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Implied Spaces | 
 enlarge | Author: Walter Jon Williams
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $15.54
You Save: $9.41 (38%)
New (31) Used (10) from $14.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 56087
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 264
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 1597801259
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781597801256
ASIN: 1597801259
Publication Date: June 11, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: NEW * FIRST EDITION /FIRST PRINTING * Hardcover w/ beautiful Dust Jacket , We Ship in 24 Hours, answer emails fast, accept returns and work hard to deliver 100% Customer Satisfaction!
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Product Description
Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, is a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself. Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmesssa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Not Free SF Reader November 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
There once was a time when if a book said Walter Jon Williams, I would get it, as long as I knew about it and could find it. Some I still have not. I detested Days Of Atonement, however, and though the Dread Empire's Fall book I tried was very average - the same for the short stories related to this series.
A highly eclectic writer, with that much variety an older me now realises that it is extremely unlikely that you will like everything written by a man with such range.
Now we come to Implied Spaces, thanks to Night Shade and Webscriptions, and a great deal bundle.
It would appear that Mr. Williams has set out to again write an uber-science fictional novel. This is in general never a bad thing, to me, at least. If I had to compare this to any of his other work I had read, I would suggest a little of Aristoi, some of Knight Moves, perhaps.
It starts simply, with a man on a research quest encountering bandits, and after a battle involving trolls and black priests (where you could perhaps think you were reading a fantasy book) escalates from there.
The 'Implied Spaces' in the title the protagonists explains as being not necessarily foreseen patterns made when you build something - in this case using an architectural example of a certain type of arch, and what you could see underneath when you look at it. That is pretty mundane compared to this, however, when said Pablo is doing the same thing, but for pocket universes!
There are multiple homages through this book, however, even if you recognise none of them, your enjoyment should not be altered. Or even if you only recognise 'Asimovian protocols' because you know who Asimov is. If you do, however, this should entertain you. Possibly 'Implied Spaces' has a double meaning, in that Williams has maybe inserted this novel into such a spot in the science fiction universe, given the homages and maybe even mashups present within.
There's talking cats, magic in the any sufficiently advanced technology sense swords, immense matrioshka array AI, multi bodies, reincarnation, zombies, and weaponry and conflict that would certainly make Doc Smith and Edmond Hamilton pretty happy.
It is also creepy at times in who Pablo is fighting, what he does to them, and how he (and his allies) go about it. For example, The AIs, with their amazing resources are far in advance of the humans, and do lots of the work for them. However, they have built in limiters that make them do so. Slaves of a sort, in fact, despite being clearly sentient.
Also, he managed to surprise me several times in this book, something I don't find that it is particularly easy to do. Plenty of cool, creepy, confusion and complex to found here in this packed to the rafters sf gem.
I might even go as far as 4.75 perhaps, here.
4.5 out of 5
Surprise! October 18, 2008
I read a ton of sci-fi, and most of it is quite forgetful--something to pass the time, a western or mystery set in the future (or sideways).
_Implied Spaces_ is almost a summation of the sci-fi genre. Take your un-defeatable hero (though with enough flaws to be lovable), extrapolations of future technologies kept just shy of the Singularity (imagine if Stross had decided to go for balance), love stories not taken too far, the predictable villain, a novel way of introducing Deux ex Machina (or is it Machina es Deux?), and jumble them together for a good read (oops, forgot the fantasy/western start-up sequence).
Add the idea of Implied Spaces for post-read pondering.
One of the most enjoyable books I've read in a quite a while!
 Good entertaining story, but lacks focus September 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this book in 3-4 days, tops. It was very enjoyable reading, as I have been a big fan of WJW ever since his first short story in Omni. Great fun: evil villains, dashing swordsmen in a World of Warcraft type setting, AI sidekicks, big combat scenes...
But I don't think it measures up to his best books like Aristoi, Voice of the Whirlwind or Angel Station. One problem is that he starts throwing out what could be fairly serious themes: re-incarnation, the relationship of self-aware AIs to humankind, contrasting the achievements of the talented few to the more frivolous masses, the nature vs. nurture of ethics. But none of these ideas are explored in any depth. The AI debate is a case in point as it postulates a radically different relationship than say Banks' Culture Minds. But the discussion is over in one paragraph.
WJW is good at "big concept SF" and he is also good at just writing good adventure novels. In Dread Empire and City on Fire, he told good stories, without any philosophical ambitions. Aristoi is the opposite - he has a _few_ great ideas and treats them brilliantly in what is probably his best novel to date.
In Implied Spaces, whose main protagonist often reminded me of Aristoi's, he just throws out a lot of neat ideas and doesn't do anything much with them. Left that way, those ideas get in the way, because they leave you wanting more, much more. The ending was also somewhat abrupt and anticlimactic so that worked against the "pure story" approach.
In sum, Implied Spaces ends up neither fish nor fowl, but remains enjoyable nonetheless. You would expect nothing less of WJW, but you might expect more.
A bit of a rehash but an enjoyable rehash September 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Walter Jon Williams isn't really breaking any new ground here, although it takes a little while to notice. The prologue is three chapters long, far too long, but stick with the book because it gets more interesting. The story is set a millennium or two in the future where humanity has used massive AI supercomputers orbiting the sun and wormhole technology to created artificial pocket universes where most people live. The main character is Aristide, a scholar who investigates what he calls "implied spaces", the areas which are accidentally created when these pocket universes are designed. During such an exploration he uncovers evidence of a plot against civilization and the rest of the book deals with efforts to foil this plan.
The major strike against the book is that it's clearly derivative of Williams' previous work, most notably Aristoi which also featured an immortal poet/scholar/adventurer who was trying to foil a plot against civilization. The character of Aristide also owes something to Williams' novel "Knight Moves" which had a protagonist who was instrumental in revolutionizing the world. For good measure he throws in some of the grand space opera battle tactics which he employed recently in the Praxis series. Even the notion of backups in case someone dies is cribbed from "Voice of the Whirlwind." The major new idea that Williams plays with here is the intriguing notion of mind altering plagues which can rewrite someones personality.
But that said, the fact is that the book is so well written and the story so engaging that you don't care that it's not the most original fare. Or at least I didn't. It IS somewhat similar to Aristoi in that, even in the face of the most dire peril, the main character never seems to be too perturbed. In this sense it's a very light adventure tale, but still engaging at the same time. Much of the enjoyment comes from trying to piece together what's going on and observing the chess like moves which civilization and its enemies engage in. Especially if you're a fan of Williams' other work I'd recommend "Implied Spaces."
Post-cyberpunk/Post Human Science fiction August 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you've read my reviews, you know I've got a thing for WJW. This work is a piece of solid science fiction writing. It is not space opera, it is not really high adventure. It posits a universe where manking can create wormholes and pocket universes with relative ease and takes us for a fun ride down that rabbit hole. Government, human relations, and man's place in the universe are all fodder for this book.
This work is similar to WJW's Aristoy than his adventure works. if you remember that going in you will appreciate the piece. If you enjoyed Glass Houses, Aristoy and similar post human science fiction, then buy this book.
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