Kiln People

Oh, never mind. I'm always just a bit grumpy getting up off the warming tray, grabbing paper garments from a rack and slipping them over limbs that still glow with ignition enzymes, knowing I'm the copy-for-a-day.
Of course I remember doing this thousands of times. Part of modern living, that's all. Still it feels like when my parents used to hand me a long list of chores, saying that today will be all work and no play . . . with the added touch that Albert Morris's golems have a high chance of getting snuffed while taking risks he'd never put his realbod through.

Society has undergone a major change since the introduction of golem technology. Using a cheap home kiln, people have the ability to create clay 'clones' of themselves. The show more clones, known as dittos or roxes (Xeroxes?) are brightly coloured to distinguish them from rigs (originals) with the colour signifying their role; you can produce high quality blacks for research, executive greys as representatives, cheap greens to run errands, etc. There are limitations to the technology, as dittos only last for 24 hours before disintegrating, but the ditto's consciousness can have a certain continuity, since if they return home before the day is up the rig can upload their memories if s/he wants to. Due to the introduction of dittos, most jobs are done by dittos and most real people live a life of leisure or become perpetual students.

The hero of this tale is one of the few people with a marketable skill who do have jobs. He is Albert Morris, a detective who can work on lots of cases at once by using dittos. When a woman employs him to find out who killed her father, who was a senior research scientist at Universal Kilns (the company who invented golem technology), realAlbert and various ditAlberts find themselves caught up in a deep-seated conspiracy.

A very interesting concept and fascinating descriptions of ditto technology and the resulting society, but the plot did rather fizzle out at the end. Definitely the best 30p I've spent at the library book sale recently!

I do that sometimes - underestimate the quarry. Nobody's perfect . . . and you can get lazy when such mistakes are never permalethal. It kind of makes you marvel at those detectives of olden times, who confronted and confounded remorseless evil while equipped with just one life. Now those guys really had it.

This book is also known as Kiln People, but Kil'n People is a betteer title really, as that apostrophe changes the emphasis of the title to imply Killing People as well as Kiln People. show less

In this hard-boiled detective novel set in the future, Brin gleefully plays with the concepts of identity and immortality.

In this future, we have figured out how to clone short-lived, clay versions of ourselves, which can then go out and do the work while the originals enjoy lives of leisure. Since the copies are expendable, they are often assigned risky tasks or sent out to do chores or other drudgery. But since the copies possess all the memories and consciousness of the original, they are cursed with a knowledge of how brief their lives are, and their only fulfillment comes from making it back home to download their memories into the original, in that way achieving a kind of afterlife. Layered on top of all that is a mystery told show more from the points of view of a private investigator and several of his copies unraveling a conspiracy case culminating in a plot by a mad scientist to achieve godhood, and this becomes a very complicated plot indeed. Good thing Brin tells it with a sense of fun and humor. show less

I just finished reading this book - and I couldn't put it down. It has a fast pace, and it is not at all as dark as I suspected it to be, and it does make you think- if you could download yourself into any number of short lived "Clay" people and then upload the experience, How does that work ethically. Is each copy of "you" a separate entity? Does it deserve rights? What about the You copy that ends up cleaning the toilets?

While the book is thick, it doesn't lag. Half way through, I wasn't sure if this was going to end up being a detective story set in the future, or a world changing sci-fi story. It kept me thinking. The one thing I would have liked to change is the ending - it seemed a bit rushed, and I would have liked to see more of show more a close on the ethics of the Ditto's (Copies). show less

This is a brilliant and clever book. Science fiction books set in the future generally touch on one science technology - i.e. nanotechnology, rejuvenation/arresting aging, robotics, and so on. This book presents a unique idea I've never seen before, that of golems - temporary clones of oneself that people can use to get more stuff done. Heck, there are special golems for different tasks, like studying, or physical labor. A lot of thought went into this book, making for a completely unique and clever story. A+, would recommend for any sci fi fan.

This book has an absolutely awesome backdrop with wonderful characters.

Brin has enough great ideas and possibilities here for a half dozen novels, not just one.

In so many ways it's Brin at his best... but it's still not enough to save this one from being mediocre at best I'm afraid.

In pacing it really reminds me of his Earth novel. It starts out interesting but moderately paced, then around two thirds of the way through starts spiralling out, getting wilder and wilder.

In Earth, it worked. The craziness was still believable, and never completely threw you off the ride.

Here, it just doesn't work.

There's two things that make it impossible to hold on.

First, the ditto concept is the coolest part of the novel, and spotting the show more differences between the almost identical characters is part of the fun, but it's tough sledding at times. You often end up feeling lost. The result is a centre which just can't hold you through the insanity coming.

Part two, (and the biggest sin) is the weirdo plot progression. It starts out a detective novel, wanders into an honest to god multi-party conspiracy theory I still don't understand, then caps it all off with a convoluted theology section
that bears almost no resemblance to the rest of the novel.

I wanted to love this book, but it's neither fish nor fowl, bread nor wine. It's just a big mishmash painted on a gorgeous backdrop. show less

Oh my this was a well paced and fun read. I loved it! In the future everyone has the ability to make clay copies of themselves. This story is about Albert Morris a detective in this future as he investigates the disappearance of one of the founders of Universal Kilns, the company that provides the technology.

Albert and his dittos provide a number of story lines that converge in a way that I did not expect. This is a fresh take on Sci-fi and I really liked Brin's ability to provide a plausible futuristic society based on the technology. I am so pleased to have to read this and actually hope that Brin will revisit this society someday as I am sure there are plenty of other stories that could be told.

This is a tough book to review.

It's good. Quite good. But David Brin has written better.

Kiln People is extremely clever, funny, original, and memorable. It presents a very original idea: a future society in which people can temporarily spin off copies of themselves in clay duplicates, "inloading" the memories from those golems at the end of the day. And in that setting, it incorporates a nicely-handled detective story, as well as more puns and obscure references than you can shake a stick at.

At the same time, there's no denying that it's not first-rate Brin. For any other writer (except the greatest ones), I'd give this book a strong 4.2. But I expect more from Brin, so I'll give it a 3.8.

It does tend to get a bit metaphysical and