Void Star

Void Star is a 2017 near-future science fiction novel by American writer Zachary Mason. It is his second novel, published after The Lost Books of the Odyssey.[1] Set in a near-future San Francisco, the book explores themes of artificial intelligence, philosophy, linguistics and immortality.

Void Star
AuthorZachary Mason
PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date
April 2017
Pages400
ISBN978-0-374-28506-7

Plot

The plot revolves around three protagonists: Irina, a corporate consultant, who translates AI "glyphs," or waves of thought, for other people to understand; Thales, the son of a Brazilian politician; and Kern, petty thief raised in the favelas and self-taught martial artist. They are brought together when Irina and Thales, both of whom have cranial implants that enable perfect memory recall, learn that the contents of these implants can be exfiltrated.

Reception

Wired praised the book for being "written with the syntactic precision you might expect from a linguist, a computer scientist, a mathematician. Or a person who is all three"[2] but criticized the "plot [that] may leave you scratching your head."[3] The Guardian criticized the chapters set in virtual reality, writing that "as its storylines converge in virtual spaces, everything begins to seem ethereally confusing and abstract," but praises the other chapters, with their return "in the most satisfying of the various characters’ endings, to the physical realities of fire and steel."[4]

gollark: It would be more efficient to directly burn the food or something.
gollark: Obviously the best way to produce power is to disassemble Mercury with von Neumann machines and turn it into vast arrays of solar powers and beamed power transmitters pointing at Earth.
gollark: They are, by nature, installed on random houses by people without years of training, and if you were to install them only on dedicated facilities with professional installers they would cost unreasonable amounts.
gollark: It can't be, though.
gollark: This is why we should replace space stations with giant very thick-walled balloons. I'm sure you can ship balloon material from the moon or something.

References
  1. "Void Star | Zachary Mason | Macmillan". US Macmillan. Retrieved 2017-09-02.
  2. "'Void Star': Terrifying Silicon Valley Sci-Fi Only an AI Expert Could Pen". WIRED. Retrieved 2017-09-02.
  3. "9 Essential Summer Reads—From Sci-Fi to Philosophical Superheroes". WIRED. Retrieved 2017-09-02.
  4. Poole, Steven (2017-04-26). "Void Star by Zachary Mason review – a techno-thriller with literary ambitions". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-09-02.
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