For over a century, the Fireball company has been led not by its long dead founder, Anson Guthrie, but by his personality downloaded into a mobile artificial neural network. When the Avantist government occupies Fireball's North American headquarters, the company smuggles the download into the country so that he can mastermind strategy, using secure local lines. However, a Fireball man, Washington Packer, Director of Kamehameha Spaceport, learns of an imminent second crackdown that will occupy all company premises. The Security Police even have a list of half a dozen places where the download might be. Packer, not knowing where Guthrie is but working from the same list of possible locations, sends one employee to each of the locations. Kyra Davis becomes the one who must carry Guthrie in a daypack back to the spaceport. This plot premise generates many pages of hide and seek. I prefer the later parts of the novel.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
In THE HARVEST OF STARS books I think it's plain Anderson was experimenting with methods of organizing his stories in ways different from those of many of his earlier works. I don't recall feeling put off by that while reading them. But summarizing them as you do does make them seem needlessly complex.
I don't mind stories of action, adventure, derring-do, when done well. Which is why I loved Edgar Rice Bourroughs' Barsoom stories. ERB knew how to write, even if many of his stories were absurd.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I have a fair number of "annotated" books:
ALICE ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND AND THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, annotated by Martin Gardner.
THE ANNOTATED DRACULA, commentary by Leonard Wolf.
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, annotated by Isaac Asimov.
THE HOBBIT, by Douglas Adams.
And of course Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull's massive volume of annotations for LOTR, called THE LORD OF THE RINGS: A READER'S COMPANION.
Ad astra! Sean
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