Singularity's Ring

An impressive debut novel. The multiplexing clones who are the protagonists are creepy at first, but at the end of the book there is a convincing explanation for their existence. One minor nit is that practically every character has a self-descriptive name (is there a word for that? autonym?) Ultimately, a tough-minded meditation on what might lead us to a Singularity and what might happen after it.

Melko brings us a future in which the majority of humanity combined into a group intelligence, called the Community, that achieved wonders and then vanished, leaving the world to the people who sat out getting jacks installed in their heads-- some of whom were genetically engineered to function as group minds, "pods", sharing their thoughts through pheromones and physical contact.

The hero, Apollo Papadopulos, is one of the few five-person pods on the planet, training for the honor of piloting humanity's first starship built after the Community precipitously left. Apollo goes through a fairly standard science fiction coming-of-age story; the interesting parts are the dynamics of a society that is mostly group intelligences and the show more historical roots of the problems they face. show less

If I hadn't met Paul Melko last fall at Context 20 in Columbus, Ohio, I may have missed out on a great read! Paul was on a panel, and I spoke with him briefly afterwards, telling him I intended to buy his novel when it came out. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had any impetus to make this purchase, especially when I have so many other titles (about 4,000 more) sitting on my bookshelves. And it would have been most unfortunate if I hadn't read this. I had such a good experience reading it that after a couple of days, the adventure was through, leaving me wanting more. I'm not going to write a rehash here of what the novel was about...you can read that in other reviews. What I want to emphasize with this review is that the cost of the book was show more worth every penny. If you at all liked Vernor Vinge's Tine race, or like the multiple narrative style of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, or what the world "could" be like in the future, this book will not disappoint.

Paul has a book of previously written short stories coming out this month, but I would love to see another adventure written in this universe. But perhaps whatever he has planned next will top this! I'm looking forward to reading more Melko in the future. show less

The premise: Apollo Papadopulos is actually not an individual person at all, but made up of five separate teenagers who form a new entity by combining their specialties and talents. Strom, Meda, Quant, Manuel, and Moira are a pod, and are engineered to share thoughts and information non-verbally, as well as work and think as one person. They are training to become the captain of a starship, but someone doesn't want them to achieve their goal. What starts out as a series of accidents turns into something more sinister, and it's all Apollo can do to survive, as well as keep the sum of its parts.

My Rating

Worth the Cash: it's an enjoyable science fiction debut, if only for the fascinating concepts of individuals engineered to become a pod show more and the descriptions of how each of these individuals function within and what they bring to the group. It's a solid read that does leave you asking questions in the end, but I think some of the answers to my questions can be found in the text--I was just reading too fast. The chapters are too long for my taste, though they're structured like (and in some cases ARE) short stories, and knowing that helps with the pacing. I'm definitely interested in reading more work from Melko, but I'm also happy to wait for the mass-market versions of his work. Good stuff, interesting stuff, and worth checking out if you're a fan of SF.

Review style: Back to the stream-of-conscious review style with spoilers scattered all over the place. I've got to talk this one out, folks. :) So if you want to read the full review, the link leads to my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome.

REVIEW: Paul Melko's SINGULARITY'S RING

Happy Reading! :) show less