Implied Spaces

Implied Spaces
by Walter Jon Williams

Implied Spaces
List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $12.47
You Save: $12.48 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Walter Jon Williams
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-11
ISBN: 1597801259
Number of pages: 264
Publisher: Night Shade Books

Book Reviews of Implied Spaces

Book Review: Good entertaining story, but lacks focus
Summary: 4 Stars

I read this book in 3-4 days, tops. It was very enjoyable reading, as I have been a big fan of WJW ever since his first short story in Omni. Great fun: evil villains, dashing swordsmen in a World of Warcraft type setting, AI sidekicks, big combat scenes...

But I don't think it measures up to his best books like Aristoi, Voice of the Whirlwind or Angel Station. One problem is that he starts throwing out what could be fairly serious themes: re-incarnation, the relationship of self-aware AIs to humankind, contrasting the achievements of the talented few to the more frivolous masses, the nature vs. nurture of ethics. But none of these ideas are explored in any depth. The AI debate is a case in point as it postulates a radically different relationship than say Banks' Culture Minds. But the discussion is over in one paragraph.

WJW is good at "big concept SF" and he is also good at just writing good adventure novels. In Dread Empire and City on Fire, he told good stories, without any philosophical ambitions. Aristoi is the opposite - he has a _few_ great ideas and treats them brilliantly in what is probably his best novel to date.

In Implied Spaces, whose main protagonist often reminded me of Aristoi's, he just throws out a lot of neat ideas and doesn't do anything much with them. Left that way, those ideas get in the way, because they leave you wanting more, much more. The ending was also somewhat abrupt and anticlimactic so that worked against the "pure story" approach.

In sum, Implied Spaces ends up neither fish nor fowl, but remains enjoyable nonetheless. You would expect nothing less of WJW, but you might expect more.

Summary of Implied Spaces

Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, is a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself. Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmesssa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.

General Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Recent SF Releases
The Valley-Westside War (Crosstime Traffic) ImageThe Valley-Westside War (Crosstime Traffic)
by Harry Turtledove
Tor Books; Published: 2008-07-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.45
Price in other shops: $24.95
Saturn's Children ImageSaturn's Children
by Charles Stross
Ace Hardcover; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.39
Price in other shops: $24.95
Laugh Lines ImageLaugh Lines
by Ben Bova
Baen; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.44
Price in other shops: $22.00
The Best of Jim Baen's Universe II ImageThe Best of Jim Baen's Universe II
Baen; Published: 2008-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.70
Price in other shops: $14.00
Slanted Jack (John and Lobo) ImageSlanted Jack (John and Lobo)
by Mark L. Van Name
Baen; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.89
Price in other shops: $24.00
The Ashes of Worlds (Saga of Seven Suns) ImageThe Ashes of Worlds (Saga of Seven Suns)
by Kevin J. Anderson
Orbit; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.88
Price in other shops: $25.99
Valor's Trial: A Confederation Novel (The Conferedation Novels) ImageValor's Trial: A Confederation Novel (The Conferedation Novels)
by Tanya Huff
DAW Hardcover; Published: 2008-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.95
Price in other shops: $24.95
Grantville Gazette IV (Ring of Fire) ImageGrantville Gazette IV (Ring of Fire)
by Eric Flint
Baen; Published: 2008-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.29
Price in other shops: $25.00
Null-A Continuum ImageNull-A Continuum
by John C. Wright
Tor Books; Published: 2008-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Day of the Ness ImageThe Day of the Ness
by Andre Norton
Laurel Leaf; Published: 2008-05-13; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Price in other shops: $6.99
Similar Books and other products
The Prefect ImageThe Prefect
by Alastair Reynolds
Ace Hardcover; Published: 2008-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.72
Price in other shops: $25.95
Singularity's Ring ImageSingularity's Ring
by Paul Melko
Tor Books; Published: 2008-02-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.47
Price in other shops: $24.95
By Schism Rent Asunder ImageBy Schism Rent Asunder
by David Weber
Tor Books; Published: 2008-07-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.76
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Dreaming Void (The Void Trilogy, Book 1) ImageThe Dreaming Void (The Void Trilogy, Book 1)
by Peter F. Hamilton
Del Rey; Published: 2008-03-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.61
Price in other shops: $27.00
Halting State ImageHalting State
by Charles Stross
Ace Hardcover; Published: 2007-10-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.62
Price in other shops: $24.95
Zoe's Tale ImageZoe's Tale
by John Scalzi
Tor Books; Published: 2008-08-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.49
Price in other shops: $24.95
Matter ImageMatter
by Iain M. Banks
Orbit; Published: 2008-02-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.37
Price in other shops: $25.99
Incandescence ImageIncandescence
by Greg Egan
Night Shade Books; Published: 2008-07-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.75
Price in other shops: $24.95
Anathem ImageAnathem
by Neal Stephenson
William Morrow; Published: 2008-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops: $29.95
Saturn's Children ImageSaturn's Children
by Charles Stross
Ace Hardcover; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.78
Price in other shops: $24.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories