Spin State

Such a good SF book, a thriller also, gripping,inventive.... ( )

In the far future, humans cling to relevance through a combination of money and military. They are dependent on sentient AIs with impenetrable motives and on the Bose-Einstein condensates, which enable them to communicate and travel instantaneously through the universe. But the condensates are only found on Compson's World, and humanity's greatest scientist was just killed in a cave-in there. Catherine Li, a UN peacekeeper with secrets of her own, is sent to investigate Hannah Sharifi's death, and find what her latest discovery was.

The universe she lives in is fascinating, teeming with gene modded humans living in hive minded Syndicates, shunting one brain through another body, wiring fighters for greater reflexes and strength...And Moriarty mines modern quantum physics for sf ideas, coming up with teleportation that leads to imperceptible loss of people's mental states and memories every time they are reconstituted (because you can perfectly recreate their atoms, but not their constituents' spin). This is a fast paced thriller with excellent action scenes and...yet its also a beautifully sensitive portrait of Li's mind. I loved her vicious fighting style and pragmatic view of social interactions, but I also really felt like I got to know her, inside and out. Li has had to hide parts of herself to maintain her career, but when she starts opening up to Cohen she is forced to face the monstrous decisions she's made and lived with. I loved their romance; it's possibly the first time I've ever felt like the vastness and complexity of an AI came across. By the same token, Moriarty also shows us what we might look like to other intelligence forms, ex:
She looked across the little distance between them and had a sudden shadowy glimpse of herself as he saw her. A fierce dark mystery, gloriously tangled in a too-fragile body, slipping away from him down a hall-of-mirrors perspective of increasingly pessimistic statistical wave functions.

I was so tempted to give this four stars, because the emotions and thought this book evoked were so intense and complex. But I felt like the mystery of Sharifi's death and final discovery were too convoluted, with too many players that I was expected to remember. Nevertheless, an excellent posthuman adventure. ( )

pretty good. not particularly deep, but fun. ( )

So glad I chose to reread this book. Such a nailbiter. I couldn't put it down trying to figure out the little mystery. I found it a much easier read the second time around. And now, on to Spin Control! ( )

Great setting, but confusing plot and the stiry dragged. Could have had 200 pages cut quite easily. ( )