I wish I had a Kil’n in my study…..

Kiln People – David Brin

David Brin’s standalone novel in this instance was a surprise and a pleasant one at that. The blurb attracted me – the promise of a slick sci-fi detective theme set in a Cyberpunk style environment. However the sparkle came when the books overtones of Asimov’s Elijah Bailey Detective series were enhanced by the books central character Albert Morris and his numerous “selves” which he replicates each day to complete various of his tasks confronting him. Being made of clay, each of these ‘selves possesses an animate “soul” giving them some credo of life force – “Kil’n People”. Albert’s “ditto’s” ramble thru the story with ever increasingly interesting and diverse adventures. Because of their clay base it precludes an existance much longer than a standard day, whereby an “inload” – downloading of the ditto’s memories – must be undertaken. Neat. Real Albert will than assimilate the ditto’s memories and thus has enhanced his reach from the additional memories he’s absorbed. Easy prose, the book gets 4/5 for writing style. The let down was that I found I had to keep on referring backwards and forwards between chapters to work out which ditto I was following, as the story does jump around a bit following each of Alberts multiplicities. However 5/5 overall for this book, as it sparked much discussion and conjecture amongst my friends and peers who I have since loaned the book too and let read. Stimulating reading.