Name: Existence
Rating: 3.375 (8 reviews)
ISBN: 9780765342621

David Brin

In a future world dominated by a neural-link web where people can tune into live events and revolutions can be instantly sparked, an active alien communication device is discovered in orbit around the Earth, triggering an international upheaval of fear, hope and violence. Reprint.

Existence

In a future world dominated by a neural-link web where people can tune into live events and revolutions can be instantly sparked, an active alien communication device is discovered in orbit around the Earth, triggering an international upheaval of fear, hope and violence.

Tim Pendry

I found this a very disappointing book after all the hype from the transhumanist community about Brin and the constant appearance of the book on my social media. There is some interesting and innovative thinking here (although perhaps less so to anyone who has actually 'worked' Second Life'). Brin can also write well about character in short bursts. This is overwhelmed by the standard faults of contemporary scifi - too many ideas not taken to a conclusion, an inability to take a stand that is not ultimately sentimental and neologism to excess. The real problem here seems to be the triumph of marketing over classic editorial engagement - not an uncommon problem nowadays. Three quarters of the book is a slow moving mix of alternating adventure (the best parts), didacticism (all rather basic preaching) and experimental writing that just does not work all that well. Then, just as one is settling into this near-glacial flow, and taking an interest in the fate of at least one or two of the characters, the book suddenly stops and jumps into a final fifth of space opera. Was this deliberate? Or was Brin simply finding that this massive tome would meander on forever into multiple volumes and needed to be 'concluded' for the bookshelves and the kindles. The whole things smacks of editorial indulgence. The book could have been so much better with an editing down of 30% of ideas and text, an improved bridge between the sections and greater balance betwen them. Brin can be very good at adventure and at character, though his characters are still mostly symbols rather than people while his aliens seem more real on occasions than his humans. But some of the personae are just plain irritating - I would willinglly have shot Profesor Noozone out into the furthest reaches of the galazy - while whole story lines are suddenly abandoned. Whatever happened with the Chinese mother and her autistic supporters in the Disney Park? Who was behind the machinations over the stones? and is that all with the snotty rich kid and the dolphins? We have critiqued the messiness and indulgent populism of modern science fiction before (see <a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8391123-the-mammoth-book-of-apocalyptic-sf" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/83...</a> ) Those criticisms hold for 'Existence' to a large extent. It seems to be a crisis in the genre. Truly great science fiction takes one or a relatively few ideas and works it or them to the limits without equivocation. The thinking takes place in the mind of the reader and not all on the page. 'Menu' science fiction - throwing idea after idea without development so that the reader can pick what he or she likes according to taste and mental wallet - is what you get in a market-driven culture. Here, nothing is properly developed because it is a novel of alternatives from a primer on human fates and destinies - it is a list of possibilities that end up becoming sillily absurd by the end. So there we have it. You might be entertained by it but I could not take it seriously ... it reflected a flibertigibbet frightened culture of readers rather than directed us to new horizons.

Sherry

Tomas Vadovic

Patrick Baumann

Katie Ravenwood

Steven O'Toole

Spaceghost 

Bryan Alexander

OUR CONTINUED EXISTENCE WAS NEVER A GIVEN. Year after year, humanity has survived the main pitfalls awaiting us - natural disasters, nuclear war, rising seas. But when an alien artefact is found floating in Earth's orbit, it pushes our troubled world to the brink of chaos. Is this a message in a bottle bringing peace and enlightenment from the stars? Or a warning, threatening to destroy what little stability mankind has achieved? The world is divided - holding its breath. Soon we will know the secret of existence. Brilliant and gripping, David Brin's novel of the near future is the work of a modern master of science fiction.

Existence

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