Terminal Mind

While still reading this book, I bought David Walton's other book, Quintessence, which is a powerful indicator that Walton is a good writer, a good storyteller and a sci-fi guy to watch. After finishing it and starting Quintessence, my feeling that this is the case is even stronger. If you are a science fiction fan or a fan of the literature of the fantastic, David Walton is a guy to watch and read.In a near future America, current social trends have been taken to their logical conclusion. Everybody is wired in, to a greater or lesser degree depending upon social class and even healthcare has a computer component. The book opens at a party for the great and the good, where the son of the house and his other side of the tracks friend are planning a small prank, but their prank gets out of hand and inadvertently looses a cyber intelligence controlled by a man after power. The symbiosis of biology and technology required to "upload" a working brain and personality is grisly and makes the reader question all of the very attractive technology available to the rich in this near future - and does so without too much ham-handedness.Of course the prank has consequences and the underclass has been ground down enough to start fighting back. Walton uses the tropes of the genre and the tropes of character in ways that are comfortingly familiar and fresh. Walton doesn't reinvent the wheel here and you have met some of these stock characters before: the fashionably rebellious rich boy who learns just how important compassion is, but that it has a cost, the hot-headed young rebel who defies the more cautious leadership of resistance to his sorrow, the innocent young woman from the hinterlands who turns out to have more grit than she initially appears to, the firm but fair general who brings the resistance together, the surprise rebel that no one sees coming, the mad scientist antagonist whose ultimate goal is more sadism than science. Walton gives these types pathos and heart and raises them above their standard genre parameters. Walton's world-building is good as well and the reader can picture themselves in the world, both as one of the privileged and as one of the downtrodden underclass.A great mid-list cyberpunk dystopia with a dash of military adventure. I would love to see how the characters and the world fares in a sequel, especially as based on my reading of Quintessence, Walton's writing has taken a huge leap forward. Recommended to fans of cyberpunk especially, but lovers of dystopias and adventure science fiction would do well to take a look too.

Although Sci Fi is not my genre of choice, Terminal Mind's exciting plot, very human characters and presentation of moral dilemmas drew me in and made Walton's book hard to put down. This dystopian novel's plausible picture of technological advances and their dangers sets the stage for action when two young men from opposite social strata deliberately release a computer virus as a prank, causing far-reaching, unforeseen consequences. Walton explores this idea of choice and consequences in the characters' personal relationships and their interaction with a society plagued by class-struggle and technological dangers. As any good author, Walton takes common story elements of an evil villain, romance, unexpected plot twists and imbues them with his own style, I did think there was a little too much violence at the end of the book (though quite mild by today's standards). I particularly liked the voice (in the literary sense of that term) of the child embedded in a computer and the author's strong contention that every life (even those that are part computer, were that possible) has great value. Even better than Terminal MInd, I would recommend David Walton's historical fantasy Quintessence and the recently published sequel Quintessence Sky with their greater depth of characterization and exciting plots in which the former royal physician to King Edward flees religious persecution with his daughter and an evil alchemistacross the waters of a flat earth to an island populated by wondrous creatures. Note, Terminal Mind is also now available in Spanish (Juego Mortal) and French. Chris W.

I read "Terminal Mind" mainly due to reviews on Goodreads and Amazon; and because it won the Phillip K. Dick award in 2008. Unfortunately, I think its quite overrated. The writing is not crisp, there is way too much dull dialog, to many characters have little or nothing to contribute, and there are dead-end plot lines (and semi-romances) that do nothing to advance the main story.Author David Walton includes several very interesting sci-fi ideas: the breakdown of the United States into many small semi-independent entities following some kind of conflagration, the replacement of government power with corporate power, segregation and control of society through control of advanced technology, and some intriguing weapons technology. All of these could be the basis for a good sci-fi story, but none are developed. His main premise, the development of a super intelligence through the replication (and destruction) of a human mind is also very intriguing; but it also is not well developed. I would have liked to see Walton jettison a lot of the peripheral filler material and hone in on the main idea with a lot more detail. He also needs to streamline his writing - cut silly dialog, let readers figure the obvious rather than spelling it out, and seriously ask himself what parts of the story really advance his tale and what is he including just to fill out a book. Three stars may be a bit generous.I cannot recommend "Terminal Mind".

A well constructed story that is uncomfortably close to where our world is at present if we are not careful. Highly recommended.

I am enjoying this Book