author : David Brin

Contents (possible spoilers)

• The Crystal Spheres. 1984

• The Loom of Thessaly. 1981

• The Fourth Vocation of George Gustaf. 1984

• Senses Three and Six. 1986

• Toujours Voir. 1986

• A Stage of Memory. 1986

• Just a Hint. 1980

• Tank Farm Dynamo. 1983

• Thor Meets Captain America. 1986

• Lungfish. 1986

• The River of Time. 1981. = Coexistence

Contents (possible spoilers)

• The Giving Plague. 1988

• Myth Number. 1994

• Dr. Pak's Preschool. 1990

• Detritus Affected. 1992

• The Dogma of Otherness. 1986

• Sshhh.... 1988

• Those Eyes. 1994

• What to Say to a UFO. 1994

• Bonding to Genji. 1992

• The Warm Space. 1985

• Whose Millenium?. 1994

• NatuLife (R). 1993. = Natubirth

• Piecework. 1988

• Science versus Magic. 1990

• Bubbles. 1987

• Ambiguity. 1990

• What Continues ... And What Fails .... 1991

• The Commonwealth of Wonder. 1990

review of the film version

Al Morris lives in a world of dittos -- clay duplicates that last for a day, then have their memories downloaded into the organic body before decomposing into slurry. He's a private detective called in to investigate a ditnapping, a real-murder, and industrial espionage, and all of him are having a bad day.

This is a brilliant mess. The multiple first person viewpoint narrative, all from different copies of the same person, is very well handled. The consequences of the ditto technique are explored in some detail (and there's a demi-semi-plausible scientific gloss), and the very changed world is well-imagined and depicted with dry humour. The detective plot is interesting and intricate. But all that metaphysical mish-mash at the end is completely unnecessary -- all the myriad subplots are sufficient to carry the story, and this could have been, and so very nearly is, much better as an investigation of identity and what it means to be "me" in a world full of temporary and expendable duplicates, and almost totally lacking in privacy.

• Seacon panel discussion of the Arthur C Clarke Award shortlist