Sun, Apr 18, 2004

: The Footprints of God

Author: Greg Iles

Greg’s a much better author than

The first half of the book is very exciting: our narrator is running for his life as his super-secret goverment colleagues in the NSA are out to kill him for the knowledge of the super-secret project he’s been working on. The action doesn’t let up until two-thirds of the book have elapsed, and it’s compelling reading. Unfortunately, most of us readers are expecting a decent payoff: we want to know why he’s being hunted and what this secret government project is all about. We’re given clues in bits and pieces: we know it’s the most advanced computer ever, so intelligent it rivals God. Even more unfortunately, that is not a metaphor: the author means it literally. So the last third of the book is a complex mess of philosophical and intellectual ponderings, which is interesting, but that’s uncomfortably intermeshed with spy/action stuff from the main plot. The result is that the end of the book doesn’t make much sense. We don’t really buy the main character’s delusions or bizarre explanations of who God is, and the whole computer thing just doesn’t make much sense on any level. Worse of all, Iles makes the dreadful mistake of resorting to the typical cliche of “computer will blow up the earth” scenario for his central conflict. There are a lot of fascinating ideas here, but ineptly handled, and in an inappropriate forum. The bottom line: wasted potential.

Topic: [/book]

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: Equilibrium

Interesting little sci-fi film that takes on 1984/Brave New World territory, with a futuristic society where human emotions have been purged in order to eliminate all conflict and war. Humans who experience emotion or who horde emotional content (such as books or paintings) are executed. The story’s rather predictable, with the top police guy discovering emotions and having trouble doing his job. It’s an interesting idea, and there are some neat scenes, but unfortunately the film doesn’t know if it’s sci-fi, action, or drama, and tends to wander between genres in an uncomfortable or predictable manner. Interesting but not remarkable.

Topic: [/movie]

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