Guardian

by Thomas F. Monteleone

GUARDIAN.

There existed nothing like it in the known World. It climbed boldly into the sky, a symbol of the power and imagination of those who had created it...

Varian Hamer stood face to face with a robot. It was not only fantastic - it was impossible. In the known World there were no such things as robots. They had been destroyed, along with everything else, thousands of years before, in what many supposed was Armageddon.

But there it was, staring him in the eye. And shortly, Varian and a small band of adventurers embarked on the greatest search the world had ever known. To find Guardian. The sentinel of the First Age. The Last artifact of a lost civilization.

And while they searched, Guardian waited...

Genres: Science Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Terence · Rating 2 out of 5]

[Reread - February 2022]

As occasionally happens, I get an itch to track down books I read as a teen-ager. When I saw that an e-book version was available for my Kindle for $2.99, I took the plunge and got it.

For starters, my plot summary below is not correct. While there is an artificial intelligence that is central to the book, the ancient war that destroyed the world was not between it and a rival AI. The ancient enemies were quite human. The AI, the titular Guardian, is borderline insane and lures a group of humans to its citadel, where they have to discover its motives and try to escape.

My opinion of its quality as literature remains unchanged; perhaps it's a bit lower actually (1.75 stars).

Still enjoyed the prologue, though...

____________________

Read about twenty-five years ago, now.

Not a particularly good novel (obviously since I didn't become a fan of Monteleone) about a post-nuclear holocaust world and the final battle between the two machines (one pro-human, the other anti-) that brought about the near-extinction of the human race (this was pre-Terminator).

What I really enjoyed about the novel was the prologue, which took the reader on a virtual tour of the civilizations that had grown up after the apocalypse.

[Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first novel I ever read. I was 8, it was 1978. I made myself finish it even though I thought it was kind of boring. For some reason I always remembered the main character's name (and I almost never remember names from books). I also remember that I learned what a "trapezoid" was from this book, because he used the word and I had to look it up. Really strange what you remember sometimes.

[Ronald Spitzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recognized the author at a used book sales so I picked up the book. Like his other book, it is very well done. Good characterizations and excellent plot twists. Well written.

[James]

Guardian

[Cws]

SF-Mon