Chris Branch's Reviews > Spin Control

I read Spin State years ago and had vague memories of a fairly interesting take on AI but not much else, so I picked up this follow up when I saw it at a used book sale. It does continue the exploration of the intriguing AI concept, as well as extending (or introducing?) the idea of Syndicates of genetically engineered people, created in series and deployed in pairs. There is also the terraforming plot line presented in flashback, which adds another potentially interesting angle.

However, Moriarty chooses to embed all this in the setting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is not only still going on 500+ years in the future, but with the same grim spycraft, torture, land mines... I’m not sure whether to say that’s not believable or that it’s all too believable, but I’m afraid that for me, it’s tiresome and fails to hold my interest. In the backstory episodes, meanwhile, the bickering and social awkwardness among the Syndicate members is even less interesting.

In the end, the tedious interplay among shadowy middle eastern figures with mysterious motives overwhelmed what should have been the most fascinating aspect of the story, the underlying motive for Arkady’s journey to Israel, which I won’t mention here. Anyway, in spite of a number of points in its favor, for me the book was less than compelling.