An excellent and complex world-build with deep intersectionalities of gender, labor, heritage, and ability. A quick ending with a hook to sequel "Dreaming Metal" left me missing Reverdy, Red, and Crazy Imre.

Dave says (tedious, would have been good as a novelette or shorter)... I'm sure I'll try it anyway, assuming I do inherit it from him.

I just love everything Melissa Scott writes

Though the book was a little hard to understand the surroundings first, the further into it you got, the more you learned about the world and sooner or later I didn't have that problem that I initially had. The story itself was fascinating and well written, but I had one serious problem that I didn't quite figure out until much farther in the book. At first it was that I didn't really like them. I mean it wasn't as if any were horribly awful or annoying, but none of them appealed to me. I also d...

I think this is her best work - it's an exploration of politics, oppression, and a complex and fascinating look at artificial intelligence.

If one were to take a mash-up of my undergraduate degree (Computer Science:Artificial Intelligence, also Psycholinguistics wannabe) and crossed it with my graduate degree (Information & Archive Management) and mixed in my random interests you might come up with this book. I randomly picked it off the shelf at the used bookstore and am delighted to have found it. I enjoyed reading it and will look into Scott's other writings.

A good solid sci-fi book. I love this author whether she is writing techie sci-fi or space opera. Her examination of the schisms between various sectors of society is always enjoyable and feels like a good prediction of the future.

These two books should really be read in order. one can read them backwards, like I did. but you understand the second one better if you read this one first.also I think the social issues in these books are surprisingly relevant now.

This is one of the most realistic, absorbing sci-fi universes I have ever dived into so I've got to dedicate a bit to it:What got me hooked most of all was how it manages to stay clear of one of the most common pitfalls of catapulting modern Western society forward a few thousand years and instead builds it's own rich cultures meshing in an underground city. There is a strong class system and racial tensions, there are ethical arguments surrounding burgeoning artificial intelligences contrasted

This one kept me up until 3AM on first read, back in 1993. I just found a copy of an embarassingly-gushy fan letter to the author, which I certainly won't be sharing. But here's what I liked about Dreamships:* The dense, lived-in feel of Persephone.* Good, well-thought-out extrapolation - two prereqs (for me) for first-rank SF. * A clean and twisty plotline.* Nice touches of moral ambiguity. * Quirky characters who rang true. * Good slang, nice techtalk - karakuri, Bi'Jian, haya, glyphs, Dreampe...

I should have read this book before "Dreaming Metal" (the sequel).Some of the things I expected to become clear (that weren't so clear in the second book) did - for example, why so many people in the books are deaf (random mutation, small population), and the origin and exact stances of the many political groups. Other things were not really explained (why Red was in jail, anything having to do with his & Imre's very odd relationship.)The main character here is Reverdy Jian, a starship pilot and...

not quite what I expected and one character death seemed like a letdown, but I loved the heroine and the setting was refreshingly different from anything else. Doesn't read like a book from the 90s, feels pretty modern! especially the casual bisexuality and stuff.

DREAMSHIPS and DREAMING METAL by MELISSA SCOTT -- Two books written years apart, both examining the technology and social, legal, and moral implications of Artificial Intelligence in a futuristic space setting.

Hooo goodness. I sure WANTED to like this book. I will say, it’s Cyber As Fuck, which is a point in its favor! It’s also about a woman character, people with disabilities and different races, and it made me want to eat the hell out of some delicious salty flavored noodles and ride super fast trains on space stations. But... it was just so doggone disappointing! It’s REALLY descriptive. Like, a lot of description. And the describing of things. So much. With the more descriptions. The plot seems p...

startlingly good. it gets off to a pretty slow start, but gains momentum and dynamic tension rapidly once the plot gets moving, and before you're halfway through, it's a can't-put-it-down page turner. Really interesting characters and sharp, smart science that makes you think. Definitely reccomend. As a side note, I wasn't aware that Scott was a lesbian author until I picked this up, so the several LGBTQ main characters were a delightful surprise. Their queerness is in no way a focus of the stor...

Hired by a rich businesswoman to fly her ship to the planet Refuge to retrieve her crazy but brilliant brother, freelance pilot Jian and her crew inadvertenly become involved with what appears to be the first true AI ever created - a deeply controversial issue that lands them in the middle of rival factions, riots and potentially in the line of fire of those willing to kill to get their hands on it.A thoughtful exploration of the AI theme in combination with excellent worldbuilding and diverse,

While it does trail a bit into being cumbersome in its character descriptions and world-building, Dreamships is incredibly engrossing. I haven’t read a book that made me want to stay up late in a long time.

This is good science fiction with a great twisted ending!

Fun, fast-pased little space opera, featuring the very sf quandry of "is it a machine or human?" as well as some intense action sequences. Technology is very dated and somewhat detracts from the experience. (how funny it is, storing an AI on a cassette disc)But the cool bit is the variety of languages used! There’s normal speaking, sign language, and text speak. It’s very reminicient of how different languages are denotes in the Terra Ignota series. I really like the diversity of languages (and

A book about machine intelligence on the surface only; in substance it is really about how class divisions inherently undermine human rights.Full of immersive worldbuilding and detail, but it feels like the plot was an afterthough, as if it was merely a vehicle for touring around the well-thought-out places, politics, and people. It felt like a living, breathing world, but the story didn't feel alive.I feel conflicted rating this. The worldbuilding is excellent and engrossing, but the book itsel...