Metamind

by Wayne Wightman

In the tradition of Brave New World, Metamind shows an artificial world that is peaceful as long as it is entertained. Then the Ultimate Entertainment device, the Metamind Me-2, is given to a waiting world, with side-effects no one had imagined.Jack Land, the media face of Metamind Enterprises, looked at the row of gleaming white pods."I don't know what I'm looking at, sir.""You're looking at the end of the world as we know it.""Will it be with a bang or a whimper?""Both. We're gonna bang 'em and they're gonna whimper."--Did the eccentric billionaire Theron Hibbing return from space with fabulous alien technology? Or did he just steal it from the Chinese?--And then Clara Nolan found those incriminating memdots. She just wanted to do the right thing--and dropped herself and Jack Land in the middle of Kafka's best nightmare, where nothing was what it seemed.--Now, while half the world prepares for an alien invasion, Metamind wants you to remember,"Meta. . . Meta. . . Metamind. . . . We're so good we must be illegal!"WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAIDOrson Scott Card, Hugo and Nebula "[Wayne Wightman is] ...one of the names I['ve] learned to look for.... He...is a romantic whose stories confess his belief that individuals can be larger than life, that their decisions can change the world around them."John Brunner, the legend "Wayne Wightman is agreeable company, both in person and via the printed page. As to the former, I'm afraid you will have to wait the chance to make his acquaintance.... As to the latter, however, now's your chance."Richard Paul Russo, Philip K. Dick Award "One of Wightman's great strengths is his willingness to go to the edge. He pulls no punches, whether the story is serious or violent or manic. You can count on him to take you places other writers shy away from."Elinor Mavor, editor of Amazing Stories, says of "The concept of the impossibly complex and bizarre consequences... is delightfully evil. I'm sure lots of our... 'rulers' in Washington would snap up Hibbing's nasty invention in a heartbeat... and I would imagine they, too, would then have their minds even further scrambled."Best Story of the Year 2011 awarded to Wayne Wightman's "Brutal Interlude" by Orson Scott Card's online magazine The Intergalactic Medicine Show.

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 25, 2011

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent Premise

Excellent Premise

Technology from aliens that creates a new reality including confabulation. A machine where humans can literally create their own realities with alien tech. The possibilities are endless when you are dealing with a situation where reality and memory can both be artificial. How many layers of plot can you craft to create an amazingly intricate tale of action, betrayal, conspiracies, murder and skullduggery?

While this book is very entertaining, it doesn't do much with the premise - doesn't exercise it in a full and exciting way. The big outlines were fairly predictable, while the small details remained a surprise. There were only really two levels of story arcs actively playing against each other, with the opportunity for so many more. In addition to this the book kind of tapers off at the end into a kind of numbness.

The characterization was very uneven, the 'talking head' hero gets all the attention, but nobody gets any backstory in the book, with the exception of two characters who had a couple of sentences. The characters were definitely flawed, but not necessarily cuddly or warm. There were a lot of agendas here among these characters. The dialogue was good and credible.

Overall: It was a good start but it could be so much more. Entertaining!