Writing Classes Personal

Finalist for the 1993 Lambda Literary Award

Free-lance space pilot Reverdy Jian wants nothing better than to take starships through hyperspace, enjoying the rapport she has with the incredibly complex computer constructs that manage the interaction between pilot, ship, and hyperspace. But when she and her colleagues, Imre Vaughn and his partner Red, agree to help the constructor Meredalia Mitexi find her missing brother, she finds herself confronting not only the first construct she has ever encountered that might be true Artificial Intelligence, but all the political problems she has been trying to avoid. For the missing Mitexi is not only the designer of the AI, but a founder of Dreampeace, the civil rights movement for artificial intelligence. And he's insane.

Reviews

The New York Times
"Intellectually neat, emotionally satisfying and entirely unexpected."
Locus
"This is classic old-style science fiction, with lots of sense-of-wonder and good storytelling."
Science Fiction Chronicle
"Such noteworthy novels as When Harlie Was One, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, and Colossus come to mind. Melissa Scott's first hardcover is a very different take on the same theme,and seems destined to become just as memorable an addition to the field."
Booklist
"Scott effectively mixes social science fiction, technological speculation, and sheer bravura action to create a highly successful novel... an extremely worthwhile book."
Kirkus
"Her intelligent consideration of the issues surreounding AI is rare and refreshing... a solid, thoughtful novel from a promising writer."

Where did this one come from? Well, a lot of the same things I reread for Dreaming Metal, but in particular I was interested in Frederick Schodt's Inside the Robot Kingdom, which is in part a study of the difference in American and Japanese ideas about robots, and Oliver Sacks' Seeing Voices, which is a collection of essays on deafness, community, and language. I highly recommend both books.

The soundtrack? Well, "Halleluiah Man" by Love and Money provided the perfect epigraph; the edgy contempt of Murray Head's "One Night In Bangkok", from the Tim Rice/Benny Andersson musical Chess, had the right energy. Dead or Alive's album Mad, Bad, and Dangerous To Know, particularly "Something in My House". (Youthquake was fun, too.) Go West's first two albums.

Home