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Seeds Of Change
[Back Cover]
"The Denver Citiplex that evolves over the next two centuries, while technologically a masterpiece, is a living hell for those whom computer analysis labels potential deviants from the genetically controlled social norms. In his frantic effort to escape the fate of all such deviants, Eric Stone and his beautiful girlfriend, Jessica, manage to reach an underground colony living in the wastelands outside the city. It appears that not everyone loves the Citiplex, but only the arrival of a small colony of earthling survivors from Mars enables the dissidents to hope they may make some changes. But it is only a hope."
"The Denver Citiplex that evolves over the next two centuries, while technologically a masterpiece, is a living hell for those whom computer analysis labels potential deviants from the genetically controlled social norms. In his frantic effort to escape the fate of all such deviants, Eric Stone and his beautiful girlfriend, Jessica, manage to reach an underground colony living in the wastelands outside the city. It appears that not everyone loves the Citiplex, but only the arrival of a small colony of earthling survivors from Mars enables the dissidents to hope they may make some changes. But it is only a hope."
190 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 20, 2020
Back in the day, 1975, this was the book that everyone had. The thing was ubiquitous. It was printed to promote and introduce a new line of science fiction novels, Laser Books, and it was never sold anywhere; they gave it away to promote the new imprint, so everyone got a copy. Laser Books were edited by Roger Elwood (-heavily- edited by Elwood to all accounts), and they were printed with Kelly Freas covers and were designed to look alike. They were all about the same length and were numbered to make the reader think they had to have a complete set. Laser was a division of Harlequin, and they applied the same formulae that made their romance books such a big success. It was less successful in the science fiction genre, but Laser nonetheless had some terrific books (among a number of duds, to be fair) to their credit: Tim Powers' first two books, for example, came from Laser, as well as quite a few others of note. Seeds of Change is a good old-fashioned science fiction adventure, and served as a good introduction to the line. It's a slickly-written, straight-forward story with interesting characters and situations; not deep or introspective, but a very good light entertainment... which is exactly what they were going for. Monteleone was a good choice to showcase their new line.
February 28, 2019
Pretty typical of the time (mid 1970s), rather flat characters & a 2D world. It moved quickly & seemed to have a bit of everything: apocalyptic Earth, resistance group, Mars colony, aliens, war machines, romance, & more. It's all tossed together into a very fast adventure.
There are a few interesting items like a computer worm; not just a virus, but a worm that would infect various sectors of the computer. The first real computer virus hit boot sectors in 1986 & the first worm was a couple of years later. Most interesting is what the computer is doing. It's watching citizens as it handles all financial transactions, transportation, & such. One of the main characters has a job looking for anomalies in their actions & flagging those who need to be removed since they might cause civil disruption. Not the first time this has been done, but it was well handled technically.
There were some other good ideas that were just mentioned. One was the timelessness of the city. It had no past or future, just the now. The MC was really awed by reading an old book. Women had a more equal role. The end was really well done. One part was pretty horrific if a bit more time & depth had been devoted to it. As it was, it still made itself felt as did the very last scene.
All in all, it was a good read. Makes me understand why novels have gotten longer, though. 3.5 stars & I'm rounding up to 4 because I recommend it.
There are a few interesting items like a computer worm; not just a virus, but a worm that would infect various sectors of the computer. The first real computer virus hit boot sectors in 1986 & the first worm was a couple of years later. Most interesting is what the computer is doing. It's watching citizens as it handles all financial transactions, transportation, & such. One of the main characters has a job looking for anomalies in their actions & flagging those who need to be removed since they might cause civil disruption. Not the first time this has been done, but it was well handled technically.
There were some other good ideas that were just mentioned. One was the timelessness of the city. It had no past or future, just the now. The MC was really awed by reading an old book. Women had a more equal role. The end was really well done. One part was pretty horrific if a bit more time & depth had been devoted to it. As it was, it still made itself felt as did the very last scene.
All in all, it was a good read. Makes me understand why novels have gotten longer, though. 3.5 stars & I'm rounding up to 4 because I recommend it.
November 26, 2015
I quit after Chapter 4, here's my experience and notes from the first few chapters, followed by some history and my verdict on the book:
1. Read the 1st Chapter (11 pages in...). Do not appreciate the verbiage. Can NOT visualize the characters, with the generic and long-winded descriptions. This may become the worst book I've ever read...
2. Finished chapter 2---just plain dreadful. Bad writing, confused events, bad time continuity, for no reason thoughts and attitudes change, bad, bad, bad character development. I may be forced to actually stop reading soon, although initially I was determined to read the whole way through. Hmm..
3. Quick update: I couldn't resist continuing on immediately after the last update from a few minutes ago. I think I have reached a second wind and revelation about the book.
The first few pages of the third chapter alone almost perfectly encapsulate how wrong this book is: bad grammar again, confused writing, and maybe, high comedy and satire of the act of writing or, better, novelization itself.
This last point is begging me to read further now.
Story Progress: At the start of Chapter 3, we learn that the initial main character Eric Stone is quite a vain and strange guy, who loves his own hunky looks (him with his long, sandy hair).
What would you do as a young, hot-blooded heterosexual male who grabs a drink at a Denver Cityplex after a hard day of work at the Main Data Bank to find yourself sitting opposite a beautiful woman with 'pouty, full lips revealing a hint of sensuality that lay hidden in them' and who 'tosses her mane of sparkling curls away from her face' in order to express her interest and stare at you?
Run, Damn it! Paranoia sets in...Then?
I'm starting not to wince at every word, but instead cherish the absurdness and horrid wordplay of it all. With a necessary, strong sense of humor, this could be readable to the end?
4. Sadly, I finish Chapter 3 and start into Chapter 4. My hopes for the book are dashed. Shortly into Chapter 4, I see where the book may be going, cheat and skim ahead. It's all too much. The verbiage while funny after a while, a short while, just loses its humorous appeal. It becomes all too much. I'm drained.
History: This is the first of the Laser Books, a series edited by Roger Elwwod and produced by the Canadian Romance book publishing outfit Harlequin Enterprises. The story of legend goes,
"Laser’s plan was to ‘flood the market with cheap SF, just like they had with romance novels’. In pursuit of that blasphemous goal, Laser shipped boatloads of cartons of their first book - S.O.C. - to conventions all across the country.
File 770 then - and here is where it gets really intriguing - relates a tale of the book being read out loud, with each page ripped out after it had been read. Mike says that Alan Chudnow claims this activity occurred at the Equicon con, while Glyer remembers it has having taken place at the NASFiC that same year.
Hmmmm. Very, very interesting, cause I didn’t get to Equicon or the NASFiC that year - but I remember this same thing happening as well.
Could it be that SOMEONE ELSE had been coordinating mass book rippings at conventions all across the country? There are only two possible explanations: either S.O.C. and the Laser Books concept were so god-awfully heinous that they engendered instantaneous and universal contempt amongst each and every last fan in the nation - or someone was running an op designed to kill Laser."
[Quote Sources: 1.http://crotchetyoldfan.wordpress.com/... 2.http://file770.com/?p=503]
My verdict: No Conspiracy! I can definitely imagine, some guy on a balcony at a convention, reading from the first chapters and literally and figuratively tearing this book to shreds. I don't ever condone the destruction of books, even bad ones, especially horrible ones with great cover art (by Kelly Freas) and collectability such as Seeds of Change. This is certainly a -limited- collector's edition, and one that I will treasure and attempt to read in the future for kicks and to see how far I can make it through. 1/5.
1. Read the 1st Chapter (11 pages in...). Do not appreciate the verbiage. Can NOT visualize the characters, with the generic and long-winded descriptions. This may become the worst book I've ever read...
2. Finished chapter 2---just plain dreadful. Bad writing, confused events, bad time continuity, for no reason thoughts and attitudes change, bad, bad, bad character development. I may be forced to actually stop reading soon, although initially I was determined to read the whole way through. Hmm..
3. Quick update: I couldn't resist continuing on immediately after the last update from a few minutes ago. I think I have reached a second wind and revelation about the book.
The first few pages of the third chapter alone almost perfectly encapsulate how wrong this book is: bad grammar again, confused writing, and maybe, high comedy and satire of the act of writing or, better, novelization itself.
This last point is begging me to read further now.
Story Progress: At the start of Chapter 3, we learn that the initial main character Eric Stone is quite a vain and strange guy, who loves his own hunky looks (him with his long, sandy hair).
What would you do as a young, hot-blooded heterosexual male who grabs a drink at a Denver Cityplex after a hard day of work at the Main Data Bank to find yourself sitting opposite a beautiful woman with 'pouty, full lips revealing a hint of sensuality that lay hidden in them' and who 'tosses her mane of sparkling curls away from her face' in order to express her interest and stare at you?
Run, Damn it! Paranoia sets in...Then?
I'm starting not to wince at every word, but instead cherish the absurdness and horrid wordplay of it all. With a necessary, strong sense of humor, this could be readable to the end?
4. Sadly, I finish Chapter 3 and start into Chapter 4. My hopes for the book are dashed. Shortly into Chapter 4, I see where the book may be going, cheat and skim ahead. It's all too much. The verbiage while funny after a while, a short while, just loses its humorous appeal. It becomes all too much. I'm drained.
History: This is the first of the Laser Books, a series edited by Roger Elwwod and produced by the Canadian Romance book publishing outfit Harlequin Enterprises. The story of legend goes,
"Laser’s plan was to ‘flood the market with cheap SF, just like they had with romance novels’. In pursuit of that blasphemous goal, Laser shipped boatloads of cartons of their first book - S.O.C. - to conventions all across the country.
File 770 then - and here is where it gets really intriguing - relates a tale of the book being read out loud, with each page ripped out after it had been read. Mike says that Alan Chudnow claims this activity occurred at the Equicon con, while Glyer remembers it has having taken place at the NASFiC that same year.
Hmmmm. Very, very interesting, cause I didn’t get to Equicon or the NASFiC that year - but I remember this same thing happening as well.
Could it be that SOMEONE ELSE had been coordinating mass book rippings at conventions all across the country? There are only two possible explanations: either S.O.C. and the Laser Books concept were so god-awfully heinous that they engendered instantaneous and universal contempt amongst each and every last fan in the nation - or someone was running an op designed to kill Laser."
[Quote Sources: 1.http://crotchetyoldfan.wordpress.com/... 2.http://file770.com/?p=503]
My verdict: No Conspiracy! I can definitely imagine, some guy on a balcony at a convention, reading from the first chapters and literally and figuratively tearing this book to shreds. I don't ever condone the destruction of books, even bad ones, especially horrible ones with great cover art (by Kelly Freas) and collectability such as Seeds of Change. This is certainly a -limited- collector's edition, and one that I will treasure and attempt to read in the future for kicks and to see how far I can make it through. 1/5.
March 4, 2019
This book is enjoyable despite its confounding lack of Yul Brynner.
November 3, 2022
A friend gave me this book a few years ago (as a joke) because they knew I liked retro scifi stuff. It sat on my shelf for several years and I never had much intention of reading it, but my son dared me to try it out. I had low expectations but was pleasantly surprised, thus my inflated rating.
First, I did a little reseach on the publisher. And found that laser books was a subscription line that would send three of these short 60k worded books out each month for a few years. Each book was a stand alone, and seeds a change was book zero. It was never sold, but was the promotional novel to display the subscription.
Knowing the authors had to work with with this specific guideline gave me more respect for this book. It's well written, it's concise, and the author describes action sequences remarkably well. I enjoyed that the main characters were not "badass" stereotypes and were basically along for the ride, instead of driving the plot them selves.
Though the book was intended to be short, it suffered in its lack of purpose. As others had mentioned, the alien technology turned out not to mean anything other than being a super weapon. I was hoping to revisit the unlocking of chambers and hoped finding an alternative to war would somehow tie in to that. But nope, vaporized the enemy!
The author builds the tension very well, all the main characters meet and kind of silently agree that nuking a city of innocent people with alien tech is probably morally detestable. Yet, they go about it anyway being none the better for their genocidal tactics. I thought this was odd, as the entire book lead you to believe that this was ideally a preventable outcome and maybe the alien tech could be used to win a different way.
The author cheats the main characters out of the burden of their choices by making the society in the dome, go by way of robot suicide. But eh. I feel the author was on to something excellent, and kinda worked his way back to something simpler.
It was a fun read though! And I'll keep my eye out for other works by this author, as it appears he went on to write many more books.
First, I did a little reseach on the publisher. And found that laser books was a subscription line that would send three of these short 60k worded books out each month for a few years. Each book was a stand alone, and seeds a change was book zero. It was never sold, but was the promotional novel to display the subscription.
Knowing the authors had to work with with this specific guideline gave me more respect for this book. It's well written, it's concise, and the author describes action sequences remarkably well. I enjoyed that the main characters were not "badass" stereotypes and were basically along for the ride, instead of driving the plot them selves.
Though the book was intended to be short, it suffered in its lack of purpose. As others had mentioned, the alien technology turned out not to mean anything other than being a super weapon. I was hoping to revisit the unlocking of chambers and hoped finding an alternative to war would somehow tie in to that. But nope, vaporized the enemy!
The author builds the tension very well, all the main characters meet and kind of silently agree that nuking a city of innocent people with alien tech is probably morally detestable. Yet, they go about it anyway being none the better for their genocidal tactics. I thought this was odd, as the entire book lead you to believe that this was ideally a preventable outcome and maybe the alien tech could be used to win a different way.
The author cheats the main characters out of the burden of their choices by making the society in the dome, go by way of robot suicide. But eh. I feel the author was on to something excellent, and kinda worked his way back to something simpler.
It was a fun read though! And I'll keep my eye out for other works by this author, as it appears he went on to write many more books.
September 13, 2023
It's sometimes interesting to revisit books read long ago, and I think my memories of the Laser Books series reflected the fun of a quick read and looking forward to each new batch as released with new Kelly Freas covers. Many of the authors were already known for short stories (like Monteleone) and went on to much better works, but the Laser Books suffered from editorial constraints coupled with slapdash editing often without authorial input. While dated they remain a fun quick read, but don't go into them with high expectations or consider any edition representative of the author's other works.
December 8, 2022
Just gonna say, this exceeded expectations a little since I knew this was a product of a pulp fiction mill, and that mill was operated by none other than Harlequin Publishing in an odd bid to diversify from being strictly romance genre. One of the common complaints from authors publishing through Laser Books was the degree of editorial interference, so my sights were set pretty low on this one.
Now one of the oddities of this book, given it's origins, is just how awful the romance angle is in this book. Like most Sci-Fi novels of the 1970s, a love interest was absolutely required so that there could be at least one detailed sex scene. However, because action was the real heart of the story, writing an effective romance was never part of the skill set expected of Sci-Fi authors. This is why Sci-Fi novels of the period so uniformly describe a world of casual sex being the norm. Aside from the wish fulfillment angle, it's also easier to write a relationship that starts as futuristic casual coupling morphing into something we would recognize as a committed relationship. But here, Monteleone throws us such a sparsely furnished relationship it comes off even stranger than the starting point in the hookup culture of the city dome. There is this scene where Jessica just says, well you might as well move in with me since my society considers us married. And that's the romantic high point of the book. The one possible exception is the blistering heat of the two Martian lovers. I mean she cried when he went away. whew.
Another oddity is the static asymmetric technology in this fight against the Denver dystopia. To take down the robot tanks and cyborgs the rebellion uses bazookas. To combat laser armed flying craft the rebellion uses bullets. Since the Sierra has successfully infiltrated the cityplex on all levels one would expect that acquiring weapons knowledge would be a priority second only to recruitment. But nope, 500 years of fighting and they are still WWII grunts fighting against the Galactic Empire from Star Wars.
However, oddest of all is the bizarre sequence where the Martians get their guns. It almost seemed like someone ordered a fully armed warship from Amazon Space Prime, and boom, space ship delivered in time for Christmas.
Anyway, it's a good if improbable yarn and has a rather sloppy conclusion that resolves not much.
Now one of the oddities of this book, given it's origins, is just how awful the romance angle is in this book. Like most Sci-Fi novels of the 1970s, a love interest was absolutely required so that there could be at least one detailed sex scene. However, because action was the real heart of the story, writing an effective romance was never part of the skill set expected of Sci-Fi authors. This is why Sci-Fi novels of the period so uniformly describe a world of casual sex being the norm. Aside from the wish fulfillment angle, it's also easier to write a relationship that starts as futuristic casual coupling morphing into something we would recognize as a committed relationship. But here, Monteleone throws us such a sparsely furnished relationship it comes off even stranger than the starting point in the hookup culture of the city dome. There is this scene where Jessica just says, well you might as well move in with me since my society considers us married. And that's the romantic high point of the book. The one possible exception is the blistering heat of the two Martian lovers. I mean she cried when he went away. whew.
Another oddity is the static asymmetric technology in this fight against the Denver dystopia. To take down the robot tanks and cyborgs the rebellion uses bazookas. To combat laser armed flying craft the rebellion uses bullets. Since the Sierra has successfully infiltrated the cityplex on all levels one would expect that acquiring weapons knowledge would be a priority second only to recruitment. But nope, 500 years of fighting and they are still WWII grunts fighting against the Galactic Empire from Star Wars.
However, oddest of all is the bizarre sequence where the Martians get their guns. It almost seemed like someone ordered a fully armed warship from Amazon Space Prime, and boom, space ship delivered in time for Christmas.
Anyway, it's a good if improbable yarn and has a rather sloppy conclusion that resolves not much.
March 31, 2021
This is a good book. Not great. A lot of it feels like a first novel (and I suspect it is), so I'm giving it more leeway than I ordinarily would.
(What I don't give any leeway to are the multiple typos. I'm certain that they were the publisher's fault. Monteleone is a highly educated man and would never have let any of those slip by on his watch.)
This is another book about Monteleone's futuristic cityscapes. This is probably the first one, since humans are still more or less in charge of things. I'm not sure I enjoyed much the process of explaining how the other books got to be that way. I liked the later stories a lot more. But the protagonist is a man named Stone, and it's his job to single out potential troublemakers using Denver's algorithm. His story essentially follows the old standard: man works under a certain illusion, man gets lured out of the illusion by a beautiful woman, man comes to know the truth about how the world really is, man hides out with the other revolutionaries, man vows to take down the illusion he's been freed from. It's an oldie but a goodie, as they probably don't say anymore. If you don't think such a story is effective, you might benefit from a rewatch of that first Matrix movie.
But since it's an oldie, it didn't have much to offer me. Thankfully there's a B story involving Yuri and a bunch of other humans who have colonized Mars but don't have the ability to go back home. One day an alien ship arrives, and it opens them up to new possibilities. I liked this part a lot more, and I found Yuri to be a much more engaging character than Stone. It's a shame that Yuri falls apart a little bit near the end, but I can live with that.
All in all I recommend this book. It's a neat little piece to the bigger story of the cityscapes Monteleone used to write about back then.
(What I don't give any leeway to are the multiple typos. I'm certain that they were the publisher's fault. Monteleone is a highly educated man and would never have let any of those slip by on his watch.)
This is another book about Monteleone's futuristic cityscapes. This is probably the first one, since humans are still more or less in charge of things. I'm not sure I enjoyed much the process of explaining how the other books got to be that way. I liked the later stories a lot more. But the protagonist is a man named Stone, and it's his job to single out potential troublemakers using Denver's algorithm. His story essentially follows the old standard: man works under a certain illusion, man gets lured out of the illusion by a beautiful woman, man comes to know the truth about how the world really is, man hides out with the other revolutionaries, man vows to take down the illusion he's been freed from. It's an oldie but a goodie, as they probably don't say anymore. If you don't think such a story is effective, you might benefit from a rewatch of that first Matrix movie.
But since it's an oldie, it didn't have much to offer me. Thankfully there's a B story involving Yuri and a bunch of other humans who have colonized Mars but don't have the ability to go back home. One day an alien ship arrives, and it opens them up to new possibilities. I liked this part a lot more, and I found Yuri to be a much more engaging character than Stone. It's a shame that Yuri falls apart a little bit near the end, but I can live with that.
All in all I recommend this book. It's a neat little piece to the bigger story of the cityscapes Monteleone used to write about back then.
December 22, 2020
It's pretty cool to have an unknown alien race, low-key deposit a fully functional, heavily armed, teach-you-everything-you-need-to-know spaceship right outside your Martian outpost. Who cares why the aliens did that, or why they came, or why they left without saying a word? Not this guy.
You know what else is cool? Good looking rebels, that's what. Lastly, everyone knows that military equipment, if left in the desert for like, 500 or so years, will somehow be "preserved" by the "dry climate" and start right up. Also, 1000 year old gas is no problem. Remind me to tell my mechanic that when he yells at me for not using my car for a few months during a pandemic because "the gas will go bad."
You know you've got a winner when the last line is the titular line of the book.
Wow.
You know what else is cool? Good looking rebels, that's what. Lastly, everyone knows that military equipment, if left in the desert for like, 500 or so years, will somehow be "preserved" by the "dry climate" and start right up. Also, 1000 year old gas is no problem. Remind me to tell my mechanic that when he yells at me for not using my car for a few months during a pandemic because "the gas will go bad."
You know you've got a winner when the last line is the titular line of the book.
Wow.
December 18, 2025
This novel feels like two separate novellas stitched together. Each has very different tones and themes and neither has anything to do with the other until the final pages. On the one hand, you have a story that reads like a knockoff of Logan's Run, and on the other, a tale of first contact with an interesting premise which could be its own thing, but sadly is bolted to, and made worse by, the former. Overall, there's a lack of cohesion and little that stands out apart from one or two moments. I'd recommend reading Logan's Run or Contact if you want the same sci-fi hits this book's trying to give.
April 20, 2022
typical generic and wooden 70’s sci fi nothing really interesting going on
October 15, 2014
Earth has deteriorated to a few city complexes where people are genetically controlled with everything else wasteland. Eric Stone and his girlfriend reach an underground free colony where they join in the fight against the city-plexes.
March 2, 2015
This book was kind of a wreck. But an amusing one because everything was so ridiculous to the point that it became fun. And there were some good things hidden in there. The perfect mindless read for while I'm sick.
December 11, 2011
A good story in it's time!
April 20, 2016
Characters are quite shallow, and I never really felt I was a part of the story.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews