I have to agree with you up to a point. I loved the first 5/6s or 7/8 of the book, then "whoosh, huh!?!?!?!" I read it about a year ago and I'm still scratching my head. The trials of the various dittos running around on their errands was very entertaining.
However, I did not nominate it because of the ending . . . and because, IMHO, it was not among the 5 best I read last year. George A ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Gabriel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 2:14 PM Subject: RE: First real post - Hugo Noms > Hi George! > > A pleasure to meet you. Welcome to Brin-L. > > You might want to check out Brin-L.com to get a feel for the list. > > To answer your questions, completely out of order: :) > > Ongoing Brinlist conversations center a great deal on politics, > technology, privacy and scientific issues. We don't work hard to keep > things on topic -- although one could easily argue that almost every > discussion we've had about the inner workings of our civilization > relates in some way to the works of Dr. Brin and our other 'namesakes'. > We've had a number of discussions of Dr. Brin's work in the last > year-plus, along with an in-depth, chapter by chapter analysis and > debate of at least one and a half of his novels... but the person who > was doing the bulk of the work on that project has been extremely busy > lately. Some of us are hoping that may pick up again soon. > > In other words, we don't discuss the work of the killer-bees and V. > Vinge exclusively, (we never really did,) but we do still talk about > them, sometimes in depth. Dr. Brin is pretty good about answering > questions posed to him with "Brin:" placed before the subject in the > subject line. > > The list changed servers in September and became a 'killer-bee' list. > There haven't been many conversations about other killer-bee writers > yet, but this is bound to change over time. Personally, I like Vinge's > work -- I've just finished his short story collection and 'A Deepness in > the Sky' was quite entertaining and absorbing. I'm now working on 'A > fire upon the deep'. > > OK, now on to the important question: Does Kiln People deserve a Hugo? > > You're not asking an unbiased group, you know. :) > > My personal opinion is "Heck, Yes!", and here's why: > > >From a conceptual perspective, KP was quite innovative and even > brilliant. Very well thought out. I thought the idea of multiple, > interwoven story threads told by dittos of the same protagonist was > really fascinating. The story was absorbing and many of the characters > were quite believable. (The dittotech was completely improbable, but > once you suspended belief, didn't detract from the story.) And from a > philosophical standpoint, KP addressed and answered some rather > fascinating questions on the concepts of self, identity, mortality, > awareness, responsibility, souls and dreams. Many great SF works make > us question our own existence and what makes us human. KP fits the > bill. > > Plus, I'm a fan of the noir genre and pace. I even found a couple of > cool correlations between this story and Bogart's The Big Sleep, which > was released in the mid-40's. > > I also liked the amount of 'fleshing out' that had been done on the > surrounding world. IMO, just enough to move the story along, but not so > much that we were dying of boredom. (I felt that way about Brightness > Reef and Glory Season. Those two novels invested so much time on the > culture of their own worlds that I felt the primary plotlines suffered.) > > I *have* been meaning to ask Dr. Brin if the puns and chapter headings > took as long to write as the rest of the novel. ;) I have to also note > that those sometimes awful, groaner puns were a quite inventive way of > helping the audience keep track of each protagonist and their > storylines. > > But whoo boy! The ending left a lot of people cold. Metaspirituality > meets quantum mechanics. I liked the end, even though I felt that the > good doctor had written himself into a corner and needed a deus ex > machine to work himself out of it. A common list complaint has been > that the last third of the book lagged -- an opinion I don't share. > > Anyway, I'm off to bed. Pull up a chair and enjoy yourself. :) > Jon Gabriel > > > "We need feedback from outside ourselves. Life consists of interacting > pieces, free to jiggle and rearrange themselves. That's how you make a > working system, like an organism, or a culture, or a biosphere. Or a > mind." ~David Brin~ 'Earth' > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > On Behalf Of G. D. Akin > Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 5:26 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: First real post - Hugo Noms > > I've been on this list for two days and received about 125 posts, most > in > mid-stream it seems. > > The Nomination Form for the Torcon 3 2003 Hugos is available on the > Conjose > 2002 site and in the Torcon 3 PR 4. I'm about to send my nominations > in. > How many on the list think Kiln People is worthy of a Hugo (I've already > filled in the form and I won't say if it is there or not.) Just trying > to > get a feel from the list. > > BTW, of the 125 posts, not one mentions the works of the Killer B's or > Baxter or Vinge, all of whom are listed on the sign up page. Has this > list > been going so long, that the books are no longer discussed. Just > curious. > > George A > > > > _______________________________________________ > http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l > _______________________________________________ > http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l > _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
