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Human
December 18, 2011
Elijah Smith's mind has been replaced, piece-by-piece, with virtual counterparts. His transformation thrusts his survivors into a maelstrom of violence, danger, and intrigue. Only Smith has the power to save them -- provided that he is still human.
Mankind has been merging with his technology since the first time a caveman picked up a walking stick. We easily accept the fact that eyeglasses, pacemakers, and prosthetic limbs improve or replace human biology. Soon we will have to accept the fact that the human mind can also be improved or replaced by the addition of technological components.
HUMAN combines elements of a spy thriller with a cautionary tale about man's quest to use technology to escape death. The heart-racing climax leads to a haunting conclusion will make you question everything you think you know about what it actually means to be human.
Elijah Smith's mind has been replaced, piece-by-piece, with virtual counterparts. His transformation thrusts his survivors into a maelstrom of violence, danger, and intrigue. Only Smith has the power to save them -- provided that he is still human.
Mankind has been merging with his technology since the first time a caveman picked up a walking stick. We easily accept the fact that eyeglasses, pacemakers, and prosthetic limbs improve or replace human biology. Soon we will have to accept the fact that the human mind can also be improved or replaced by the addition of technological components.
HUMAN combines elements of a spy thriller with a cautionary tale about man's quest to use technology to escape death. The heart-racing climax leads to a haunting conclusion will make you question everything you think you know about what it actually means to be human.
- GenresScience Fiction
346 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 18, 2011
24 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 12, 2019
At first I thought this book was going to be all about science. It was a slow start but it did pick up and get better. Dr. Byran lost his wife and child in a car crash. He's been trying to figure out a way to preserve the human brain. His friend Elijah "Elly" Smith was dying. In Dr Byran's studies he came across a Russian experiment of the same research. Though they used a brain that has already been classified as dead he was able to obtain that research and perfect it by using it on Elly Smith. In the end Smith was uploaded into a computer. The big question, is he still human? Does he still have a soul? Does he still understand right from wrong? Can he still "feel"? Those questions are answered when Smith's family and friends are put in danger.
September 2, 2012
I really liked the way this started off: it was an interesting story about what happens if you try to extend human life through computers, and what it actually means to be human. It's a subject that fascinates me: I'm sure that the question of artificial intelligence is something we will have to grapple with in my lifetime. When I first started thinking about these kind of things thirty-odd years ago, reading authors like Bruce Sterling and books like The Cybernetic Samurai, the Net didn't really exist; now, AIs have a whole new dimension to explore - they're potentially no longer limited to just one machine. They can be everywhere, infiltrate anything, and can operate millions of times faster than any human.
However, the story rapidly got taken over by a far-fetched and somewhat silly post Cold War thriller plot about secret agents, covert government organizations, nuclear weapons, and so on. (Okay, so "far-fetched" is an odd word to use in sci-fi, but to me, it just lacked credibility.) As the story progressed, I found myself less and less interested - I wanted to read about the AI, not a standard shoot'em-up with a twist.
The book also needs an editor. It's full of awkward sentences, bad punctuation and grammar, and it just doesn't flow well at times. I was particularly irritated by the fact that the (male) Russian villain had a feminine name, which just felt sloppy.
At first, I was expecting this to be a 4-star book, which could have been comparable to Heinlein's classic 1970 novel I Will Fear No Evil but the plot and the editing let it down badly. It was okay as a free read, but it could have been so much better.
However, the story rapidly got taken over by a far-fetched and somewhat silly post Cold War thriller plot about secret agents, covert government organizations, nuclear weapons, and so on. (Okay, so "far-fetched" is an odd word to use in sci-fi, but to me, it just lacked credibility.) As the story progressed, I found myself less and less interested - I wanted to read about the AI, not a standard shoot'em-up with a twist.
The book also needs an editor. It's full of awkward sentences, bad punctuation and grammar, and it just doesn't flow well at times. I was particularly irritated by the fact that the (male) Russian villain had a feminine name, which just felt sloppy.
At first, I was expecting this to be a 4-star book, which could have been comparable to Heinlein's classic 1970 novel I Will Fear No Evil but the plot and the editing let it down badly. It was okay as a free read, but it could have been so much better.
August 7, 2014
A slog. Not looked over by a professional editor. Typos I can look past; bad writing bores me.
Most of the story is written as summary and points of view shift from paragraph to paragraph. Essentially, it's an omnipotent narrator, but since no reader has accepted an omnipotent narrator in a century or so, the author tries to keep the point of view close to one character at a time. It's mostly a very limited third person, unless the author wants to get some information across to the reader, then he cheats and just narrates knowledge that the character we're with can't know. Like I said, the view shifts between paragraphs at times, which violates any sort of reader contract, plus, is jarring and confusing. Also, it's cheating.
There is another character, far removed from the main ones, who has a point of view. When we switch to him, it's obvious. There's a line break and an obvious change in voice. That's the right way to do POV shifts.
And please don't tell me that two characters, people I don't know at all because all I know about them is given to me in summary, are madly in love. I won't care. Show me that they are in love. I might even see it before they do. When you tell me two people are in love and then make their situation tragic, I don't feel like anything real is at stake.
The idea is interesting and the science is nifty. I'm a biologist, so I know it's not particularly accurate, but that's okay in fiction. I want to explore the idea behind the "what if" more than the "how to."
Most of the story is written as summary and points of view shift from paragraph to paragraph. Essentially, it's an omnipotent narrator, but since no reader has accepted an omnipotent narrator in a century or so, the author tries to keep the point of view close to one character at a time. It's mostly a very limited third person, unless the author wants to get some information across to the reader, then he cheats and just narrates knowledge that the character we're with can't know. Like I said, the view shifts between paragraphs at times, which violates any sort of reader contract, plus, is jarring and confusing. Also, it's cheating.
There is another character, far removed from the main ones, who has a point of view. When we switch to him, it's obvious. There's a line break and an obvious change in voice. That's the right way to do POV shifts.
And please don't tell me that two characters, people I don't know at all because all I know about them is given to me in summary, are madly in love. I won't care. Show me that they are in love. I might even see it before they do. When you tell me two people are in love and then make their situation tragic, I don't feel like anything real is at stake.
The idea is interesting and the science is nifty. I'm a biologist, so I know it's not particularly accurate, but that's okay in fiction. I want to explore the idea behind the "what if" more than the "how to."
September 14, 2012
I enjoyed the novel and to a degree it was a button pusher (I have a Kindle so I no longer turn pages). But there were problems. For one thing, the author does not understand some of the science behind the fiction very well. For example with the early stage of creating the AI simulating a bird a brain pattern emerges that is eventually played on a sound system and the sound that is formed is a chirp. That is the eureka moment for the initial development of the AI. But it did not quite work for me. The sound that you or I or a bird makes is not formed so much by a brain wave pattern but by our physical sound producing parts.
And there were other such issues which also detracted from the story.
There seemed to be problems with the time sequences between different threads in the story that did not seem to match up as they should. Maybe it was the writing that was unclear and confused me, I am not sure which.
In spite of these problems I still enjoyed the novel and would recommend it although perhaps not highly.
And there were other such issues which also detracted from the story.
There seemed to be problems with the time sequences between different threads in the story that did not seem to match up as they should. Maybe it was the writing that was unclear and confused me, I am not sure which.
In spite of these problems I still enjoyed the novel and would recommend it although perhaps not highly.
May 30, 2015
A book that will open a cause for pause, to ask oneself their own questions! Questions on many levels. As we open a area to a controlled group, a amount of incredible freedom, yet tell them with this freedom, all you can do is tap into the phone calls of our enemy's.(as example) but hey who will know if I listen in on Ted my neighbor? Why? BECAUSE I CAN. We become armed with the power, and if not me there will be some in that group that will. How far will it go? Power of listening. Power of tracking questionable bad guys! Getting info on those that are here illegally, oh the temptation, BECAUSE THEY CAN! The book will just make you think about much.....
August 5, 2012
This book was something else, but not in a bad way. I had a love-hate relationship with the protagonist and could not put the book down. It was creepy yet completely enticing in the sense that what if all of these events were possible? I still cannot even begin to understand how the author could have come up with the story, but I applaud him. However, I give the book 4 stars because of the times I was just exasperated with the protagonist. Yes, I realize why he behaved in certain cases, but I personally like my characters to be a bit more... human. ;)
July 8, 2012
Good story about a very rich nice guy who's slowly dying and wants to duplicate his brain in a computer. Of course this raise interesting questions. Will he still be human? Will he have a soul? Will he be able to resist the temptation to abuse the power available if he's allowed "out of the box" through internet access.
One minor complaint - the book could have used one more editing pass. At one point, the word "God" was spelled, "G-d".
One minor complaint - the book could have used one more editing pass. At one point, the word "God" was spelled, "G-d".
March 29, 2012
Very well done, interesting story and a conclusion you didn't see coming. I highly recommend this book if you're a science-fiction fan who can see the serious moral and ethical issues in the question: Would you really want to live forever simply because you could?
August 22, 2013
I thought this was a very interesting book. It is part science- fiction, part spy thriller, and poses a lot of ethical and religious questions. It has some slow spots and the chapters are rather long but over all I thought it was really good. Ending sets up for another book???????
September 2, 2016
Elijah Smith is dying and takes a grasp at immortality of sorts by using his vast fortune and genius to replicate his brain on a computer. Ethical questions are raised, international intrigue ensues, to a not surprising ending. Dull, self published pseudo science that needs serious editing.
April 8, 2016
Elly, Josey, Julie and Bobby are all men, and 8 f*ck's and a c*nt detracted from what could otherwise have been quite a pleasantly told tale. Exciting tech to a point, but not a particularly well executed approach to the genre.
April 16, 2012
Slow at times, but overall well-written and interesting.
May 23, 2013
predictable
October 6, 2013
Interesting premise and engaging storytelling. Could use a good copy edit.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews