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Seeded with human genetic stock over a thousand years ago
by an army of intelligent machines, the colony world of Copernica
has been all but forgotten by history, a backwater in an ever-increasing
frontier of human conquest and development. The colony has
been a success. It has become a stable human outpost, a world
not dissimilar to Earth itself. But
Rehan Mihajlovic, a dealer in antiquarian goods, is about
to find out that history is only as reliable as those who
write it, and that death is never very far away...
The
Human Abstract
is a strange beast not easily pigeonholed into any specific
genre. And that is part of its charm. If I had to compare
it to anything, I would probably say that if you took the
best elements of 1984, Minority Report and Blade
Runner then you would be on the right tracks.
George
Mann is a remarkable young writer - one with an incredibly
promising future ahead of him. Not only does he unravel a
very engaging plot, but he also manages to master one of the
hardest arts - writing fluid and believable dialogue.
His
main characters almost lift of the page, they are that lifelike
- even though some of his characters are not all human. The
main character has to come to terms with loosing someone dear
to him, only to have them "reanimated" as their
memories are transplanted into a cloned replica of their body.
And, the fact that this person is the same, but at the same
time isn't really, came across very clearly in the writing.
There is a branch of science that follows the belief that
consciousness is not created by the brain and can therefore
live independently of it - the brain acting as a channel for
which our consciousness manifests itself in this reality.
It was interesting to see how Mann takes a mixture of the
beliefs about how our consciousness is made-up and neatly
slots this into the middle of his tale.
Another
little touch which I loved was the references he included
at the start of each chapter. My favourite being:
'Discovery
consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking
what nobody has thought.' - Alert von Szent-Gyorgyi, from
The Scientist Speculates (1962 Earth Standard)
As
usual, Telos has done a remarkable job of presentation - I
loved the cover design - with good quality paper and glossy
cover.
Keep
a close eye out for Mann in the future - I predict great things.
Nick
Smithson
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