Book: Alpha

This book was a pleasant surprise. I’m normally annoyed by the huge possibilities that are ignored in stories about future AI or machine sentience. It seems to me to be the area in which near future science fiction does the worst job of projection.

In this case, however, [tag]Catherine Asaro[/tag] does a wonderful job of looking forward but still providing a comprehensible, easy to read, and entertaining tail. One can feel the possibility of a future like this. I hardly had to suspend disbelief at all.

Of course the actual possibilities are so varied that one can hardly predict anything, I think, but in this case, at least the story seems possible.

As for characters, I found them a little bit light, but nonetheless interesting. There was more attention paid to the future technology than to the future people. The story did have some less predictable twists. I’ll certainly pick up books by this author again.

I give it a numerical rating of 4 out of 5.