レビュー要約

• 知的な設定と政治思想を絡めた展開が評価される一方、説明量の多さを硬質な読み味として受け止める読者もいます。

レビュー

• Great ideas but too many characters to keep track of...

  Many readers are familiar with Isaac Asimov's great character, Hari Seldon, a mathematics professor at the University on Trantor who develops psychohistory and uses it as a tool that predicts the future in probabilistic terms. In the Country of the Blind, Michael Flynn casts Charles Babbage, the British mathematician, engineer, and philosopher, who is remembered for coming up with concept of a programmable computer, in the role of Hari Seldon. In the novel Babbage builds his computer and a Babbage Society uses his machine and his ideas to predict the future path of human civilization. As Sarah Beaumont, a real estate developer, computer aficionado, and ex-reporter, is checking out a Victorian-era Denver house she stumbles onto papers that lead her to find Babbage's analytical engine. As she is investigating her find a secret society that has been using the science of cliology to predict and guide history for its own benefits strikes out and tries to kill her. The story moves quickly from there. Another shadow group saves Sarah and along the way she discovers with Sarah that the mathematical formulas used by the clinologists has predicted that the group would fracture and the probabilities show that other groups would also develop. One of these groups is European and very dangerous. It tries to take over or eliminate the North American societies and intrigue and violence develop. The book should not be spoiled by giving any hints about the ending so I will not go there. It can be noted that there is a lot of intrigue, plenty of talk of conspiracies, discussions of historical figures and events, arguments about complexity theory, etc. Flynn seems to be very bright and is knowledgeable about the subject. He writes about Henry Thomas Buckle, an astronomer who imagined that if we could find laws that apply to human actions history could be as 'scientific' as astronomy or any of the natural sciences. Buckle was a disciple of Adolphe Quételet a Belgian astronomer and mathematician who collected data regarding social events and speculated that some phenomena were being driven by unknown but real laws. Flynn ties in these points to put together a narrative that is intellectually interesting even if it gets a bit confusing at times. Not only does he bring in many other mathematical figures from the past to support the narrative that he weaves but he also includes many present day characters. And that is where the problem lies. A reader will enjoy the book much more is s/he is careful to keep track of many of the characters that appear. (My notes had more than 50 names all with their histories and stories.) If that is done the book should be satisfactory even if the ending is not what many readers would have hoped for. Flynn is a competent author with many good ideas that will stimulate careful readers who like adventure and mystery stories with some intellectual oomph.

• Not quite the same as the original

  My original one is falling apart. This is ot eca tly the same Several good scenes left out.

• Braid of History

  Michael Flynn's science fiction novel has three primary subplots. The first is based on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, a nineteenth-century design for a mechanical computer which was never built. In this story, the engine was built and allowed development of modern programming methods a century earlier. The second subplot derives from the fact that the developers of this steampunk computer keep its existence secret. This group develops the science of cliology (much like Hari Seldon's psychohistory ), which enables them to make accurate predictions about future trends and events. They use this capability to influence social and political developments, and, of course, to make profitable business investments. The third and primary subplot begins in the present when Sara Beaumont discovers, first a hidden cache of Babbage computers, then a collection and research records written by cliologists. Soon afterward the friends she confided in are killed, a faction of the secret society makes contact with her, and she goes into hiding under a false identity. It becomes apparent that there are several hidden groups observing and manipulating world events, each with competing agendas. Sara must decide who to trust and what to believe. There are innovative ideas in this book, particularly considering how long ago it was written. While the narrative is fast-paced and entertaining, the story falls short of its full potential. I understand that there is not real science behind most of the invented technologies of science fiction. But part of the genre's appeal is a certain amount of well-executed hand-waving about how it all works that stays just within the bounds of plausibility. This story would have been better with more invented information about Babbage computers and about the strengths and limitations of cliological prediction. It seems almost wasteful to introduce both ideas, and then devote most of the attention to the efforts of various secret groups to exterminate each other. That said, the book was enjoyable and worth reading. However, it will be more to those who enjoy action thrillers than it will to fans of hard science fiction.

• A great addition to an sf eBook library

  I have been a fan of Michael Flynn's writing since I first read the serialized version of this novel in Analog. Flynn uses the Babbage Machine, the early version of the computer, as a tool and background for a strong novel about the past and the future. In it, he projects people with a strong knowledge of computational projections to suggest what might have been an early projection of Asimov's Psychohistory and the shaping of a new America. The opening sections, set in the time of the Civil War, will pique your interest and perhaps, leave you with unanswered questions about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and what might have been -- along with the emotions of people who -- projected -- knew it was coming and what would happen afterward. I've been waiting for an eBook version of this novel for a long time.

• painful

  This novel has the worst dialog for a leading character that I have ever read. I know it must be a challenge for a middle aged white male author to write as a black newspaper woman, but no character could possibly speak and/or respond to the situations she finds herself in, as Flynn has this character do. Also what is it with Flynn's writing about computers and/or the Internet? What is a "boot on button"? Is "spyder" supposed to be a web crawler or "spider"? How does one use the internet to log onto a "police blotter"? Had Flynn ever seen a computer when he wrote this? His description of a internet "worm" was also very amusing. His 'Cliology' sounds awfully reminiscent of Asimov's psycho- history, although I will give him the benefit of the doubt. The idea he was espousing seemed interesting, but, at least at the time this book was written, the characterization was just too silly - actually embarrassing. Perhaps this was Flynns' first novel, and his woodenness was attributable to inexperience, as I have read several of his short stories in many editions of the "Year's Best Science Fiction" and they were uniformly excellent. I guess I am just getting sick of buying novels that I can only tolerate for about the first quarter of the book and then tossing them aside because the dialog of the characters is so blatantly unnatural.

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