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Kiln People

David Brin

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What Members Thought

Oct 29, 2007 Mike rated it it was amazing

Shelves: scifi, with-erika

5 Stars don't seem enough for this one. Such realistic science, you expect to see this capability in the near future. Believable and edge of the seat action. ...more

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Dec 02, 2018 Rindis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, science-fiction

Okay, I have some problems with the basic premises here. Technology for scanning your personality, your soul, and imprinting it on a disposable clay-like... 'golem' who is effectively a mental duplicate of you, is so cheap that sending it out to do a classic 9-to-5 job for you will earn noticeably more than the cost of the 'ditto'. This is complicated by the fact that these dittoes are good for about a day, so doing the above job means a new ditto every day.

All this has profound social implicati Okay, I have some problems with the basic premises here. Technology for scanning your personality, your soul, and imprinting it on a disposable clay-like... 'golem' who is effectively a mental duplicate of you, is so cheap that sending it out to do a classic 9-to-5 job for you will earn noticeably more than the cost of the 'ditto'. This is complicated by the fact that these dittoes are good for about a day, so doing the above job means a new ditto every day.

All this has profound social implications, which are already in the novel's past: apparently most of the population is effectively out of work; out-competed by people who can do a few things well enough to be the 'specialist' in various mundane tasks and send as many dittoes out as needed to get it all done. There's still localism, as you can't do any of this by remote, and in some places they hire a bunch of different people, and in some all the same person. This is discussed some, but not really seen, as the characters involved are all in the realm of the Gainfully Employed.

So, the world building is really what happens to society after this happens, and short of the fact that these golems would have to be impossibly cheap, works well. Meanwhile, the actual plot follows the adventures of Albert Morris, a private eye, over about a four-day period. All the story is told through his viewpoint, or his various dittos', and uses the device that he habitually records notes of everything as he goes, and everything is pulled from there, or from his own memories. If something happens that those can't be recovered, then that viewpoint isn't there.

A hidden question that the book slowly goes into the quality of these duplicates. The bodies range from very cheap and basic, to expensive, with all five senses, better brains, and even being specialized in concentration and the like. But... what if there's some parts of your personality that just don't make it over, or only do so sometimes? Albert actually produces very good dittoes, which helps with his work, and so this wrinkle doesn't show up at first, but becomes gradually more important later.

As a mystery... well, I'm not as much of an expert, but I'd call it good, as things hang together well, and all the twists make sense. The action gets fairly confused during the second half, and especially so at the climax, where there's a lot going on at once, presented through three different viewpoints (...and things take a turn for the strange). I had stopped paying as much attention to Brin after a couple books didn't impress me a lot, but this one has me back to wanting to catch up with his writing. ...more

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Sep 05, 2007 Tracey rated it really liked it

Shelves: re-read

previously read 1 Mar 2003

I am fascinated by the concept of the "dittos" -- an temporary, alternate self that you can imprint your self/soul onto - and then download its experiences at the end of the day. Brin explores this technology and its potential effects on human society in detail - through the structure of a mystery.

The main character, Albert Morris, is a private investigator (you can imagine how helpful the dittos are to him!) and is investigating the disappearance/murder of one of the d ...more

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May 25, 2008 Nicole rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, gardening-theme

I loved the background puns and characterizations, our sleuth is a gardener. Definitely one of the best ways to pique my interest in a person. Better yet he makes it believable in this modern world why gardening becomes important to our protagonist Morris and many others. He uses this as a part of the developmental theme to establish the social impact of the kiln people on society.
Brin has almost created a book with a split personality. The is the amusing and interesting series of Morris and his ...more

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