Friday, June 22, 2012

Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer

Robert J. Sawyer is a wonderful novelist and one of my favourite science fiction writers. When I open up one of his books I expect to read an intriguing story chock-full of brilliant ideas. This high standard explains why I was disappointed with this novel.

Like much of his previous work, this tale tackles a fascinating concept and – at least at the beginning – is a page-turner. Describing the story of Webmind, a vast consciousness that emerges from the complex network of the World Wide Web, Sawyer presents an intriguing plot line that is half-AI speculative fiction, half-action novel. For amidst the birth of this new sentient being is a top Pentagon military official by the name of Colonel Hume who becomes convinced that Webmind is a threat to the world. To counter this danger, he begins to search through the hacker underground for computer experts that can shut down this new intelligence. Meanwhile, a blind 16-year-old teenage girl named Caitlin Decter who first discovers Webmind aims to protect her "friend" from the forces that want to destroy it.

So far so good. Then, about a third of the way into the book, the story starts to break down. Instead of advancing the plot with his usual skill, Sawyer begins to use his characters as mere excuses to present his ideas on artificial intelligence. As the book progresses, the story and characters become less and less important, until the reader is left wondering what the purpose of the novel is, i.e. to tell a story or to express ideas.

Science fiction writing cannot forget its dual parts. The "science" (which this book does very well) is meant to capture the readers’ attention with far-reaching and thought provoking concepts. The "fiction" element is meant to present these ideas in an interesting literary form. This book (to my surprise) sacrificed the story at the altar of the scientific idea. The result is that characters that were initially interesting devolved into plot robots with little personality of their own.

1 1/2 out of 5 stars