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The Jonah Kit
The scriptwriter of Steven Spielberg's AI spins another subtle, daring, and brilliant tale about a very special child. When a young Russian boy disappears from a top-secret research establishment, and turns up in Tokyo, he presents a major problem for American security officials. The youth appears to be part of a sophisticated experiment--and to have the mind of a supposedly dead astronaut perfectly imprinted on his own. And, the boy claims the tests have been extended to a whale. As these strange events unfold, other cataclysmic events begin to occur too: a groundbreaking Nobel Prize winner proves that what we perceive as the universe is nothing more than a ghost of the real thing. Then the whales begin singing their death-mantra throughout the world's oceans.
221 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
4 people are currently reading
285 people want to read
About the author
Ian Watson
300 books119 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
March 8, 2013
Terrifying. The novel reads like an eco-nightmare, and the ending is bleaker than hell. However, it remains, so many years after its first publication, a powerful monitory tale about humankind, something that is even more valid today than it was in the mid-Seventies.
September 25, 2015
Ian Watson clearly likes ideas.
This novel features an ambitious mix of them, encompassing the potential to imprint a human mind onto that of both a child and a whale; the belief that sperm whales may have an intelligence more refined than that of humans; and a cosmologists re-interpretation of the big bang to suggest that there is indeed a God, and that He abandoned the universe at the point of its creation.
That's heady stuff!
Ian Watson does not, however, seem to like people quite so much. That's not to say that he has no place for them, or that he can't write characters convincingly. He does and he can.
The problem with his characters is how loathsome most of them were. Sex plays a nasty and unnecessary part in the story, cheapening motivations and compromising sympathies.
That said, this was an impressive, if not entirely enjoyable novel, a sterner impression of Arthur C Clarke.
This novel features an ambitious mix of them, encompassing the potential to imprint a human mind onto that of both a child and a whale; the belief that sperm whales may have an intelligence more refined than that of humans; and a cosmologists re-interpretation of the big bang to suggest that there is indeed a God, and that He abandoned the universe at the point of its creation.
That's heady stuff!
Ian Watson does not, however, seem to like people quite so much. That's not to say that he has no place for them, or that he can't write characters convincingly. He does and he can.
The problem with his characters is how loathsome most of them were. Sex plays a nasty and unnecessary part in the story, cheapening motivations and compromising sympathies.
That said, this was an impressive, if not entirely enjoyable novel, a sterner impression of Arthur C Clarke.
March 3, 2025
Watson pulls off an impressive literary juggling act. Unlike writers who start small and build outward, he throws the kitchen sink at you from the outset, gradually weaving everything into an unexpected cohesion. Moreover, he has a rare talent for recreating the political world stage with both intelligence and nuance. The novels I’ve read by him so far have been demanding but rewarding.
The Jonah Kit is structurally identical to The Embedding, though the latter is a much stronger novel. I have to admit, I fell off with this one, so I don’t have much to say. The story lacks the high-speed propulsion that hallmarked The Embedding and God’s World, and that probably contributed to my eyes glazing over. Still, I hold Watson in high regard—he’s both an intellectual and poetic writer, undeniably a unique craftsman. Even though this one flopped for me, I can still attest that he creates some of the most interesting extraterrestrial lifeforms and social dynamics I’ve encountered in science fiction.
Not his best, but still worth reading.
The Jonah Kit is structurally identical to The Embedding, though the latter is a much stronger novel. I have to admit, I fell off with this one, so I don’t have much to say. The story lacks the high-speed propulsion that hallmarked The Embedding and God’s World, and that probably contributed to my eyes glazing over. Still, I hold Watson in high regard—he’s both an intellectual and poetic writer, undeniably a unique craftsman. Even though this one flopped for me, I can still attest that he creates some of the most interesting extraterrestrial lifeforms and social dynamics I’ve encountered in science fiction.
Not his best, but still worth reading.
April 23, 2022
I think Mr. Watson was going for a little prescience and disturbance in his science fiction. There are some significant eco-concepts and predictions here, but not well tied together. Much of the story seems to be setup for what by all indications is the B-plot until we find out it was the most important piece all along.
Characters wooden enough to build a bridge out of and mostly unlikeable to boot, so it's missed for me on the two most important parts: plot and people. The one character I was the most interested in, and this shouldn't be spoilery if you've read the cover copy, is the sperm whale with a human mind imprinted on it. Mentioned in the same copy, the child with the mind of a dead astronaut imprinted into him isn't a character at all, but a plot device.
It's hard for me to give this even two stars, but since I reserve one-star ratings for DNFs (and I finished this one) and things I truly hate (this comes across more as pointless), I have to go with a solid, "Meh." I'm not sure I understand why this won a major award. I feel like I've read much better from the period and much better by the author.
As always, your mileage may vary.
Characters wooden enough to build a bridge out of and mostly unlikeable to boot, so it's missed for me on the two most important parts: plot and people. The one character I was the most interested in, and this shouldn't be spoilery if you've read the cover copy, is the sperm whale with a human mind imprinted on it. Mentioned in the same copy, the child with the mind of a dead astronaut imprinted into him isn't a character at all, but a plot device.
It's hard for me to give this even two stars, but since I reserve one-star ratings for DNFs (and I finished this one) and things I truly hate (this comes across more as pointless), I have to go with a solid, "Meh." I'm not sure I understand why this won a major award. I feel like I've read much better from the period and much better by the author.
As always, your mileage may vary.
October 5, 2013
Watson, along with Greg Egan, is one of modern SF’s foremost exponents of not just Hard SF, but scientists’ SF. Watson’s novels tend to be a far tougher reading assignment than his short stories which are exquisitely crafted nuggets of genius for the most part; SF haikus if you will.
‘The Jonah Kit’ is a triple narrative which follows:-
1. Paul Hammond, a borderline psychotic scientist with a messiah complex, whose work has revealed not only God’s footsteps in the Big Bang but the truth that God created another – more real – universe leaving us in a state of being mathematically irrelevant.
2. Nilin, a boy kidnapped from the Russian scientists who had imprinted the consciousness of a Russian cosmonaut on his brain.
3. A sperm whale whose brain had also received an imprint of the cosmonaut’s consciousness.
Their stories ultimately converge and it becomes gradually obvious toward the final third of the book why they would need to do so.
The main problem I have with this novel is that none of the characters (with the possible exceptions of the boy and the whale) are likeable. One really wouldn’t want to spend time with them. Richard Kimble (Paul Hammond’s scientific partner) is the most likeable but his character is never sketched out enough. The rest of them are reminiscent of characters from JG Ballard novels, and they have their own reasons for containing such people.
Morelli is a castrated Italian reporter who whose frustration feeds his intense manner. Paul’s wife, Ruth, is it appears a sardonic nymphomaniac engaged in a desultory affair with Richard. Paul Hammond’s extraordinary behaviour is reminiscent of Silverberg’s Vornan-19 from ‘The Masks of Time’ in his flirting with the role of Messiah, encouraging crowd violence and deliberately shooting a ‘Satan Cult’ biker to kickstart a riot. There seems no real motive for Hammond to behave this way.
Most of the other characters are just as unpleasant.
However, there are beautifully poetic depths and connections that resonate throughout. The idea of sound and communication is repeated and reflected via the whistling codes of the Mexicans, the clicking of the Jonah kit, the clicking messages from the stars and the music of the blind and now mindless Russian.
It’s certainly a novel that makes one think, if a little bleak and nihilistic.
‘The Jonah Kit’ is a triple narrative which follows:-
1. Paul Hammond, a borderline psychotic scientist with a messiah complex, whose work has revealed not only God’s footsteps in the Big Bang but the truth that God created another – more real – universe leaving us in a state of being mathematically irrelevant.
2. Nilin, a boy kidnapped from the Russian scientists who had imprinted the consciousness of a Russian cosmonaut on his brain.
3. A sperm whale whose brain had also received an imprint of the cosmonaut’s consciousness.
Their stories ultimately converge and it becomes gradually obvious toward the final third of the book why they would need to do so.
The main problem I have with this novel is that none of the characters (with the possible exceptions of the boy and the whale) are likeable. One really wouldn’t want to spend time with them. Richard Kimble (Paul Hammond’s scientific partner) is the most likeable but his character is never sketched out enough. The rest of them are reminiscent of characters from JG Ballard novels, and they have their own reasons for containing such people.
Morelli is a castrated Italian reporter who whose frustration feeds his intense manner. Paul’s wife, Ruth, is it appears a sardonic nymphomaniac engaged in a desultory affair with Richard. Paul Hammond’s extraordinary behaviour is reminiscent of Silverberg’s Vornan-19 from ‘The Masks of Time’ in his flirting with the role of Messiah, encouraging crowd violence and deliberately shooting a ‘Satan Cult’ biker to kickstart a riot. There seems no real motive for Hammond to behave this way.
Most of the other characters are just as unpleasant.
However, there are beautifully poetic depths and connections that resonate throughout. The idea of sound and communication is repeated and reflected via the whistling codes of the Mexicans, the clicking of the Jonah kit, the clicking messages from the stars and the music of the blind and now mindless Russian.
It’s certainly a novel that makes one think, if a little bleak and nihilistic.
May 30, 2015
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2470668.html
I'm sorry to say that I bounced off this 1977 BSFA Award winner pretty thoroughly. The basic scientific hook, imprinting a dead cosmonaut's mind onto the brain of a child, is interesting enough, but the general setting of decaying contemporary civilisation is depressing without being completely convincing; whereas the characters are convincingly nasty unpleasant people who it is difficult to get interested in. I bounced off The Miracle Visitors too. Well, I have two more Watsons on the shelf, so we'll see if they can pull me round.
I'm sorry to say that I bounced off this 1977 BSFA Award winner pretty thoroughly. The basic scientific hook, imprinting a dead cosmonaut's mind onto the brain of a child, is interesting enough, but the general setting of decaying contemporary civilisation is depressing without being completely convincing; whereas the characters are convincingly nasty unpleasant people who it is difficult to get interested in. I bounced off The Miracle Visitors too. Well, I have two more Watsons on the shelf, so we'll see if they can pull me round.
July 10, 2020
DNF at 20 %
Strange and different is not always interesting, sometimes it’s just strange.
Strange and different is not always interesting, sometimes it’s just strange.
August 20, 2023
A six-year-old boy, Georgi Nilin, has escaped to Japan from Communist Russia and seeks asylum in the USA. It is uncertain if the boy suffers from autism or has been ‘tampered’ with by the Russians. He seems to possess the memories of a deceased cosmonaut. American scientists suspect the Russians are trying to imprint the mind of one person onto another.
Paul Hammond is trying to view the dawn of our Universe. He and his team of scientists are using powerful telescopes to scan the skies for evidence of our origins. When he achieves success, his conclusions have serious consequences for humanity.
As well as experimenting with human subjects, the Russians have tried to imprint the mind of a man onto that of a Sperm whale. This whale then struggles to come to terms with conflicting urges and foreign memories.
Toward the end of the novel, both storylines converge resulting in a dramatic conclusion.
This story began well. The depiction of a whale’s thoughts and it’s conflict with human memories was certainly unique, but since it dealt with an alien thought process, it was a little difficult to follow at times. As with other works of Watson’s I’ve read, there are a lot of interesting events and ideas throughout. A little dated in respect to the current world political situation, it nonetheless entertained to the end.
3.5 stars
Paul Hammond is trying to view the dawn of our Universe. He and his team of scientists are using powerful telescopes to scan the skies for evidence of our origins. When he achieves success, his conclusions have serious consequences for humanity.
As well as experimenting with human subjects, the Russians have tried to imprint the mind of a man onto that of a Sperm whale. This whale then struggles to come to terms with conflicting urges and foreign memories.
Toward the end of the novel, both storylines converge resulting in a dramatic conclusion.
This story began well. The depiction of a whale’s thoughts and it’s conflict with human memories was certainly unique, but since it dealt with an alien thought process, it was a little difficult to follow at times. As with other works of Watson’s I’ve read, there are a lot of interesting events and ideas throughout. A little dated in respect to the current world political situation, it nonetheless entertained to the end.
3.5 stars
October 1, 2025
A six-year old Russian boy asks for political asylum in Japan, claiming during bouts of lucidity, to be a former Soviet cosmonaut. A secret experiment to 'print' human minds on other creatures is revealed, most startlingly, on sperm whales. Meanwhile Paul Hammond, an eminent astronomer, has made an equally startling discovery about the nature of reality and the Universe - it was created by God but then abandoned - it exists in a solipsist boundary state imposed on by consciousness. When humans hear of this it has a profound effect and for some reason the Russians decide to impart this theory to the whales - presumably to either confirm or refute it. But the whales' response is far more terrifying than anyone could possibly have predicted…… Good stuff by lan Watson about the nature of reality and interspecies relationships.
December 23, 2020
Ian Watson píše sci fi knihy a povídky přesně tak jak to mám rád.Knihy u kterých se nedočkáte žádné velké akce ani překotného děje,zato námětů na přemýšlení je tam dostatek.Tím mi připomíná mého oblíbeného Stanislava Lema,i když Watsonovy knihy mají specifickou náladu a atmosféru,díky které je okamžitě poznáte.
Žijeme ve spoustě paralelních vesmírů,ve kterých je realita utvářena teprve vůlí pozorovatele?Padá lidstvo do spirály sebezničení z vlastní vůle,protože si takou cestu volí?
Obětovaly se velryby pro nás nebo nás opustily a zvolily si svou cestu a vesmír?
Skvělé čtení,které přináší spoustu otázek,a možná ještě více odpovědí.Chytré,inteligentní sci fi o nás a o světě okolo nás.Jen se nebát trochu u čtení myslet.
Vidím že zde jdu s hodnocením proti proudu,ale za mne naprosto doporučuji.
Žijeme ve spoustě paralelních vesmírů,ve kterých je realita utvářena teprve vůlí pozorovatele?Padá lidstvo do spirály sebezničení z vlastní vůle,protože si takou cestu volí?
Obětovaly se velryby pro nás nebo nás opustily a zvolily si svou cestu a vesmír?
Skvělé čtení,které přináší spoustu otázek,a možná ještě více odpovědí.Chytré,inteligentní sci fi o nás a o světě okolo nás.Jen se nebát trochu u čtení myslet.
Vidím že zde jdu s hodnocením proti proudu,ale za mne naprosto doporučuji.
April 14, 2023
I should have known. I'm not a fan of much from the 1970's: film, fiction, philosophy... I read these things and just see trauma of the failed 1960's. The conceit of a scientific proof that our universe is an abandoned anti-matter shadow of the actual, God-created universe seemed especially flimsy. Most philosophers begin from something like "I think, therefore I am." Who cares which is the matter and which is the anti-matter? This just in: we don't exist. Um, no. The harmony of the oceans idea was quaint, until the frankly baffling conclusion. Overall, a few interesting tropes, with occasionally lovely prose, steeped in nihilism, xenophobia and bitter misanthropy. Mmmm. Tastes like 1975.
stopped-reading
December 23, 2025I just can't get into this book. The writing is "satisfactory" but that's just not enough to sustain interest for me. The characters' lives feel like they have stuff happening in them because the author knows that he's supposed do better characterisation than his SF forebears, but none of it means anything. Could have really enjoyed this as a novella that scrapped the characterisation and focussed intently on plot and built the character arc from that. I like the ideas in here - imprinting consciousness onto other beings, ghost universes created after the Big Bang, something about whales... -but there's too much jumping from one thing to something completely different. I'm halfway and I just don't care.
Another one bites the dust.
Another one bites the dust.
November 16, 2024
Some intriguing ideas, and well written, but overall I found the story confusing and disjointed. The idea of imprinting minds on children and whales was interesting, but seemed only to serve the story. The child is used to bait the Americans, the whale used to communicate the disturbing theorem about god having created our universe as a by-product of a universe that is hidden from us. Spoiler... At the end all the whales kill themselves. Can’t help thinking this was what the author had in mind from the outset and plodded along with a half-baked story to fulfil it.
July 10, 2025
In a near future, a group of scientists succeeds in transferring the consciousness of a young boy into the brain of a whale. This groundbreaking neuropsychic engineering raises profound ethical dilemmas. As the story unfolds, it explores the consequences of this fusion between humanity and animality, as well as the mysterious mental exchanges across species.
The novel’s central idea is captivating and full of potential, yet I couldn’t engage with the narrative. Despite its originality and fascinating premise, I never truly immersed myself in the story. A disappointment.
The novel’s central idea is captivating and full of potential, yet I couldn’t engage with the narrative. Despite its originality and fascinating premise, I never truly immersed myself in the story. A disappointment.
September 15, 2023
Dos historias paralelas ubicadas en polos opuestos del globo. La primera, de ballenas, niños rusos y policías japoneses, condimentada con las experiencias del fondo marino, me gustó bastante. La segunda, de un brillante astrónomo en México que hace un descubrimiento terrible sobre el Universo, no me terminó de convencer. Y la forma en que junta las historias al final, menos aún. Me hubiera quedado con los Diez Brazos, Silbadores de Clics, Grandes Cantores y todo lo que abundaba en las profundidades oceánicas.
Watson tiene ideas potentes, pero a veces los personajes no le acompañan.
Watson tiene ideas potentes, pero a veces los personajes no le acompañan.
December 1, 2017
Ian Watson's short stories are often excellent. However, this like every other novel of his I've read hasn't got the staying power, and really he should stick to shorter forms because in every case I've got about 90% of the way through his books and just given up. It's a shame because his short stories are usually absolutely fine.
May 2, 2018
I can't really give a summary of this one, because I never could figure out what the heckin' heck was going on. There was a whale with, I think?, a man's mind in it, and a runaway boy, and some deeply unlikable other characters doing other stuff that I couldn't manage to care about in the slightest.
So this one was a big NOPE for me.
So this one was a big NOPE for me.
January 26, 2024
Leído ahora no es tanta novedad pero lo sería en su momento por los temas que mencionan. Aunque decepcionada por los personajes femeninos la novela me ha gustado.
El principio es muy curioso, el tipo de narración absorbente aunque no se entienda qué está pasando y después todo queda explicado.
El principio es muy curioso, el tipo de narración absorbente aunque no se entienda qué está pasando y después todo queda explicado.
February 21, 2019
3/10. Media de los 5 libros leídos del autor : 3/10
Este le abandoné, y mira que en esa época no era yo mucho de abandonar.
Este le abandoné, y mira que en esa época no era yo mucho de abandonar.
October 22, 2020
Not as brilliant as "The Embedding" but, in the seamless cohesion of all its disparate parts, still quite astonishing.
October 15, 2021
Big on ideas small on plot. Bleak, depressing and at times confusing and populated by unlikeable characters.
December 15, 2023
premise seemed tailor made for me but i really struggled to work through this
August 20, 2024
El descubrimiento científico de la falsedad intrínseca del universo puede llevar a las mentes a la locura. Y no solamente a las humanas.
March 12, 2025
Some strong ideas but let down by an assembly of complete one-dimensional arsehole characters that one struggles to have any interest in.
October 1, 2025
3.3
I enjoyed the info on the whales, but mostly this was just not for me
I enjoyed the info on the whales, but mostly this was just not for me
October 3, 2025
Poco interesante, excepto por las ballenas. 💛
2⭐️
2⭐️
June 6, 2023
I just finished "The Jonah kit" by Ian Watson and let me tell you one thing - I love sci-fi novels that leave me on the verge of a nervous breakdown. No, not because aliens spill the blood of innocent Earthlings. Not because I'm shocked by some brutal dystopia or crushing vision of the future. These types of motifs rather testify to the weakness of the author's pen, who, using the multitude (after all, finite) of constant elements that make up sci-fi literature, juggles predictable decisions to the delight of the crowd.
Watson slowly cranks the plot up, gripping his ideas tighter and tighter, but never charging in and trying to grab the reader's face. It is enough for him to modulate his voice to make a surprisingly strong impression. He maintains an admirable detachment from the whole story, emotional coolness even when the plot clearly speeds up towards the end of the novel and takes a rather unexpected turn, where three intertwining "intrigues" come together in a shocking finale. Finale, which above all stuns with its gloomy ominous bass.
A handful (not much, so as not to spoil the pleasure of potential readers) of facts - in the depths of the oceans there is a young whale circling, into which scientists implanted human consciousness. The Russians, of course, want to use the whale as a biological weapon, a spy patrolling the territorial waters of hostile powers, which will soon start a race for natural resources hidden under the ocean floor. This is the first plot line.
The second is the story of two fugitives from a Russian (yeah!) research center, which the Russians (yeah!) changed something in their heads. A trinket, a few-year-old boy carries the mind of a Russian cosmonaut, which Watson illustrates with extremely melodramatic scenes, but I fell for the squeezing heart and even moved ...
The third clue is the most interesting - a brilliant, gifted with the need to shine space explorer, a kind of Faustian type, discovers with the help of complex calculations, formulas and a giant radio telescope that God ... exists, but has left our (universe) world. And this one is only a substitute, a shadow of the real reality. The good old Earth is but a reflection, ashes and dust. In short, the vision of the deists is materializing before the eyes of humanity. God is, but he has left us to do something completely different, somewhere else. Earth is an orphaned child. He may have a Father, but he's obviously moved on with a different family or stuck to new projects.
This discovery terrifies some, because they are faced with a scientifically proven emptiness, others (led by the Vatican) protest, although in the noise, screams and helpless fury of the planet, which is confronted with its own nonsense, their voices sound extremely weak and are unable to calm anyone down.
Watson has done the seemingly impossible. In the last part of the book, he collided all three plot lines. He intertwined them in a masterly way that allowed the brighter reader (well, me, for example) to ask a few brave and, above all, dangerous-sounding questions.
What would we say to other species on Earth if we could give them any message? How would Nature herself react to the news that God does not exist? Why not kill yourself the moment you realize there is NOTHING waiting for you after death?
"The Jonah Kit" have a stuffy thick atmosphere. Despite the expanses of oceans and cosmic abysses that man looks at, we feel that humanity is vegetating in some death cell of planetary proportions. We will feel the claustrophobic aura long after reading the last page. I was stunned, in short. I felt sorry for the characters who discovered the void and watched helplessly as their whole lives fell apart.
You don't need to point at Earth any asteroid whose shadow grows in the sky to make believable a humanity mad with despair. You don't have to arm the novel with battle scenes, imbue it with the uncanny, introduce mutants or mechanical orangutans, aliens and whatever else you want to create first-class noble science-fiction literature.
Class.
Watson slowly cranks the plot up, gripping his ideas tighter and tighter, but never charging in and trying to grab the reader's face. It is enough for him to modulate his voice to make a surprisingly strong impression. He maintains an admirable detachment from the whole story, emotional coolness even when the plot clearly speeds up towards the end of the novel and takes a rather unexpected turn, where three intertwining "intrigues" come together in a shocking finale. Finale, which above all stuns with its gloomy ominous bass.
A handful (not much, so as not to spoil the pleasure of potential readers) of facts - in the depths of the oceans there is a young whale circling, into which scientists implanted human consciousness. The Russians, of course, want to use the whale as a biological weapon, a spy patrolling the territorial waters of hostile powers, which will soon start a race for natural resources hidden under the ocean floor. This is the first plot line.
The second is the story of two fugitives from a Russian (yeah!) research center, which the Russians (yeah!) changed something in their heads. A trinket, a few-year-old boy carries the mind of a Russian cosmonaut, which Watson illustrates with extremely melodramatic scenes, but I fell for the squeezing heart and even moved ...
The third clue is the most interesting - a brilliant, gifted with the need to shine space explorer, a kind of Faustian type, discovers with the help of complex calculations, formulas and a giant radio telescope that God ... exists, but has left our (universe) world. And this one is only a substitute, a shadow of the real reality. The good old Earth is but a reflection, ashes and dust. In short, the vision of the deists is materializing before the eyes of humanity. God is, but he has left us to do something completely different, somewhere else. Earth is an orphaned child. He may have a Father, but he's obviously moved on with a different family or stuck to new projects.
This discovery terrifies some, because they are faced with a scientifically proven emptiness, others (led by the Vatican) protest, although in the noise, screams and helpless fury of the planet, which is confronted with its own nonsense, their voices sound extremely weak and are unable to calm anyone down.
Watson has done the seemingly impossible. In the last part of the book, he collided all three plot lines. He intertwined them in a masterly way that allowed the brighter reader (well, me, for example) to ask a few brave and, above all, dangerous-sounding questions.
What would we say to other species on Earth if we could give them any message? How would Nature herself react to the news that God does not exist? Why not kill yourself the moment you realize there is NOTHING waiting for you after death?
"The Jonah Kit" have a stuffy thick atmosphere. Despite the expanses of oceans and cosmic abysses that man looks at, we feel that humanity is vegetating in some death cell of planetary proportions. We will feel the claustrophobic aura long after reading the last page. I was stunned, in short. I felt sorry for the characters who discovered the void and watched helplessly as their whole lives fell apart.
You don't need to point at Earth any asteroid whose shadow grows in the sky to make believable a humanity mad with despair. You don't have to arm the novel with battle scenes, imbue it with the uncanny, introduce mutants or mechanical orangutans, aliens and whatever else you want to create first-class noble science-fiction literature.
Class.
February 15, 2022
Поскольку «официального» перевода нет, то нет и общепризнанного перевода названия произведения. На английском это: «Jonah kit», что в прямую переводится как «Ионов набор/комплект/снаряжение», но по смыслу произведения kit – это русский «кит», поэтому я решил, что «Ионов кит» будет более правильным переводом, чем «Комплект для Ионы» или «Ионов набор», поскольку китов в романе гораздо больше, чем комплектов, а имя «Иона» отсылает к ветхозаветному пророку Ионе, поглощённому китом.
Роман организован по популярному сейчас принципу параллельных историй – «потоков», так, например, написана “Песнь льда и пламени” Джорджа Мартина. Таких потоков в романе три: первый от лица кашалота, в сознание которого достижениями советской науки имплантировано, а точнее перенесено – поскольку по условиям технологии считывание повреждает и де –факто уничтожает носителя - сознание Павла Чирикова – слепого от рождения музыканта, умиравшего от рака. При этом сознание кашалота не заместилось сознанием Чирикова, а как бы смешалось с ним, создав гибридное сознание с оттенком шизофрении. Второй поток рассказывает о перебежчике из СССР в Японию с сознанием советского космонавта Георгия Нилина, перенесённом в тело шестилетнего мальчика – аллюзия на побег лётчика Беленко. Третий поток – о нобелевском лауреате Пауле Хаммонде, который находится на пороге открытия, которое принесёт ему не только вторую нобелевскую премию, но и способно изменить наш мир навсегда…
Действие развивается неспешно и первую половину романа по большому счёту ничего не происходит – автор в основном занят экспозицией героев и воссозданием мрачной и тревожной атмосферы 70-х – роман написан в 1974 году. Зато потом события начинают развиваться стремительно и кульминация совпадает с развязкой и окончанием, которое можно, кстати, трактовать по разному – очевидно намеренный литературный прием.
В «Ионовом ките» Иэн Вотсон сплёл вместе сразу несколько классических научно-фантастических тем: - что такое сознание и можно ли его перенести и что будет, если его всё перенести? – разумны ли земные китообразные? – вопросы космологии, особенно в той части, где ответы на них имеют не только узконаучное, но и философское и религиозное значение. Результат получился насыщенным смыслами, но несколько слабоват литературно. Рекомендую к прочтению только если вы хорошо владеете английским языком, поскольку язык и лексика произведения сложноваты. Остальным же остается надеяться на то, что какое-то из наших издательств сподобится на перевод – книга того стоит.
Роман организован по популярному сейчас принципу параллельных историй – «потоков», так, например, написана “Песнь льда и пламени” Джорджа Мартина. Таких потоков в романе три: первый от лица кашалота, в сознание которого достижениями советской науки имплантировано, а точнее перенесено – поскольку по условиям технологии считывание повреждает и де –факто уничтожает носителя - сознание Павла Чирикова – слепого от рождения музыканта, умиравшего от рака. При этом сознание кашалота не заместилось сознанием Чирикова, а как бы смешалось с ним, создав гибридное сознание с оттенком шизофрении. Второй поток рассказывает о перебежчике из СССР в Японию с сознанием советского космонавта Георгия Нилина, перенесённом в тело шестилетнего мальчика – аллюзия на побег лётчика Беленко. Третий поток – о нобелевском лауреате Пауле Хаммонде, который находится на пороге открытия, которое принесёт ему не только вторую нобелевскую премию, но и способно изменить наш мир навсегда…
Действие развивается неспешно и первую половину романа по большому счёту ничего не происходит – автор в основном занят экспозицией героев и воссозданием мрачной и тревожной атмосферы 70-х – роман написан в 1974 году. Зато потом события начинают развиваться стремительно и кульминация совпадает с развязкой и окончанием, которое можно, кстати, трактовать по разному – очевидно намеренный литературный прием.
В «Ионовом ките» Иэн Вотсон сплёл вместе сразу несколько классических научно-фантастических тем: - что такое сознание и можно ли его перенести и что будет, если его всё перенести? – разумны ли земные китообразные? – вопросы космологии, особенно в той части, где ответы на них имеют не только узконаучное, но и философское и религиозное значение. Результат получился насыщенным смыслами, но несколько слабоват литературно. Рекомендую к прочтению только если вы хорошо владеете английским языком, поскольку язык и лексика произведения сложноваты. Остальным же остается надеяться на то, что какое-то из наших издательств сподобится на перевод – книга того стоит.
December 18, 2023
Dense sci-fi from the lost age of Big Ideas. An astrophysicist named Hammond makes a disturbing discovery (or is it premature?) about the origin of the universe. The idea goes like this: Our universe is just a decaying echo of the Big Bang. The "real" universe (whatever this means, exactly) popped into existence in another, fundamentally inaccessible dimension that runs parallel to ours, but enjoys a more substantive existence, at least compared with the inescapably entropic nature of our own. Popularized by the media (after being pushed by the relentlessly self-promoting Hammond), this discovery causes political chaos worldwide. Meanwhile, the Soviets have been learning how to copy minds into machine codes using electromagnetic psychotronics. Unfortunately, this results in the original minds being erased. Their prime test subject is a cosmonaut, severely disabled after a harsh re-entry, and they've been experimenting (successfully) with injecting copies of the mind into various other subjects: a sperm whale named "Jonah" and a child. The whale is like a vehicle, whose navigations of the sea are now accompanied by echoes of the cosmonaut's broken mind. In fact, whales are sapient creatures (only toothed whales, however), with deeply alien minds and a fantastically abstruse language that takes shape as glyphic abstractions within the spermaceti. Ultimately, some in government decide to broadcast Hammond's theorem to the "whale computer" (a pod of whales with which Jonah has been interfacing) in order to falsify or validate it. Promptly, every toothed whale on the planet horrifyingly beaches itself in a collective act of mass suicide. Running through the novel, there dialogues between Hammond and a disillusioned Italian journalist (formerly a Marxist, now a eunuch), who militates against the inherent nihilism of Hammond's theorem and, instead, advocates for a somewhat ambivalent version of the many-worlds interpretation. Maybe from the whales' perspective, it's the humans who've all died, and now they swim undisturbed in an oceanic universe split off from ours. An especially striking image: Watson writes that toothed whales (sapient) have been "programming" baleen whales (non-sapient) to broadcast messages through their songs, which carry vast distances. Now the ocean echoes with Hammond's theorem, but no toothed whales remain to understand its import, or to change the channel.
February 15, 2015
To be honest this was a difficult novel for me to like. Perhaps this was because of the underlying current of negativity throughout the novel. To me Watson was projecting some of the more developments of the 1970s forward in a way that was similar to what Wilson Tucker did in The Year of the Quiet Sun. It's a helpful reminder of what that decade was like, when it seemed that societal institutions were crumbling before the pressure of youth and the onslaught of new ideas. The ecological subtext added to the sense of this as a novel of its time, as it had something of a Jonathan Livingston Seagull vibe in places. The negativity might not have been as off-putting had it been balanced out by interesting characters, but the unappealing nature of nearly all of them just added to the sense of pessimism that pervaded its pages. It's definitely worth reading, but it's not a book I would recommend for someone seeking to be entertained and distracted, as in the end there's little room for it between its covers.
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