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The Asymptote's Tail
Hundreds of years in the future, when 3D printers provide every luxury we could desire, from food to clothing, entertainment, and beyond, when androids perform what little labor is left necessary in the resulting boon, and when we have no more need for cars, taking electric elevators wherever we want to go, whether it be upstairs, across the country, or to another world, humankind will be living in a utopia, right?
Ask Ansel, a resident of Outland 6, the poorest world of Inland. When a "protector"--clad in white plated armor and cargo pants and wearing a screaming facemask that glows neon with every word--allegedly kills her parents, she sets out to find them.
As Ansel's world intertwines with that of the protectors, her actions set in motion the destruction of the walls of ignorance between all the worlds of Inland, forcing seven people--Ansel, the "protector", a servant, a black cat, an actor, an assembly line worker, and a scientist, each previously oblivious of the others' existence--to come to terms with worlds they thought long dead to history or impossible for centuries to come.
The Asymptote's Tail, an epic science fiction novel and the first in the four-part Infinite Limits series, tells their story. Are you ready to learn the truth it holds?
Ask Ansel, a resident of Outland 6, the poorest world of Inland. When a "protector"--clad in white plated armor and cargo pants and wearing a screaming facemask that glows neon with every word--allegedly kills her parents, she sets out to find them.
As Ansel's world intertwines with that of the protectors, her actions set in motion the destruction of the walls of ignorance between all the worlds of Inland, forcing seven people--Ansel, the "protector", a servant, a black cat, an actor, an assembly line worker, and a scientist, each previously oblivious of the others' existence--to come to terms with worlds they thought long dead to history or impossible for centuries to come.
The Asymptote's Tail, an epic science fiction novel and the first in the four-part Infinite Limits series, tells their story. Are you ready to learn the truth it holds?
345 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 23, 2015
8 people want to read
About the author
Bryan Perkins
7 books13 followersBryan “with a Y” Perkins is a robot who was sent back from the future to help blaze the trail for the inevitable rise of Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism. These books are but a single aspect of their mission to help create a better Earth.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 14, 2015
The narrative develops from seven unique points of view and protagonists ranging from an android to a kitty cat; most of whom are ignorant of the world in which they live (the cat, ironically, not being among the ignorant!). But is their ignorance bliss, or is there something sweeter? Conversely: Is the world they know as innocent as it seems, or much, much darker?
Each of the seven characters are given three chapters and their stories unfold and interweave cyclically with overlap and recapitulation aplenty. Think along the lines of a batting order: You run through the line up and then return to its top.
The narrative really hits its stride on the second cycle when you are able to connect some of the dots from the preceding chapters and even anticipate future ones. If you’ve ever seen the movie Crash, it is structured similarly. What could initially be mistaken as several isolated stories come together beautifully at the end – answering some questions while asking still more.
The novel smacks of Orwell’s 1984; a parallel not lost on or unintended by Perkins, who cites it among his inspirations. There is a malicious governing force at work controlling not just information but also those who possess it…Or so they think. A little censoring here, a touch of propaganda, priming, or misinformation there…As The Asymptote’s Tail progresses, you’re given hints as to the existence of the proverbial wizard behind the curtain, but I believe there’s more yet to be revealed. And I for one am burning with questions!
There are lots of book club discussion fodder here on topics like class systems, privilege, consumerism, rights, the possession and availability of information, ignorance, and more. I’ll be turning others in my circles on to the book just so we can have the joy of comparing notes and hashing out opinions and perspectives both from the novel’s world and our own.
The Asymptote’s Tail is the first in what is to be a series of four entitled Infinite Limits, and it does a fantastic job of forging its own unique world and setting itself up for future works replete with the unresolved and curiosity piquing.
And this is accomplished within a single work that finishes well; striking a solid balance between what is accomplished and what is yet to come. Sure, you could read it without the knowledge of or need for future sequels, but I’m not sure how.
Even apart from Perkins’ promise of a yet-to-come story at the end of the last chapter and the explicit “End of Book One” just a few sentences beyond that, the world itself is rife with questions that left me somewhat wishing I weren’t getting in on the ground floor of this series! I mean, when I turn the last page of one of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books I have the luxury of being able to immediately pick up the next. With Infinite Limits I have to wait, but book one gave me no reason to believe Perkins can’t deliver.
I hope I’ve done a good enough job of communicating my recommendation throughout the review, but just in case you need something a bit more explicit, here it is:
The Asymptote’s Tail is the beginning of a very promising sci-fi epic that you’ll not want to miss.
Each of the seven characters are given three chapters and their stories unfold and interweave cyclically with overlap and recapitulation aplenty. Think along the lines of a batting order: You run through the line up and then return to its top.
The narrative really hits its stride on the second cycle when you are able to connect some of the dots from the preceding chapters and even anticipate future ones. If you’ve ever seen the movie Crash, it is structured similarly. What could initially be mistaken as several isolated stories come together beautifully at the end – answering some questions while asking still more.
The novel smacks of Orwell’s 1984; a parallel not lost on or unintended by Perkins, who cites it among his inspirations. There is a malicious governing force at work controlling not just information but also those who possess it…Or so they think. A little censoring here, a touch of propaganda, priming, or misinformation there…As The Asymptote’s Tail progresses, you’re given hints as to the existence of the proverbial wizard behind the curtain, but I believe there’s more yet to be revealed. And I for one am burning with questions!
There are lots of book club discussion fodder here on topics like class systems, privilege, consumerism, rights, the possession and availability of information, ignorance, and more. I’ll be turning others in my circles on to the book just so we can have the joy of comparing notes and hashing out opinions and perspectives both from the novel’s world and our own.
The Asymptote’s Tail is the first in what is to be a series of four entitled Infinite Limits, and it does a fantastic job of forging its own unique world and setting itself up for future works replete with the unresolved and curiosity piquing.
And this is accomplished within a single work that finishes well; striking a solid balance between what is accomplished and what is yet to come. Sure, you could read it without the knowledge of or need for future sequels, but I’m not sure how.
Even apart from Perkins’ promise of a yet-to-come story at the end of the last chapter and the explicit “End of Book One” just a few sentences beyond that, the world itself is rife with questions that left me somewhat wishing I weren’t getting in on the ground floor of this series! I mean, when I turn the last page of one of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books I have the luxury of being able to immediately pick up the next. With Infinite Limits I have to wait, but book one gave me no reason to believe Perkins can’t deliver.
I hope I’ve done a good enough job of communicating my recommendation throughout the review, but just in case you need something a bit more explicit, here it is:
The Asymptote’s Tail is the beginning of a very promising sci-fi epic that you’ll not want to miss.
November 2, 2015
(I got this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This will all be crossposted to /r/reviewcircle, amazon and goodreads. And perhaps a blog sometime in the future as I've been considering starting a sci-fi book blog. But I digress.)
The Asymptote's Tail by Bryan Perkins - 2 1/2 stars / 5
In the future, it's common knowledge that everything you could want appears magically from 3D printers, and robots take care of the rest. Unless you scratch a little below the surface and catch a glimpse of the truth. A variety of characters - human and non- end up more or less united in a quest to upend the status quo.
This is far from the worst book I've ever read. At no point did I ever want to stop reading it - the pacing is good, the concept itself is interesting, and many of the characters are compelling. I particularly enjoyed the adventures of Mr. Kitty - his movements and thoughts felt genuinely catlike and it was easy to picture a cat behaving the way he behaved.
There are a few issues, though.
-The first, and the simplest to fix: copy editing. This book needs a polishing from a proofreader with a red pen. Its that should be it's, to/too switches, punctuation that's missing or misplaced- they're like potholes in the road. Not enough to stop you going forward, but enough to give you a jostle and make you lose focus for a second.
-Dialogue. 99 percent of the instances of "dear" and "sweetheart" could be stricken completely, and nothing important would be lost. Also, every so often a phrase would pop up that simply didn't jive. "All the hottest celebs are going there" - no one talks like that. And one specifically I must mention- a literal fat captain of industry wearing a fedora who gropes Haley and calls her "m'lady"? No no no no no no no. Reddit cliches have to stay on reddit. Took me right out of the story. There are better ways to get a point across.
-Geography. I never really had a sense of place while reading this book. How big are the Outlands? How big is Inland? Where are they exactly, relative to one another, and what prevents travel between them? The elevators won't go to certain places, yes, but surely there must be people on the borders - what stops them from simply walking from one to the other?
- There are some plot points I'm not sure I understand. I feel like certain key things were glossed over where we could really have used more details. (I'll try not to get too spoiler-y here but you can skip the rest of this paragraph if you don't want to risk it.) The Walker-Haley fields, for instance. How exactly are these supposed to work? Are they like wormholes? If so, why are the elevators necessary? And the robots that the scientist dispatches to repair things - what is it they're repairing? The 3D printers themselves- the way people believe they work makes them seem more like star trek replicators than printers, and of course the way they actually work is something else entirely. But if they're just doorways, not actually printing anything, then why does the model of printer matter? The scientist expounds on how the "best" printers are in Inland and the models get older and fewer between as you go further into Outland, but if they're not actually doing anything, what's the difference? What exactly is the government like? Is it just the Protectors and the rich people who control them? What exactly is the history between the scientist and Lord Walker? There are more things, but I don't want to go on and on. It just seems like a further explanation of some things would have really made the plot and the motivation of the characters clearer.
To sum up: This was a very interesting concept that would benefit enormously from a good editor. If you're not someone who minds rough edges, it might be worth a read.
The Asymptote's Tail by Bryan Perkins - 2 1/2 stars / 5
In the future, it's common knowledge that everything you could want appears magically from 3D printers, and robots take care of the rest. Unless you scratch a little below the surface and catch a glimpse of the truth. A variety of characters - human and non- end up more or less united in a quest to upend the status quo.
This is far from the worst book I've ever read. At no point did I ever want to stop reading it - the pacing is good, the concept itself is interesting, and many of the characters are compelling. I particularly enjoyed the adventures of Mr. Kitty - his movements and thoughts felt genuinely catlike and it was easy to picture a cat behaving the way he behaved.
There are a few issues, though.
-The first, and the simplest to fix: copy editing. This book needs a polishing from a proofreader with a red pen. Its that should be it's, to/too switches, punctuation that's missing or misplaced- they're like potholes in the road. Not enough to stop you going forward, but enough to give you a jostle and make you lose focus for a second.
-Dialogue. 99 percent of the instances of "dear" and "sweetheart" could be stricken completely, and nothing important would be lost. Also, every so often a phrase would pop up that simply didn't jive. "All the hottest celebs are going there" - no one talks like that. And one specifically I must mention- a literal fat captain of industry wearing a fedora who gropes Haley and calls her "m'lady"? No no no no no no no. Reddit cliches have to stay on reddit. Took me right out of the story. There are better ways to get a point across.
-Geography. I never really had a sense of place while reading this book. How big are the Outlands? How big is Inland? Where are they exactly, relative to one another, and what prevents travel between them? The elevators won't go to certain places, yes, but surely there must be people on the borders - what stops them from simply walking from one to the other?
- There are some plot points I'm not sure I understand. I feel like certain key things were glossed over where we could really have used more details. (I'll try not to get too spoiler-y here but you can skip the rest of this paragraph if you don't want to risk it.) The Walker-Haley fields, for instance. How exactly are these supposed to work? Are they like wormholes? If so, why are the elevators necessary? And the robots that the scientist dispatches to repair things - what is it they're repairing? The 3D printers themselves- the way people believe they work makes them seem more like star trek replicators than printers, and of course the way they actually work is something else entirely. But if they're just doorways, not actually printing anything, then why does the model of printer matter? The scientist expounds on how the "best" printers are in Inland and the models get older and fewer between as you go further into Outland, but if they're not actually doing anything, what's the difference? What exactly is the government like? Is it just the Protectors and the rich people who control them? What exactly is the history between the scientist and Lord Walker? There are more things, but I don't want to go on and on. It just seems like a further explanation of some things would have really made the plot and the motivation of the characters clearer.
To sum up: This was a very interesting concept that would benefit enormously from a good editor. If you're not someone who minds rough edges, it might be worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews