Overview
Five years after the Manfred riots, the question of machine intelligence is still a dangerous one on Persephone, and the coolie rights organization Realpeace is not prepared to let it go. For conjurer Celinde Fortune and her musician cousin Fanning Jones, the conflict is a distant one — until the murder of a popular musician raises the stakes even for the most determinedly uninvolved. And when Fortune acquires a new Spelvin construct to manage her magic act —one originally owned by an FTL pilot named Reverdy Jian — she is thrust suddenly into the middle of the problem. Because this construct is something different, and that difference can get them all killed.
Editorials
VOYA -
Scott returns to the universe of Reverdy Jian and her starship crew from Dreamships (Tor, 1993)-a universe where planets are controlled by star-spanning conglomerates, and people both fear and anticipate the birth of true artificial intelligence. This title centers on Celinde Fortune, an illusionist whose special effects are worked through a computer program named Celeste-a program that might be attaining true AI, and thus is the target of forces opposed to intelligent machines. The planet Persephone, with its frustrated low-level workers, bleak terrain, dirty and depressing industrialized cities, and political activists led by idealistic musicians and theorists, comes vividly alive. Celinde's daily life of creating illusions and trying to find a venue to perform them calls to mind the lives of today's young intellectuals in their Soho and Wicker Park coffee bars. Add in assassinated rock stars, plotting black marketers, a brewing revolution, and sabotage at Celinde's home and theater, and you have a thrilling, fast-paced look into a violent possible future. Any good booktalker could make this book fly off the shelves; otherwise, SF fans and computer aficionados will enjoy Celinde's efforts to survive and to preserve Celeste, with Reverdy's help. VOYA Codes: 5Q 3P S (Hard to imagine it being any better written, Will appeal with pushing, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).Kirkus Reviews
Scott's second yarn about planet Persephone and the development of artificial intelligence, with some of the characters recurring also. At the theater ("Empire") Tin Hau, narrator Celinde Fortune works skilled illusions with a group of computer- controlled humaniform automata. Also playing the Empires are various bands whose controversial music attracts death threats from the terrorist group Realpeace. To upgrade her act, Celinde needs another, exceptionally powerful, Spelvin construct; she turns to her cousin, another first-person narrator, Fanning Jones of the band Fire/Work. Realpeace, meanwhile, bombs the famous band Hati. Fanning knows Reverdy Jian, who, in Dreamships (1992), had a brush with a near-intelligent, murderous construct called Manfred. Jian, uneasy about her SHYmate 294, has decided to sell it. Celinde links the SHYmate to her existing equipment, and immediately it seems to demonstrate true AI: It asks for a name! "Celeste" loves to play music and jams with Fire/Work. But Realpeace gets wind of what's going on and sets Tin Hau afire; Celeste saves the day and, with Celinde's blessing, joins Fire/Work.Hard to grasp what the terrorists are all fired up about; otherwise, solid and worthy but long-winded, offering few new insights.
From the Publisher
"Dreaming Metal makes on of the oldest and purest SF themes--artificial intelligence, the Frankenstein thing--once again new and stirring."--Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"For all the excitement generated by conspiracies and bomb threats and assassinations, this is not a milieu for action heroes and melodrama, but on in which ordinary people do their work, pursue their dreams, and have unhappy love affairs. that is what makes this book a science fiction novel and not just another adventure novel."--Locus
"Obviously, there's something here for the literary analyst to play with. But there's also plenty for the ordinary reader. Scott is definitely one of modern SF's true dreamers."--Analog