I finished this science fiction novel about a month ago. It ends more or less as it begins--with the protagonist (Ruskin, a superstar astrophysicist) shorn of his identity and all but annihilated. In between, there are space opera, biocybernetics, political intrigue, and a touch of romance--all framed within an interstellar espionage mystery.
The story develops cleanly and clips along well enough. The setting seemed a bit sketchy in places, but perhaps I missed a line or two of exposition. For example, I was never sufficiently clear on the goals of the various political factions to fully appreciate their representatives' motives.
Regardless, for the most part I found the novel entertaining and clever.Its biggest difficulty, I might suggest, lies with the very thing that makes the story unique. Since from the beginning, Ruskin doesn't really know who he is--and most of this book's narrative surrounds his discovery or reformulation of his selfhood--he's just not that easy to get close to. If he doesn't know who he is . . . well, readers don't either.
There are numerous interior dialogues between Ruskin and various nanobot-derived cybernetic entities that have invaded his body and psyche. Bedeviled by these nano-commandos, Ruskin suffers about as many blackouts in the heat of the action as a Christopher Paolini fantasy hero. Some readers will likely find this awkward.
Eventually, the more helpful nano-entities begin invading other characters in order to influence or control their actions so that they can assist Ruskin. From the reader's perspective, it's difficult to understand why this whole thing doesn't devolve into a war between mind-dominating nanobot armies controlling all of the human and alien characters. If you think about it, this resolution verges on enabling the ghost in the machine to actually become the deus ex machina.
There's also an alien ninja super-assassin out to kill Ruskin--for the second time. And they eventually find themselves trapped on a space laboratory embedded in a red giant star threatening to go supernova. Yeah. Poor Ruskin.
In the end, I wasn't all that sorry to see the protagonist "go." You could say he had a big red target glued to his face right through from página uno. Still, his story was an interesting one.
From A Changeling Star by Jeffrey A. Carver
Originally posted 3 Feb 2013 on Google+