[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm into the last quarter. I'll finish this, but I don't think I can recommend it.

Whew! Finished.

Well. There are so many things wrong with the tetralogy I find it hard to know where to start. Some bits of it are good and interesting, but the impossibilities!

And I don't mean technical impossibilities. This is Science Fiction, so naturally we get technologies that don't exist at the moment. And quite possibly some technologies that can't exist.

I mean that things happen that would, without doubt, have consequences that don't happen.

Spoiler:

For example, an artificial fungus that attacks silicon chips is fine. Implausible, but I'm willing to go along with it. the fungus infects all the worlds computers and destroys them all, including things like chips in engines. All computers, control equipment, transport - all dead.

And there isn't mass collapse of civilisation or starvation., even in big cities. Ummm... no.

And yet, it has some redeeming features, mostly the fun ideas about artificial intelligence and what it means to be alive.

Spoiler:

Although it goes for a body/soul split that I find completely implausible.

So I don't really recommend it.

Next up:

So You Want to Be a Wizard (New Millennium Edition) by Diane Duane.

I had forgotten how good this was. I'm going to wait until I've finished it before doing a textual comparison with the original version.