haskell and Jason Marlowe, U.S. counterintelligence agents and former lovers—though their memories may only be constructs implanted by their spymaster. Now their agenda is to trust no one. For as the crisis mounts, the lives of all involved will converge in one explosive finale—and a startling aftermath that will rewrite everything they’ve ever known—about their mission, their world, and themselves.

Plot

The terrorist organisation Autumn Rain it trying to destroy the world as we know it, by blowing things up and launching attacks on the super powers that are running the show. Our protagonists are out to stop them. As is to be expected in a spy thriller the plot is not as it appears and the ending is surprising.

The story keep switching between the different characters point of view. At times it can be confusing and a bit frustrating when something is about to happen in one timeline and it switches over to another, fortunatley the chapters are short.

Characterization

Claire Haskel and Jason Marlowe are two of the protagonists. They are teamed up with Jason as the Mech, a heavily armed stealthed battle armor equipped action part of the team, and with Claire as the Razor, an electronic countermeasure offensive, stealth enhancing and information gathering part, that seems to be the standard operative setup. A hacker named Haskel is a nice touch (Haskel is a programming language).

The false memory tread where Marlowe and Haskel discuss that they keep geting false memories downloaded was interesting but confusing. Can they be sure of anything? They used to be lovers, or did they? This is never followed through, or did I miss something?

The heavily modified (cyborg) agent called the Operative is running a deep undercover mission in parallel.

Carson is another agent that is flushed from cover and blackmailed into helping Linehan, an operative on the run from Autumn Rain.

This is a story with many protagonists, or maybe only two? The never ending action makes you not noticing the lack of character depth, much. The voice of the characters are also a bit similar, this can be intended as they all come from the same spy world.

World building

The story begins in 2110. The world is dominated by the second cold war between the US and the Euroasian Coalition, they have divided the world in spheres of influence. Europa, India and Ociania are trying to stay neutral.

The world building is great. David paints a gritty cyberpunky dystopian world that leaps out of the pages and punch the air out of you. It is a complex world that some times takes significant infodumps to explain, but thats okay with me.

The timeline of the world at the end of the book is quite enlightening and I wish I read that before I started with the book. You can also learn more about the world on David’s website www.autumnrain2110.com

My view

Mirrored Heavens is a strong first novel by David J. Williams. He presents a chilly future high-tech world of espionage and double crossing that is more than entertaining, the characters are not very deep and at times the plot might feel a bit over complex at times but so far I like it. I already have volume 2 Burning Skies here waiting. I can recommend it if you like fast paced cyber thrillers.

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There are some great bloggers out there, here are some of them.

io9: Brain-Controlled Devices Work Eerily Well

Annalee Newitz is writing about how well adapted our brains seems to be wired for computer control. They even grow stronger by it!

Three decades ago, William Gibson’s Neuromancer showed us a future where people “jack into” computers by plugging wires into their brains. Today a new study shows that our brains may be perfectly adapted for Gibson’s world.

It’s almost as if our brains are hardwired to control computer devices. A group of physicists, engineers, physiologists, and neurosurgeons at University of Washington discovered that brains hooked up to computers quickly adapt, and even grow stronger. For the study, published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers tested what happened to people who learned to harness the electrical signals in their brains to control a computer cursor.

io9: Stargate’s Latest Alien Characters Revealed: A Villain And A Rebel

I can’t wait until Stargate Universe get back in April, and it seems like we will have interesting adds to the cast. Love it!

We’re eagerly waiting to find out more about the Lucian Alliance on Stargate Universe, since they were the bandits that forced the Destiny crew to flee in the first place. And new casting pages reveal a villain and a rebel.

We uncovered two new character sides for the first episode of the show’s second season. As we learned a while a go with SGU, their casting sides aren’t always 100% guaranteed to be the final script for the episode, and are often changed around to protect plot lines. But there are still some clues in each script.

The Speculative Scotsman: The Speculative Spotlight: An Interview With Alex Bell

At long last, it gives me great pleasure introduce you to The Speculative Spotlight, a semi-regular interview feature that with a little luck, you’ll be seeing a great deal more of here on the blog. It’s been an age in the offing, and I’ve already lined up several incredibly exciting candidates for future installments – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves so soon!

Without any further burbling, then, let’s all gather round and make an effort to keep any whispering to hushed tones while The Speculative Spotlight shines on… Alex Bell.

Geek Twins: Low Space Transmissions Ending SETI’s Mission

Really interesting article that can help with explaining we can’t hear anyone out there.

One of the problems with accurately predicting technology of the future is that it doesn’t exist yet. Obviously. So the tendency is to extrapolate based on existing technology. That’s why sci-fi movies and TV shows in the fifties imagined home computers in the year 2000 as being massive refrigerator-sized boxes. Nobody could imagine that computers could one day be made small enough to fit into a cell phone.

Something similar happened when the SETI project was established. It seemed a simple enough project; Earth generated radio signals with powerful ground-based transmitters that reached into deep space. The theory was that every society similar or more advanced than Earth’s would send out similar radio signals. All we needed to do is scan for those radio signals and we’d find proof of extraterrestrial life.

NextRead: Green Review: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

This book just arrived here, I am really looking forward to read it, so is my son.

Where to start the world building, the myth, the main character, the voice? This has got to be one of the strongest debuts I’ve read for a while.

I tend to lower my expectations and criticisms when reading a debut. It’s generally unfair to pour those kind of things over a novice it only leads to disappointment and frustration but from the from page I was captivated.

Walker of Worlds: Cover Art | Veteran by Gavin Smith (Gollancz)

He inspired me to order it too, so I am waiting too.

Here we go, the final cover for Veteran by Gavin Smith, coming out in June from Gollancz. Compared to the earlier one that has been about on the internet, I think this is ultimately a better and nicer cover. It’s simple and will appeal to more than just the hardcore sci-fi fans that the other would have. Here’s a sci-fi debut that I have high hopes for this year.

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