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Rule-Set: A Novel of a Quantum Future
In 2060, the notorious hacktivist group, Rule-Set (The Set to Rule You All), threw the US presidential election by seizing control of NETS, (the National Election Tabulation System) and diverting three million votes from the winning candidate. In 2062, Rule-Set topped itself by rootkitting Colossus, the quantum computing backbone of gaming giant Qubig Corporation's first commercial immersive service. Via stored biometric inputs fed to wearable gossamers, immersive computing revolutionized society by enabling subscribers to experience all five senses when gaming and interacting online, both with each other and advanced AIs.
Warned anonymously, the FBI discovered that 42 accounts, each running a software simulation, had been illicitly installed on a quantum computer powerful enough to store data equivalent to 48 times the number of atoms in the universe. The government impounded Colossus, set traps and waited for Rule-Set members to return to the scene of the crime and login. But no one did and no Rule-Set member was ever caught. For a quarter century, the 42 accounts have run with full access to the power of Colossus. Some sims are unchanged, some have died, and some have evolved.
Now something wants out and will kill to escape.
In 2087, Clarence Hamilcar, ex-Marine lieutenant, decorated veteran of The Koumintang War, associate professor of Asian literature studies, and failed tenure candidate at Black Hills University, South Dakota, is flown under contract by the U.S. Army to Waxahachie, Texas. His destination is the Hyperconducting Hyper Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, built on the remains of the Superconducting Super Collider, abandoned in 1993 after the US government spent $2B to excavate 14 miles of tunnels and 17 access shafts 200 feet below the north Texas plains.
Clarence’s contract requires him to immerse and “liaise” with Hanabusa Narihisa, an AI extracted from one of the 42 simulations executing on Colossus. Narihisa's character is based on a Japanese manga and combines combines beauty with a bad temper and a very sharp katana. In the tunnels of the HHC 200 feet below Waxahachie, Clarence and Narihisa will engage in a battle of skill and wits whose prizes are the secrets of Colossus and Rule-Set.
Warned anonymously, the FBI discovered that 42 accounts, each running a software simulation, had been illicitly installed on a quantum computer powerful enough to store data equivalent to 48 times the number of atoms in the universe. The government impounded Colossus, set traps and waited for Rule-Set members to return to the scene of the crime and login. But no one did and no Rule-Set member was ever caught. For a quarter century, the 42 accounts have run with full access to the power of Colossus. Some sims are unchanged, some have died, and some have evolved.
Now something wants out and will kill to escape.
In 2087, Clarence Hamilcar, ex-Marine lieutenant, decorated veteran of The Koumintang War, associate professor of Asian literature studies, and failed tenure candidate at Black Hills University, South Dakota, is flown under contract by the U.S. Army to Waxahachie, Texas. His destination is the Hyperconducting Hyper Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, built on the remains of the Superconducting Super Collider, abandoned in 1993 after the US government spent $2B to excavate 14 miles of tunnels and 17 access shafts 200 feet below the north Texas plains.
Clarence’s contract requires him to immerse and “liaise” with Hanabusa Narihisa, an AI extracted from one of the 42 simulations executing on Colossus. Narihisa's character is based on a Japanese manga and combines combines beauty with a bad temper and a very sharp katana. In the tunnels of the HHC 200 feet below Waxahachie, Clarence and Narihisa will engage in a battle of skill and wits whose prizes are the secrets of Colossus and Rule-Set.
401 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 4, 2014
2 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
Merrill R. Chapman
9 books7 followersRick Chapman is the managing editor and publisher of Softletter. He is the author of "In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters" (Apress), "The Product Marketing Handbook for Software," and "SaaS Entrepreneur: The Definitive Guide to Succeeding in Your Cloud Application Business." Rick has worked and consulted in the software industry for such industry pioneers as MicroPro (WordStar) and Ashton-Tate and consulted for a wide variety of software and high technology firms such as IBM, Novell, Microsoft, Sun and many others.
In his career Rick has worked as a programmer, sales engineer, product manager, and VP of marketing and product management.
Rule-Set: A Novel of a Quantum Future is his first novel.
In his career Rick has worked as a programmer, sales engineer, product manager, and VP of marketing and product management.
Rule-Set: A Novel of a Quantum Future is his first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 6, 2015
Solid But Needs Polishing
Summary
After author Rick Chapman was gracious enough to read and review my first novel, I wanted to return the favor. Plus, Rule-Set sounded intriguing irrespective of any unofficial review swap.
Overall, this book had definite moments of brilliance but suffered from a handful of pitfalls that made it hard to read at times. I almost didn't make it through the beginning third of the novel. Fortunately, the sheer coolness of the core premise combined with the promise-of-things-to-come found in the book summary kept me going. Rewarding me for my patience, the book becomes a real page-turner in the final two-thirds when the plot starts to unfold. However, the end left me a little unsatisfied. I was cheering for the book to merit at least three stars, and it just barely made the cut (I don't post reviews less than three stars).
Below, I've outlined what I think the author did well followed by what I believe could stand improvement, formatted in the way I present my editorial comments in writing critique groups.
Done Well
- The book portrays a top-notch vision of future virtual reality. Of all the holodeck premises out there, this one feels the closest to how things might actually work someday.
- The core concept of the novel--struggling professor of Japanese culture hired by the US Army to crack into a super computer--is one of the more original concepts I've seen. In the modern entertainment world where most everything has been done before, this book is refreshing.
- The research behind the science shows. Everything that happens feels authentic and seems like it could really happen, which is the cornerstone of quality hard science fiction.
- The main protagonist is compelling--by no means lovable but nonetheless compelling. Clarence Hamilcar possesses one of the most unique and interesting backgrounds I've read about. He has clear goals, albeit selfish ones. I tend to better empathize with noble do-gooders, but Hamilcar's aims were realistic and understandable. His character and viewpoint came across with consistency from start to finish, and his knowledge of Japanese culture, his military background, and his familiarity with artificial intelligence combine to create a unique sort of super sleuth.
- The conflicts that arise from interacting with the virtual reality settings in an attempt to solve the mystery of the super computer are the gems of the novel. The back-and-forth between the main protagonist, Clarence, and the main antagonist, Narihisa, is entertaining. I almost came to like Narihisa more than Clarence.
Potential Areas for Improvement
- In my mind, the two interrelated areas that killed the story at times were the (1) slow pacing and (2) verbose descriptions.
- (1) Pacing: The first third of the story, up until the main character interacts with the virtual reality environments, is long-winded and mostly unnecessary setup that doesn't move the plot forward. The author could literally begin the story around the point when Hamilcar arrives at his destination (more than ten chapters in), intersperse setup information from that point forward, and lose very little. The first few chapters show the main character hanging out in town and going about his daily life. A little of that is necessary to introduce the character and world but not multiple chapters of it. Hamilcar endures a couple significant losses in these early chapters that set up his motivation moving forward, but again, that doesn't require multiple chapters. Then we get additional chapters of discussions in his apartment to set up where we already know he's going if we've read the book summary on Goodreads or Amazon. And even when Hamilcar finally makes it to his destination, he spends time hanging out for awhile before getting down to business. This is what's termed "getting there" syndrome, and I see it in a lot of the stories I critique. An author should place focus on the important, high-conflict events and gloss quickly over the low-conflict sequences that only transition the reader between key events. Put another way, a story needs valleys to connect the peaks, but reader interest wanes if those valleys run too deep or last for too long. For example, let's say we're writing a story about someone robbing at a convenience store. It wouldn't be very compelling to start by writing about the main character opening the door to his car, sitting down, sticking the key in the ignition, turning the key, starting the car, putting the car in reverse, looking behind him, backing out of the driveway, putting the car in drive, driving to the first stop sign...you get the idea. The drive to the store has nothing to do with the robbery in the store. Get the guy to the store and show him robbing it. Keep the focus on the main conflict to keep the tension level high.
- (2) Description: When writing a description of a character, setting, or object, or when explaining a concept, the information needs to come within the flow of the story, and only as much information as is needed to move the story forward at that time should be presented. Otherwise, the information becomes an "info dump" as the transgression is sometimes called in creative writing. For example, the reader doesn't need to know all the technical details of particle accelerators to enjoy the story. As a matter of fact, providing too much explanation kills the tension and pulls the reader out. There are places in the book, especially in the first third but all throughout, where the author goes off on multi-page tangents about various topics from technology to Japanese culture to the personal histories of characters. Some readers may forgive the police reports because they find the specific topics interesting, but a work a fiction shouldn't contain segments that read like peer-reviewed technical journal articles. Personally, I have great interest in many of the topics the author covered, yet I still skimmed these parts, skipping ahead to places where the story started to move forward again. Returning to our previous example about robbing a store, the author sometimes does the equivalent of explaining the workings of the internal combustion engine within the robber's car. The reader doesn't care about how the car engine works. Nor is this information relevant to the robbery.
- To sum up these two points, the story would've been much more engaging if the author had moved the pace along more quickly and limited the verbose dumping of descriptions. More to the point, the opening third of the story would benefit from being shortened to a third or maybe even a quarter of the current word count.
- Once the interactions in the virtual reality environments started, my interest level in the story skyrocketed. The author did a masterful job building upon each interaction up to a halfway decent reveal...and then suddenly all hell breaks lose and the story ends without any explanation about what happened. When I turned from the last page of the last chapter to the glossary of terms, I was dumbfounded. I thought I might be missing words or chapters. The book's one saving grace is that this is only the first of a series, so the answers should be coming in subsequent novels. However, I didn't feel as if I got enough questions answered and experienced enough wow factor by the end to feel satisfied. In many series, the main conflict in any one book gets resolved but a larger conflict looms. In this novel, I felt like the core conflict never got resolved. Rather than leaving me wanting more, the end left me questioning whether I want to read book two. Do I have the patience to wait until book three or later if book two still withholds too much?
- Lastly, a professional editor and proofreader could've helped take the book to another level. An editor could've tightened up the pacing and verbosity, and a proofreader could've flushed out the minor mechanical issues. The number one recurring issue I noticed was the misuse of double-quotes with continuing dialog. Sometimes the quotes were missing. Other times there was a closing quote on the preceding prose rather than an opening quote on the next bit of dialog. There were also places were dialog and prose should have been broken up into different paragraphs, or dialog tags should have been included to better identify the speaker. Still, these were minor offenses that didn't impede the story. For not being professionally edited or proofread, the novel is reasonably clean.
Summary
After author Rick Chapman was gracious enough to read and review my first novel, I wanted to return the favor. Plus, Rule-Set sounded intriguing irrespective of any unofficial review swap.
Overall, this book had definite moments of brilliance but suffered from a handful of pitfalls that made it hard to read at times. I almost didn't make it through the beginning third of the novel. Fortunately, the sheer coolness of the core premise combined with the promise-of-things-to-come found in the book summary kept me going. Rewarding me for my patience, the book becomes a real page-turner in the final two-thirds when the plot starts to unfold. However, the end left me a little unsatisfied. I was cheering for the book to merit at least three stars, and it just barely made the cut (I don't post reviews less than three stars).
Below, I've outlined what I think the author did well followed by what I believe could stand improvement, formatted in the way I present my editorial comments in writing critique groups.
Done Well
- The book portrays a top-notch vision of future virtual reality. Of all the holodeck premises out there, this one feels the closest to how things might actually work someday.
- The core concept of the novel--struggling professor of Japanese culture hired by the US Army to crack into a super computer--is one of the more original concepts I've seen. In the modern entertainment world where most everything has been done before, this book is refreshing.
- The research behind the science shows. Everything that happens feels authentic and seems like it could really happen, which is the cornerstone of quality hard science fiction.
- The main protagonist is compelling--by no means lovable but nonetheless compelling. Clarence Hamilcar possesses one of the most unique and interesting backgrounds I've read about. He has clear goals, albeit selfish ones. I tend to better empathize with noble do-gooders, but Hamilcar's aims were realistic and understandable. His character and viewpoint came across with consistency from start to finish, and his knowledge of Japanese culture, his military background, and his familiarity with artificial intelligence combine to create a unique sort of super sleuth.
- The conflicts that arise from interacting with the virtual reality settings in an attempt to solve the mystery of the super computer are the gems of the novel. The back-and-forth between the main protagonist, Clarence, and the main antagonist, Narihisa, is entertaining. I almost came to like Narihisa more than Clarence.
Potential Areas for Improvement
- In my mind, the two interrelated areas that killed the story at times were the (1) slow pacing and (2) verbose descriptions.
- (1) Pacing: The first third of the story, up until the main character interacts with the virtual reality environments, is long-winded and mostly unnecessary setup that doesn't move the plot forward. The author could literally begin the story around the point when Hamilcar arrives at his destination (more than ten chapters in), intersperse setup information from that point forward, and lose very little. The first few chapters show the main character hanging out in town and going about his daily life. A little of that is necessary to introduce the character and world but not multiple chapters of it. Hamilcar endures a couple significant losses in these early chapters that set up his motivation moving forward, but again, that doesn't require multiple chapters. Then we get additional chapters of discussions in his apartment to set up where we already know he's going if we've read the book summary on Goodreads or Amazon. And even when Hamilcar finally makes it to his destination, he spends time hanging out for awhile before getting down to business. This is what's termed "getting there" syndrome, and I see it in a lot of the stories I critique. An author should place focus on the important, high-conflict events and gloss quickly over the low-conflict sequences that only transition the reader between key events. Put another way, a story needs valleys to connect the peaks, but reader interest wanes if those valleys run too deep or last for too long. For example, let's say we're writing a story about someone robbing at a convenience store. It wouldn't be very compelling to start by writing about the main character opening the door to his car, sitting down, sticking the key in the ignition, turning the key, starting the car, putting the car in reverse, looking behind him, backing out of the driveway, putting the car in drive, driving to the first stop sign...you get the idea. The drive to the store has nothing to do with the robbery in the store. Get the guy to the store and show him robbing it. Keep the focus on the main conflict to keep the tension level high.
- (2) Description: When writing a description of a character, setting, or object, or when explaining a concept, the information needs to come within the flow of the story, and only as much information as is needed to move the story forward at that time should be presented. Otherwise, the information becomes an "info dump" as the transgression is sometimes called in creative writing. For example, the reader doesn't need to know all the technical details of particle accelerators to enjoy the story. As a matter of fact, providing too much explanation kills the tension and pulls the reader out. There are places in the book, especially in the first third but all throughout, where the author goes off on multi-page tangents about various topics from technology to Japanese culture to the personal histories of characters. Some readers may forgive the police reports because they find the specific topics interesting, but a work a fiction shouldn't contain segments that read like peer-reviewed technical journal articles. Personally, I have great interest in many of the topics the author covered, yet I still skimmed these parts, skipping ahead to places where the story started to move forward again. Returning to our previous example about robbing a store, the author sometimes does the equivalent of explaining the workings of the internal combustion engine within the robber's car. The reader doesn't care about how the car engine works. Nor is this information relevant to the robbery.
- To sum up these two points, the story would've been much more engaging if the author had moved the pace along more quickly and limited the verbose dumping of descriptions. More to the point, the opening third of the story would benefit from being shortened to a third or maybe even a quarter of the current word count.
- Once the interactions in the virtual reality environments started, my interest level in the story skyrocketed. The author did a masterful job building upon each interaction up to a halfway decent reveal...and then suddenly all hell breaks lose and the story ends without any explanation about what happened. When I turned from the last page of the last chapter to the glossary of terms, I was dumbfounded. I thought I might be missing words or chapters. The book's one saving grace is that this is only the first of a series, so the answers should be coming in subsequent novels. However, I didn't feel as if I got enough questions answered and experienced enough wow factor by the end to feel satisfied. In many series, the main conflict in any one book gets resolved but a larger conflict looms. In this novel, I felt like the core conflict never got resolved. Rather than leaving me wanting more, the end left me questioning whether I want to read book two. Do I have the patience to wait until book three or later if book two still withholds too much?
- Lastly, a professional editor and proofreader could've helped take the book to another level. An editor could've tightened up the pacing and verbosity, and a proofreader could've flushed out the minor mechanical issues. The number one recurring issue I noticed was the misuse of double-quotes with continuing dialog. Sometimes the quotes were missing. Other times there was a closing quote on the preceding prose rather than an opening quote on the next bit of dialog. There were also places were dialog and prose should have been broken up into different paragraphs, or dialog tags should have been included to better identify the speaker. Still, these were minor offenses that didn't impede the story. For not being professionally edited or proofread, the novel is reasonably clean.
October 9, 2014
I think I would do Rule-Set a great disservice by doing one of those bland ‘this happened, then this, and it was cool’ kind of reviews. First, any spoilers would ruin the book for any reader and would certainly ruin the future volumes. Second, that’s just now my style. Instead, let’s look at this in some broad conceptual strokes.
First, genre. Like most good literature, Rule-Set squirms under the attempt to tie it down too closely. In broad terms, it would be best to look at it through the lens of ‘hard science-fiction’. Rule-Set is not afraid to hit the reader with the science of it’s future Earth and, at the same time, isn’t afraid to pull intellectual punches in other arenas as well. This might be considered daunting to some, but the author never leaves the reader dangling. Everything is presented in context so that, while the narrative can be crunchy at times, it never hits a wall of terminology. A good reader won’t be lost as concepts are built on top of concepts to make a logical, integrated whole.
Second, about that ‘science fiction’ thing. This book was obviously extensively researched. The science is all logical extensions of current real world work, bringing a healthy dose of realism to the whole affair. Even through that, the author manages to capture a sense of mystery and wonder as the plot progresses outside of the normal bounds of the main character’s experience. There is a strong hint of something more, beyond the science, but it’s left shrouded in mystery, bidding the reader to continue to debate it in their minds as they are drawn deeper down the book’s rabbit-hole.
Third, pacing. This is an intellectual book, I won’t pull punches there. It is not an action tale. However, Rule-Set is not adverse to bringing tension and drama when it’s needed and more than a bit of full blown action in segments. What this means is that, save for a stretch in the first few chapters as the main character is established, the book retains an excellent dramatic pace. Even that slow first stretch is spiced up a bit by one of the best uses of prologues (chock full of action) I’ve seen in a while.
Oh, and of course, as Rule-Set squirms around genre definitions much like a real quantum particle dodges direct observation, the core of the story is, essentially, a mystery, a mystery that just the surface of what promises to be a nesting doll of other mysteries. It is that mystery that propelled me through the last half of the book in one evening and leaves me drumming my fingers for Volume 2.
There’s one major area I haven’t touched on. The big one … characterization. The author doesn’t drop the ball there, fortunately. It certainly had to be tempting to just not worry about developing character. After akll, there’s a lot of world-building, tech-splaining, and mystery-hiding going on here already. Nope, no sir. Mr. Chapman wisely remembered that the core of ANY story is the characters. There’s no cut-and-dry stock characters here. The main character, especially, follows an interesting arc of swinging highs and lows, only to …. nope. No spoilers! Let’s just put it like this: the man has an arc, a well-realized one that is subtle to start with, but ends with a major hook.
So, let’s sum up.
Rule-Set is a hard sci-fi mystery intellectual drama with some bits of hardcore action. Oh, and possible romantic seeds are strewn. Maybe. MYSTERY DAMMIT! The point is that it’s an excellent book and like all excellent books, it’s many things. I’m a fast reader by nature, but I also have almost no time these days and I still slammed through it in three nights.
That being said, if you have an adverse reaction to hard sci-fi and the tech exposition that it requires as a genre, you may not like it. For anyone else, even if you aren’t big on tech stuff, you should love it.
FINAL VERDICT: ***** (5 stars, I’m full and I still want more!)
First, genre. Like most good literature, Rule-Set squirms under the attempt to tie it down too closely. In broad terms, it would be best to look at it through the lens of ‘hard science-fiction’. Rule-Set is not afraid to hit the reader with the science of it’s future Earth and, at the same time, isn’t afraid to pull intellectual punches in other arenas as well. This might be considered daunting to some, but the author never leaves the reader dangling. Everything is presented in context so that, while the narrative can be crunchy at times, it never hits a wall of terminology. A good reader won’t be lost as concepts are built on top of concepts to make a logical, integrated whole.
Second, about that ‘science fiction’ thing. This book was obviously extensively researched. The science is all logical extensions of current real world work, bringing a healthy dose of realism to the whole affair. Even through that, the author manages to capture a sense of mystery and wonder as the plot progresses outside of the normal bounds of the main character’s experience. There is a strong hint of something more, beyond the science, but it’s left shrouded in mystery, bidding the reader to continue to debate it in their minds as they are drawn deeper down the book’s rabbit-hole.
Third, pacing. This is an intellectual book, I won’t pull punches there. It is not an action tale. However, Rule-Set is not adverse to bringing tension and drama when it’s needed and more than a bit of full blown action in segments. What this means is that, save for a stretch in the first few chapters as the main character is established, the book retains an excellent dramatic pace. Even that slow first stretch is spiced up a bit by one of the best uses of prologues (chock full of action) I’ve seen in a while.
Oh, and of course, as Rule-Set squirms around genre definitions much like a real quantum particle dodges direct observation, the core of the story is, essentially, a mystery, a mystery that just the surface of what promises to be a nesting doll of other mysteries. It is that mystery that propelled me through the last half of the book in one evening and leaves me drumming my fingers for Volume 2.
There’s one major area I haven’t touched on. The big one … characterization. The author doesn’t drop the ball there, fortunately. It certainly had to be tempting to just not worry about developing character. After akll, there’s a lot of world-building, tech-splaining, and mystery-hiding going on here already. Nope, no sir. Mr. Chapman wisely remembered that the core of ANY story is the characters. There’s no cut-and-dry stock characters here. The main character, especially, follows an interesting arc of swinging highs and lows, only to …. nope. No spoilers! Let’s just put it like this: the man has an arc, a well-realized one that is subtle to start with, but ends with a major hook.
So, let’s sum up.
Rule-Set is a hard sci-fi mystery intellectual drama with some bits of hardcore action. Oh, and possible romantic seeds are strewn. Maybe. MYSTERY DAMMIT! The point is that it’s an excellent book and like all excellent books, it’s many things. I’m a fast reader by nature, but I also have almost no time these days and I still slammed through it in three nights.
That being said, if you have an adverse reaction to hard sci-fi and the tech exposition that it requires as a genre, you may not like it. For anyone else, even if you aren’t big on tech stuff, you should love it.
FINAL VERDICT: ***** (5 stars, I’m full and I still want more!)
March 16, 2015
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“Rule-Set: A Novel of a Quantum Future” by Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman is a science fiction novel that explores future technology relating to immersive gaming and relationships, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and hacktivism. On the surface, this sounds like quite a few topics to juggle. However, the bulk of this novel primarily deals with the conflict between the main character, Clarence Hamilcar, and a questionably sentient Japanese AI character named Hanabusa Narihisa.
At the end of the 21st century, Hamilcar is an assistant professor of Asian literature and pop culture in pursuit of a tenure position at a small university in South Dakota. After a conspiracy unfolds that denies him said tenure, his fiancé leaves him and any future opportunity of tenure anywhere else is all but gone. Shortly after, he is contacted by the military for his help on a top-secret project, of which they refuse to divulge any details. Using his status as a former Marine officer for leverage, the government makes the request non-negotiable – they will just reinstate him to active duty if he refuses. He is able to negotiate a deal where he can be awarded tenure at a university after completing his commitment to the project.
Because of his history with Japanese culture, as well as experience with artificial intelligence and coding, Hamilcar learns that the project centers around trying to get a Japanese AI personality – Hanabusa, who was extracted from one of several simulations created by the hacktivist group Rule-Set – to open up and reveal the secrets of these simulations.
Chapman takes us through the twists and turns of this conflict that is colorful, heated, and often bloody, and brings us into the world of future tech in an engaging story that is thoroughly researched and unique.
There was quite a bit that I enjoyed about this novel. The tech and the details of the story are incredibly well-researched. Being set in the future (2087), the tech is built logically from today to 2087 and follows a believable path to reality. There is a lot of explanation on how the past lead to this future, which occasionally slowed the story but also did a good job of controlling the pacing. The story itself is intriguing and brings up a lot of morality issues dealing with AIs that are on the cusp of sentience. Hamilcar has no qualms with deleting any of the AI personalities once his contract is complete, while one of the supporting characters insists that Hanabusa is sentient – and she seems to use that to her advantage in a very human way.
The characters are well-detailed and developed, and all exhibit a life of their own. Each play their part and are all distinctive, not just two-dimensional cookie-cutter shapes. There are a lot of characters, but it always remains clear who the story is really about.
The story does start slow, but the pace continues to build with each chapter. The pace was so well-done that it really was hard to stop reading after the first 1/3rd.
Despite the great strengths of the book, there were still a few issues. Related to the pacing, it did start very slowly and I had to struggle a bit with over-long descriptions. Sometimes they really felt like just a list of facts and I found myself preemptively skimming when I recognized the pattern.
The story ended without resolution and I was dissatisfied with that. I gave the benefit of the doubt that this must be a series, and confirmed that this was in fact the case with Mr. Chapman. Given that, the book really needs to have a tagline of “Book 1 of the Rule-Set Series,” or something like that.
All-in-all, this is a good book for hard sci-fi and tech buffs. Mostly original ideas that I look forward to seeing opened up in the sequels.
“Rule-Set: A Novel of a Quantum Future” by Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman is a science fiction novel that explores future technology relating to immersive gaming and relationships, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and hacktivism. On the surface, this sounds like quite a few topics to juggle. However, the bulk of this novel primarily deals with the conflict between the main character, Clarence Hamilcar, and a questionably sentient Japanese AI character named Hanabusa Narihisa.
At the end of the 21st century, Hamilcar is an assistant professor of Asian literature and pop culture in pursuit of a tenure position at a small university in South Dakota. After a conspiracy unfolds that denies him said tenure, his fiancé leaves him and any future opportunity of tenure anywhere else is all but gone. Shortly after, he is contacted by the military for his help on a top-secret project, of which they refuse to divulge any details. Using his status as a former Marine officer for leverage, the government makes the request non-negotiable – they will just reinstate him to active duty if he refuses. He is able to negotiate a deal where he can be awarded tenure at a university after completing his commitment to the project.
Because of his history with Japanese culture, as well as experience with artificial intelligence and coding, Hamilcar learns that the project centers around trying to get a Japanese AI personality – Hanabusa, who was extracted from one of several simulations created by the hacktivist group Rule-Set – to open up and reveal the secrets of these simulations.
Chapman takes us through the twists and turns of this conflict that is colorful, heated, and often bloody, and brings us into the world of future tech in an engaging story that is thoroughly researched and unique.
There was quite a bit that I enjoyed about this novel. The tech and the details of the story are incredibly well-researched. Being set in the future (2087), the tech is built logically from today to 2087 and follows a believable path to reality. There is a lot of explanation on how the past lead to this future, which occasionally slowed the story but also did a good job of controlling the pacing. The story itself is intriguing and brings up a lot of morality issues dealing with AIs that are on the cusp of sentience. Hamilcar has no qualms with deleting any of the AI personalities once his contract is complete, while one of the supporting characters insists that Hanabusa is sentient – and she seems to use that to her advantage in a very human way.
The characters are well-detailed and developed, and all exhibit a life of their own. Each play their part and are all distinctive, not just two-dimensional cookie-cutter shapes. There are a lot of characters, but it always remains clear who the story is really about.
The story does start slow, but the pace continues to build with each chapter. The pace was so well-done that it really was hard to stop reading after the first 1/3rd.
Despite the great strengths of the book, there were still a few issues. Related to the pacing, it did start very slowly and I had to struggle a bit with over-long descriptions. Sometimes they really felt like just a list of facts and I found myself preemptively skimming when I recognized the pattern.
The story ended without resolution and I was dissatisfied with that. I gave the benefit of the doubt that this must be a series, and confirmed that this was in fact the case with Mr. Chapman. Given that, the book really needs to have a tagline of “Book 1 of the Rule-Set Series,” or something like that.
All-in-all, this is a good book for hard sci-fi and tech buffs. Mostly original ideas that I look forward to seeing opened up in the sequels.
January 14, 2015
Rule-set is a great novel. It is set in the near future, using a world that it both recognisable but changed. The hero is a very well-drawn character and I quickly became sympathetic for his challenges/plight.
Better (even) than the great characterisation of Clarence (the hero) was the underlying science conceit that the novel is built upon. The author makes the reader work quite hard (it’s an intellectual book) but the effort is worth it. I loved discovering ‘what was going on’.
The plot was believable (i.e. consistent with the world that was developed) and I found I genuinely cared about the results of the hero’s work (and his co-workers).
The story does not stumble/falter and is very enjoyable. Work your brain-muscles and give it a go (you’ll even learn a little Japanese culture!)
Better (even) than the great characterisation of Clarence (the hero) was the underlying science conceit that the novel is built upon. The author makes the reader work quite hard (it’s an intellectual book) but the effort is worth it. I loved discovering ‘what was going on’.
The plot was believable (i.e. consistent with the world that was developed) and I found I genuinely cared about the results of the hero’s work (and his co-workers).
The story does not stumble/falter and is very enjoyable. Work your brain-muscles and give it a go (you’ll even learn a little Japanese culture!)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews