In the near future scientists have successfully mapped the human brain – the Mappa Mundi of the title – using nanotechnology and, using the same technology the nanytes, can be used to read and modify a person’s mind. Not in any detail; thoughts can’t be directly read but meme patterns can and they can be modified as well, allowing the possibility of fixing many mental problems or creating them, removing phobias or introducing them, making people compliant or making them aggressive. As with many technologies it is clear this one can be used for good or ill, and it rapidly becomes apparent that someone or some government has already done the latter. The two main protagonists make an unlikely team, though actually spending little time together within the books pages; a scientist working on Mappa Mundi and an FBI agent caught up in unofficially investigating a test of its capabilities. All the major powers are racing to develop the technology and the winner has the potential to control, literally, the whole world. The stakes are high and the solution elusive.
Mappa Mundi is certainly science fiction, and hard science fiction at that, but is closer to a Michael Crichton style techno-thriller which it manages pretty well. But it could have been so much better. The plot is excellent with lots of intriguing twists and turns, the characters are very real, neither perfectly good nor perfectly evil, though possibly a little too self-absorbed at times but maybe that’s a fair portrayal of most real people! This is Robson’s second book and, whilst better than her first – Silver Screen – it still lacks the assured smooth writing style of her later Quantum Gravity books, taking itself much more seriously than those seriously fun books; a little ponderous at times or maybe pretentious would be a better, if harsher, adjective. The action, often exciting and fast paced, especially in the latter half, as befits a good thriller, is frequently interrupted by rather long winded internal philosophising; some of which is important but much of which could have been streamlined to give the book more consistent pace without losing anything of significance.
Despite that uneven pacing this is still a good book, just not a great one. It takes an interesting premise and follows an all too realistic abuse by a Government looking to control its own citizens as well as other rival states. In fairness it sees the need for the latter before it is done to themselves; a classic cold war style arms race.
3/5 stars
Mappa Mundi is certainly science fiction, and hard science fiction at that, but is closer to a Michael Crichton style techno-thriller which it manages pretty well. But it could have been so much better. The plot is excellent with lots of intriguing twists and turns, the characters are very real, neither perfectly good nor perfectly evil, though possibly a little too self-absorbed at times but maybe that’s a fair portrayal of most real people! This is Robson’s second book and, whilst better than her first – Silver Screen – it still lacks the assured smooth writing style of her later Quantum Gravity books, taking itself much more seriously than those seriously fun books; a little ponderous at times or maybe pretentious would be a better, if harsher, adjective. The action, often exciting and fast paced, especially in the latter half, as befits a good thriller, is frequently interrupted by rather long winded internal philosophising; some of which is important but much of which could have been streamlined to give the book more consistent pace without losing anything of significance.
Despite that uneven pacing this is still a good book, just not a great one. It takes an interesting premise and follows an all too realistic abuse by a Government looking to control its own citizens as well as other rival states. In fairness it sees the need for the latter before it is done to themselves; a classic cold war style arms race.
3/5 stars