Recursion

by Tony Ballantyne

Book Overview

It is the twenty-third century. Herb, a young entrepreneur, returns to the isolated planet on which he has illegally been trying to build a city-and finds it destroyed by a swarming nightmare of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553589288
• ISBN13: 9780553589283
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Spectra Books
• Length: 406 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Three tales for the price of one!

"Recursion," Tony Ballantyne's crisply told tripartite tale, is filled with interesting characters and ideas. Each of the three takes place in a different era, with different characters, who are (of course) all connected somehow. And we finally learn at the end just how. The tales are segmented into five parts each, followed by the conclusion, with each part ending with a tease before a segment of the next story begins. (But don't jump ahead, please! You'll be missing certain connections if you do.) In what the publisher's copywriter judges to be the "main" story (it's the only one described on the back cover anyhow) in 2210 Herb Kirkham tries to build a city on a distant planet, only to find that his self-replicating machines have run amok. Worse, agent Robert Johnston of something called the Environment Agency suddenly turns up, right on his spaceship actually (now how did he do that?!), and gives him the choice of cooperation or incarceration. Choosing cooperation (of course!) Herb and Robert banter their way along as they fight the Evil Domain--a horde of self-replicating machines who've devoured thousands of planets. Story 2 takes place in 2051. In its first segment we meet Eva, a depressed suicidal low-salaried worker in a nanny-state version of the UK, who attempts to commit suicide and ends up in an asylum. What seems at first as though it's going to be the most conventional tale of the three--Eva makes three friends in the asylum; they plan an escape, and so forth--turns out to be perhaps the most startling and provocative. It certainly becomes the most philosophical. It has a greyer tone, quite distinct from the banter and spark of Story 1. Finally, in Story 3, which takes place in 2119, we meet Constantine, corporate spy ("ghost") who has four personalities implanted within him called red, white, blue, and the most sinister grey. He is to meet with his corporate colleagues in the city of Stonebreak, Australia, designed by, yep, self-replicating machines. They must decide whether to go ahead with an important project that is being developed on Mars. This one is sinister, nebulous, confusing--like good spy stories always are. It comes complete with a suspicious character, Mary, who meets Constantine at the very beginning and tries to offer him information before she . . . It does all come together at the end, in an ambiguous way. And the ambiguity isn't because this is, yes, the first of three ("Capacity" and "Divergence" are the other two--and all three tales have now been published). Actually, it's complete in itself. No. The ambiguity is all about whether the characters have made the right choices. Well have they?

Brave New World

Ballatyne has created a wonderful future history. His ideas of where we may may be headed will make you pause and think. Full of great technology, but the book is about great characters, although not always human characters. Not a quick easy read, but full of fun.

Original, Quirky, Brilliant

Unlike another reviewer, it was the literary aspects that caught my attention - the unusual writing, the unusual structure and the manner in which all three time lines were resolved. My rule of deciding if a book is good or not is whether the characters remain afterwards, if you can imagine them walking through the door at that moment. Eva was just so well done, a true growth in character from depressed suicidal robot to the one who gives advice to mankind's rulers. I made a mistake and read CAPACITY before this one so I was not aware of the mythology of Mary, Eva, Constantine, the alien Watcher. In Ballantyne's universe, the Singularity is a reality only it does not originate on Earth. In a way, this recalls Star Trek and the peaceful Federation. The story evolves simultaneously across three time lines, all in the future. The Watcher, a Godlike AI, holds the book together - does he exist, is he just a product of our imagination, if he does exist does he interfere, is he secretly guiding mankind along a certain path? There is enough Gnosticism and Conspiracy Talk for the most dedicated paranoid convinced that reality is not what it seems and that we are being ruled by "someone" - Illuminati, aliens, Jews, corporations, the Vatican, etc. We mmet Eva, a woman who works diligently to commit suicide. In this future Big Brother world, our every action is monitored by an all-powerful intrusive State with (of course) benevolent intent. It borrows from both Puritans and Welfare State proponents, enforcing a benign, boring, helpful society that makes one want to scream. She is caught and sent to a mental ward for treatment and while there begins hearing voices. Another plot line involves Herb who has released a defective Von Newmann replicating machine adn turned a planet into grey goo. A third plotline involves a battle among coroporations over a secret found on Mars and the nature of the Watcher. In the end, all is resolved but life must go on so a third book has thankfully been published that picks up the story from CAPACITY. My Grade: A

Fresh, Smart Sci-Fi

I picked up this book when I found out the author had been nominated for the Phillip K Dick award. Within a few pages I knew I was going to like it. The plot is clever without being needlessly convoluted. The writing is clear and clean, and not bogged down with endless description. Unpredicable and satisfying. Highly reccomended.

incredible scene fiction

In the year 2210 in direct violation of the Environmental Agency dictates, Herb used the self replicating Von Newman Machines (VNM) to create a city on an uncharted world without doing the mandatory pre-testing. When he returns to his creation he expected to see a realm designed for colonization, but instead he finds the VNMs have gone amuck, self replicating without stopping and transforming the surface to their needs destroying life forms. E.A. Agent Robert Johnston informs Ralph that he will be punished for his transgressions but can mitigate his sentence if he helps him stop the AI of the Enemy Dominions from using VNMs to destroy worlds in their quest to conquer earth. Ralph acquiesces and assists Robert in detecting the enemy. The people don't realize that the war became inevitable two centuries ago when social misfits gave AIs the power to employ VNMs. RECURSION is an incredible scene fiction work that showcases the advancement of humanity in three different areas that lead to the pivotal point of war with AIs. Each era has a main character who in some astonishing way is connected to Ralph. There is plenty of action but Tony Ballantyne deftly balances the escapades with deep character interactions especially of the dysfunctional kind. Readers will ponder the message that can technology go so far as to create AIs that are detached from humanity. Harriet Klausner