Wonder

WWW #3

by Robert J. Sawyer

Caitlin Decter cherche désespérément à protéger son amie, afin d’éviter que le monde nouveau ne disparaisse avant même d’avoir émergé.
L’IA semble disposée à aider l’humanité, mais les experts du Pentagone ne lui font pas confiance.
Le colonel et expert Peyton Hume recourt à une équipe de hackers pour la neutraliser. Mais ils disparaissent tous, un par un.
Est-ce la conscience émergente qui les détruit avant de parvenir à l’atteindre ?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Audiobook, Canada, Cyberpunk, Science Fiction Fantasy

458 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 29, 2011

About the author

Robert J. Sawyer is one of Canada's best known and most successful science fiction writers. He is the only Canadian (and one of only 7 writers in the world) to have won all three of the top international awards for science fiction: the 1995 Nebula Award for The Terminal Experiment, the 2003 Hugo Award for Hominids, and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Mindscan.
Robert Sawyer grew up in Toronto, the son of two university professors. He credits two of his favourite shows from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Search and Star Trek, with teaching him some of the fundamentals of the science-fiction craft. Sawyer was obsessed with outer space from a young age, and he vividly remembers watching the televised Apollo missions. He claims to have watched the 1968 classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey 25 times. He began writing science fiction in a high school club, which he co-founded, NASFA (Northview Academy Association of Science Fiction Addicts). Sawyer graduated in 1982 from the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University, where he later worked as an instructor.

Sawyer's first published book, Golden Fleece (1989), is an adaptation of short stories that had previously appeared in the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories. This book won the Aurora Award for the best Canadian science-fiction novel in English. In the early 1990s Sawyer went on to publish his inventive Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, about a world of intelligent dinosaurs. His 1995 award winning The Terminal Experiment confirmed his place as a major international science-fiction writer.

A prolific writer, Sawyer has published more than 10 novels, plus two trilogies. Reviewers praise Sawyer for his concise prose, which has been compared to that of the science-fiction master Isaac Asimov. Like many science fiction-writers, Sawyer welcomes the opportunities his chosen genre provides for exploring ideas. The first book of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, Hominids (2002), is set in a near-future society, in which a quantum computing experiment brings a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel Earth to ours. His 2006 Mindscan explores the possibility of transferring human consciousness into a mechanical body, and the ensuing ethical, legal, and societal ramifications.

A passionate advocate for science fiction, Sawyer teaches creative writing and appears frequently in the media to discuss his genre. He prefers the label "philosophical fiction," and in no way sees himself as a predictor of the future. His mission statement for his writing is "To combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic."

http://us.macmillan.com/author/robert...

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, the last book in this trilogy had a lot to live up to and it succeeded for the most part.

What can (or should) you do for an intelligent entity living in the World Wide Web who has been outed across the world? Take over? Declare peace? Be hunted, or be the hunter?

It is the Prisoner's Dilemma writ large with many iterations. And does Sawyer pull it off? A worldwide revolution?

Yes. But again, for the most part.

What's my complaint?

Yeah, well, that's my problem. Sawyer's political leanings and outlook is too close to my own to judge this as anything other than a "oh, wow, I really appreciate this" setup.

Do I believe in win/win scenarios and deep optimism? Yes. Do I believe in rational behavior, strong methods to bring about the best good for the most people? Yes. So I believe in mercy and understanding? Yes.

And that's kinda the thing. This novel is SO DAMN OPTIMISTIC and joyful to read, with all the conflicts arriving from the outside rather than from within, that I felt like I was reading a wish-fulfillment fantasy.

Come on. Who here hasn't wished for some near-omnipotent being to come down to earth, kick the evildoers in their seat, and give the rest of us a means to take the power into our own hands?

Yeah, that's what I thought. :)

But then, look here at the title of this book. If that doesn't give it all away, I don't know what will.

And I REALLY DID ENJOY it. A lot. :)

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
I enjoyed this trilogy that blended together so many elements into an engaging YA plot. As a Canadian, I enjoyed the references in this books, but some of the details started to be excessive. I liked this one, but I'm not entirely sure if all the elements came together in the end. Some of the pieces of this story just felt a bit disjointed. Well this series wasn't perfect, I had a good time with this series and would recommend it to young and newer sci fi readers looking to get into the genre.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

[Jake Forbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I loved about Wake, the first book in the WWW trilogy, was the way Sawyer lifted the reader up, along with the characters, through the process of emerging digital consciousness. The second volume is a real nail-biter as we anxiously wait to see how the world will respond to the birth of an AI that by its very nature monitors everything we do online. For the last year, I've been looking forward to reading the conclusion. As compulsively readable as the first two books, Wonder ends the WWW trilogy on a optimistic but frustratingly shallow note. As Webmind notes, there is a dearth of sci-fi that regards AIs in an optimistic light, and I really appreciate Sawyer's take here. That said, Sawyer is awfully liberal with projecting the values of the WIRED demographic onto society at large (and how ballsy he is, scripting a full John Stewart interview while using composites or anonymity elsewhere!). Also, wheres the previous two books dealt more with objective science & tech, Wonder's primary focus is ethics; while I might agree with much of what Sawyer's saying, the pedagogy is a little heavy-handed, especially when filtered through Hobo. Taken as a whole, the WWW trilogy is a wonderful read and Webmind a marvelous addition to the catelog of great sci-fi characters, even if he left me feeling disappointed.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I devoured the last two installments in Robert J. Sawyer's "WWW" trilogy and was anxious for the third installment to hit the shelves. I was fascinated to see how Sawyer would bring together some of the threads we saw in book one and to find out the final fate of the Webmind.

So, I guess you could say I had some pretty high expectations for "WWW: Wonder."

And I guess you could say that the book didn't exactly live up to them.

It's still a good story and the ideas raised in the book are fascinating ones. The concept of how humanity would react if an artificial intelligence developed that was interested in bringing out the best in humanity instead of trying to exterminate us all is compelling and fascinating. Watching as Webmind tries to use his new seemingly limitless intelligence to connect things together to find cures for cancer and to try to bring out better instincts in humanity is interesting. And seeing the reaction of certain groups to the evolution of Webmind and making steps to try and stop the AI in its tracks before it becomes too powerful helps drive much of the second half of the story.

But for all of that, I can't help but come away from the novel feeling a bit let down and disappointed by how it all ends. Sawyer does manage to weave the plotline of the Great Firewall of China, Bobo the Monkey and Webmind together in the story's final chapters. But there are times when Sawyer is too obvious in his political views and it comes across on the page. Thinly veiled criticism of recent administrations occur often in the novel as do complete and utter support of other political factions, parties and administrations. I get that the characters (and to some extend Sawyer) are passionate in their beliefs and feelings on these issues, but if I wanted political diatribe, I'd flip on a cable news outlet.

Those moments took me too far out of the book to really become as immersed in the story and characters as I was by the first two. Looking back, there were those moments there as well but they didn't pull me out of the book in the way those moments do here. It's a shame really because it keeps what could have been a great trilogy of novels and makes them just merely pretty darn good.

The novels are worth reading and I'm not sorry for the investment of time I put into them. As I said before Sawyer has some fascinating ideas in this trilogy and this book. It's just a shame that the series had to come to an end with a disappointing third installment.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I see the WWW series as a long novel broken up into three volumes rather than as a traditional trilogy. It concerns a young woman who's a genius suffering from blindness and her awkward yet Heinlein-esque family. She's cured, the internet becomes self-aware and takes over the world, she learns to deal with her friends, and society learns to deal with a superior non-human intelligence. There's some very thoughtful philosophical examination about violence and the nature and meaning of life. It's all quite well plotted, and the characters are among Sawyer's most convincing, but somehow it's not among my favorites of his work. Computers took over the world a long time ago, and while I liked many of the human characters I couldn't really identify with them. The first book, Wake, does an excellent of setting up the situation, the second, Watch, lags just a bit but explores the possible scenarios pretty well, and the final book, Wonder (perhaps the most engaging of the three), wraps it all up in a satisfying manner and ends on a pleasing and hopeful note. It's good, well-written science fiction with the speculation tending more to the softer sciences.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Saywer has long been one of my favourite sci-fi authors, I have had a few disappointments with a few of his works in the past. The WWW trilogy's first two books renewed my confidence in RJS and had me eagerly awaiting WWW:Wonder. The final installment though was not quite what I came to expect after reading the first two novels.
The story was definitely entertaining, and continued on logically from where WATCH left off. The characters were all back in some meaningful way, and up until about 3/4 of the way through the novel I was really enjoying it. Then I found there to be a downward turn in the plot. Great science fiction relies on the basis that what is happening is at least plausible. It takes current technology and extrapolates it into something new and believable. Webmind is a good example of taking something we currently have, the internet, and taking it to the next level. (It isn't a far stretch of the imagination to assume that the web and A.I. may at somepoint converge), but I feel that Sawyer went a bit too far at the end.

*Potential Spoilers ahead*



Forget the world changing effects Webmind had on a particular country, which I found was not believable in the slightest, but the commentary of Webmind in the future was extraneous. The story had a satisfactory climax, even in the premise was a bit unbelievable. But to fast forward billions of years was rediculous. Am I, the reader, really to accept the fact that the internet still exists that far into the future? And that webmind is still relevant and functional. Seems too unrealistic to me.

Overall the WWW trilogy was good reading. Personal score is 8/10.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert J. Sawyer brings his WWW trilogy to a satisfying and very definite conclusion in this volume—yes, folks, amazing as it may sound, the man's actually written a trilogy that consists of just three books, no mean feat these days.

I'm assuming you're at least somewhat familiar with the previous installments in Sawyer's series about a nascent world-spanning artificial intelligence that evolves out of World Wide Web network traffic. If not, go back and pick up the first two before even considering this one—this is by no means a standalone novel, and it does depend heavily upon familiarity with its predecessors.

The WWW series is also not the first word on the subject of sympathetic machine intelligences... I'd also recommend (if you have not already done so) reading seminal works like Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, with its protagonist Mike HOLMES; David Gerrold's When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One (either the original or the "2.0" version Gerrold updated later); or—if you can find it—Thomas J. Ryan's The Adolescence of P-1, which gets explicitly acknowledged in WWW:Wonder.

In this installment, the Webmind (as he has styled himself) (and the pronoun is Webmind's choice as well, by the way—Webmind has decided that his gender is male, and who are we to gainsay him?) has awakened and matured, and has already managed to survive at least one serious attempt to end his existence, all with the assistance of his human mentor Caitlin Decter (one of the most complex and interesting fictional teenagers I've ever run across)... but Webmind's long-term survival is by no means assured. The (unnamed, but rather Obama-ish) U.S. President's top advisors are counseling a preemptive strike "while we still can," against the threat of an omniscient electronic dictator, however benign. And all of Webmind's protestations—accurate though they may be—about his dependence upon humanity's continued existence, about his gratitude towards the entities that brought him into being, and about his rational moral stance in general, make no difference to people whose profession is paranoia.

So even though it might seem that all of the conflicts Webmind might have were taken care of in the first two books, that turns out not to be the case. Sawyer knows how to write a taut thriller (to recycle a phrase), and he succeeds in making both Webmind and his humans sympathetic and interesting. There's one scene set at a high-school dance that particularly thrilled me, in which Sawyer manages to come up with a realistic (well, within the context of the story) way to have the underdog triumph, and with a neat turn of phrase to boot.

Although Sawyer's prose is never really lyrical, and he's occasionally blatantly didactic, I found myself eagerly turning pages to find out What Happened Next. He manages to keep his penchant for infodumps to a minimum in this volume, while still including some interesting speculations about humanity's physical and social evolution along the way.

I won't say this book is superior to WWW:Watch—that was the one that really impressed me with its improvement over its predecessor... but WWW:Wonder does deliver the goods, at Internet speed.

[أشرف فقيه · Rating 5 out of 5]

برغم من انها مكتوبة بلغة سهلة وتبدو -في ظاهرها- موجهة للناشئة، ألا أن هذه الثلاثية هي من أروع وأعمق ما قرأت. ليست عمل خيال علمي بقدر ماهي مقاربة فلسفية للسؤال الكبير: ما هي الروح؟ ما معنى الوجود؟ وإذا كان "الوعي" هو الجواب الأبسط والأكثر مباشرة، فإن روبرت سوير يغوص بِنَا لأعماق هذا الوعي، في صورته الاصطناعية الصرفة، وفي وقت يتنازعنا فيها الخوف من السيطرة المتنامية للخوارزم الذكي الواعي الذي يسير تفاصيل حياتنا الالكترونية.

الانترنت باتت اكبر مستودع تراكمي للوعي، وللخبرات. الا يحق لنا ان ننتظر بصبر نافد ظهور كينونة واعية مستقلة الإدراك على هذه الانترنت في أية لحظة؟

الرد التقليدي لهكذا تصور يقتضي القلق من كيان شبكي سيأخذه منطقه المحكم لمعاداة البشر.. على أساس أنهم أقل كفاءة وذكاء وأشد إضراراً بالحياة. لأنهم تتنازعهم عواطف وفطرات مدمرة ولأن سنة التطور الطبيعية تقتضي أن يزيحنا الذكاء الآلي من على قمة هرم السلطة.

هذه الرواية تلعب على تلك الأوتار وسواها.. وتصوغ بشكل باهر حبكة مفادها أن الخير والشر، الحب والكره والتضحية والإيثار والأنانية قيم تحكم عوالم الإنسان والحيوان.. وغيرها من الكينونات التي قد تظهر على مسرح الحياة.. بكل أشكالها المدهشة في تنوعها.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review will SPOIL books one and two in the next paragraph. I loved book three and thought it was easily the best of the set.

One of the things that I was reminded of at the start of the last book and again at the start of this book is just how little time has passed in the series so far. In the course of just a few weeks Caitlin gains sight, Webmind emerges, communication between the two is established, various international intelligence agencies monitor the interaction, Webmind reveals himself to the world and the US defence secretary runs an operation to terminate Webmind. Not to mention all of the events occurring on the peripheral. It's easy to think that months at least have passed but the speed of events is phenomenal and probably appropriate to the digital plot.

I was enjoying the relationships and such in the first two books but I must admit that it was distracting me in this book when all I wanted to find out about at this point was what Webmind was up to! Of course, that would have disappointed many other readers.

The stakes are very high in this one, especially for Webmind but also for those who believe he is an existential threat. Enter Colonel Hume, a cyber security agent from the Pentagon running around trying to recruit black hat hackers to clandestinely take down Webmind. It's great and especially tense reading if you're rooting for Webmind. The agent is exhibiting paranoia and obsession and convincing himself at every turn that Webmind is about to subjugate humanity.

Well, I'm glad with the way this played out. (I think I said that about book two also). What we get is a plot that somehow goes to expected places but doesn't do the expected. I don't know if that explains it well. Maybe I should say that the story does some expected things but the outcomes are unexpected. Anyway, I was pleased with it.

I was however, especially conscious of how many pages were remaining when the story was doing exactly what I wanted it to and there was still over half the book to go. A bad omen and a reminder to put my seatbelt on.

If you made it to book three you hopefully aren't going to be deterred by it, but you might be hoping that it was all wrapped up in book two, so FYI there's suicide stuff in this one too. It sucks to read but it is important to the story and how Webmind learns to think.

Also difficult to read is 16 year old Caitlin's sex life. I never like sex scenes and really this story didn't actually make us read through any sex scenes but it was talked about several times and it came pretty close. I was unable to enjoy any of that.

I began to feel like there was a little bit of fat shaming going on, except that it wasn't exactly shaming it was just that it was commented on a lot for one particular character. Almost every time he reappeared in the narrative it seemed that his size was mentioned.

Now, about people believing that they are actually talking to Webmind. Fair enough being convinced that he exists, but it seems that beyond finding a way to verify himself at every interaction it would be too easy to be fooled by bots or catfishers and I can't see people trusting so much information to.... oh, wait I suppose I can actually see people doing that. But he goes on talk shows and interacts via online chats and I just think I personally would struggle to differentiate the real slim shady from all those "just imitating."

This probably stems from my lack of understanding but I also struggle to grasp the idea of data packets on the Web becoming anything associated which has the potential to reach consciousness. I expect I'd be more thrilled by the concept if I was better educated on the subject

There are a few other plot points that didn't work for me but to tell you about them I'd have to spoil too much and I don't want to do that. Hyper-vaguely, one of those is that someone gets a slap on the wrist from the POTUS when they probably should have wound up in Guantanamo.

But those are a few personal quibbles and otherwise I completely bought into the rest of how Sawyer made this work, truly.

On a much lighter note, I wanted to share a quote of perhaps one of the most face-palm worthy lines in the book. Context: the conversation at the time was about Webmind's origin and comparing it with human origins...

"Caitlin walked over to the laptop and did so—thinking briefly that if it brought up a 404 error, it’d be the missing link."

Ha! This joke is so "dad" that I can't believe it got through editing. It's right up my alley for strange humour.

And that's all folks. I definitely recommend this series. It has a couple of issues in style but it is a fascinating scenario overall and it is full of wisdom.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Wonder' is the third and final volume in the series. It faithfully continues the formula of following an emergent AI through the eyes of a previously blind High School girl, converting high concept SF into something sweet and human, even somewhat juvenile. As usual, the author seasons it thoroughly with little science nuggets.

This installment is by far the most suspenseful, as the 'life' of our beloved AI is threatened on several fronts, and there are many clues that it is far darker than it seemed.

I was moved to tears by the ending, which was extravagantly sweet. This installment had even better thoughts on game theory, but became even more silly about the high school girl. There was a very silly scene where her dorky boyfriend had to push her down the street in the office chair, to give her the feeling of speed, so that she could go faster in the visual representation of the web, so that she could break through the "Great Firewall of China, a severing of connections between the rest of the world in China.

I continue to protest the premise of where the AI gets its resources, and his thoughts on what could cause a self-consciousness to arise. Granted, he has many credentials in the area, but it's still hypothetical till it happens, and I am convinced that there must be a self-centred drive. When the machine must calculate what helps it reach its goals, that's when it must contemplate the notion of 'self' and begin to improve the powers of that self to reach its goals. I predict that will be consciousness or something very much like it.

[Michael Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sawyer builds on the web that he wove during the second book in the trilogy as governments and individuals struggle to cope with the reality of the internet having come to life. The pacing of the novel is on par with WATCH, but with the complex back-story is already in place the novel is able to leap from place to place and so it feels like a more nimble read. As Sawyer's characters explore the new world that dawns with the AI now omnipresent, the story explores the ramifications of our behaviour: dry scientific theories are brought to life as analogies are drawn between them and the bloody reality of humanity, all-too-likely hostile reactions are juxtaposed against the possible benefits of such an AI, humanity's constant choice between violent self-interest and peaceful community relationships is starkly laid out, and yet none of the discussions or events seem forced or contrived. True to form, the complex web of Sawyer's story converges on a thrilling climax that rattles the reader immediately before and epic ending that will not be easily forgotten.

[John Carter McKnight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert J. Sawyer embodies the reasons why many of us were drawn to science fiction, way back when: as the title of the book expresses, "wonder." In this sweet, sympathetic conclusion to his emergent-AI trilogy, Sawyer gives us a book-length "it gets better" video, from school bullying to governmental tyranny to fear of change and each other.

Caitlyn Decter continues to grow up, perhaps the most sweetly real teenage character in SF history (I totally fantasy-cast her as the young woman who plays Alexis on Castle: they've got the same tentative-but-steady maturity and math geekiness).

Some of the ideological set-pieces are the most fun scenes of the book: a global coming-out of a closeted minority, a schoolyard fight, a couple swift debates between Webmind and Caitlyn's mom, over human moral progress.

Some of the story's edge is blunted by Sawyer's sweetness (one political calling-on-the-carpet scene seemed unrealistically short on wrath), but for classic Roddenberry-esque faith in human goodness, you can't beat Wonder.

[Dunja MacAlister · Rating 5 out of 5]

The entire series is absolutely amazing. I finished this last book in two days. It's everything you want from a story about a peaceful AI. I especially loved the mystery about the hackers and the pleasant surprise that came after, and honestly the ending had me crying. The world, as is right now, needs a Webmind.

[Lars Dradrach · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars for this novel 3.5 for the whole trilogy

Writing an optimistic positive story about the emergence of an AI in WWW, is no small feat and a big part of this trilogy's appeal.

Unfortunately the YA story about a teenage girls love life told in a very unconvincing manner drags down the novel and even though Wonder is from 2011 it still feels somewhat aged when dealing with technology issues (which is a big part of the novel).

It's interesting to see how Sawyer joins up with the notion of the time, that the Web with it's instant worldwide Communication automatically would force a change towards a more democratic and liberal world, I'm reading The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom at the moment where that exact misconception is laid to rest.

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose not to review these three installments of the WWW trilogy separately as it is clear that they are three parts of one complete story as opposed to, say, Margaret Atwood’s “Addam trilogy” in witch each installment is a parallel narrative.

The first part “WAKE” is a scenario based upon a blind young girl who, due to chance circumstance of being chosen to have an experimental device installed behind one of her eyes so that she can gain sight, becomes in effect, one component that permitted the awakening of a self-conscious entity withing the tangle of the World-Wide-Web. In a sense, it is a reboot of Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Hard Mistress” type story.

This element, along with two other sub-plots: one involving a bird flu in China and how a blogger attempts to break through the sybor-wall the Chinese government had put up I order to block foreig media, as well as another involving a hybrid between a Bonobo and a Chimpanzee are really well executed with believable technical detail. What was not so convincing (for me anyway) was the character of the blind teenager herself (Miss Cathrina). Her reaction to the opportunity of gaining sight, for one... Granted, Sawyer has an impairment of his own in this area: he is not a blind man, therefore, has no real experience with being blind and can only guess as to how a blind-since-birth teenage girl would react to such a proposal. The way her parents reacted, however, seemed about right.

The idea did force me to consider some interesting thoughts: I surely don’t know what it is like to be bind. I too can only guess what it would be like to be blind and then, at some time later in life, after having developed all kinds of skills to cope with that fact, suddenly be given the ability of sight. Perhaps one might have no interested in having sight, if they have never known it. I, myself, am not big on change. If something is working for me, I tend to be happy with keeping things as they are. Suppose, however, one who is blind since birth did acquire the ability to see. Would they want to have it taken away?

It is obvious that Robert J. Sawyer does his research thoroughly, so this must have suited some blind individuals as a plausible reaction.

I also had problems with the rendering of her character. The sterio-typical teen idioms she used in her speech. Her geekyness augmented by a love for hockey (of all things...) This book was written around 2007 and I happen to have a teenage girl living in my own house at that time and she, nor any of her friends were anything at all like this character. Granted, Sawyer had an impairment in this area: he’d never been a teenage girl, therefore, has no real experience with it and can only guess as to how a teenage girl would react. But perhaps there could have been such a person.

All this aside, though I cringed (many times) at what she said or thought, I allowed to accept her for what she was for sake of the story. Besides, Miss Cathrina is not the star of this show. The star is: the World Wide Web entity they eventually call Webmind.

The set up is a bit tedious but once you get past it, a really good platform has been erected where Sawyer can stage many good discussions on various sociopolitical subject matters as well as the potential trouble or benefits that comes with the access and sharing of too much information.

The second part “WATCH” continues seamlessly with the now sighted teen with boyfriend and her parents. This episode is padded with much insightful yet extremely geeky dialogue of Darwinian evolution, game theory and the true meaning of consciousness. It is also where the reality of the situation comes to pass: Will humanity accept such a thing as an entity that has access to everyone and anything? Is this an Orwellian Big Brother? Or is it something else?

It is during the third part “WONDER” that the action is amped up as everything wraps up to a tight satisfying, if not overly idealized, conclusion.

I have been reading many less notable H.G. Wells novels lately, and this seemed a modern take on Well’s utopian novels. Regardless of a few ultra-geeky scenes and some unbelievable characters, Robert J. Sawyer, like his predecessor Arthur C. Clarke, is always a good hearted optimist.

This was a fine romp through the bowels of the internet via the eye of a young Texan girl living in Waterloo, Ontario. By the way, I listen to the whole thing; all three novels, by way of a Blackberry Curve.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Very readable, if overly preachy, as usually. I do like the central message, which is that a win-win outcome is possible in the information age, if we just believe it is. But there are a few rants that are as annoying as ever (Caitlin's Dad's lecture about why sexting is ok is just absurd) and the teen romance is unnecessarily rushed and uncomfortable, despite a few sweet moments. Wrapping up Hobo's involvement seemed really promising for a while, then petered out. And the big huge surprise was, um... a fun but totally unrealistic idea. I don't know, I just feel like it got away from him. He was trying to make a big point and he tried to make it so big that he lost the reality of it. But it's nice to see a story with a positive spin, debates about morality, and serious themes carried out in generally entertaining ways, that's my favorite kind of sci-fi. There is a lot of meat here, just not as much as the author thinks there is, and the story that carries it isn't quite as strong as it could or should be either. It's good, better than average, but not in my great pile. And I always get rubbed wrong by the author's bio, and reading it immediately following the story has probably made this review a bit more negative than it may otherwise have been. Something about the way he lists his many, many awards just strikes me as really arrogant. I don't know why, he's earned the honors. Read it for yourself, see what you think. But I've ended up feeling that way ever time I've read one of his books, so there is something in how that bio is worded, or in how darn long the thing is...

[Brian Layman · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the first two novels, this novel wasn't so much the story of Web Mind, but the usurping of the storyline for the purpose of making political statement. Using the term "usurping" is perhaps unfair as the point of the story may have, from the start, been to express pride in Canada's achievements and expound upon the moral superiority of Sawyer's convictions. What was only an undertone in the previous two books, and to a lesser degree FlashForward, was at a completely different level in this book. It broke the consistency of the series in my mind.

The author was so blatant in this as to label, as jerks, everyone who would have advised against the underage sex scene. Never mind that the two sixteen year old virgins had met for the first time only two months earlier and were in the midst of an extremely emotional situation. In my mind, tolerance should mean that you can accept people of differing opinion without unilaterally dismissing them with a label, thereby gaining the superiority to describe them as intolerant. But then I am being distracted from the point of this review which was to give the book 1.5 stars.

[The Resistance Bookclub]

(review of all three books)
I am really conflicted on this series and cannot possibly give it any rating. I read the entire trilogy in one evening after seeing it on a list of novels with autistic characters. The series is certainly entertaining and I wouldn't have read all three if there wasn't something to enjoy about it but I have some notes.
I cannot judge the representation of blindness in the novel, but I am very critical of all kinds of cure narratives. They are inherently ableist but in this case the cure narrative is what kicks off the interesting speculative plot in the first place. I'd rather have you listen to an actual blind person on their opinion about this part, I am absolutely not qualified for this, just uncomfortable based on my autistic perspective on the general trope of "curing" people.
Now for the Autism rep... I am conflicted on this. Here are the good parts:
The autistic character is an adult! This really combats the stereotype that all autistic people are children (that might or might not grow out of it). The autistic character is a husband and father! He is shown to be a functioning adult with a family life, basically unheard-of in autistic media. He is also very accomplished in his job field and respected within the scientific community! Some chapters are from his perspective showing the misunderstandings of allistic people! He is referred to as autistic, which is the correct way to refer to us (not people with autism or people with very mild high functioning Asperger).
Now, the negative: There is a very ableist conversation in the first book about the protagonist having "dodged a bullet" for not being autistic and something implying blindness and autism to be mutually exclusive because of eye-contact problems (?????). There is a moment where it looks like the autistic character would show some Autism Pride and it turns out to be a red herring and is actually about Atheism. Autism is a main conflict within the first book, the protagonist only learning her father is autistic after gaining sight. I personally found the scene of the revelation hilarious because I am a sucker for misunderstandings but it is kind of messed up the main family conflict comes from the character thinking her father doesn't love her because she doesn't know he just expresses love very differently. I felt really weird about this. On the positive note about that, in later instalments the author makes sure to include scenes where alternative love language is presented.
One additional point I kind of disliked is that a portion of the novels does not feel like speculative fiction but like the author showing of how smart he is by having characters explain all these smart concepts and discuss politics. While I do love some real science in my sci-fi and some politics, it felt forced most of the times.

[Whitney (SecretSauceofStorycraft) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, worst book of the trilogy.

The things I can say did NOT work for can probably be summed up quickly.
1- the monologues (yes multiple) that were supposed to be the climax of the trilogy was nothing if not preachy and gagged me with his western political agendas that I did NOT think fit with the AI.
2- the AI wasnt as nuanced or real as I would have liked. He didnt make any blunders in terms of understanding social behavior and didnt address motivations or boredom that waiting on humanity would have been— making it more superficial than I would have liked.
3- this whole trilogy couldnt decide which audience he was writing to. Teenagers or adults? Atheists or believers? Tech advocates or the wary? This is a concern because it leaves everyone less than satisfied. I would not recommend it to teens as he seems to handle sex scenes very poorly (why is main character required to have sex?? And to have her autistic father go off on her mother mid book saying ppl can do what they want sex wise, was just….. really poor taste)


As the trilogy went on I enjoyed each book less which is sad because he did have some cool things to say about AI and consciousness—- but the muck you have to wade through, especially in this book— made it not worth picking up.

[MasterSal · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Well - this was a lovely end to an optimistic trilogy about the emergence of AI on the net. I have never read something so optimistic about the potential for AI which did not come out of a corporate catalogue. In that, this made me really smile. I also loved our cast in this book, human, AI and otherwise.

Well worth checking out - 1/2 star docked because this made me even sadder about IRL though. Does that have much to do with the book? No, but I wish this view of humanity is justified as we go along this year and beyond.

[Irene Grumman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The web has achieved consciousness. Through a young woman's internet-enabled device, the web communicates, first to the protagonist, then to the world. The story held my interest through the effects on the heroine and her family.

Robert J. Sawyer bases this, as most of his novels, on his own experience as a teacher of science, and his voracious research. His sci-fi draws on biology rather than engineering, and has won Hugo and Nebula awards over the years.

Now I have to read the first two in the series. (I often pick my reading from the New Books section of my local library.)

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still the Sense of Wonder and the What If for which I read SF. Sawyer's got some great ideas and it's so much fun thinking about them that I totally forgive the flaws.

And, yes, there are flaws. For example, I'm not convinced of Caitlin's authenticity, and there are loose threads even at the end, and I'm not quite the optimist that Sawyer is about some ppl's ability to see reason and change their minds, and I'd like to see that certain characters are vegetarians because they're all up on other, related, enlightened viewpoints....

But I still had a blast reading this trilogy, and I recommend it, especially to other fans of old school style SF, and I will continue to read more of Sawyer's works.

"There's no drive to survive in biology. Yes, things that survive will be more plentiful than those that don't. But that's just a statistical fact, not an indicator of desire."

"There's a definite moral arrow through time--and, as a matter of fact, it's all due to game theory." (Read on from there for a mostly convincing exposition as one character explains their reasoning to another.)

[Evie · Rating 5 out of 5]

***Originally posted to: Bookish Blog

Wonder is the final book in Robert J. Sawyer’s WWW Trilogy about Webmind, the vast consciousness that spontaneously emerged from the World Wide Web. It was a fitting and perfectly satisfying ending to the series. Fans will be very pleased with how well Sawyer ties up all the loose ends, making it clear that this was a well thought out and thoroughly researched story.

After discovering the existence of Webmind, the US government tried but failed to exterminate him. Now, that Webmind made it very clear that he is devoted to assisting the humanity and helping it thrive rather than sabotaging or harming it, most people came to trust him and they often seek his advice or even virtual companionship. There are, however, those who consider him to be a threat and they won’t rest until they succeed in “killing” the fast learning AI. But is Webmind really a threat? Is it safe to trust him? What will happen next?

As with Watch, you can pick up a copy of Wonder and start reading without having to read the previous books in the series and you will have no problem following the plot. It’s written in a way that allows each book in the trilogy to stand on its own. Sawyer smoothly introduces all the important events from the previous books, without detracting from the flow of the story. But of course, reading the series as a whole is strongly recommended. There are plenty of subtleties and nuances to savor which you really don’t want to miss. The dialogues are very natural and often humorous. The storyline is spiked with a whole lot of fascinating scientific information and curiosities that enrich the plot and are served in an easy-to-digest way.

Curious what others thought about Wonder, I read quite a few reviews and was surprised to see that many people found this final installment to be not as good as the previous ones, or even disappointing. Frankly, I don’t really understand what their opinions are based on. I was very pleased with the way the story unraveled. I liked the way the plot threads expanded and intertwined with each other. Every piece of the puzzle fell into the right place, creating a complete and unforgettable picture. What pleased me the most, though, was the way Sawyer ended this epic tale about the evolved consciousness of the Internet. I wouldn’t call it a cliffhanger, although it had a similar astonishing effect on me. It left me speechless and I found myself pondering the possible outcomes of something similar to Webmind emerging in our world. This book made me think and, well, wonder… And isn’t this exactly what a good story is supposed to do?

I loved all the characters in this story, especially Webmind. They’re all vivid and three-dimensional. I found it very easy to get emotionally attached to them, which made following their stories even more enjoyable. I’m so thankful to Sawyer that he didn’t go for creating a dystopian vision of the future in which Webmind turns out to be the worst thing ever happened to mankind. We’ve all seen Matrix, Terminator and Space Odyssey, as well as a hundred other movies/books in which the artificial intelligence eventually turns against the humans and decides to exterminate us. We don’t really need yet another retelling of the same old story, right? And so I’m really glad that this book is so unique and fresh in its take on this subject. Sawyer pained a potentially wonderful future and I often found myself wishing I could live in that era to witness that kind of technological progress.

Overall, this was a great read. I had wonderful time devouring all three books in the WWW Trilogy and can’t wait to check out more of Robert’s works. He’s a marvelous writer, well deserving of all the awards he won. I said it before and I will say it again: this is easily one of the best SF series ever!

[Tim Chaplin · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the first two books in the trilogy I wasn’t sure how the story of Webmind and Caitlin Decker who discovered him would finish. I was worried that I might be disappointed by the outcome. Webmind is an artificial intelligence that evolved from the internet. Caitlin Decker is a young girl who was once blind until she was given sight by a device that she calls an EYE pad. The device was originally meant to fix problem with her sight that she had had from birth, giving her vision back in one eye but Caitlin discovers that she can actually see the internet itself.

These books ask the question of what would happen if there was a form of artificial intelligence running the internet? The US government security services do their best to shut it down after failing once before to close it down. Colonel Peyton Hume cannot see that Webmind is a force for good and uses all means necessary to eliminate it. China has already raised a firewall once before to cover up the outbreak of a virus and the killings of those infected to control the spread of the virus. They are seeking to make the firewall permanent again but they have a hacker in their midst who has already opened up holes in the firewall.

These series of books have some interesting ideas. There are many examples of the benefits of crowd sourcing: people coming together to write open source software, seek help in building new devices from off the shelf electrical parts and scientists sharing ideas. This book seeks to take it further by the idea of people making decisions instead of government. However, sometimes I think that Sawyer is rather too positive about the benefits of technology. Social networks have been growing stronger but can we rely on groups of people making decisions on important subjects that affect us all? E-democracy has been used to seek individual’s opinions in focus groups before but it doesn’t meant that everyone’s voice is heard as their representatives may just be interpreting the results to achieve their own ends. The recent Egyptian revolt in 2010 used social media to challenge the government and has been a positive force for change. On the other hand only those who have access to this technology can participate. Equally popular polls could end in controversial decisions such as capital punishment being re-instituted after years of informed debate and legal precedent outlawing it in most western democracies.

What would also happen if an artificial intelligence could find a cure for Cancer and other complex issues through the co-operation of scientists, doctors and experts? This could be a positive thing but I could also see there being a backlash by the multinationals that manufacture and control the supply of drugs and products in a capitalist free market. Software companies would equally be upset if an artificial intelligences started putting 'verified by Webmind' on safe searches instead of their own security software.

Robert Sawyer continues to speak about technology subjects across the world and has consulted for companies like Google and Motorola. He has managed to keep my attention over this series of books through the interesting characters he has created and I hope he continues to write more thought provoking future science fiction stories.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's readable, there's a strong sense of drive, and Sawyer is a technically proficient writer with some great (even audacious) ideas. But a lot about this book rubbed me the wrong way.

The first problem is that not a lot happens, and when it does, it's usually ignored or downplayed or underdeveloped. There's never any sense of danger--if something needs to happen to our characters, it just does. There's no struggle or adversity. There are no stakes. There are a lot of red herrings that suggest a hint of drama or intrigue, but they all just fizzle. Worse, this is the third part in a trilogy. 900 pages total, with about 3-400 pages' worth of actual plot. The cynic in me smells a money-grab, but let's not listen to him.

Then there are personal nitpicks. Sawyer is so enamoured of his creation (Webmind) that he doesn't stop to check if his reader is along for the ride. I grew increasingly wary of Webmind as the book went on--his character doesn't change, so that's not a spoiler--but Sawyer spends no time making Webmind feel trustworthy or even that intelligent. Webmind decides (after watching Star Trek II in a previous book) that strict act utilitarianism is a flawless moral philosophy (!). He then goes on to agree that our sense of morality is becoming more "accurate" or sensible over time (!!). Plus Webmind arrives at these conclusions without providing any evidence whatsoever (or even calling it 'utilitarianism'). It's clear Sawyer can't conceive of other, non-Spock-derived approaches to ethics, and didn't bother researching any of the many that exist in the real world. I wouldn't belabour this point, but the majority of the book hinges on this decision, which happens off-screen and with no rational explanation, to support an obviously fraught moral philosophy. If Webmind is so smart, why didn't he forge a new school of philosophy? Or at least adopt the infinitely more preferable negative utilitarianism?

Another problem is Caitlin, who used to be the main character. Especially coming off Tomorrow, When The War Began, which featured complex, realistic, breathing teenagers, Caitlin seems like an old white dude's stereotypical impression of a teenager. She says w00t and 'made out of awesome' and has no emotions or moods whatsoever, but plenty of dad jokes. I know teenagers in real life and none of them are like this. This all just breaks my heart because I used to love Sawyer's books. Either I'm outgrowing him, or he's writing the same damn book over and over and I'm getting tired of reading it.

Anyway, beyond that, the usual Sawyer problems abound--glib, one-dimensional characters that serve strict utilitarian purposes (ha); as mentioned above, everything happens too easily, with no threat or menace; Sawyer's optimism is too optimistic about optimism itself (i.e. he thinks the path to world peace is pretty easy, when it's not); and his sense of humour makes me cringe as much as his botched philosophy (think a more-erudite, heavily-70s-referencing Big Bang Theory i.e. bad jokes that are made even worse by how outdated they are).

There are worse books out there, but I sure as hell can't be bothered finding them.

[Annie Feng · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read all three books. The first two were good enough but the third had a disturbingly unsatisfying ending. Seriously, one of the worst finishes to any trilogy I've ever read. Also, I really dislike what (SPOILER ALERT HERE BTW) Webmind did with the Chinese government. I'm not taking offence because I'm Asian, but because this is showing the antagonist in any regular science-fiction novel (the machine) as an antagonist. And the antagonist here isn't America, but a second-world country. So on the contrary if this machine were to be discovered by some blind math genius girl in CHINA (which is far more statistically likely by the way), then they might be taking down America for not giving its people the proper choices and poor education.

I guess what I'm saying is that from a political and global perspective, this book is far too single-minded and uninformed. Oh yeah and the epilogue. Why the epilogue? I guess it's just their for some emotional effect? Overall baffled and confused with the ending.

Another plot hole here: Our lovely protagonist can VISUALIZE the connections in webspace. Doesn't mean her telekinesis (if such a thing exists) can manipulate firewalls or whatever. It's like if you're watching something on a movie screen. (Warning: Harry Potter spoiler here) You can WILL Dumbledore to not die, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily going to happen.

Terrible ending to a perfectly good premise.

[Adamsloj]

Kumulacja Aj

Sfabularyzowany Harrari powraca w finale serii WWW. Czy dotychczasowy wątek romantyczny może się poprawić? Czy dysocjacja osobowości jest niebezpieczna? Albo jak bardzo Anglosasi nie lubią Chińczyków i mają kompleks zbawcy? Na to i inne pytania odpowiada omawiana książka i miejmy nadzieje ta recenzja.

Oto nadeszło zakończenie serii WWW Sawyera. Niestety nie udało mi się zdobyć jej w papierze, ale udało się ją zdobyć w innej formie. Niestety wraz z tą zmianą znikło omawiane poprzednio liternictwo. Jednak nie samą formą człowiek żyje, lecz każdym słowem pochodzącym z ust autora.

Choć finał trylogii WWW nie dorównuje drugiej części, to wciąż potrafi pozytywnie zaskakiwać. W „WWW.Wolność” jednym z jasnych punktów okazuje się wątek romantyczny. Jego naturalny rozwój prowadzi do satysfakcjonującego finału, który skręca w zaskakującym kierunku.

Robert J. Sawyer pokazuje w nim praktyczne zastosowanie liberalnych haseł o obserwatorze. Jest to zaprezentowane w bardzo ciekawy, a zarazem realistyczny sposób. Obserwacja rozwiązuje powracający od pierwszego tomu problem i jest to niezwykle satysfakcjonujące.

Autor podchodzi do tego jednak idealistycznie. W końcu działa to tylko, gdy obserwowanego i jego otoczenie to obchodzi. W dodatku te same mechanizmy funkcjonują w dużo większej skali w sposób negatywny. A jeśli zwykła obserwacja może przeradzać się w fale nienawiści w internecie, to trudno uwierzyć, że sama w sobie jest wystarczająca.

Również w innym wątku globalna wioska, internetowa agora i obserwacja okazuje się taką idealistyczną odpowiedzią. Wręcz obiektywny (przez teorię gier) Webmind, jak można dowiedzieć się nawet z opisu, bawi się w zbawcę. Krótko mówiąc – Sawyer przywraca, zgubiony w tomie drugim, wątek chiński.

W obliczu blurba jest to nieco zabawne, bo książka robi z tego wielką tajemnicę. O tym, co robi Webmind, dowiadujemy się oczami naszego sceptycznego agenta dopiero w finale. Całość pisana jest wręcz, jak kryminał albo thriller. Jednak przez decyzje wydawnicze cały ten wysiłek spełza na niczym z racji na opis.

Trzeba jednak przyznać, że to co robi Webmind jest ciekawe. Podejrzewam tutaj inspirację klasyczną koncepcją globalnej wioski, bądź inspiracje z „Króla Maciusia” od Cixin Liu. „Era Supernowej” prezentuje podobną koncepcję, którą naprawdę warto przeczytać, nawet jeśli by zajrzeć do obu książek tylko do tych fragmentów.

Jednak w tym idealistycznym podejściu do internetowej demokracji mamy wciąż łyżkę dziegciu. I niestety nie jest to jedyna na półce słoików z miodem tomu 3. W tym przypadku mamy do czynienia z ingerencją w sprawy wewnętrzne Chińskiej Republiki Ludowej.

Bez względu, jak bardzo uważa się je za zbrodniczy kraj, to zwyczajnie jest to niesmaczne. W pewnym stopniu Webmind staje się tutaj prorokiem „końca historii” Fukujamy. W książce w tle pozostają wybory w USA i w nich Webmind nawet litery nie zmieni. Jednak kreuje się na obrońcę ludzi w Chinach.

Jak jest naprawdę? Robert J. Sawyer stara się wykreować Webminda na postać pozytywną, jednak ta ingerencja w Chiny nie wynika z czystego altruizmu. Nasza niby dobroduszna sztuczna inteligencja robi to z czysto egoistycznych pobudek – ChRL ma determinacje i możliwości, żeby zwyczajnie mu zaszkodzić.

W poetyckim rymie do pierwszej części Chiny ponownie stawiają Wielki Firewall. Tym razem nie rodzi się świadomość, a dysocjacja osobowości Webminda. Ten głupieje i jego połowa zostaje seryjnym samobójcą na kanwie wcześniejszej traumy.

Mimo tego i egoistycznych pobudek żaden z tych problemów nie został zaadresowany z poziomu moralnego. Jego dysocjacja posłużyła tylko jako argument, żeby Amerykanie go nie zabijali, bo trochę to potrwa i coś podobnego lub gorzej może się powtórzyć. A poza tym jego dysocjacja i jej ofiary pozostały TAJEMNICĄ.

W sumie to nie jest łyżka dziegciu. To coś bardzo nieprzyjemnego, szczególnie gdy Webmind, jako ostatecznie główny bohater tej serii ma być tym dobrym. Ten sam problem występował w serii „Kosiarze” Neala Shustermana. Thunderbird był kreowany na Boga i wręcz „niezbadane są Jego wyroki i nie do wyśledzenia Jego drogi” (Rz 11, 33). A jego zachowanie również zasługiwało na etyczną analizę.

Jednak, by przejść do nieco przyjemniejszych elementów – widzimy wciąż rozwijający się transhumanizm, który przybiera najróżniejsze formy. Rozwijane są wszczepy oparte na technologii, którą dostała Caitlin. Dyskusje wokół tego pokazują problem perspektywy w demokratyzacji, jako procesowi humanizacji, który łączy się często z selektywną dehumanizacją (np. problem aborcji). A to wszystko w połączeniu spostrzeżeniu, że w sumie Webmind ani żaden algorytm AI nie jest robotem.

W bardzo ciekawy sposób Robert J. Sawyer konfrontuje jego teraźniejszość z przyszłością. A ta przyszła czasem już dziś – wielu ludzi wraz z pojawieniem się LLMów zaczęła z nich korzystać z nich zamiast wyszukiwarek. Niestety dla tych użytkowników, te modele generatywne nie są Webmindem. Jednak Sawyer dobrze przewidział trend w korzystaniu z takich usług.

W tym przewidywaniu, a być może swojej niewiedzy, przemycił także kolejny element wspólny dla LLMów i Webminda – brak poszanowania do praw autorskich. Webmind stanie na barkach gigantów przypisał Newtonowi, nie Bernardowi z Chartes. Ale podobne fikołki można znaleźć w innych sprawach – Webmind wyłącznie przez dokumenty archiwalne, które pewnie nawet jeszcze nie były zdigitalizowane, odkrył prawdziwą tożsamość Kuby Rozpruwacza. Takie bajki tylko, jeśli ktoś nie wie, jak działa historia.

Mimo tych zabawnych i optymistycznych uchybień Robert J. Sawyer w „Wolności” sam ma przynajmniej poczucie humoru. Po EyePadzie (iPad) Caitlin, dostajemy w tym tomie BackBerry (BlackBerry). Nie jest to jedyne, co tu dostaniemy, ale najlepiej poznać te żarty organicznie i samemu.

Ostatecznie nie wiem, czy warto było czytać ponownie tę trylogię. Z pewnością była źródłem wielu przemyśleń, ale przede wszystkim sprawiła, że chce przeczytać coś poważnie podchodzącego do moralności sztucznej inteligencji. Może seria o robotach Asimowa?

Sama ta książka miała największe góry i doły. Mimo tego czytało się ją przyjemnie i w stateczny sposób zamyka tę serię. Niektóre wątki mogą by nieco zmarnowane, jak pisałem, ale nadal Sawyer oferuje nam solidne science-fiction, w którym zaczyna zauważalnie niuansować i krytykować swoje wcześniejsze słowa. Dlatego, mimo swoich wad i konwencji myślę, że warto skończyć trylogię „WWW”.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for enjoyable, but don't forget that this is, as others have said, SF Lite. Despite all the modern stuff, there's a Heinlein-juvenile feeling throughout. Written for smart teens? If so, I think it's done well.

Don't read this except as the third of three.

Plenty of interesting ideas. As is often the case with Sawyer, there are perhaps too many characters who seem to be there so the author can make a point about what they represent. There's a lot of explaining, but a fair bit of it was necessary, and again, if you've read Sawyer before you'll expect it. Sawyer's a liberal, and if you're not down with that go read someone else, you won't like him.

The multiple plotlines gave the book some dimension, and we didn't have to stretch too far to believe in how they came together.

The epilogue (SPOILER ALERT) was disappointing. We are asked to believe that although humans are long gone, the power generators and routers are still humming away and the AIs are still using packet switching to communicate. I'd rather read some good old-fashioned handwaving such as that the AIs decided to collapse the solar system into neutronium to provide power for the clouds of pure intelligence that they have become.

[Sarah (is clearing her shelves) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been a great series!! Very enjoyable, readable and gives the reader lots of ideas of where we could end up. Caitlin spends most of the book trying to defend Webmind from the pessimists and those threatened by his appearance. I was relieved by the cutaway from the Caitlin-loses-her-virginity scene, as I always feel a little squirmily uncomfortable when a male author writes a teenage sex scene (not that female authors don't get themselves into illegal situations with teenagers, but a guy imagining/creating a girl's first sexual experience for his book can be a bit icky for a reader). I thought the ending was interesting, fastforwarding 5 billion years into the future as the sun expands to swallow the solar system - I hope, but don't really believe we (or the planet) will last that long, I'm inclined to think that humans will terminally polute and over populate the planet long before that.

[Claire Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy - I read all three books in four days, so I'm only reviewing this one. "Wake" pulled me in easily with its easygoing prose (Saunders is as readable as King) and its friendly attitude (I kept thinking of Heinlein). It's not literary by any stretch, but it has two things going for it: clever plotting enacted by relatable characters, and enlightening discourse on a wide range of scientific ideas.

I was particularly intrigued by Saunders' reflections on the impact of evolutionary pressure on the emergence of consciousness and character. This, to me, as a physician and psychologist, is one of the most important questions before us as human beings. It was a deeply gratifying surprise to read these ideas in the context of a brisk, engaging and fun set of novels. Check it out!