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    <TITLE>SFDG Notes on KILN PEOPLE</TITLE>
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    <P CLASS="Breadcrumbs"><A HREF="index.html">SFDG</A> -> <A
      HREF="specificBooks.php">Specific Books</A> ->
      <CITE>Kiln People</CITE></P>

    <H1><CITE>Kiln People</CITE> by David Brin</H1>

    <H2>(discussed March 27, 2003)</H2>

    <P><STRONG>On a ten-point scale (1=bad, 10=good), the people who
      read the book gave the following ratings:</STRONG> <?php
      showVotes(); ?><BR>
      <STRONG>Average:</STRONG> <?php echo(voteAverage()); ?></P>

<!--
    <P>One interesting note: A number of people pointed out that they
      enjoyed Kube-McDowell's writing style and skill more than this
      book's particular subject matter.</P>
-->

    <P>As often happens, some people really liked the book, and some really
      disliked it. (And two of the people who really disliked it did not
      vote, for what that's worth.)</P>

    <P>On the dislike side, one common complaint was that it was hard to
      maintain suspension of disbelief. Nobody seemed to be able to believe
      in the golems, the central feature of the book. (<STRONG>John
      Gallman</STRONG> said he didn't believe <EM>anything</EM> in the book,
      but <STRONG>Raja</STRONG> felt that the background society's science
      and technology were plausible, and an interesting fictional treatment
      of ideas from David Brin's nonfiction book, <CITE>The Transparent
      Society</CITE>.) <STRONG>Ignacio</STRONG> made the interesting comment
      that he would have been able to suspend disbelief more easily if this
      had been a short story; at 460 pages, there was too much time for him
      to be bothered by the golems.</P>

    <P>Another cause of complaint was the large number of puns, both
      embedded in the story (e.g., <EM>G.L.A.Z.I.E.R.</EM>) and presented in
      the chapter headings. Some people felt that these puns knocked them
      straight out of the story (<STRONG>Gregory</STRONG>, in particular,
      seemed to give up when he reached G.L.A.Z.I.E.R.) while others (such
      as <STRONG>Abe</STRONG>) found them amusing, and a sign that the
      author wasn't taking things <EM>too</EM> seriously.</P>

    <P>The third thing that seemed to bother people (even people who
      really enjoyed the book) was the ending, with its somewhat
      out-of-nowhere metaphysics and &quot;souls&quot;.</P>

    <P>On the plus side, many people found the idea of making multiple
      short-lived copies of yourself to complete several tasks in parallel
      to be intriguing--though Gregory didn't think <EM>any</EM> copy of
      himself would be willing to clean toilets ;-). Someone pointed out
      that the main character was rich and used greens for menial tasks that
      were usually carried out by less-intelligent copies. Along these
      lines, several people enjoyed the middle section of the book, where
      four versions of the main character did first-person narration, and
      these four versions started out very similar, but ended up diverging
      because of their different experiences over the day.</P>

    <P>The people who really liked the book said that it was well written--I
      think both <STRONG>TC</STRONG> and <STRONG>Steve Simms</STRONG> found
      it to be a real page-turner with good characters. (And though John
      Gallman didn't like the book, he <EM>did</EM> say, multiple times,
      that it was professionally written.) Simms also said he liked the
      book's matter-of-fact approach to suspension of disbelief; the author
      did not belabor the implausible parts, but just let the reader accept
      them (or not). Simms also found the book to be a little reminiscent of
      Philip K. Dick (one of his favorite authors) and found himself to be
      really engaged with the book--he would try to anticipate which Albert
      would narrate the next chapter, and what that Albert would say. This
      was the first Brin novel that Simms had read, and several people
      encouraged him to try <CITE>Startide Rising</CITE> next.</P>      

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