clew's reviews: a book log

Kiln People, David Brin

Lots of merry mayhem here, and a soulful conclusion, both evolving from the hypothesis of the novel: that it is possible to put a copy of one's consciousness into a clay golem, which is guaranteed to live no longer than a day, but can transfer all its memories into the original if it lives to get back home. It's also a "down these mean streets" rugged-detective novel, and the temporary copies exaggerate that charmingly; like Philip Marlowe, they bull through beatings and worse, but it's much more plausible that a physically new copy can go out & do it again tomorrow.

There's a constant interplay between the hijinks and violence and cruelty that people can indulge in in copy, which drive the action of the plot, and the philosophical and moral issues raised by having arbitrarily good copies, each of whom feels, on creation, like the original. I think the hijinks are rather better done, probably because they're easier to compare with people's current behavior. The soul-wave science that allows the copying technology is a little too contrived for me to be swept into philosophizing that deduces things from it. The phil. isn't annoying.

Tidbits: many puns; a Transparent Society.

ISBN: 0-765-34261-8 So wrote clew in SF&F.