{"id":22219,"date":"2013-09-04T06:30:36","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T18:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=22219"},"modified":"2013-09-01T18:19:53","modified_gmt":"2013-09-01T06:19:53","slug":"book-review-existence-by-david-brin-reviewed-by-andrew-robins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/09\/04\/book-review-existence-by-david-brin-reviewed-by-andrew-robins\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: \u201cExistence\u201d by David Brin \u2014 Reviewed by Andrew Robins"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/09\/02\/a-supernatural-underground-giveaway-plus-more-happening-here-elsewhere\/existence_b-indd\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-22202\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-22202\" title=\"Existence_B.indd\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Existence-188x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"188\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Existence-188x300.jpg 188w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Existence-94x150.jpg 94w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Existence.jpg 299w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 188px) 100vw, 188px\" \/><\/a>Introduction:<\/h3>\n<p>As a longtime <a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidbrin.com\/\">David Brin<\/a> reader, I am very pleased to bring you a review of his latest novel, <strong>Existence,<\/strong> from regular <em>\u201c\u2026on Anything, Really\u201d<\/em> reviewer, Andrew Robins.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Book Review:\u00a0<strong><em>Existence <\/em><\/strong>by David Brin (Orbit, 2012,\u00a0 Paperback edition, 659 pp) \u2014 Reviewed by Andrew Robins<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Existence<\/strong>\u00a0 is a big book in every sense of the word.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">It took David Brin more than ten years to write the 659 pages that deliver this powerful and compelling story. So the book is both physically big, and obviously important to the author.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">What makes this book &#8216;huge&#8217; is the story itself, which is nothing less than (as advertised by the title), the story of existence. And not just the minor sideline that is the story of life on this backwater of a planet. David Brin has delivered a hard science fiction novel that is truly galactic in the scope of its storytelling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Secondary themes explored by the story include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The impact of the enlightenment on human society and \u201crecent history\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Environmental degradation and our responses to that<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Issues around the nature of intelligence and our relationships with other species<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The transformational effects of information technology<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Changing power bases in human society<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080;\">First contact<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">These secondary plotlines are all interesting and well developed. They kept me engaged with the story for the first two thirds of the book. Right up until the author released a major \u201cAha!\u201d moment &#8212; and I realised that the novel I thought I was reading was just the doorway into a much larger story.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">In the early 1980&#8217;s David Brin wrote a short story called \u201cLungfish\u201d. When I read it, the story had a big enough impact on me that thirty years later, when I realised that I was reading a vastly expanded version (that both extends and subtly subverts the central themes), I had no problems remembering both the title of the story and how I felt when I read it. How much I wished there were more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Existence<\/strong> is very much that more. David Brin has taken the very stark message that sat at the heart of \u201cLungfish\u201d and delivered a very human, and mostly hopeful, response.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>What I Loved <strong>About This Story<\/strong>: <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The story elements I describe above resonated with me. David Brin also supports these with a cast of very well-developed characters. For me, Tor Povlov is the story&#8217;s leading protagonist. She is a main point of view character who shapes events throughout the story. Tor Povlov faces major personal challenges as the story unfolds, but she never loses her agency and is never a victim. She is also not the only strong female character. She shares the stage with Lacey Donaldson-Sander and Mei Ling, who each have their own story to tell. Clearly David Brin does not go in for tokenism, and I really liked that aspect of the story.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Potential Issues<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The major shift in focus in the last third of the book will lose some readers. (Especially readers that never read \u201cLungfish\u201d and realised how much they had been wanting the rest of that story). Suddenly events on Earth seem pretty unimportant. (But are they?) I say to those readers \u2013 \u201cjust go with it\u201d. Once you put aside your annoyance you will be very well rewarded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Loved it. Right up with previous Brin classics<strong> The Postman<\/strong> and <strong>Startide Rising<\/strong> for me. Three cheers for David Brin &#8212; and thank you, thank you, thank you for not letting go of this story.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Readers who are unfamiliar with David Brin&#8217;s earlier work, but who like the works of William Gibson and Kim Stanley Robinson (particularly the excellent <strong>2312<\/strong>), should like this book \u2013 a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">This is a great piece of work. Well worth the wait.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>About The Reviewer:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Andrew Robins is a long time reader \u2013 and sometime reviewer \u2013 of science fiction, fantasy and history. People pay him to test stuff, mainly radios, which most of the time is more fun than it has any right to be. Any and all views expressed in this review are entirely his own.<\/p>\n<p>To read more reviews by Andrew, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/category\/book-reviews-for-on-anything-really\/\">Book Reviews for <em>\u2018on Anything, Really\u2019<\/em><\/a>\u201d in the right-hand side bar, but the most recent include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/08\/22\/book-review-great-north-road-by-peter-f-hamilton-reviewed-by-andrew-robins\/\"><em>Great North Road<\/em><\/a> by David Hamilton<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/02\/18\/book-review-the-fractal-prince-by-hannu-rajaniemi-reviewed-by-andrew-robins\/\"><em>The Fractal Prince<\/em> <\/a>by Hannu Rajaniemi<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/10\/05\/book-review-the-hydrogen-sonata-by-iain-m-banks-reviewed-by-andrew-robins\/\"><em>The Hydrogen Sonata<\/em><\/a> by Iain M Banks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction: As a longtime David Brin reader, I am very pleased to bring you a review of his latest novel, Existence, from regular \u201c\u2026on Anything, Really\u201d reviewer, Andrew Robins. \u2014 Book Review:\u00a0Existence by David Brin (Orbit, 2012,\u00a0 Paperback edition, 659 pp) \u2014 Reviewed by Andrew Robins Existence\u00a0 is a big book in every sense of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews-for-on-anything-really"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22219"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22250,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22219\/revisions\/22250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}