This week, a science fiction story about an AI generated virtual world, and life within it.
My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.
Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.
Miira, Innerscape: Book 1 by acflory B
This book introduces us to Miira Tahn, a wealthy woman in her mid-fifties who is dying of cancer and the price she must pay if she is to continue to live, sort of. She has chosen to live a virtual life within the an AI generated virtual world, but it involves sacrificing her body to do so. The story, set a hundred years in the future, envisions people visiting and playing within an AI generated virtual world, with their full senses. People can experience the full range of life, see, smell and feel everything within this virtual world - as well as interact realistically with others who are in it just as in the real world. However, in the case of Miira, once she enters it, she can never return to the real world because her body is wracked cancer and that must be dealt with. A company, Innerscape, offers a service wherein they will dismantle her diseased body, eliminate the cancer, and replace damaged organs with artificial ones that will keep her brain alive, for a time, with her body, what is left of it, maintained in a vat at the facility until the person's organs naturally fail of old age.
This story offers a very interesting take on the idea of living beyond death. In most stories this involves transferring one's consciousness to a computer and some sort of robot. In this story, the person is freed of their body and able to roam a virtual world as real as the real one - without consequences until they die naturally. Flory goes into great detail about how this process is done, and how Miira is conditioned to accept this new reality, plus how the AI generates a flawless reality for her. This is very much a hard science fiction book that takes a serious look at the medical and psychological issues that would be needed to be addressed to make this possible.
While Miira's journey into the Innerscape is primary focus of the story, there are several action orientated chapters - that come somewhat out of left field, and are not directly explained at first - that involve other people and events which, as the story goes along, the reader comes to discover are also taking place in this virtual world and are in some way connected to events in the outside world. No doubt, these interludes will become more significant in the following two volumes of this story, since this is only the first book of a three book series. All in all, I would say that this in a very unique treat for fans of hard-science fiction and cyberpunk.
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