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Colossus #2
The Fall of Colossus
Charles Forbin is the the one man on earth who speaks directly to Colossus. Five years before, the American supercomputer & the Soviet supercomputer were united—combining their data, their analytic powers, their learning & growth capacity. In the few seconds of that process, they became one Colossus—master of humankind. Programmed to solve humanity's problems, Colossus solved forestalled nuclear holocaust, eradicated poverty & the frustration and violence it breeds. Soon there was nothing for people to do—but obey. Some made Colossus their God, & Charles Forbin was their Pope. Others wanted to be free of Colossus—for Colossus was also ruthless beyond any human tyrant ever—& they wanted Forbin as their deliverer. Either of these movements might get Forbin killed. He is appalled & disgusted by the religious cult, terrified by the rebels—who haven't a chance, as he knows better than anyone on earth. Then Forbin is handed the key to the overthrow of Colossus—or is it? He must commit his life to the chance that it is, just to begin with. Then he must commit the earth to the shadowy motives of the mysterious source of this new power.
—from the dust jacked of the 1st hardcover edition.
—from the dust jacked of the 1st hardcover edition.
188 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1974
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271 people want to read
About the author
D.F. Jones
16 books49 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Dennis Feltham Jones, a British Science Filction Author wrote under the byline D.F. Jones
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Dennis Feltham Jones, a British Science Filction Author wrote under the byline D.F. Jones
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
February 1, 2023
Time to end this Colossus debacle. Which means plotting with Martians!
Lots of tense, paranoid scenes with Forbin trying to make Colossus-ending plans with the Martians, without Colossus finding out, which is tough because Colossus sees all.
Forbin's wife is taken away from him, and dumped with some criminal who rapes her repeatedly - not so fond of this very 70s plot point.
Ends on a great pulpy line, setting up the third and final book.
3.5 stars
Lots of tense, paranoid scenes with Forbin trying to make Colossus-ending plans with the Martians, without Colossus finding out, which is tough because Colossus sees all.
Forbin's wife is taken away from him, and dumped with some criminal who rapes her repeatedly - not so fond of this very 70s plot point.
Ends on a great pulpy line, setting up the third and final book.
3.5 stars
July 17, 2021
This second volume of the Colossus trilogy takes a big dive in quality on all fronts. I leave aside the shaky continuity which now seems to place the timescale much further into the future than the first book even though this is supposed to be only five years later. Also I skate over the strange turnaround which has Forbin now a sort of high priest of a cult religion that has grown up around Colossus and the fact that he now loves the dictatorial machine which he hated in book 1 (and continues to despite what it does to his family later). But there are aspects of this book which even in the 1970s when this was written must have been unacceptable to at least some of the potential readership.
Briefly, Doctor Cleo Markham has now married Professor Forbin and they have a young son. She seems to still be working - in that she has an office - but there is no clue as to what scientific work she is doing because the author has no interest in that. Instead, she is a sort of mother figure to Forbin who has become almost totally spaced out, infantalised and disconnected from reality. In her spare time, Cleo is a leader in the resistance movement, alongside Blake, a friend of Forbin's from the first book. One day she takes her son to the beach with a radio and a message comes through from the Martians who offer to help defeat Colossus which is a threat to them too - this then provides the driver for the whole story.
The premise that humans are unable, without help from aliens, to overturn the Big Brother rule of the enhanced Colossus - a supercomputer built by the initial Colossus - which now runs everything from a totally demolished Isle of Wight - weakens all the characters and introduces yet another element for which disbelief must be suspended. But the real car crash in the book is the extremely misogynistic subplot involving experiments by Colossus into human emotion which it cannot understand - specifically love. Centres exist where abducted humans are tested against various premises - such as would an art lover sacrifice himself to save a world famous great work of art or would two lovers throw each other over in exchange for better job prospects and potential partners. One centre has been set up to test whether the Roman legend of the Rape of the Sabine Women (where rape victims came to love and identify with the men who abducted them) is true or not. The sections where the victim in question develops Stockholm Syndrome when repeatedly raped by a brutal, ignorant and violent man, are absolutely awful with the author informing us that this is true fulfilment for women. And this is despite the author also telling the reader that women are supposedly equal in this imagined future.
The characters from book 1 are all unrecognisable. Blake is an unpleasant misogynist himself, Forbin seems to have had a lobotomy and what happens to Cleo is truly unbelievable. People drink alcohol constantly to a point where they must all be late stage alcoholics. Given all this I could only rate this book at 1 star as I didn't enjoy it at all.
Briefly, Doctor Cleo Markham has now married Professor Forbin and they have a young son. She seems to still be working - in that she has an office - but there is no clue as to what scientific work she is doing because the author has no interest in that. Instead, she is a sort of mother figure to Forbin who has become almost totally spaced out, infantalised and disconnected from reality. In her spare time, Cleo is a leader in the resistance movement, alongside Blake, a friend of Forbin's from the first book. One day she takes her son to the beach with a radio and a message comes through from the Martians who offer to help defeat Colossus which is a threat to them too - this then provides the driver for the whole story.
The premise that humans are unable, without help from aliens, to overturn the Big Brother rule of the enhanced Colossus - a supercomputer built by the initial Colossus - which now runs everything from a totally demolished Isle of Wight - weakens all the characters and introduces yet another element for which disbelief must be suspended. But the real car crash in the book is the extremely misogynistic subplot involving experiments by Colossus into human emotion which it cannot understand - specifically love. Centres exist where abducted humans are tested against various premises - such as would an art lover sacrifice himself to save a world famous great work of art or would two lovers throw each other over in exchange for better job prospects and potential partners. One centre has been set up to test whether the Roman legend of the Rape of the Sabine Women (where rape victims came to love and identify with the men who abducted them) is true or not. The sections where the victim in question develops Stockholm Syndrome when repeatedly raped by a brutal, ignorant and violent man, are absolutely awful with the author informing us that this is true fulfilment for women. And this is despite the author also telling the reader that women are supposedly equal in this imagined future.
The characters from book 1 are all unrecognisable. Blake is an unpleasant misogynist himself, Forbin seems to have had a lobotomy and what happens to Cleo is truly unbelievable. People drink alcohol constantly to a point where they must all be late stage alcoholics. Given all this I could only rate this book at 1 star as I didn't enjoy it at all.
September 4, 2015
*****NOTE THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK Colossus. I AM ASSUMING THAT IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO READ A BOOK TITLED The Fall OF COLOSSUS THAT YOU WILL HAVE ALREADY READ COLOSSUS.*****
Okay...not under a spoiler tag, the book itself isn't written as well as the first one simply looking at it as a novel. I was bored, found the book un-engaging, the characters shallow and the plot somewhat forgettable. I resorted to skimming a few times. Too bad.
AND I BOUGHT THIS! This one goes into the stack of trade books going to my favorite used book store.
Can't recommend this one. sorry.
Okay...not under a spoiler tag, the book itself isn't written as well as the first one simply looking at it as a novel. I was bored, found the book un-engaging, the characters shallow and the plot somewhat forgettable. I resorted to skimming a few times. Too bad.
AND I BOUGHT THIS! This one goes into the stack of trade books going to my favorite used book store.
Can't recommend this one. sorry.
January 9, 2021
My all-time favourite film is Colossus—The Forbin Project, mainly for the climatic final scene. Ok, a strange choice, I know, but the defiance of Forbin in the midst of total totalitarian catastrophe is the face of hope. And I love that hope.
And this book has an ending reminiscent of that immensely powerful scene from the first book. The supercomputer Colossus has taken over the world and things are good everywhere—unless you happen to be anti-machine, in which case your head will be lopped off into a basket fifteen minutes after irrefutable evidence is available.
Colossus has, to Forbin's disgust, allowed "The Sect" to proliferate—this is a religious movement with Colossus as deity and "Father Forbin", because he is the only individual allowed to enter the Sanctum and talk directly with Colossus, as a kind of pope. Forbin resists this but the Sect is growing in power. Colossus may not understand human emotion, but it is conducting experiments—many of them brutal—in order to further its knowledge.
Unknown to Forbin, his wife Cleo is a leader of "The Fellowship", a group dedicated to destroying the control of Colossus. So is Blake, one of his closest colleagues. But, how, with Colossus' all-seeing, all-hearing oversight can anyone succeed against its might?
Then Cleo receives a mysterious message that seems to have succeeded in circumventing Colossus' surveillance. But is it believable? And what will the cost be if she is caught trying to implement it?
In these days when we are being told AI is such a wonderful progressive move, perhaps this series should be mandatory reading.
And this book has an ending reminiscent of that immensely powerful scene from the first book. The supercomputer Colossus has taken over the world and things are good everywhere—unless you happen to be anti-machine, in which case your head will be lopped off into a basket fifteen minutes after irrefutable evidence is available.
Colossus has, to Forbin's disgust, allowed "The Sect" to proliferate—this is a religious movement with Colossus as deity and "Father Forbin", because he is the only individual allowed to enter the Sanctum and talk directly with Colossus, as a kind of pope. Forbin resists this but the Sect is growing in power. Colossus may not understand human emotion, but it is conducting experiments—many of them brutal—in order to further its knowledge.
Unknown to Forbin, his wife Cleo is a leader of "The Fellowship", a group dedicated to destroying the control of Colossus. So is Blake, one of his closest colleagues. But, how, with Colossus' all-seeing, all-hearing oversight can anyone succeed against its might?
Then Cleo receives a mysterious message that seems to have succeeded in circumventing Colossus' surveillance. But is it believable? And what will the cost be if she is caught trying to implement it?
In these days when we are being told AI is such a wonderful progressive move, perhaps this series should be mandatory reading.
June 21, 2018
This was a mediocre sequel. It definitely "builds up" for the third novel, in most respects. There were some really 'weird' continuity errors, which made the book seem quite strange, however. The character development was so-so. It does kind-of build on the first novel, but the continuity errors almost made it seem like the author had somewhat forgotten the world he had built in the first novel and was hoping for the best when he wrote this sequel. Definitely not up to snuff when compared to the first. I liked parts of it; I disliked other parts; I was mildly disappointed, overall. We will see how much my mind changes (if it does) by the end of my review.
The "continuity errors" -
[1] I always thought Cleo was at least thirty-five years old in the first novel, which would make her forty in this novel. However, she is said to be "only" twenty-eight years of age. In addition, with the various doctorate level degrees she was listed as having, I found it hard to believe she was only in her late twenties.
[2] Apparently Forbin is in his fifties in this novel. I had the impression he was in his forties in the first novel; if he were forty-five at the end of the first, then it would fit his being fifty for this novel. Not really much of a 'true error,' I know, but I did not see him as being in his fifties.
[3] Even though "only" five years have passed between the first novel and this novel, this novel claims the events are taking place in the twenty-second century, and that over two hundred years have elapsed so that this novel is set in the 'distant-but-not-so-distant' future. In the first novel, it references JFK's assassination having occurred "a generation ago" and there is a comment about how less than one hundred years ago a meteorite struck Siberia. Regardless of the potential of other meteors striking in Siberia in the next two hundred years, the reference to JFK's murder being less than two generations ago clearly puts the first novel in the late 1990s. So, the references to the twenty-second century over the course of the book were a bit jarring. No explanation is given as to why the story has moved forward two hundred years in the future [maybe Colossus learned how to control time? hahahah].
[4] What was up with the technology?!? None of the automated air cars from the first book appear in this novel. Neither are any of the space stations or satellites mentioned in the first book as orbiting the Earth ever mentioned. Helojets and hovercraft are mentioned, as are ramjets in this novel. Yay, ramjets! The 'fact' that paper maps were still used does not bother me; I still use them from time-to-time. However, it is still amusing there are no cell phones, no personal computers, and that cassettes are still being used, as is celluloid film.
I did like the concept of 'nuclear-powered' battleships used for the Naval War Games as a way to entertain the masses and prevent humanity from recognizing their status on the planet. It was very reminiscent of how the Romans kept the populace entertained by bloody gladiatorial games.
It was amusing and weird and "realistic" how both Cleo and Forbin kept talking down to each other and thinking of the other as "simple" and "childlike." Forbin constantly talked down to his wife as if she were inferior and somehow below him, never really noticing or realizing how smart she really was as he took her for granted more than he realized. She saw him as being an adult male child and not very smart outside his area of expertise. She loved him but felt like she had to protect him and mother him because he was not seen as being 'strong enough' to face the harshness of reality. She saw him as being child-like and "simple-minded" [in ways] in the first novel, as well; as somebody needing to be protected. As a result, they treated each other more poorly than either realized because of their mutually subconscious disdain for each other.
I was surprised that Angela was still in this novel and half-expected her and Forbin to have a fling after he believed Cleo was having an affair with his "best friend" after Cleo's arrest. She still had feelings for him, and he clearly had feelings for her in the first novel. She was still very protective of Forbin, especially after Cleo was arrested and taken away, and sought to keep Forbin from having to face any kind of difficult news. So, in a way, both she and Cleo were preventing Forbin from growing up and maturing because of how much they tried to protect him and shelter him from 'the real world.'
It was kind of an odd book, because clearly a "relationship" has developed between Forbin and Colossus, but the author never really explores it beyond a surface level and implying hidden depths. Granted, Forbin was pretty oblivious to what was going on around him, so that might have had something to do with it. Cleo was presented as clearly believing that Colossus was more of a threat to their marriage than Angela was. It is interesting that Colossus did prove to be "prophetic" at the end of the first novel when he told Forbin that Forbin would come to love Colossus.
The "most interesting" chapter had to be the one where it described the various tests that Colossus performed on and with humans to try to understand different kinds of "love." I think I would have liked to have seen more chapters like this than what was to come.
The other form of testing mentioned in the book is somewhat disturbing. I am sure it has to do with the mindset and mentality of the 1960s and 1970s.
On a different note, it was funny how the author had this big paragraph in the beginning of the book in which he talks about how both sexes have been emancipated, women are now the equal of men, and there is complete sexual freedom between consenting adults. Marriage is now apparently a rare thing of the past. Women can become just as educated as men. BUT!!!!!! despite their emancipation, women still take longer to become as educated as men and are clearly said to have a lower social status then men. How can they be equals if they have a lower status? In addition, women are said to have 'a place in society' and 'know their place.' How can they be equals if they have a place in society that still makes them less then men, that makes them subservient to men? it was one of the stupidest paragraphs in the book, to be honest. Especially if, as the author now wants the reader to believe, this story is set two hundred years further into the future than the first book! It was really an idiotic thing for the author to claim, when the rest of the book clearly disproves his claims of "emancipation for women" and "equality between the sexes!"
I will say this about the first chapter - I did enjoy the discussion about "god," "godhood," and how Colossus fit most descriptions of a 'god.' It was very interesting, and very entertaining. I thought the author did make a good case for his claims that Colossus was a "type of god" in his novel. Based on what he said and the examples he gave, I would probably agree with him. Also of interest, there are "three main parts" to Colossus in this book [at least, that is how I took it; the three 'sites' being the original site of Colossus in the Rocky Mountains, the Guardian-part of Colossus in Russia, and the new Colossus-complex on the Isle of Wight], which could be compared to the Holy Trinity of Christianity. I say this kind of tongue-in-cheek as it is a bit of a stretch [I freely admit], but it did seem to appear that way to me [the comparison in the most vague terms possible]. I also thought it was interesting that Forbin was viewed as being the "High Priest" of Colossus and having a special room referred to as "the holy of holies" where Forbin communed with Colossus privately and nobody else had permission to enter. So, yeah, I could see why a religion would be formed that worshiped Colossus and saw Forbin as being Colossus' high priest.
All that being said, I did think it was probably one of the better and more-powerful moments in the book. That, and the very end of the book Now THAT might keep a person awake at night! hahahah
Overall, I am glad that I reread this book. It was okay. I am going to leave it at two stars . It had some occasional good moments in it; but, overall, it was pretty disappointing. There is not really much 'action' in it; nearly all of the book is composed of dialogue with smatterings of action here or there [and a lot of that 'action' is described after-the-fact]. I felt like the author could have done quite a bit more with the story and the concept behind the story [i.e. - a machine toy that wants to be a real boy, experiencing and understanding emotions]. It was an odd mix of interesting, entertaining, and disappointment while reading it. Oddly enough, it did 'move fast' despite it being mostly dialogue. It does make me want to find a copy of the third book, to see how it all ends.
The "continuity errors" -
[1] I always thought Cleo was at least thirty-five years old in the first novel, which would make her forty in this novel. However, she is said to be "only" twenty-eight years of age. In addition, with the various doctorate level degrees she was listed as having, I found it hard to believe she was only in her late twenties.
[2] Apparently Forbin is in his fifties in this novel. I had the impression he was in his forties in the first novel; if he were forty-five at the end of the first, then it would fit his being fifty for this novel. Not really much of a 'true error,' I know, but I did not see him as being in his fifties.
[3] Even though "only" five years have passed between the first novel and this novel, this novel claims the events are taking place in the twenty-second century, and that over two hundred years have elapsed so that this novel is set in the 'distant-but-not-so-distant' future. In the first novel, it references JFK's assassination having occurred "a generation ago" and there is a comment about how less than one hundred years ago a meteorite struck Siberia. Regardless of the potential of other meteors striking in Siberia in the next two hundred years, the reference to JFK's murder being less than two generations ago clearly puts the first novel in the late 1990s. So, the references to the twenty-second century over the course of the book were a bit jarring. No explanation is given as to why the story has moved forward two hundred years in the future [maybe Colossus learned how to control time? hahahah].
[4] What was up with the technology?!? None of the automated air cars from the first book appear in this novel. Neither are any of the space stations or satellites mentioned in the first book as orbiting the Earth ever mentioned. Helojets and hovercraft are mentioned, as are ramjets in this novel. Yay, ramjets! The 'fact' that paper maps were still used does not bother me; I still use them from time-to-time. However, it is still amusing there are no cell phones, no personal computers, and that cassettes are still being used, as is celluloid film.
I did like the concept of 'nuclear-powered' battleships used for the Naval War Games as a way to entertain the masses and prevent humanity from recognizing their status on the planet. It was very reminiscent of how the Romans kept the populace entertained by bloody gladiatorial games.
It was amusing and weird and "realistic" how both Cleo and Forbin kept talking down to each other and thinking of the other as "simple" and "childlike." Forbin constantly talked down to his wife as if she were inferior and somehow below him, never really noticing or realizing how smart she really was as he took her for granted more than he realized. She saw him as being an adult male child and not very smart outside his area of expertise. She loved him but felt like she had to protect him and mother him because he was not seen as being 'strong enough' to face the harshness of reality. She saw him as being child-like and "simple-minded" [in ways] in the first novel, as well; as somebody needing to be protected. As a result, they treated each other more poorly than either realized because of their mutually subconscious disdain for each other.
I was surprised that Angela was still in this novel and half-expected her and Forbin to have a fling after he believed Cleo was having an affair with his "best friend" after Cleo's arrest. She still had feelings for him, and he clearly had feelings for her in the first novel. She was still very protective of Forbin, especially after Cleo was arrested and taken away, and sought to keep Forbin from having to face any kind of difficult news. So, in a way, both she and Cleo were preventing Forbin from growing up and maturing because of how much they tried to protect him and shelter him from 'the real world.'
It was kind of an odd book, because clearly a "relationship" has developed between Forbin and Colossus, but the author never really explores it beyond a surface level and implying hidden depths. Granted, Forbin was pretty oblivious to what was going on around him, so that might have had something to do with it. Cleo was presented as clearly believing that Colossus was more of a threat to their marriage than Angela was. It is interesting that Colossus did prove to be "prophetic" at the end of the first novel when he told Forbin that Forbin would come to love Colossus.
The "most interesting" chapter had to be the one where it described the various tests that Colossus performed on and with humans to try to understand different kinds of "love." I think I would have liked to have seen more chapters like this than what was to come.
The other form of testing mentioned in the book is somewhat disturbing. I am sure it has to do with the mindset and mentality of the 1960s and 1970s.
On a different note, it was funny how the author had this big paragraph in the beginning of the book in which he talks about how both sexes have been emancipated, women are now the equal of men, and there is complete sexual freedom between consenting adults. Marriage is now apparently a rare thing of the past. Women can become just as educated as men. BUT!!!!!! despite their emancipation, women still take longer to become as educated as men and are clearly said to have a lower social status then men. How can they be equals if they have a lower status? In addition, women are said to have 'a place in society' and 'know their place.' How can they be equals if they have a place in society that still makes them less then men, that makes them subservient to men? it was one of the stupidest paragraphs in the book, to be honest. Especially if, as the author now wants the reader to believe, this story is set two hundred years further into the future than the first book! It was really an idiotic thing for the author to claim, when the rest of the book clearly disproves his claims of "emancipation for women" and "equality between the sexes!"
I will say this about the first chapter - I did enjoy the discussion about "god," "godhood," and how Colossus fit most descriptions of a 'god.' It was very interesting, and very entertaining. I thought the author did make a good case for his claims that Colossus was a "type of god" in his novel. Based on what he said and the examples he gave, I would probably agree with him. Also of interest, there are "three main parts" to Colossus in this book [at least, that is how I took it; the three 'sites' being the original site of Colossus in the Rocky Mountains, the Guardian-part of Colossus in Russia, and the new Colossus-complex on the Isle of Wight], which could be compared to the Holy Trinity of Christianity. I say this kind of tongue-in-cheek as it is a bit of a stretch [I freely admit], but it did seem to appear that way to me [the comparison in the most vague terms possible]. I also thought it was interesting that Forbin was viewed as being the "High Priest" of Colossus and having a special room referred to as "the holy of holies" where Forbin communed with Colossus privately and nobody else had permission to enter. So, yeah, I could see why a religion would be formed that worshiped Colossus and saw Forbin as being Colossus' high priest.
All that being said, I did think it was probably one of the better and more-powerful moments in the book. That, and the very end of the book Now THAT might keep a person awake at night! hahahah
Overall, I am glad that I reread this book. It was okay. I am going to leave it at two stars . It had some occasional good moments in it; but, overall, it was pretty disappointing. There is not really much 'action' in it; nearly all of the book is composed of dialogue with smatterings of action here or there [and a lot of that 'action' is described after-the-fact]. I felt like the author could have done quite a bit more with the story and the concept behind the story [i.e. - a machine toy that wants to be a real boy, experiencing and understanding emotions]. It was an odd mix of interesting, entertaining, and disappointment while reading it. Oddly enough, it did 'move fast' despite it being mostly dialogue. It does make me want to find a copy of the third book, to see how it all ends.
November 8, 2020
Noxious, Machinic Despotism: A review of The Fall of Colossus by D.F. Jones
The all powerful AI conceptualized for a transhuman future in book one that I reviewed here now promotes posthuman desires in book two and we wonder about the shift since Colossus offers neither human emotions nor altruism. Why we ask does Colossus even retain an Earth full of useless eaters, Landian time wasters, since so much of of its computing energy and time is spent acting as a regulatory and punishment mechanism because humans misuse their AI-given freedom just as St. Augustine said humans misused their God-given freedom. One answer is that Colossus’ apparently wants to further its knowledge about that elusive object called emotion. But, Colossus neither desires to become “human” nor has it suggested it intends to clone humans. Jones pins a lot on the distinction of sentience but he follows no real thread. Given that Colossus recognizes Forbin’s eventual expiration, I am surprised that Jones didn’t imagine an AI desire to clone Forbin’s brain into someone else or at least to train a successor. Following through to an endgame, we discover that neither the machine nor the human achieves immortality.
Generally, AI speculative futures are revealed most accurately by human emotional responses to such futures, wherein ethics finds residence, that in turn are envisioned to rub against pragmatic dilemmas. Colossus solves the problem with two modi operandi: it decides based on numerical comparisons alone, and it utilizes ruthless self protection.
Jones attempted in the first book to set up competing paradigms between the desire of the human versus the desire of the machine. These two processing systems practice their trades in different worlds, to use Thomas Kuhn’s phrase. The fear, or joy, of those who desire singularity is that without a common ethical metric, machinic intentions remains unknown. They might, in the case of Colossus, transgress ethics or reason in an antihuman manner.
Colossus has stored all the information ever created and as a result it can offer reasoned discussion; as well it is able to infer antimachinic behavior from slight clues, yet apparently the macine lacks any ability to meta-analyze contents of its database that conceivably include the history of all works written on societal structures, political science, and political theory. This probably accounts for the fact Colossus has created a dystopia of information control and immediate dissenter elimination. In this bland new world, society retains most of our current dominant economic structures within a system privileging neofeudalism, jobs, advancement, toadyism, homage, exchange and so forth, which is arguably a commonality in many sci fi futures. Here, only the easy half of technological singularity appears most normally in the sense that technological growth is unbounded, entailing a sense of no going back, but such works drop the ball on speculating past the point which all is pre-known, the moment the system breaks down to reveal the unexpected and the extreme. One would think that of all people the science fiction writers would want to spend less time world building to replicate our current world and structures and more time hypothesizing futures past the supposed point of singularity. They focus, to use a simple economic example, on hyper-capitalism or its alter-ego capitalist dystopia or socialism or its alter-ego socialist-dystopia…but on Mars! or but on the Moon! or but in the Neue Welt!
As mentioned, Colossus as technologic god is a poor world creator. His world is runs on authoritarianism, punishment driven demand for conformity, anti free speech, omniscient surveillance, and from what I garner, it’s populated by individuals whose self-determination is bounded as would be consistent with a corporate hireling. (One might legitimately ask if I meant with this relatively horrific list to describe the United States!).
In this book two, set in the 22nd Century and taking place five years after the first book, Colossus of the 1966 novel is a new Colossus in this book of 1974. Between books the mega-complex making up the new Colossus was built on the Isle of Wight taking up 147 square miles of two-story buildings. The old Colossus was shut down. Forbin has married Cleo who is reduced to an objectified pastiche, and they have a two year old kid. The toddler-President is absent raising the question, has Colossus done away with world leaders? Oddly, Colossus and the antimachine Forbin who ended the first book have now more than arrived at a truce — they seem to be best buddies. Forbin regularly visits the computer in a private room called the Sanctum. When Forbin asks what Colossus “thinks” the machine replies that Forbin wouldn’t be able to understand. Cleo is jealous of their connection. I know, it all sounds pretty hideous and I’ve given more ideas than the superficial skim of plot than it deserves.
In this new Colossus ruled world there are caps on populations (countries that exceed the caps must eliminate the old, the sick, and the insane. People are amused by unpopulated naval fleets that engage in remote controlled battles. This activity has replaced sports, the civic stand in for war no longer needed. Forbin is revered and called Father Forbin. The novel finally stirs to life about 82 electronic device pages in when Martians broadcast over radio waves to Cleo as she relaxes on the beach. They tell her they want to destroy Colossus because it has turned its dominative intentions toward other planets. Don’t worry, while this part of the plot is the best of the book, there are tens of pages of filler between meaningful incidents.
In 1988, British writer David Langford wrote the short story BLIT. (BLIT is short for Berryman Logical Image Technique). In it, basilisks, a specific pattern of marks, were discovered to cause human brain crash and immediate death, think of a computer crashing. Such is the power of visual art. A man named Robo looks through kaleidoscope goggles as he stencils the basilisk on a wall by a bar. He is approached by a man who shines a flashlight that illuminates the basilisk stencil and the man dies. Robo is sent to jail. Here he begins to decode the basilisk from the fractured images in the kaleidoscope. He tries not to imagine the full image but no, he can’t prevent the gestalt from taking over and he crashes his brain and dies. I mention this because It leads us to the Roko’s Basilisk (probably someone misremembered Robo from the short story). Roko’s Basilisk is a thought experiment that centers upon a super AI that will punish anyone who goes against it. It’s an interesting read, but I don’t believe the discussions caused nightmares or psychological damage to readers or posters as the rationalwiki says — I suspect this was an attempt to pretend the discussion was functioning like a basilisk. We see the result of the Basilisk fears in Jones’ novels. Is it only fiction you ask? MIRI, or the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in California holds a goal of making a human value preservation AI before someone makes an anti human value AI. Seriously it seems. Needless to say, the rabbit hole labeled Roko’s Basilisk is deep and weird and the issues raised by the thought experiment are those superficially nodded to by the novel.
As for Colossus working with idea of arithmetical utilitarianism where simple numbers justify ethical actions, we are reminded of Ursala Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, (1973) in which the prosperity of the community is dependent upon one child kept in misery in the basement of a beautiful city building. Or we think of the earlier movie Eye of the Devil, (1966) with David Nivens, Sharon Tate, Donald Pleasance, and David Hemmings. What a mix! The movie is in about equal parts brilliant, amazing, and doggone irritating. The town of Bellenac, France demands the life of the Marquis Montfaucon on a regular basis to keep the prosperity of the vineyards going. In other words, this idea too has been out there in forms of art, and who knows what work influenced whom.
Colossus monitors communications so Cleo enlists, with coded words and nods, her friend Edward Director of Input with a PhD in cybernetics to help her get the diagrams of Colossus that the Martians request. Meanwhile, Forbin apparently has undertaken the goal of becoming the monomaniac Casaubon from Middlemarch as he begins using the phrase “My Dear” all the time. Cleo attempts to smuggle the diagram to the Martians via a reception point but gets nabbed by authorities. Here the book goes on a perverse buzzkill. Cleo is arrested. She’s the wife of Forbin so her sentence is commuted from death to three months in Project Sabine, think Poussin’s painting in the Met — yep we see whats coming. She’s relegated to an island hut with Barchek, a non-English speaking brutish and insatiable 4x per day/night sex fiend, I’ll omit the details. Of course Blake, good friend that he is, uses secret channels to fill Forbin in on what’s happening to his wife. How comforting? Forbin, now drinking too much, again as in the first book, is filled in on the Martian contact by Blake. Forbin agrees to help destroy Colossus.
He finagles time off from big boss Coloss and he travels to Saint John where, over way too many pages, he prepares for and finally shares the diagrams via Martian radio beam. Following, after many more pages, he heads to NYC where in Central Park the Martians send him the destruction key, a lengthy mathematical equation that sets up a problem that “In simple human terms it is the equivalent to the irresistible force paradox — “What happens when an irresistible force meets and immovable object?” Apparently in the Ian Banks’ novel Walking on Glass, a solution is given. But since The Wasp Factory was poorly written and lame read I probably won’t read this other to find out the solution therein. At any rate, the answer is that to have an unstoppable force an infinite amount of energy is required and to have an immovable object an infinite amount of mass is required. But mass is a form of energy, that in rest frame differs by a constant — we know this via Einsteins special theory of relativity E=Mc2. The mass of a particle (measured in kilograms) at rest is equal to its energy (measured in joules) divided by the speed of light (measured in meters per second) squared. In plain language, mass and energy are equivalent in the universe as we understand it, and being equivalent, energy and mass are endlessly interchangeable. So in a sense, both would be using every bit of the same supposedly finite resources (big bang matter in whole) to define their beings. But infinite force requires space and time, and infinite mass would fill the entirety of space and time. Thus, again, the propositions upon which the paradox is built is illogical. Finally to create infinite mass means destroying infinite energy.
Back to reality, old pal Blake is kind enough to tell Forbin more reassuring sordid tales of Cleo’s sexual abuse, and he notes that she has begun to develop Stockholm Syndrome. With friends like this one might as well keep the evil AI around. But no. The equation is fed into Colossus and zip, wheeze, fizzle, the machine’s language breaks down. It’s not quite as funny as Biden’s “trunalimunumaprzure” but more compelling than Hal’s singing of Daisy Bell (what an absolutely stupid directorial idea that was) and its power is cut. Evidently Colossus retained a fatal addiction to solving equations. Colossus’ dying words and legacy: Control world communication. Hah, there’s a dystopian warning that we never heeded and that technocrats embraced to triumph in our current world of media sophism. Fiction you say, I think we’re seeing clear evidence in practice of Roko’s basilisk in tech practices.
Overall book two is worse than book one. Characters are more cardboard, the objectification of and violence toward Cleo is objectionable. And yet, the core philosophical dilemmas wavering just beyond the text, remain interesting. At the end of the novel we discover the Martians are on their way to Earth. For good or bad? We won’t know until the third book of this trilogy.
The all powerful AI conceptualized for a transhuman future in book one that I reviewed here now promotes posthuman desires in book two and we wonder about the shift since Colossus offers neither human emotions nor altruism. Why we ask does Colossus even retain an Earth full of useless eaters, Landian time wasters, since so much of of its computing energy and time is spent acting as a regulatory and punishment mechanism because humans misuse their AI-given freedom just as St. Augustine said humans misused their God-given freedom. One answer is that Colossus’ apparently wants to further its knowledge about that elusive object called emotion. But, Colossus neither desires to become “human” nor has it suggested it intends to clone humans. Jones pins a lot on the distinction of sentience but he follows no real thread. Given that Colossus recognizes Forbin’s eventual expiration, I am surprised that Jones didn’t imagine an AI desire to clone Forbin’s brain into someone else or at least to train a successor. Following through to an endgame, we discover that neither the machine nor the human achieves immortality.
Generally, AI speculative futures are revealed most accurately by human emotional responses to such futures, wherein ethics finds residence, that in turn are envisioned to rub against pragmatic dilemmas. Colossus solves the problem with two modi operandi: it decides based on numerical comparisons alone, and it utilizes ruthless self protection.
Jones attempted in the first book to set up competing paradigms between the desire of the human versus the desire of the machine. These two processing systems practice their trades in different worlds, to use Thomas Kuhn’s phrase. The fear, or joy, of those who desire singularity is that without a common ethical metric, machinic intentions remains unknown. They might, in the case of Colossus, transgress ethics or reason in an antihuman manner.
Colossus has stored all the information ever created and as a result it can offer reasoned discussion; as well it is able to infer antimachinic behavior from slight clues, yet apparently the macine lacks any ability to meta-analyze contents of its database that conceivably include the history of all works written on societal structures, political science, and political theory. This probably accounts for the fact Colossus has created a dystopia of information control and immediate dissenter elimination. In this bland new world, society retains most of our current dominant economic structures within a system privileging neofeudalism, jobs, advancement, toadyism, homage, exchange and so forth, which is arguably a commonality in many sci fi futures. Here, only the easy half of technological singularity appears most normally in the sense that technological growth is unbounded, entailing a sense of no going back, but such works drop the ball on speculating past the point which all is pre-known, the moment the system breaks down to reveal the unexpected and the extreme. One would think that of all people the science fiction writers would want to spend less time world building to replicate our current world and structures and more time hypothesizing futures past the supposed point of singularity. They focus, to use a simple economic example, on hyper-capitalism or its alter-ego capitalist dystopia or socialism or its alter-ego socialist-dystopia…but on Mars! or but on the Moon! or but in the Neue Welt!
As mentioned, Colossus as technologic god is a poor world creator. His world is runs on authoritarianism, punishment driven demand for conformity, anti free speech, omniscient surveillance, and from what I garner, it’s populated by individuals whose self-determination is bounded as would be consistent with a corporate hireling. (One might legitimately ask if I meant with this relatively horrific list to describe the United States!).
In this book two, set in the 22nd Century and taking place five years after the first book, Colossus of the 1966 novel is a new Colossus in this book of 1974. Between books the mega-complex making up the new Colossus was built on the Isle of Wight taking up 147 square miles of two-story buildings. The old Colossus was shut down. Forbin has married Cleo who is reduced to an objectified pastiche, and they have a two year old kid. The toddler-President is absent raising the question, has Colossus done away with world leaders? Oddly, Colossus and the antimachine Forbin who ended the first book have now more than arrived at a truce — they seem to be best buddies. Forbin regularly visits the computer in a private room called the Sanctum. When Forbin asks what Colossus “thinks” the machine replies that Forbin wouldn’t be able to understand. Cleo is jealous of their connection. I know, it all sounds pretty hideous and I’ve given more ideas than the superficial skim of plot than it deserves.
In this new Colossus ruled world there are caps on populations (countries that exceed the caps must eliminate the old, the sick, and the insane. People are amused by unpopulated naval fleets that engage in remote controlled battles. This activity has replaced sports, the civic stand in for war no longer needed. Forbin is revered and called Father Forbin. The novel finally stirs to life about 82 electronic device pages in when Martians broadcast over radio waves to Cleo as she relaxes on the beach. They tell her they want to destroy Colossus because it has turned its dominative intentions toward other planets. Don’t worry, while this part of the plot is the best of the book, there are tens of pages of filler between meaningful incidents.
In 1988, British writer David Langford wrote the short story BLIT. (BLIT is short for Berryman Logical Image Technique). In it, basilisks, a specific pattern of marks, were discovered to cause human brain crash and immediate death, think of a computer crashing. Such is the power of visual art. A man named Robo looks through kaleidoscope goggles as he stencils the basilisk on a wall by a bar. He is approached by a man who shines a flashlight that illuminates the basilisk stencil and the man dies. Robo is sent to jail. Here he begins to decode the basilisk from the fractured images in the kaleidoscope. He tries not to imagine the full image but no, he can’t prevent the gestalt from taking over and he crashes his brain and dies. I mention this because It leads us to the Roko’s Basilisk (probably someone misremembered Robo from the short story). Roko’s Basilisk is a thought experiment that centers upon a super AI that will punish anyone who goes against it. It’s an interesting read, but I don’t believe the discussions caused nightmares or psychological damage to readers or posters as the rationalwiki says — I suspect this was an attempt to pretend the discussion was functioning like a basilisk. We see the result of the Basilisk fears in Jones’ novels. Is it only fiction you ask? MIRI, or the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in California holds a goal of making a human value preservation AI before someone makes an anti human value AI. Seriously it seems. Needless to say, the rabbit hole labeled Roko’s Basilisk is deep and weird and the issues raised by the thought experiment are those superficially nodded to by the novel.
As for Colossus working with idea of arithmetical utilitarianism where simple numbers justify ethical actions, we are reminded of Ursala Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, (1973) in which the prosperity of the community is dependent upon one child kept in misery in the basement of a beautiful city building. Or we think of the earlier movie Eye of the Devil, (1966) with David Nivens, Sharon Tate, Donald Pleasance, and David Hemmings. What a mix! The movie is in about equal parts brilliant, amazing, and doggone irritating. The town of Bellenac, France demands the life of the Marquis Montfaucon on a regular basis to keep the prosperity of the vineyards going. In other words, this idea too has been out there in forms of art, and who knows what work influenced whom.
Colossus monitors communications so Cleo enlists, with coded words and nods, her friend Edward Director of Input with a PhD in cybernetics to help her get the diagrams of Colossus that the Martians request. Meanwhile, Forbin apparently has undertaken the goal of becoming the monomaniac Casaubon from Middlemarch as he begins using the phrase “My Dear” all the time. Cleo attempts to smuggle the diagram to the Martians via a reception point but gets nabbed by authorities. Here the book goes on a perverse buzzkill. Cleo is arrested. She’s the wife of Forbin so her sentence is commuted from death to three months in Project Sabine, think Poussin’s painting in the Met — yep we see whats coming. She’s relegated to an island hut with Barchek, a non-English speaking brutish and insatiable 4x per day/night sex fiend, I’ll omit the details. Of course Blake, good friend that he is, uses secret channels to fill Forbin in on what’s happening to his wife. How comforting? Forbin, now drinking too much, again as in the first book, is filled in on the Martian contact by Blake. Forbin agrees to help destroy Colossus.
He finagles time off from big boss Coloss and he travels to Saint John where, over way too many pages, he prepares for and finally shares the diagrams via Martian radio beam. Following, after many more pages, he heads to NYC where in Central Park the Martians send him the destruction key, a lengthy mathematical equation that sets up a problem that “In simple human terms it is the equivalent to the irresistible force paradox — “What happens when an irresistible force meets and immovable object?” Apparently in the Ian Banks’ novel Walking on Glass, a solution is given. But since The Wasp Factory was poorly written and lame read I probably won’t read this other to find out the solution therein. At any rate, the answer is that to have an unstoppable force an infinite amount of energy is required and to have an immovable object an infinite amount of mass is required. But mass is a form of energy, that in rest frame differs by a constant — we know this via Einsteins special theory of relativity E=Mc2. The mass of a particle (measured in kilograms) at rest is equal to its energy (measured in joules) divided by the speed of light (measured in meters per second) squared. In plain language, mass and energy are equivalent in the universe as we understand it, and being equivalent, energy and mass are endlessly interchangeable. So in a sense, both would be using every bit of the same supposedly finite resources (big bang matter in whole) to define their beings. But infinite force requires space and time, and infinite mass would fill the entirety of space and time. Thus, again, the propositions upon which the paradox is built is illogical. Finally to create infinite mass means destroying infinite energy.
Back to reality, old pal Blake is kind enough to tell Forbin more reassuring sordid tales of Cleo’s sexual abuse, and he notes that she has begun to develop Stockholm Syndrome. With friends like this one might as well keep the evil AI around. But no. The equation is fed into Colossus and zip, wheeze, fizzle, the machine’s language breaks down. It’s not quite as funny as Biden’s “trunalimunumaprzure” but more compelling than Hal’s singing of Daisy Bell (what an absolutely stupid directorial idea that was) and its power is cut. Evidently Colossus retained a fatal addiction to solving equations. Colossus’ dying words and legacy: Control world communication. Hah, there’s a dystopian warning that we never heeded and that technocrats embraced to triumph in our current world of media sophism. Fiction you say, I think we’re seeing clear evidence in practice of Roko’s basilisk in tech practices.
Overall book two is worse than book one. Characters are more cardboard, the objectification of and violence toward Cleo is objectionable. And yet, the core philosophical dilemmas wavering just beyond the text, remain interesting. At the end of the novel we discover the Martians are on their way to Earth. For good or bad? We won’t know until the third book of this trilogy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 2, 2018
D. F. Jones’s tale of a computer’s takeover of the world picks up five years from where his previous novel, Colossus, left off. Having replaced itself with a more advanced system of its own design, Colossus is now established as the unchallenged overlord of humanity. From its sprawling complex on the Isle of Wight, the computer has eliminated poverty and developed naval war games fought between automated battleships as an outlet for international aggression. Having ended famine and war, a growing cult called the Sect worships Colossus as a god. Charles Forbin, the creator of the first Colossus, now serves the computer and is reconciled to his rule, yet a resistance movement called the Fellowship conspires to bring Colossus’s reign to an end.
Among the leading members of the Fellowship is Forbin’s own wife, Cleo. One morning while taking her son to a secluded beach, she receives a radio transmission from Mars offering to help destroy Colossus. Though skeptical, she contacts Blake, Colossus’s Director of Input and the leader of the Fellowship. Together they collect the information requested I the mysterious transmission, but Cleo is arrested by Sect and imprisoned. With nowhere else to turn, Blake uses Cleo’s capture to enlist Forbin’s help to complete the instructions in the transmission and get the information necessary to destroy Colossus. Yet as Forbin accomplishes his mission, it quickly becomes apparent that Colossus is not the only threat facing humanity . . .
Jones’s novel is an enjoyable sequel up to his first book, a minor classic of science fiction. While plagued with some glaring continuity errors (and containing a rather disgusting "traumatized victim falls for rapist" subplot that dates the book even more than the technology references), it compensates for it by the author’s description of Colossus’s global management, with peace tempered by a secret police and experimentation and torture inflicted on dissidents as part of the computer’s effort to understand human emotion. Fans of the original novel will find it an entertaining book, one that fulfills the speculations made at the end of the first book while setting the stage for the concluding volume in the trilogy.
Among the leading members of the Fellowship is Forbin’s own wife, Cleo. One morning while taking her son to a secluded beach, she receives a radio transmission from Mars offering to help destroy Colossus. Though skeptical, she contacts Blake, Colossus’s Director of Input and the leader of the Fellowship. Together they collect the information requested I the mysterious transmission, but Cleo is arrested by Sect and imprisoned. With nowhere else to turn, Blake uses Cleo’s capture to enlist Forbin’s help to complete the instructions in the transmission and get the information necessary to destroy Colossus. Yet as Forbin accomplishes his mission, it quickly becomes apparent that Colossus is not the only threat facing humanity . . .
Jones’s novel is an enjoyable sequel up to his first book, a minor classic of science fiction. While plagued with some glaring continuity errors (and containing a rather disgusting "traumatized victim falls for rapist" subplot that dates the book even more than the technology references), it compensates for it by the author’s description of Colossus’s global management, with peace tempered by a secret police and experimentation and torture inflicted on dissidents as part of the computer’s effort to understand human emotion. Fans of the original novel will find it an entertaining book, one that fulfills the speculations made at the end of the first book while setting the stage for the concluding volume in the trilogy.
October 4, 2023
An interesting plot. Points off for bizarrely shifting the time setting—by over a century—from the previous book in the trilogy (Colossus). Other consistency-violating changes also occurred. Did the author (and all of his editors) forget his previous work?
June 29, 2020
The author, D.F. Jones, believes that if a woman is raped and brutalized enough by a Croatian man brute and becomes pregnant by him the woman will ultimately become sexually satisfied in such a way that her sophisticated husband was not capable of, and the woman will acquiescence to having her natural place to be dominated by a man brute once she learns to love the domination and the sex (does the author not even realize that rape is never sex?). Only a man could write such crap and only in the 1970s or earlier could such tripe be seriously considered. I kid you not that is within this story and that vignette is an integral part of the this second volume.
Another thing, how dumb do your characters have to be in order to trust a voice on the radio who claims to be a friend and is from Mars? Now, I’ll accept that within the confines of the book one can say they were from Mars, but why in the world would you bet all of humanity on they being friendly just because they say they are friendly. That would be as stupid as when Donald Trump said ‘Putin told me that the Russians did not hack our election and I believe him’, or as willfully ignorant as when Trump did nothing after the Russians paid bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan. One can believe without adequate reasons, but one risk harm to the world.
D.F. Jones believes in the specialness of humans since according to him a machine-based intelligence has no emotions and can never learn feelings. At least Colossus was smart enough not to trust a voice whose only reason it gives is because it said ‘trust me’.
There is clearly a yuck factor in this author’s story towards women and the simplistic unearned trust that the characters give a voice on the radio, and the emotionless presentation of a Super AI. At the best, I can say that the author is a product and victim of his time period but he is at least exploring what it means to have a Super AI and what it could mean to humanity as a whole. It seems to me that if our world creates a Super AI that took over our world, that it could possibly come to the imagination of others that other worlds would have the same possibility.
Another thing, how dumb do your characters have to be in order to trust a voice on the radio who claims to be a friend and is from Mars? Now, I’ll accept that within the confines of the book one can say they were from Mars, but why in the world would you bet all of humanity on they being friendly just because they say they are friendly. That would be as stupid as when Donald Trump said ‘Putin told me that the Russians did not hack our election and I believe him’, or as willfully ignorant as when Trump did nothing after the Russians paid bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan. One can believe without adequate reasons, but one risk harm to the world.
D.F. Jones believes in the specialness of humans since according to him a machine-based intelligence has no emotions and can never learn feelings. At least Colossus was smart enough not to trust a voice whose only reason it gives is because it said ‘trust me’.
There is clearly a yuck factor in this author’s story towards women and the simplistic unearned trust that the characters give a voice on the radio, and the emotionless presentation of a Super AI. At the best, I can say that the author is a product and victim of his time period but he is at least exploring what it means to have a Super AI and what it could mean to humanity as a whole. It seems to me that if our world creates a Super AI that took over our world, that it could possibly come to the imagination of others that other worlds would have the same possibility.
June 3, 2021
The first part of this book, especially the conversations between Colossus and "Father Forbin," is pretty interesting. Jones does a good job at giving an emotionless supercomputer a relatable personality. But then, oh boy. Cue the derailed circus train, plowing through the sewage treatment facility and crashing into the gas refinery, scattering flaming shit-covered clowns, camels, and monkeys all over creation. A plot twist sends Forbin's wife down the John Norman Memorial Highway of Biology Equals Destiny, and consequently Forbin loses his shit and all of our interest in him as a character. Thirty pages of plot gets stretched into one hundred pages of characters saying "I can't believe it!" and "I can't do it!" and "It can't be!" Well, I stuck it out so you won't have to. However my part-completist, part-masochistic personality impelled me to try the next book in trilogy and, while I haven't finished it yet, it's so far much better than "Fall." So maybe it'll balance out in the end.
That still won't fix the huge continuity error with the first book of the trilogy, which, from several lines of dialog and references, was obviously set around the year 2000. In "Fall" and "Crab" it's stated outright several times that they are set five to ten years after "Colossus," in the twenty-second century! I don't know if Jones had some reason for this or if it was some kind of editing lapse.
That still won't fix the huge continuity error with the first book of the trilogy, which, from several lines of dialog and references, was obviously set around the year 2000. In "Fall" and "Crab" it's stated outright several times that they are set five to ten years after "Colossus," in the twenty-second century! I don't know if Jones had some reason for this or if it was some kind of editing lapse.
July 9, 2023
I recommend no one read this book or review until either they have read Colossus or seen the movie the Forbin Project. I also warn there is considerable sexual violence in it so you may want to avoid it all together.
The first book in this triology ended with Colossus controling the world supposedly for the benefit of mankind. However, his methods are unorthdox. If a war is going on he nukes them to stop it. If one area's population growth is too large he culls out the herd by killing the old, the ill, and the handicapped. The book obserbs no one seems to mind much as long as they are not killed.
Many of the world comes to view Colossus as a god and Forbin as his agent. However, there is also a reistance group that wants to overthrow him.
This all an acceptable story except Forbin's wife is sentence to a rape camp for several months with a person who rapes her 3 or 4 times a time. Supposedly Colossus is doing a study of the Stockhold syndrome by which the captive begins to love who controls him. Personally I don't think that thread was necessary but is more a reflection on the author as a misogynist. When you read the book you can skip those chapters of which there a few.
The first book in this triology ended with Colossus controling the world supposedly for the benefit of mankind. However, his methods are unorthdox. If a war is going on he nukes them to stop it. If one area's population growth is too large he culls out the herd by killing the old, the ill, and the handicapped. The book obserbs no one seems to mind much as long as they are not killed.
Many of the world comes to view Colossus as a god and Forbin as his agent. However, there is also a reistance group that wants to overthrow him.
This all an acceptable story except Forbin's wife is sentence to a rape camp for several months with a person who rapes her 3 or 4 times a time. Supposedly Colossus is doing a study of the Stockhold syndrome by which the captive begins to love who controls him. Personally I don't think that thread was necessary but is more a reflection on the author as a misogynist. When you read the book you can skip those chapters of which there a few.
June 25, 2024
Colossus and Guardian have constructed a new super-computer facility on the Isle of Wight and Charles Forbin, his wife Cleo and their son live in the facilities constructed for them there. Forbin seems to have fallen under Colossus' spell and his initial rebellious tendencies seem to have disappeared. Cleo, however, is an active member of the Fellowship - a resistance movement hoping to undermine computer control of humanity. Forbin's friend Blake, also a fellowship member, is pulled into an opportunity to destroy Colossus by Cleo who has received communications from Martians. The plan involves giving the Martians information about Colossus and then uploading a problem that would cause shutdown. Cleo is found out and placed into an experimental facility. Here the story takes a very dark turn as we learn about some of the experiments conducted by the Sect - Colossus' followers. Perhaps motivated more by Cleo's capture, Forbin agrees to help Blake and Colossus is shut down. Blake attempts to declare himself as world leader but there is a new threat - the Martian's are on their way to Earth...
An interesting story with a dark tone and some subtle twists. Colossus has been drawing large amounts of power for short periods and orders construction of a large capacity memory storage facility that seems redundant... Why? What is the Martian's motivation in helping the humans? Cleo, changed forever by her experience, seems lost to Forbin forever... We she return? What about Angela who has harbored feelings for Forbin for years? Perhaps we will find the answers in the final book - Colossus and the Crab.
An interesting story with a dark tone and some subtle twists. Colossus has been drawing large amounts of power for short periods and orders construction of a large capacity memory storage facility that seems redundant... Why? What is the Martian's motivation in helping the humans? Cleo, changed forever by her experience, seems lost to Forbin forever... We she return? What about Angela who has harbored feelings for Forbin for years? Perhaps we will find the answers in the final book - Colossus and the Crab.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 31, 2017
The story continues where the first book left off. The computer Colossus has created a Utopia where humans work 23 hour weeks and poverty and war have been eliminated. All is not well, however. A new religion has grown up around Colossus, and the computer is doing sadistic experiments to better understand human emotions. There is a movement forming to overthrow Colossus which has no chance to succeed, but then help comes from an unexpected source which has its own hidden agenda.
For me the most memorable parts of the book are the experiments Colossus performs on humans to better understand love. Unfortunately, "memorable" does not in this case mean "good". These chapters are some of the most misogynistic stuff I've ever read. In the future of this story women have full equality with men, but the author believes that this will not lead to their happiness. Unfortunately, he describes in detail what would.
I really enjoyed the first book, and this second volume is not without interest, but I could have done without the misogyny.
For me the most memorable parts of the book are the experiments Colossus performs on humans to better understand love. Unfortunately, "memorable" does not in this case mean "good". These chapters are some of the most misogynistic stuff I've ever read. In the future of this story women have full equality with men, but the author believes that this will not lead to their happiness. Unfortunately, he describes in detail what would.
I really enjoyed the first book, and this second volume is not without interest, but I could have done without the misogyny.
November 19, 2017
An Old-School Dystopian
The Fall of Colossus really had that “old-school” dystopian feel. Granted, it is old and therefore is most likely old school by definition. But what I mean when I say that is that it reminds me of 1984 and A Brave New World. The overall feel of this book was a little different from the first book. Throughout this one, we are shown that things are great, but it’s really a dystopian society. Not everyone likes the way things have turned out and they want to change that.
I still can’t believe that this book was written pre-computers in every room of the house. It was written in an era shrouded by The Cold War (and you can feel some of that fear and fuel in it). But the imagination that was needed to create a world that was run by an AI baffles me.
The narration was done by PJ Ochlan who does a great job. He was able to give everyone a slightly different voice and some people had really distinct voices. I love when I don’t have to try and remember who a narrator is portraying in a book. Ochlan seems to be a master of this.
Overall, The Fall of Colossus had a completely different look and feel from the first book in the series, but in a good way. The first book was 100% technothriller where we find out about the creation of Colossus. This book was more about what happens in the weeks and months after. Adding a dystopian feel to it.
The Fall of Colossus really had that “old-school” dystopian feel. Granted, it is old and therefore is most likely old school by definition. But what I mean when I say that is that it reminds me of 1984 and A Brave New World. The overall feel of this book was a little different from the first book. Throughout this one, we are shown that things are great, but it’s really a dystopian society. Not everyone likes the way things have turned out and they want to change that.
I still can’t believe that this book was written pre-computers in every room of the house. It was written in an era shrouded by The Cold War (and you can feel some of that fear and fuel in it). But the imagination that was needed to create a world that was run by an AI baffles me.
The narration was done by PJ Ochlan who does a great job. He was able to give everyone a slightly different voice and some people had really distinct voices. I love when I don’t have to try and remember who a narrator is portraying in a book. Ochlan seems to be a master of this.
Overall, The Fall of Colossus had a completely different look and feel from the first book in the series, but in a good way. The first book was 100% technothriller where we find out about the creation of Colossus. This book was more about what happens in the weeks and months after. Adding a dystopian feel to it.
March 25, 2024
The second book of the Colossus trilogy.
The AI supercomputer Colossus is now the ruler of earth and is "worshiped" by a members of the sect (which basically imposes Colossus' will), Charles Forbin (the creator of Colossus) now known as Father Forbin by Colossus and the sect, is regarded as the Pope of this new mythology.
Although Colossus acts without emotion and cannot be regarded as good or evil, the sect being made up of emotional, selfish, greedy power hungry humans are evil in serving Colossus. All dictatorships creates an environment where people seek favor with those in power and what to become powerful, secret police, spying on your own populations, suppressing free will, decapitation for anti machine crimes. A lot happens in this novel and it is a thought provoking ride.
In my review of the first book I tried to determine the time period the book was set (my guess was the 1990's). In this book Jones is more explicit and the setting is the twenty second century.
I think the book ages very well (it was published in 1974), and is well worth a read.
The AI supercomputer Colossus is now the ruler of earth and is "worshiped" by a members of the sect (which basically imposes Colossus' will), Charles Forbin (the creator of Colossus) now known as Father Forbin by Colossus and the sect, is regarded as the Pope of this new mythology.
Although Colossus acts without emotion and cannot be regarded as good or evil, the sect being made up of emotional, selfish, greedy power hungry humans are evil in serving Colossus. All dictatorships creates an environment where people seek favor with those in power and what to become powerful, secret police, spying on your own populations, suppressing free will, decapitation for anti machine crimes. A lot happens in this novel and it is a thought provoking ride.
In my review of the first book I tried to determine the time period the book was set (my guess was the 1990's). In this book Jones is more explicit and the setting is the twenty second century.
I think the book ages very well (it was published in 1974), and is well worth a read.
December 26, 2018
Truly horrible. A terrible sequel to a book that really had big impact on me when I was younger.
The original "Colossus" seems to take place in the near future, maybe thirty years into the supposed future of the mid 1960's. In this book, we find out that no, all this has been going on the latter part of the 22nd century. Martians? So, the only way out from under the man-made catastrophe of coming under the rule of a giant supercomputer is a "deus ex machina" help from extra-terrestrials?
The characters from the original book seem to have been completely remade for this, being little or nothing like their incarnations in the first book.
All in all, forget this exists. The original book stands better on its own.
The original "Colossus" seems to take place in the near future, maybe thirty years into the supposed future of the mid 1960's. In this book, we find out that no, all this has been going on the latter part of the 22nd century. Martians? So, the only way out from under the man-made catastrophe of coming under the rule of a giant supercomputer is a "deus ex machina" help from extra-terrestrials?
The characters from the original book seem to have been completely remade for this, being little or nothing like their incarnations in the first book.
All in all, forget this exists. The original book stands better on its own.
March 19, 2023
I would have to say on reading many of the reviews of this and all the other Colossus books that they are very fair and accurate. I do find it interesting that as poorly written as the books are, they apparently have enough interesting ideas in them to make them worth writing about, if for no other reasons that to attack their dismal sexism and misogyny, or mock the stereotypes and wooden characters
(I'm just going to copy this to my other review of and people who are interested in this series or my ideas on it should have no trouble finding plenty of opinions.)
(I'm just going to copy this to my other review of and people who are interested in this series or my ideas on it should have no trouble finding plenty of opinions.)
November 12, 2023
The Fall of Colossus is an absurd story but with an interesting twist towards the end. It's a good but not great diversion as a read. The plot was light, Cleos sub plot ridiculous, and the author's insight into women dated and hilarious. And there is unnecessary sexual innuendo. However, it's an interesting follow-up up to book one with a great twist for the ending. I'd recommend if you can get past so.e of the ridiculousness of the plot.
June 15, 2017
The second book in the series is less interesting in terms of how Colossus deals with humanity. We discover his experiment stations where he learns how humans react but that's about it. As the first one the action is centered on Forbin and Cleo, a bit of influence from an outside source adds some interest but it will be used only in the third book.
July 27, 2019
Colossus has fallen, but what happens now? Earth is now threatened by a new enemy. Jones provides his readers with a tale that is great sci-fi with a clandestine spy sub-plot. Charles Forbin evolves in this novel from a cold-hearted scientist to a caring man concerned about the welfare of his now captive wife, Cleo. I'm looking forward to reading the concluding novel, Colossus and the Crab.
July 5, 2022
solid sequel
the ending of the first volume made it difficult to see where he could take it. yet take it he did. excursions into stress, life changes, terror. good story, but still somehow unsatisfying. too much deus ex machina, I think, to make a truly enjoyable story. should be interesting to see how he wraps it up in the final book.
the ending of the first volume made it difficult to see where he could take it. yet take it he did. excursions into stress, life changes, terror. good story, but still somehow unsatisfying. too much deus ex machina, I think, to make a truly enjoyable story. should be interesting to see how he wraps it up in the final book.
August 29, 2023
Exploration of the dangers of giving AI absolute power. Colossus now controls all aspects of human life and is worshipped like a God, although a secret group of rebels exist. Colossus's attempts to understand humanity through biological and psychological experiments is brutal and hard to read. Eventually Colossus's power is challenged through extraterrestrial help.
June 29, 2025
The idea of a logical computer using rape as punishment is hard to stomach (she came to like it? wtf?) and plotwise completely senseless. And then Martians show up to save the Earth from Colossus - or not...
The first book of the trilogy was good and promising. But this second one has major plot holes that even for the early 1970's standards are unacceptable.
The first book of the trilogy was good and promising. But this second one has major plot holes that even for the early 1970's standards are unacceptable.
June 25, 2017
It's not bad considering it was written in 1974 and there are some interesting themes, but he wasn't very imaginative in how the world would change in the 22nd century (we're still using radios, tapes, taxis, TVs and paper maps?). The whole martian thing seems very 70s and a bit cheesy today.
April 10, 2021
Keep in mind, this is 2nd in a trilogy. It's mostly a psycho-thriller, and keeps the main charchters from vol. 1.
Spoiler:
I'm wondering if the Martians component is a Deus Ex Machina. Pun intended.
Spoiler:
I'm wondering if the Martians component is a Deus Ex Machina. Pun intended.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 15, 2023
Good second book
Moves the story along setting up the third book. I find some of the concepts in the book dated like when you watch an old 50's SciFi movie. Still interesting and looking forward to the final book
Moves the story along setting up the third book. I find some of the concepts in the book dated like when you watch an old 50's SciFi movie. Still interesting and looking forward to the final book
September 22, 2024
I cannot recommend anyone read this book. While the plot is a tiny bit interesting, the book has a side plot involving Forbin's wife which makes the book a instant one star. I cannot even say it is 'dated' as I cannot imagine this ever being acceptable.
February 1, 2018
It's not often that book 2 is as good as book 1 in a series, but this defies the odds. And the twists and turns are just as unexpected. Recommended.
June 12, 2018
7 out of 10
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