The Plot
Meet
Richard and Klein – the Holmes and Watson of the 22nd century.
Except that Richards is a highly advanced artificial intelligence, and Klein
his German ex-military cyborg partner. Their first case takes them into the
renegade digital realm known as Reality 36 and through the Great Firewall of
China, in search of a missing Artificial Intelligence Rights activist. What
they will find there will threaten every reality. 
The Author
An experienced science fiction journalist and critic, Guy
Haley worked for SFX as a deputy editor, where he still free-lances, he edited
GW gaming magazine White Dwarf between 2005 and 2007, and was the editor of
Death Ray magazine. He is now a
freelance writer with his first Black Library novel ‘Baneblade’ is out now.
The Book
Set in the year 2129, the world Guy Haley has created is
very believable which makes the reading far more enjoyable. A future where global land makes have changed
due to climate change and the aftermaths of devastating wars is not too hard to
imagine. The AI element of society Haley introduces is very well done too. On
the very first page with extracts from amended human rights declarations drawn
up by the European Union shows that this is a time where AI’s are fully integrated
into the world’s society. The characters
are very interesting as is their respective roles and backstories and they
interact with one another very well. The tech jargon Haley uses is very
impressive and fits in with the feel of the story and the world he has created
for this book. Although at times it made
for hard reading with all the tech jargon, in the middle of the book
especially, it was not out of place and fitted the story perfectly. For me the
book really came to life at the end and the pace of story combined with the
action was exciting and kept me hooked into the story. The story pretty much implodes at the end and
sets it up perfectly for the sequel book: ‘Omega Point’.
Scribes Verdict
Overall a good read. With the intelligent and exiting world
the story is set in and the many original touches in the story (The Great
Firewall of China being my personal favourite) it is hard not to like the book.
The only negative I could find was the tech jargon slowed the story down sometimes
and made for heavy reading but you cannot deny that it fit in well with the
story Haley is telling. It gets a score of 3 out of 5 from me and I look
forward to reading the sequel ‘Omega Point’.
That will do it for this edition of Parchment , if you have
any comments on this post, ‘Reality 36’ or anything gaming or sci-fi related
please get in touch – contactgamesknight@gmail.com.
Till next time. Ciaran.
