Will Sargent reviewed Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams
Review of 'Implied Spaces' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
It's an okay book, but the central conceit (humanity can create small artificial universes) is played out so that the full capability is only discovered by necessity when under attack. Which leads to lots of breathless "I never thought of it this way, but might get us out of this!" where the idea is actually being used for creating a world with bizarre physics that is considerably more complex than the idea itself.
The villain is also weak. Perhaps intentionally so, but still, the moustache twirling got old quickly.
But the biggest problem is that the language just doesn't inspire. For all that it is a novel of the future, it's so clearly a book of the present that the protagonist is making Leroy Jenkin jokes and complaining that no-one remembers Batman. Meanwhile, the civilization itself is Americana. There's nothing that's odd or shocking or alien about it, and with …
It's an okay book, but the central conceit (humanity can create small artificial universes) is played out so that the full capability is only discovered by necessity when under attack. Which leads to lots of breathless "I never thought of it this way, but might get us out of this!" where the idea is actually being used for creating a world with bizarre physics that is considerably more complex than the idea itself.
The villain is also weak. Perhaps intentionally so, but still, the moustache twirling got old quickly.
But the biggest problem is that the language just doesn't inspire. For all that it is a novel of the future, it's so clearly a book of the present that the protagonist is making Leroy Jenkin jokes and complaining that no-one remembers Batman. Meanwhile, the civilization itself is Americana. There's nothing that's odd or shocking or alien about it, and with the technology and power that they have available, I'm surprised they're even human to begin with. Yes, there's some back story that goes into how they avoided the Singularity, but I wince hearing about the Asimovian postulates.
So while this book is readable, it's also more forgettable than it should be. Oh well.