The Cunningham Equations

Cunningham #1

by G.C. Edmondson, C.M. Kotlan

Blaise Cunningham was a Nobel-Prize winner, the world's foremost expert in artificial intelligence and one of the best computer programmers alive. He was also a falling-down drunk whose only friends were an intelligent computer, a good woman, a bad scientist, and a frisky puppy named Dobie.

But Cunningham had plenty of enemies, including a couple would-be dognappers. They wanted Dobie, and Cunningham Didn't know why. He was afraid tthey'd kill the puppy, and he couldn't allow that. Even a drunk has come principles.

It was a while before Cunningham realized that he was just a pawn in a game where science was warring for men's souls and thousands of lives had already been scrificed!

Genres: Science Fiction

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 12, 1986

About the author

Garry Edmondson (full name "José Mario Garry Ordoñez Edmondson y Cotton").

He also wrote Westerns under the names Kelly P. Gast, J. B. Masterson, and Jack Logan.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a disappointing and at times confusing science fiction novel about the development of artificial intelligence and enhanced human intelligence and a plot by an organized criminal organization to monopolize those processes. The protagonist is a despicable misogynistic alcoholic who uses his childhood mistreatment to excuse his actions. Some of the bits of technological development have an odd sort of charm in the way that Radium Age/Steampunk stories are interesting, but that's not enough to save the book. There's no real conclusion to the story, other than a massive kill-off of many of the characters, and I see that it's the first book of a trilogy, but I won't pursue either of the other volumes. The book is very poorly copy-edited, with scene changes not being separated in the text, and the wrong word appearing in the middle of lines that erase the meaning until the reader parses what it was supposed to say. I read and enjoyed several Edmondson novels back in the day (The Aluminum Man, Blue Face, and especially The Ship that Sailed the Time Stream), so perhaps my expectations were too high. I read somewhere that Gardner Dozois considered him a neglected author. He was born in Mexico, and I wonder if he adopted such an Anglicized version of his name by choice or not. I was unfamiliar with this title until I saw a copy on a shelf at the back of a little used bookstore that was labeled "free"... I couldn't resist. The book is almost forty years old but was in pristine condition with a bookmark the previous owner left in on page 86. I soldiered on to the end, but despite a few interesting scenes I suspect they made the right choice.

[Foxtower · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good story! Exciting and suspenseful with cool science! The cover is misleading, and this first edition could have used better editing as sometimes it gets confusing because of the editing errors.