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Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Fall(Twinmaker 3) by Sean Williams. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2015


This is the final volume in the Twinmaker trilogy. If you've been reading along, you will know that so far, teenager Clair Hill, an ordinary girl in a world where the fabber (Star Trek's replicator) and d-mat(Star Trek's transporter) are a part of everyday life for everyone, finds herself involved in a lot of scary goings-on arranged by high-up figures who have been using both for their own ends. At the end of Volume 2(Crash) the world more or less came to an end, most of the population and anything created by fabber wiped out and Clair(one version of her, anyway) went to the virtual world of the Yard, where she found her friends(or versions of them) - and enemies.

Now, in Fall, the versions of the characters in the Yard and the versions surviving the catastrophe outside are trying to do one thing: get the people trapped in the Yard out. And there are others trying to block up the Yard forever...

That is a short description of a novel that has non stop action from beginning till nearly the end. I seriously think these books might make films now that The Hunger Games and Divergent are over. Of course, it might get confusing when there are so many different versions of the heroine and her friends and enemies. When you read the book it's confusing enough, with Clair 1, 2 and 3(Clair 3 is actually Clair 7 - no, I won't explain, you have to read it!). Characters who were killed in the first two volumes are back again, in the Yard, where their patterns were stored. And there is more than one version of the AI Q, Clair's friend, who wants, above all, to protect her.

But there is so much action,  and, unlike the average airport thriller, characters do stop to eat, drink, sleep and recover from injuries. Twinmaker would make a very exciting film series.

 Boys might enjoy the trilogy as much as girls, though it's for good readers only - the language is not for reluctant readers and despite the speed of the narrative, characters do stop to discuss the science of what is happening.

Much recommended for good readers from about fourteen upwards.

2 comments:

  1. I wasn't so into the description at the beginning (what with the ST similarities), but knowing the author is running so many characters and different place/time frames makes me really respect him - that stuff is tough!

    I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a joyous Holiday Season! :)

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  2. Yes, it's very elaborate stuff. The thing is, he thinks very carefully about the possible consequences of having a replicator and transporter; ST rarely does, although Dr McCoy says he doesn't like the idea of having his molecules taken apart and a few times there is a transporter accident that leads to something else. I like that the author HAS thought about it. In any case, it's a very exciting trilogy.

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