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Transcension
Damien Broderick has been a leading Australian SF writer since the ‘70s. His novel The Dreaming Dragons was listed in the 100 best novels. His recent nonfiction book, The Spike , is a mind-stretching look at the wonders of the high-tech future. Now in Transcension he brings to life one of the futures he imagined in The Spike , a world pervaded by nanotechnology and governed by artificial intelligence. Transcension may be Broderick’s best book yet.
Amanda is a brilliant violinist, a mathematical genius, and a rebel. Impatient for the adult status her society only grants at age thirty, but determined to have a real adventure first, she has repeatedly gotten into trouble and found herself in the courtroom of Magistrate Mohammed Abdel-Malik, the sole resurrectee from among those who were frozen in the early twenty-first century, the man whose mind was the seed for Aleph, the AI that rules this utopia.
Mathewmark is a real adolescent, living in the last place where they still exist, the reservation known as the Valley of the God of One's Choice, where those who have chosen faith over technology are allowed to live out their simpler lives. When Amanda determines that access to the valley is the key to the daring stunt she plans, it is Mathewmark she will have to lead into temptation.
But just as Amanda, Mathewmark, and Abdel-Malik are struggling to find themselves and achieve their potentials, so is Aleph, and the AI's success will be a challenge to them and all of humanity.
Amanda is a brilliant violinist, a mathematical genius, and a rebel. Impatient for the adult status her society only grants at age thirty, but determined to have a real adventure first, she has repeatedly gotten into trouble and found herself in the courtroom of Magistrate Mohammed Abdel-Malik, the sole resurrectee from among those who were frozen in the early twenty-first century, the man whose mind was the seed for Aleph, the AI that rules this utopia.
Mathewmark is a real adolescent, living in the last place where they still exist, the reservation known as the Valley of the God of One's Choice, where those who have chosen faith over technology are allowed to live out their simpler lives. When Amanda determines that access to the valley is the key to the daring stunt she plans, it is Mathewmark she will have to lead into temptation.
But just as Amanda, Mathewmark, and Abdel-Malik are struggling to find themselves and achieve their potentials, so is Aleph, and the AI's success will be a challenge to them and all of humanity.
- GenresScience Fiction
352 pages, Paperback
First published February 19, 2002
41 people want to read
About the author
Damien Broderick
147 books31 followersDamien Francis Broderick was an Australian science fiction and popular science writer and editor of some 74 books. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction credits him with the first usage of the term "virtual reality" in science-fiction, in his 1982 novel The Judas Mandala.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 21, 2010
While the story kept me turning the pages, there were two things I didn't like that lowered my rating.
1) There were varying speech styles. One was "quaint" and easy to read. One was our English. And one was the "Mall cant" without words like "a" and "the". This last one slowed me down when reading. Ironically, it's hard to go fast when the book leaves out words.
2) The ending. "It isn't all real" feels like a cop out.
1) There were varying speech styles. One was "quaint" and easy to read. One was our English. And one was the "Mall cant" without words like "a" and "the". This last one slowed me down when reading. Ironically, it's hard to go fast when the book leaves out words.
2) The ending. "It isn't all real" feels like a cop out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2018
Well, I seem to be in the minority, but this one just didn’t do it for me, and not just because the plot appears to be recycled Arthur C. Clarke. Nor do I have any particular objection to godlike AIs (although this one seems to be just about omnipotent).
Rather, the problems lie in the style.
In the first place, the story is told pretty much in the first person, switching protagonist as events demand. These switches are clearly labelled, but often the story switches to third person as well, a mechanism I found clumsy.
Most irritating, though, is that the narrative of Amanda (one of the two main characters) is told almost entirely in her deferred-teenage slang, the salient feature of which is the omission of virtually all articles and prepositions, so that it resembles a sort of literally-translated Russian, only worse. I found it very, very wearing to read. Neither did I find Amanda herself a convincing character; it takes more to portray a musician and her concerns than listing a bunch of violin concertos accurately.
More interesting was the religious enclave that has voluntarily renounced technology, rather like the Amish; although they’re referred to in the book, rather inaccurately, as Luddites (the original Luddites didn’t have anything against technology per se, they just didn’t want to be put out of work). A nice touch is that they don’t realise that a lot of their environment is technologically altered anyway (like the obviously genetically engineered mule Ebeeneezer, who for me is the most sympathetic character in the book). I rather liked Matthewmark, as well.
But on balance, I can’t recommend this. Don’t take my word for it, read the other reviews.
Rather, the problems lie in the style.
In the first place, the story is told pretty much in the first person, switching protagonist as events demand. These switches are clearly labelled, but often the story switches to third person as well, a mechanism I found clumsy.
Most irritating, though, is that the narrative of Amanda (one of the two main characters) is told almost entirely in her deferred-teenage slang, the salient feature of which is the omission of virtually all articles and prepositions, so that it resembles a sort of literally-translated Russian, only worse. I found it very, very wearing to read. Neither did I find Amanda herself a convincing character; it takes more to portray a musician and her concerns than listing a bunch of violin concertos accurately.
More interesting was the religious enclave that has voluntarily renounced technology, rather like the Amish; although they’re referred to in the book, rather inaccurately, as Luddites (the original Luddites didn’t have anything against technology per se, they just didn’t want to be put out of work). A nice touch is that they don’t realise that a lot of their environment is technologically altered anyway (like the obviously genetically engineered mule Ebeeneezer, who for me is the most sympathetic character in the book). I rather liked Matthewmark, as well.
But on balance, I can’t recommend this. Don’t take my word for it, read the other reviews.
April 14, 2022
Chock full of modern and inventive words and future tech the main problem being the lack of any surprises and how anyone already familiar with the singularity and associated community will know pretty much exactly what is going to happen.
March 19, 2010
My friend the God Ghanesh & I interviewed Damien Broderick at his home in Australia in June 2000 less than 2 yrs before this bk was published. The very slightly edited interview is online here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhiGt9...
In it, Broderick talks about nanotechnology & immortality & the Spike of rapid change, & the delusion of thinking that 'reality' is stable, etc.. This SF novel grows out of many of the same ideas.
I was more conscious than usual while I was reading it of how inter-related my reading circumstances were to the content of the bk. I'd just finished reading Pamela Sargent's "Watchstar" in wch a girl protagonist is facing her coming-of-age in an environment in wch a major shift is about to take place. Then I read this "in wch a girl protagonist is facing her coming-of-age in an environment in wch a major shift is about to take place." Simultaneously, I've been very slowly reading Theodore Draper's "The Roots of American Communism"'s discussion of the transition in the US from socialism to communism (another rite of passage).
There's been far more snow than usual in Pittsburgh, where I live, for 5 wks straight. As I started reading this, the snow melted & we've gone straight into Spring - this, in the middle of March - about a mnth earlier than usual. Even the record that I listened to twice while reading, "Africa - Witchcraft & Ritual Music", seemed to fit right in (even though I can't recall WHY right now).
Perhaps Broderick cd be put in a category similar to that of Greg Bear & Greg Egan. Hard science w/ an imagination leading to the grandiose & an eye for human detail. I was engrossed & entertained. It's always interesting for me when humans imagine paradigm shifts as over-the-top as they can & Broderick does a good job of that here in a way that sneaks up on the reader w/ various inter-related threads that all come together to share a common fate. Of course, this type of interweaving is a basic novelistic approach but a part of its writerly challenge, esp in SF, is to make the threads dramatically technically different for diversity. This is accomplished beautifully w/ protaganist Amanda's Mall contrasted w/ the Valley of the God of One's Choice contrasted again w/ the personal history of Magistrate Mohammed Abdel-Malik.
I admit to being rubbed a bit the wrong way when the killing of Abdel-Malik in the beginning is done by punks. It reminded me too much of an early scene in "Terminator" where punks threaten the newly-arrived-from-the-future nude Terminator (w/o knowing what they were getting into). Having been around punk since its inception & having never once witnessed punks acting in this way, it just seems like a perpetuation of prejudicial stereotypes.
Later, on p 43, Abdel-Malik is interviewed as prophesizing "Sooner or later, machines or tailored organisms will provide all our wants. We'll work only at jobs we choose to accept, as artists dream of doing." I'm fairly sure Broderick believes this (or at least hopes for it) but I don't at all. I prophesize that for every labor-saving device there'll be a human job of increasingly dreary tedium of maintaining & making the machines. It makes me think of automated phone answering labyrinths. A person calls to ask a question & gets routed thru a multiple-choice nightmare that takes entirely too long & doesn't answer the question. Then again, I'm open to reading Broderick's more optimistic version.
On p 70, I was amused by a continuation of this Abdel-Malik interview in wch Florida is mentioned:
"Q. Won't a planet of wealthy ageless people be conservative and terminally dreary, Florida forever?
A. Could be. That's a scary thought."
Nice touch - although cdn't he've picked Canberra instead?
P 288: "Does it matter that what I feel, the "I" who feels it, is no more than a rush of bytes in some memory space, some neural network inside an immense computer that, for all I know, might be in orbit around some star light-years distant [..:]" "Transcension" engages issues of what-constitutes-'reality' that're forever dear to my intellect (& forever unanswered questions). As for the quoted question? Yes, it does matter b/c every possibility is different. HOWEVER, it just may well be that after discovering ourselves to be "a rush of bytes in some memory space" to the distress of our possible illusion of ourselves as something else, a paradigm construct that we may feel more comfortable w/, we may then find that new construct to be equally as illusory ad infinitum. So, no worries, eh?
Good onya meatey!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhiGt9...
In it, Broderick talks about nanotechnology & immortality & the Spike of rapid change, & the delusion of thinking that 'reality' is stable, etc.. This SF novel grows out of many of the same ideas.
I was more conscious than usual while I was reading it of how inter-related my reading circumstances were to the content of the bk. I'd just finished reading Pamela Sargent's "Watchstar" in wch a girl protagonist is facing her coming-of-age in an environment in wch a major shift is about to take place. Then I read this "in wch a girl protagonist is facing her coming-of-age in an environment in wch a major shift is about to take place." Simultaneously, I've been very slowly reading Theodore Draper's "The Roots of American Communism"'s discussion of the transition in the US from socialism to communism (another rite of passage).
There's been far more snow than usual in Pittsburgh, where I live, for 5 wks straight. As I started reading this, the snow melted & we've gone straight into Spring - this, in the middle of March - about a mnth earlier than usual. Even the record that I listened to twice while reading, "Africa - Witchcraft & Ritual Music", seemed to fit right in (even though I can't recall WHY right now).
Perhaps Broderick cd be put in a category similar to that of Greg Bear & Greg Egan. Hard science w/ an imagination leading to the grandiose & an eye for human detail. I was engrossed & entertained. It's always interesting for me when humans imagine paradigm shifts as over-the-top as they can & Broderick does a good job of that here in a way that sneaks up on the reader w/ various inter-related threads that all come together to share a common fate. Of course, this type of interweaving is a basic novelistic approach but a part of its writerly challenge, esp in SF, is to make the threads dramatically technically different for diversity. This is accomplished beautifully w/ protaganist Amanda's Mall contrasted w/ the Valley of the God of One's Choice contrasted again w/ the personal history of Magistrate Mohammed Abdel-Malik.
I admit to being rubbed a bit the wrong way when the killing of Abdel-Malik in the beginning is done by punks. It reminded me too much of an early scene in "Terminator" where punks threaten the newly-arrived-from-the-future nude Terminator (w/o knowing what they were getting into). Having been around punk since its inception & having never once witnessed punks acting in this way, it just seems like a perpetuation of prejudicial stereotypes.
Later, on p 43, Abdel-Malik is interviewed as prophesizing "Sooner or later, machines or tailored organisms will provide all our wants. We'll work only at jobs we choose to accept, as artists dream of doing." I'm fairly sure Broderick believes this (or at least hopes for it) but I don't at all. I prophesize that for every labor-saving device there'll be a human job of increasingly dreary tedium of maintaining & making the machines. It makes me think of automated phone answering labyrinths. A person calls to ask a question & gets routed thru a multiple-choice nightmare that takes entirely too long & doesn't answer the question. Then again, I'm open to reading Broderick's more optimistic version.
On p 70, I was amused by a continuation of this Abdel-Malik interview in wch Florida is mentioned:
"Q. Won't a planet of wealthy ageless people be conservative and terminally dreary, Florida forever?
A. Could be. That's a scary thought."
Nice touch - although cdn't he've picked Canberra instead?
P 288: "Does it matter that what I feel, the "I" who feels it, is no more than a rush of bytes in some memory space, some neural network inside an immense computer that, for all I know, might be in orbit around some star light-years distant [..:]" "Transcension" engages issues of what-constitutes-'reality' that're forever dear to my intellect (& forever unanswered questions). As for the quoted question? Yes, it does matter b/c every possibility is different. HOWEVER, it just may well be that after discovering ourselves to be "a rush of bytes in some memory space" to the distress of our possible illusion of ourselves as something else, a paradigm construct that we may feel more comfortable w/, we may then find that new construct to be equally as illusory ad infinitum. So, no worries, eh?
Good onya meatey!
August 6, 2012
I loved the concept of this book...I even loved the writing. I can't imagine how hard it would be to write this size of a story, all the while keeping the main characters language consistent and, well, unique...Great story
February 18, 2015
I really enjoyed this book and the juxtaposition of two different worlds.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews