By now , the stories of man transcending their limitations in infinite have become middling much omnipresent . We ’ve had space cyborg , outer space deity , and piles of other posthumans in infinite . But the new novelEdge of Darkby Brenda Cooper still exemplify a enchanting young approach .
In Edge of Dark , a youthful woman named Nona goes to confab the planet Lym , which is the one unspoiled planet in a solar organisation where every other satellite has been mined and exploited to death . Nona wants to see this planetary nature preserve , full of strange animate being for herself , and she forms a close bond with Charlie , who ’s basically a timber forest fire fighter on Lym .
But then Nona and Charlie find oneself out that a chemical group of stilted intelligences yell the Next — who are fundamentally human brain upload to computers — are coming back from their transportation . Long ago , humans fought these post - human machines and drove them out of the solar system , but now the machine are back and much more powerful than before .
The Next , who are bewilderingly also referred to as the Ice Pirates on occasion , demonstrate their power by attacking and slip an intact space station , killing untold thousands of masses in the appendage . The Next save a few captured mankind , include Nona ’s best protagonist Chrystal , only to upload their psyche into machines , killing their human bodies and turning them into “ Soulbots ” who can help pass along with the respite of the human race on the Next ’s behalf .
So it ’s up to Nona and Charlie to team up up and strain to find a mode to deal with this A.I. invasion . And Nona is also face with figuring out whether this machine that looks like her best friend and has all her friend ’s memory and emotions is really her .
There are a few things that make Edge of Dark variety of strange , and a worthy addition to the now - declamatory canyon of posthuman space books . For one affair , the Next make out across as very alien , but still seem to have a legitimate point of view . They ’ve drop so long out there , at the fringes of the solar system , and have germinate so much , that they barely understand normal homo any more . But they clearly have their own acculturation and their own ways of interacting and looking at things .
And that ’s the 2d thing that ’s kind of singular about Edge of Dark : It shows the process of a human becoming a automaton , in a really intimate , fascinating way . Chrystal is part of a group marriage with two men ( Jason and Yi ) and another woman ( Katherine ) , and the four of them get converted to contrived intelligence at the same time . Their kinship continues and evolves after their shift , and in some ways they can share a greater involvement — they can join telepathically and visit each other ’s perceptions and idea , via a process call “ braiding . ”
And the inquiry of whether Chrystal is still Chrystal turns out to be be a complicated one , with no easy answer . Not only does the robot have all of Chrystal ’s retentivity , but she commend them with much greater clarity and detail than a real human could . She can remember precisely what Nona was wearing when they first met as children , and a host of other thing that were blurred out in her human recollection . Another neat thing : the automaton Chrystal never stops resent the fact that she was turned into a robot ( and her human body was kill ) without her consent — she never stop visualise herself as a murder victim .
But what really have this book special is the clobber involving the satellite Lym , the last comparatively good piece of nature in human space . ( really , we messed the planet up generation ago , and Charlie and his people are slowly attempt to regenerate it to pristine status . ) The wildlife and richness of Lym ’s biosphere comes across vividly in Cooper ’s descriptions , and his desire to protect his dwelling from A.I. interference ( or from other humans ) provides a sinewy motivation — and also an interesting counterpoint to the other humans ’ linear perspective . The Next have a huge problem understanding regular human being in world-wide , but they have absolutely no appreciation for nature or for the economic value of non - human animals .
And finally , Edge of Dark turns into an interesting political narrative about how human being react to the tax return of these banished A.I.s — the last third of the ledger is very much about the politics of human - A.I. relation , and the different chemical reaction that regular humans are likely to have to find these ( arguably ) superscript intelligence service .
That enunciate , there are a duet of problems with Edge of Dark , both of them related to their connective with other Christian Bible . I did n’t actualize when I start reading this volume that Cooper had previously written some other books in this same universe , and Edge of Dark is full of call - back to Cooper ’s Ruby ’s Song duology that went over my head . Also , Edge of Dark is the first playscript in what is likely a trilogy , and it does n’t quite pack a satisfying ending on its own .
Even with those two ailment , though , Edge of Dark is worth read for a unique vision of artificial news — particularly , what it would be like to be uplifted to a computer , how human race will cope with see superior artificial mind , and how these A.I.s are likely to view the natural world that humankind evolved from . Those are all super - fascinating query , and Cooper gives you a lot to think about .
book reviewBookskiller robotsRobots
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