Kiln People

By: David Brin

Narrated by: Andy Caploe

Length: 23 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Interesting Premise, Disappointing Execution

What would have made Kiln People better?

Could have been quite a bit shorter without losing much of interest. The first quarter of the book sets up some interesting possibilities, but it starts losing steam and re-re-retreading the same ground. By the end, the only way to change things up is to go completely off the rails.

How could the performance have been better?

The reading really through me off at first, though I eventually got used to it. Very little flow between sentences, which occasionally took me out of the story. There was very little vocal range beyond "gruff man", and occasionally "whiny man". To be fair, much of the running monologue would have been tough to pull off convincingly for 20+ hours.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Kiln People?

Much of the metaphysically-focused climax should have been cut, and replaced with something that played more to the author's strengths and detective story tradition.

Any additional comments?

I had high hopes going into this book, and for three quarters through, I was able to say that, while it wasn't great, it wasn't bad either. Unfortunately, the last parts were particularly weak, and ended up souring what seemed to be at least somewhat interesting thought experiments from the beginning.

Excellent book, good reader. FANTASTIC concept.

I only read this book once, but I really enjoyed the audiobook version. The reader had good voice separation between characters, and didn't make the female characters sound like a whispering truck driver.

The only thing you might want to do for optimum enjoyment is consider running the playback at 1.25x speed. I started it at 1x and increased it within 10 minutes -- the default speed just seems to drag. At 1.25x, I found it just about perfect.

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.

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.

loved it!

Would you consider the audio edition of Kiln People to be better than the print version?

I read the book and equally enjoyed listening to the audio version.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Enjoyed the wonderfully human, vulnerable hero, Albert's greenie and his side kick Pal.

Had potential - Got carried away

What did you love best about Kiln People?

Very interesting setup and playing out of the implications of cloning. However, it seemed to me that it was too committed to making a quite engaging story into some fundamental question about life and the universe and so became way too grandiose.

Excellent world building, okay ending

Definitely worth listening to. Cool concepts, vivid writing, thought provoking, but slightly underwhelming end.
Narrator is good, easy listening.

Great premise lack luster execution

I thought the story line was great. A “clones meets detective” mash up. Turns out it was difficult to keep the characters separated and the multiple story lines. Disappointing that it did not deliver.

Started strong

The narrator was excellent, but it seems to be recorded in slow motion, I played back at 110% and it was fine. the story started off very strong and enjoyable, but then got way too metaphysical and lost it's momentum. still was very enjoyable though.

Maybe it was me

I really loved Brin’s old stuff. I saw this and grabbed it figuring it would be more of the old David Brin. It is not. I had a hard time with this. Maybe it’s me and the way I listen to books. This book seems to need you to pay careful attention to it. It is not light reading. It got kind of convoluted. the only reason I actually finished it was to find out where it was going. Once I got there, I didn’t really care. I also tried to read something out of the genre that I am currently enjoying and maybe that is part of it too.

Brin lost the art of storytelling

Usually I loved David Brins books as they were easy to read. This one is full of far too many ideas without the enjoyment of a story.

Gave up

Started over twice but couldn't get engaged with the story even though it is an interesting idea. Called it quits after 6 hours.

Narrator did a decent job though.