The Terminal Experiment

I've spent most of my life reading science fiction; I've read almost everything written before 1980, and a huge chunk of what's come since then. What I've loved most about the genre -- after the guilty pleasures of space opera -- is its capacity to take the unanswerable questions and try to answer them. Too often, the questions we want to know the answers to -- what is the meaning of life? Why are we here? What happens to us after we die? -- are either unanswerable or fully realized in religion. So, for a science fiction writer to contemplate the nature of the soul and the afterlife, he runs two risks: one, that he will come up with ridiculous, unproveable answers, or two, that he will utterly infuriate one or more of the established religions. To Robert Sawyer's immense credit, he does neither. He constructs a fascinating premise: what if the soul could be proved to exist, and be proved to be heading somewhere after death? He then constructs another premise: he takes the protagonist's personality, and he makes three AI copies: one with no modifications, one that has all the bodily references deleted, and one with all the knowledge of aging and death deleted. That is his main story. The murder mystery that runs along side this plot is interesting, but it isn't the main point. Sawyer is asking the most important questions a human being can ask, and he's coming up with plausible answers. One of the paradoxes of science fiction is that its greatest books are religious in nature: "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Dune" are two excellent examples. And while "The Terminal Experiment" isn't quite up to that level (what is?), it is a worthy younger brother to those older giants. The clear, lucid prose reminds me of Isaac Asimov's belief that nothing should get in the way of the story; the characters are not eccentrics, but everyday people, which serves Sawyer's purpose much better than coming up with oddballs that we might remember better. I enjoyed this book far more than any other sf novel in years, precisely because it brought me back to why I stayed in love with the genre after I grew up: it's the only literary form that still provides intellectual provocation.

I don't read novels often, but this one was a must. I had trouble putting it down. I borrowed it from a friend, and now i'm going to buy it cause i want to read it again.

I love both mysteries and SF, but all too often examples of each genre have characteristic flaws. Mediocre SF either has no ideas or concentrates on its ideas and ignores the character and plot. Mediocre mysteries have a great plot that falls flat at the end with an unbelievable denouement. Sawyer manages to avoid both problems and also make an uplifting statement about the human condition. I was thoroughly engaged during the entire book and found the ending extremely satisfying. I have to disagree with those who felt that some aspects of the plot, such as the soulwave, were not well-integrated into the whole. One of the things I liked best was the way the seemingly unrelated elements came together coherently. P. S. If you liked this book, try Greg Egan, espceially his Permutation City.

When Science Fiction is at its best, the technology is so accurate that only small extensions make it "fiction" instead of "fact". That is definitely the case with the Artificial Intelligence technology utilized in this book. We may not be at the point of actually creating fully thinking simulations, but so MUCH of the technology is right, it is no suspension of belief by the reader to believe that this has been achieved in what is effectively a current day setting. It is truly evident that Sawyer consulted with the experts in the field. When SF is doing its best, it uses the fictional world to deal with important issues. That is also handled adeptly in this book. The Terminal Experiment not only deftly discusses social issues such as abortion and infidelity, but also the "biggies" such as life, death, and the meaning of it all. Even the sidebars indicating media and commerce's reactions to the main character's discovery, which could have really been hokey if not done well, are fun rather than a distraction. A+ for good SF; A+ for SF "doing good"; Sawyer immediately became one of my favorite authors on the reading of this book alone.

The vitriol displayed in some of the reviews of this book amazes me. While the writing style may not give Updike or Bellow anything to worry about, when compared to some of the so-called giants in this genre, like Asimov, Clarke, and Niven, it holds up quite well. Yes, there are some lapses such as: about 5 too many Star Trek references; a tendency to take today's media figures and just age them, instead of creating new people; and a lead character that seems a little too much like someone you'd bump into at a sci-fi convention. But some of the criticisms on this page are pretty unfounded. Someone criticised the lack of differences in technology between today and 2011 Just how much do you expect life to change in 14 years? Is your life today hugely different than it was in 1983? I think its great that in this version of the future people aren't riding anti-grav cars on the way to the space elevator. And perhaps the most insulting critique of all is that the book doesn't pay enough attention to the U.S., Europe, Japan. Why, this book even has the audacity to present the idea that a major discovery could be made in Canada! Amazing! How insultingly U.S.-centric is it to demand that Canadian writers set their stories in the U.S.? This book isn't great literature, but it is very good sci-fi. It is full of fascinating ideas, a propulsive narrative with its share of surprises, and an interesting focus on morality. Don't miss this book because of the cranky comments listed on this page. This one deserved the Nebula it won.