Thursday, March 12, 2015

Edge Of Dark - Brenda Cooper

Edge Of Dark
Brenda Cooper
Pyr, Mar 3 2015, $18.00
ISBN: 9781633880504

The purebred banished the crossbreeding of human and machine AI experimenters to beyond the Edge of Dark for breaking the laws of nature.  However, the humans never anticipated the Next AI amalgams to return, but they do; exponentially more powerful than when they were forced to leave and incredibly stronger than those who banished them.

The seemingly invincible Next attacks a remote station where they change humans that they killed like Chrystal into robots by pasting their memories into a machine.  Chrystal’s BFF affluent Nona Hall of Diamond Deep is assigned to negotiate with the Next abominations.  As is ranger Charlie Windar; who oversees what he considers mankind’s most critical mission, the restoration of the planet Lym into a thriving nature reserve after human abuse destroyed the planet.  Neither human understands why their much more powerful adversaries are willing to discuss a deal with them.

Returning to the universe of Ruby’s Song (see The Diamond Deep and The Creative Fire), this first Glittering Edge interesting science fiction raises several timely major ethical questions to include what a human is and how far industrialization should go.  Charlie the fanatic environmentalist and Chrystal with acceptance of her forced change facilitate reader understanding and visualization of Brenda Cooper’s realm through their respective filters.  For the most part aimless spoiled Nona proves a subtraction. 


Harriet Klausner

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