Kiln People

By: David Brin

Narrated by: Andy Caploe

In a perilous future where disposable duplicate bodies fulfill every legal and illicit whim of their decadent masters, life is cheap. No one knows that better than Albert Morris, a brash investigator with a knack for trouble, who has sent his own duplicates into deadly peril more times than he cares to remember. But when Morris takes on a ring of bootleggers making illegal copies of a famous actress, he stumbles upon a secret so explosive it has incited open warfare on the streets of Dittotown.

Dr. Yosil Maharal, a brilliant researcher in artificial intelligence, has suddenly vanished, just as he is on the verge of a revolutionary scientific breakthrough. Maharal's daughter, Ritu, believes he has been kidnapped - or worse. Aeneas Polom, a reclusive trillionaire who appears in public only through his high-priced platinum duplicates, offers Morris unlimited resources to locate Maharal before his awesome discovery falls into the wrong hands.To uncover the truth, Morris must enter a shadowy nightmare world of ghosts and golems where nothing -and no one - is what they seem, memory itself is suspect, and the line between life and death may no longer exist.

Kiln People is a 2003 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel.

©2002 David Brin (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Fascinating premise

I began this book years ago, but finally got to finish it pretty recently. Even when I started, the premise of the story interested me. I am sorry to say toward the end, the story weakened - mostly due to a rather cliched antagonist. I'm glad I finished it, but don't know that I'd recommend it to others - at least not highly.

ok

He created a fascinating world, but the actual story isn't engaging enough. I finished it, but was never engaged, never had any trouble putting it down.

Neat world building; plot slow and simplistic

I love the premise of the book, and how the world building creates all sorts of different moral dilemmas, not a simple preachy conclusion. However, the plot is a very simplistic detective novel plot that is utterly predictable and slow in pacing.

great book. awesome narrator.

Excellent narration.
Great scifi concept and lots of funny bits. the narrator is amazing. maybe the best/ot best suited performance.

Futuristic multitasking

David Brin's Kiln People offers a unique future where individuals can make golems of themselves to perform specific tasks based on their 'colors' (green performs routine household chores, while ivory does more analytic tasks, and grey handles dealing with people). The 'standing wave' unique to each individuals allows the golem to function as their authentic 'rig' (original') and the golem has a lifetime of only 24 hours, they can upload their memories back to the rig. The plot revolves around a private detective investigating the case of a presumed accidental death of a famous scientist responsible for golems, but whose daughter suspects foul play. The detective produces multiple golems that go missing, each pursuing or getting mixed up in various aspects of a much more complicated sinister plan (classical mad scientist).

Brin offers a novel concept that combines both science and spirituality into an eminently plausible plot given his underlying universe. At the same time, he addresses the likely divergence of public opinion with religious fanatics against the whole concepts and others wanting more freedoms for golems as well as various implementations of the golem technology. There are numerous plot twists that keeps the story fresh and engaging.

The narration is excellent with good character distinction even among the various golems which is necessary to keep everyone straight. While of moderate length, the pace is brisk, making for a quick listen.