Emergence

by Ray Hammond

Imagine a near-future world where one giant corporation has become so influential that no single government dare oppose it -- not even the mighty USA. A company so powerful that it can establish an independent country to serve as its unassailable headquarters. That company is Tycom, and its founder - Thomas Tye - has made it his evangelical mission to save the Earth from ecological ruin. Already the orbital installations that can manipulate this battered planet's climate are near completion -- while the military backing of an erstwhile superpower is guaranteed. But Tom Tye's seeming altruism carries a price that the rest of the developed world is no longer prepared to pay.

"Emergence" is the dramatic and multi-layered story of a hydra-headed fight against Tycom and its despotic master. But will our planet be a better place without him?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

597 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Luke Burrage]

Clearing out my "currently reading" shelf of books that I abandoned. This was a second reading. It was only starting reading it again in 2012 that I realised how much this book influenced my own fiction, especially the tech and themes in Minding Tomorrow. The second reading felt like reading the results of a self-experiment, where laid bare is all the things you think aren't original but constructed from subconscious thought, but instead says "yeah, you just read that all in a book eight years before writing your own novel, but forgot about it."

[Marney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Painfully slow, unnecessarily long and needs to be read with a dictionary close at hand. It would not surprise me if I learned that the author had a checklist of the most obscure and least used words in the English language and a personal mission to include them all in this text. The pacing and content of the final chapter was very much out of step with the rest of the book. I did not enjoy this book, which was unexpected as I really liked the two others I have read from this author. Two stars for the skeleton of a decent story buried deep, deep within.

[Geoff Battle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emergence is almost the biography of (the fictional) world's richest man. Thomas Tye heads a corporation so large it has soverignship of an island, has purchased the world's finest minds and is accountable to noone. Emergence follows multiple strands of scientific development and their effects upon Earth and its people, for the better or the worse. The science developed is near future and Emergence's success lies in the credibility of its science fiction. Hammond creates a dazzling vision of the future - with tantalizing forethought. However, what happens when one man owns it all? Emergence, although lengthy, will create an answer that you may or may not like - read it and find out. Fascinating fiction.

[Peter]

This is not actually supposed to be a Fictional Book: The Book was actually written as a prediction for the future by World Famous Futurologist, Ray Hammond! This guy has lectured to employee's of the most famous companies round the world including IBM, Microsoft, Coke and Apple. This book was originally about Bill Gates, if you've read it then you'll see that im correct!

[Susann Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Loved the plot. Loved the characters. Loved the science. It had everything I could ask for in a good read.....and more. Just bought another book by Ray Hammond.

[Phil Polich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good story that will hold your interest

This is an interesting look into the future. It points out how much a runaway corporate behemoth can damage society .

[Paul Bellamy]

I honestly wish I could give this book negative stars, it's that bad. Not just bad but mind blowingly, unbelievably, irredeemably awful. No doubt Ray Hammond can write - and he reminds everyone of this now and again by dropping in ridiculously obscure words when a perfectly ordinary one will do - but he really blew almost every rule of writing clear out of the water with this waste of trees and ink. There's nothing wrong with breaking rules if you end up with a good story; sadly, that didn't happen here. Shoddy writing, poorly defined and improbable characters, shaky plot and a terrible ending.

This is SF for people who don't like SF, or more correctly, don't want anyone to know they read SF. Not only that, it's extremely badly done. It's difficult to describe the faults in this book without spoilers but I'll give it a shot. For one, there are glaring scientific inaccuracies in here, as distinct from imaginative speculation about possible future technology. Hammond has completely misunderstood how lasers work, and how they look from a distance, which undermines the scenes where people are looking up from Earth into the sky.

There's a subplot about the antagonist's gender identity that goes absolutely nowhere, contributes nothing to the story and provides nothing other than pages of tedious filler. The "Emergence" of the title refers to an extremely powerful computer network gradually developing intelligence and consciousness. It's woefully under used, and ultimately goes nowhere, possibly because Hammond felt he was straying too far into real SF territory and didn't have the guts to see it through.

The antagonist him/herself is an amalgam of almost every uber capitalist of recent times, a kind of souped up Bezos/Zuckerberg with a dollop of Trump's germ-o-phobia thrown in for good measure.

Oh, there's a clone, too. Again, this is yet another subplot that does little or nothing, apart from give the protagonist something else to do when she's not wasting time elsewhere.

The ending is completely unsatisfying, rushed and wrapped up by a Deus Ex US Armed Forces.

Do yourself a favour and avoid this book at all costs.

[Rob Morton · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Really Happened Here?

First, this book contains a level of vocabulary that I’ve not seen since my college days, words that I had to look up because I’d never seen them... anywhere until I read this book.

Next, what really happened? Was this a book about an out of control corporation bent on taking over the world (and in some very inventive ways) or was this a book about an AI that showed up and ready to get rid of its human creators? Was this a book about a megalomaniacal leader of the aforementioned corporation and his special brand of insanity - being born male but gender reassigned as female - and now, as at least chemically male - he’s seeking revenge of some kind?

I really don’t know. I kept waiting for something to happen and while some things did, maybe it’s me but everything seemed to not be all that connected. So it’s corporate behaviors gone wild, technology that has somehow turned into a life-ending menace and the emergence of a nascent intelligent as seen in the person of... a caterpillar named Jed.

I don’t know what really happened but, sure, read this book and and see if you know what really happened here...

[Jeffrey Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm ambivalent

There are some good things about this book, there is plenty of science and technology extrapolated out 10 - 20 years; and the extrapolations seem reasonable.

However, there are many annoying things as well. The book is too long, with too many characters and too many subplots, which are clumsily tied together. Mr. H needs a better editor, badly. Also the gratuitous use of archaic English terms that almost no one will recognize seems an attempt to impress the reader, rather than get ideas across. Parsimony is also an old English term!

[BobP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confusing

I really wanted to like this story... the author is very gifted with description, and had very clever ideas. There were so many ideas that were undeveloped, and the primary point of the story was obfuscated by the meaningless details. I usually rush forward toward the end of a story because of anticipation of understanding a central point... but in this case I was just trying to get to the end to finish a tale that was unsatisfying. I hate to pan this author.. obviously very talented, but editor failed in making this a great read.

[Nicole Hardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-researched, intriguing, and frighteningly believable!

Ray Hammond gives the reader enough information to understand the possibilities and problems of the various innovations and fields of development without the book becoming a scientific paper.

Characters and locations were well drawn. The near-future technology was fascinating and plausible. I particularly enjoyed Ray Hammond's fearless and effective use of language, technical and otherwise.

I would certainly recommend this book and am looking forward to reading more by this author.

[Linda Burchfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

To many descriptive and informational words.

I'm not a college scholar so when there are to many descriptive and informational words I tend to get bored. I'm a slow reader as it is so when I get bored it makes me read a lot slower. The last chapter was a good chapter kept me on my toes. The only thing that kinda turned me away from the book was how fast the story ended. It was just getting interesting! I have it 4 stars because it was an ok book.

[R. Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely excellent!

I enjoyed this novel much more than I expected. The human drama, characters backstories, action and the incredible leaps in the sciences by a society in an information age all come together to make this a great novel. I will definitely read this author's other work.

[Jonna Bobyarchick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agonizing laborious Emergence

More potent than Melatonin and Benadryl combined! Character development was tedious . Unbelievable and hardly qualifying as a page turner thriller. The abrupt ending was a relief!

[Mark Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good read, just a bit disappointed with how it ended. It was a bit too close to American cliche. But don’t let that stop you. Well worth the read!

[Margo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vocabulary Expansion??

A warning and a prediction! A glimpse of what could happen both good and bad if there were no secrets and unlimited money to tackle world problems.

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

How easy it would be for the reliance the world has on technology to be manipulated by one man or one corporation and what disaster would occur should that technology fail

[Ralph Mason]

Good ideas nicely written. SiFi ideas are awesome. Just too long for the amount of story. London by Edward Rutherford is a heck of a read but took me less time. Just so sloooooow. I like a page turner and that can be regardless of length. Crop it by 50% and you have a great book.