The Punch Escrow, by Tal M. Klein
Teleportation is a common science fiction trope, probably because the human wish to go faster and get there sooner seems to grow only stronger as time goes on. Given that this path is so well-trod, it's not surprising that the major plot point in this book is, well, unsurprising, for those of us who read and/or watch science fiction regularly. It's not really a twist since it happens in the first part of the book, but for those who want to be shocked, I'll continue this review with spoilers after the picture.
SPOILERS START BELOW...
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Teleportation doesn't really exist. What's actually happening is people are being replicated, down to the exact molecules and memories, then their original bodies are "cleared." That's a nice, euphemistic way to say "eaten instantly by nanobots." Our hero, Joel, discovers this because his wife works for the teleportation company and when he tries to join her on a tenth anniversary vacation in Costa Rica, a bomb sent through at the same time kills his copy, and his wife, in a grief-stricken panic, recreates him from the memory file. Unfortunately for everyone, the original Joel is never cleared. Whoopsie daisy, now there's two! Of the same person! Okay I'm sorry, I'm being a little facetious because it's not a particularly unique idea. Klein's writing is good, though, clever and engaging. The book won a hard science fiction award and I can see why, as he's thought his future world out pretty thoroughly and there are some genuinely fun and believable ideas in here. I could do without the half-page textual notes, though. It's an easy way to solve the trick of explaining how the author's world works. As is the format the narrative takes, as a document addressed to a future reader who might require these little "historical" asides to understand the narrative. Ada Palmer did this too, in Too Like the Lightning, but does a much better job. This is a fun vacation read, but might disappoint those who read a lot of hard sci fi.
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SPOILERS START BELOW...
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Teleportation doesn't really exist. What's actually happening is people are being replicated, down to the exact molecules and memories, then their original bodies are "cleared." That's a nice, euphemistic way to say "eaten instantly by nanobots." Our hero, Joel, discovers this because his wife works for the teleportation company and when he tries to join her on a tenth anniversary vacation in Costa Rica, a bomb sent through at the same time kills his copy, and his wife, in a grief-stricken panic, recreates him from the memory file. Unfortunately for everyone, the original Joel is never cleared. Whoopsie daisy, now there's two! Of the same person! Okay I'm sorry, I'm being a little facetious because it's not a particularly unique idea. Klein's writing is good, though, clever and engaging. The book won a hard science fiction award and I can see why, as he's thought his future world out pretty thoroughly and there are some genuinely fun and believable ideas in here. I could do without the half-page textual notes, though. It's an easy way to solve the trick of explaining how the author's world works. As is the format the narrative takes, as a document addressed to a future reader who might require these little "historical" asides to understand the narrative. Ada Palmer did this too, in Too Like the Lightning, but does a much better job. This is a fun vacation read, but might disappoint those who read a lot of hard sci fi.
Shop indie!
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