Subject: FACTORING HUMANITY by Robert J. Sawyer

From: "Evelyn C Leeper" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 08:31:52 -0400

FACTORING HUMANITY by Robert J. Sawyer
            Tor, ISBN 0-312-86458-2, 1998, 350pp, US$23.95
                   A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		    Copyright 1998 Evelyn C. Leeper

     After the relative simplicity of his last book, ILLEGAL ALIEN, Sawyer
is back to his typical high-density story.  A. E. Van Vogt claimed one
should write by having a plot twist every 600 words; sometimes I think
Sawyer has decided to throw in a new idea every few thousand words.  I
mean, I would think that deciphering the messages from our first alien
contact and from their instructions building a machine with the
functionality of the machine in FACTORING HUMANITY would be enough without
adding an entire sub-plot of artificial intelligence, suicides,
accusations of abuse, and repressed/manufactured memories. Yes, they all
tie together, but they make for a very busy novel.  It's all the busier
because Sawyer keeps his novels to a reasonable length.  He doesn't take a
thousand pages to cover all this--he does it in 350.  Hang onto your hats.

     I'm sure I could work up an explanation of how this novel ties in
with Sawyer's Canadian-ness and hence feelings of isolation, as Clute did
with fellow Canadian Robert Charles Wilson and DARWINIA, but I don't think
that has anything to do with it.  I do think that this does deal with
isolation, but on the level that everyone feels when they are trying to
communicate with or understand someone else.

%T      Factoring Humanity
%A      Robert J. Sawyer
%C      New York
%D      June 1998
%I      Tor
%O      hardback, US$23.95
%G      ISBN 0-312-86458-2
%P      350pp

Evelyn C. Leeper    |  [email-masked]
+1 732 957 2070     |  http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824
"That's how things are--you open the door to a possibility and the next
thing you know, an actuality has you by the throat."  --Russell Hoban