Published: Analog
Science Fiction & Fact / HarperPrism (1994)
Awards Won: Nebula
Award
Awards Nominated:
Hugo Award
The Book:
“After a defining
experience as a young student, Peter Hobson had a deep interest in
determining the exact moment of a person’s death. His related research made him a wealthy man, but it was his
discovery of the soul leaving the human body that made him a true celebrity.
People frequently ask Peter
what the afterlife is like, but he really has no idea. With the help of his
best friend Sarkar Muhammed, an AI specialist, Peter decides to answer this
question by modeling his own mind in three different versions: one is a
‘control’ version, one is meant to simulate immortality, and one is meant to
simulate a bodiless afterlife.
However, the copies were recorded just after Peter’s personal life was
rocked by an unexpected betrayal, and it appears to have caused one of the
simulations to become a killer!” ~Allie
This is the second novel I’ve read by Robert J. Sawyer, and
it’s definitely my favorite of his novels thus far. I was not a fan of Hominids,
but I’m glad I decided to try another of his novels. This is another audiobook that I listened to during my daily
commute!
My Thoughts:
The science of The
Terminal Experiment might not have been terribly realistic, but I thought
the fictional science elements (including simulated human minds and the
detection of the soul) were really fun. The understanding of computers was a
little short-term retro, due to the publication date. For instance, I had to
laugh a little bit when after recording the entirety of Peter Hobson’s mind,
the narrator commented, “Gigabytes of information had been recorded”. However, I’ve always been fascinated by
the stories including electronic simulations of human consciousness, so I was
perfectly willing to suspend disbelief for the story. As for the existence of the soul, it was interesting to see
how the world would change if it could be scientifically proven that there was some
kind of afterlife. All in all, I
thought it was a really cool set of ‘what-ifs’ to build a story around.
I felt like the story was as much a drama as it was a murder
mystery. The murder mystery part arrives fairly late in the story, so it is
important that the reader be drawn in by the protagonist’s life story. I initially disliked Peter Hobson, mostly
for his contempt and his tendency to generalize dislike of specific people to
broad categories of the population.
However, though his own personal narrative often glosses over his
shortcomings, I felt like the reader was meant to notice and acknowledge his
flaws. Most of the focus of the story is on Peter, and on the variations of his
personality. Other characters,
including his wife, her co-workers, and her parents, are seen mostly through
Peter’s eyes, and so don’t have the same depth. One secondary character that I particularly enjoyed, though,
was his best friend Sarkar—I think that it is not very common to encounter
religious scientists in fiction, and even less common to encounter Muslim
scientists.
The murder mystery propelled the plot in the later part of
the book, but I didn’t think it was the most interesting part of the story. It seemed like the consideration of the
effects of technology on society fell a bit by the wayside when the murder
investigation got underway. The
mystery was also very predictable, so there was not much in the way of a puzzle
for the reader. I still found it pretty exciting, though, to see Peter try to work his way to the solution
and keep ‘himself’ from killing again. Peter's story was one that was easy to be drawn into, even through audio. In the end, The Terminal Experiment was an entertaining sci-fi
thriller that has brightened my daily travels.
My Rating: 3.5/5
The Terminal
Experiment is a mind-uploading murder mystery that revolves around the
drama of scientist Peter Hobson’s personal life. Though the science is dated, I thought the central
speculative ideas of the story—the proof of existence of a soul and the ability
to electronically copy human minds—were really fun. I would have liked for the story to involve more of how
these discoveries could affect society, rather than moving into a predictable
mystery plot. All the same, Peter
Hobson, and his three electronic alter-egos were interestingly flawed central
characters, and I also enjoyed many of the secondary characters
that filled his world, such as his friend Sarkar, the AI specialist.
Overall, I enjoyed The Terminal
Experiment, and it has left me feeling more positive about trying out others of Sawyer’s novels in the future!
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