Derryl MurphyRezensionen

the concept sounded so interesting, where mathematics was equivalent to magic, but as the book wore on, "the numbers told me to do it" seemed an insufficient plot device. I had no empathy for the two main characters, Dom & Jenna.
To cap it all, when it got to part 3 (spoiler alert) and Billy's real identity was announced, I had kind of guessed and was totally irritated to find my guess correct as I can't stand William Blake's poems or crude art. By which time all the religious references were beginning to get on my tits too.
I can't believe either, that dolphins do maths, or that the world somehow changed because humans discovered quantum maths.
Annoying.

Døden til Archie som er nær forestående gir en gyllen mulighet til å dokumentere undergangen til en art av store dyr. Når han dør, da er den Gyldne Bambuslemuren utdødd.
Ulohtsa, turisten fra stjernene, benytter sjangsen til å se døden inntreffe på vår jord.
Han understreker han hvor sårbare vi er, som art, for miljøkollaps. Vi er sårbare på øyer såvell som i vårt lokalmiljø.

5 av 5 stjerner * * * *
..............................................

Island of the Moon
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 49 (57sider)

Parents and their child live in different time streams...

Before I start down I look one more time in the stream. I can see nothing swimming in it, no fish, no beetle.
As I walk, I wish there were still birds to sing to me.

Eleven stories about the end of the world as we know it. Although the overall theme of the book is ecological disaster, apocalypse comes in many forms, from invading aliens, water shortages, and garbage-covered oceans, to swarms of huge insects and far future earth that is about to be swallowed by the sun. "What Goes Around" is a more light-hearted story and brings a bit of light relief to the book.

The only story I disliked was "Summer's Humans", which was inspired by Nadine Gordimer's story "July's People". The characters were unpleasant and the aliens' constant hair-shedding made me shudder in disgust (although that was probably the point).

My favourite story was The History of Photography, which was subtle and lyrical and poignant. The author said that when this story appeared in a photography magazine, the readers sent in lots of irate letters complaining about inaccuracies, as the magazine hadn't made it clear that it was fiction. "Those Graves of Memory" and "Wasps at the Speed of Sound" make up my top three.

A collection of 11 apocalypsi (apocalypses?) - I think the thing that impressed me the most was how very different all the apocalypsi were, apart from a common environmental theme. Well written stories, and I enjoyed reading all excepting one (What Goes Around, which I just didn't get). My favourite is probably The History of Photography, but Blue Train, The Abbey Engine, and Those Graves of Memory also made pretty good impressions. Day's Hunt didn't overly appeal - it was pretty gruesome in fact - but still well-written. I have the feeling if I met most of the protaganists in the street I'd possibly cross it to avoid them, but somehow despite that Derryl Murphy made me care about almost all of them, leaving only the viewpoint character in the final story (Laura, from Summer's Humans) and everyone in the aforementioned What Goes Around that I was happy to leave.

Bottom line: Skip the foreword, go straight into the stories. A lot of interesting apocalypsi await you.

Wasps at the Speed of Sound
En bok av: Derryl Murphy
Utgitt av: Five Rivers Publishing (Neustadt, Ontario, Canada, 2013-11-23)
ISBN: 978-1-927400-44-9
(english review at the end)

I denne samlingen trekkes leseren kun sjeldent inn i hovedpersonenes dilemma.
I et håp om å finne saftig kritikk av dagens øko-samfunn og teknologiske nyvinninger grep jeg muligheten til å anmelde denne samlingen.
Jeg fant kun en med en kjerne av sannhet som mainstream litteratur ikke våger å legge fram.
Den minneverdige fortellingen "Island of the Moon" er en trist fortelling å fordøye.
Ut av denne samlingen på elve noveller av Derryl Murphy fant jeg kun tre som jeg likte:
Island of the Moon 5 av 5 stjerner * * * * *
The History of Photography 4 av 5 stjerner * * * *
Summer's Humans 3 av 5 stjerner * * *
Alle historiene har en kort introduksjon.

Jeg fikk muligheten til å anmelde "Wasps at the Speed of Sound" fra Five Rivers Publishing via LibraryThings "Early Reviewers" program i bytte mot en ærlig anmeldelse.
Jeg grep kjørlig muligheten og håpte å skrive en anmeldelse som satte mer pris på samlingen raskere. Etter å ha dradd meg gjennom denne middelmådige samlingen er jeg redd den ikke er noen av delene

2 av 5 stjerner * *

Samlingen inneholder
Fantasy and Science fiction noveller:
Lost Jenny 3 ½ av 5 stjerner * * * ½
Island of the Moon 5 av 5 stjerner * * * * *
Those Graves of Memory 2½ av 5 stjerner * * ½
Father Time 1 av 5 stjerner *
Day's Hunt 1 av 5 stjerner *
Wasps at the Speed of Sound 1 av 5 stjerner *
What Goes Around 1 ½ av 5 stjerner * ½
Blue Train 2 av 5 stjerner * *
The Abbey Engine 1 ½ av 5 stjerner * ½
The History of Photography 4 av 5 stjerner * * * *
Summer's Humans 3 av 5 stjerner * * *
.......................................................................
Lost Jenny
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 10 (39sider)
To personer møtes under kritiske omstendigheter. Stemningen er lett optimistisk i en desperat og uvirkelig situasjon.
3 ½ av 5 stjerner * * * ½
....................................................................
Island of the Moon
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 49 (57sider)
Døden til Archie som er nær forestående gir en gyllen mulighet til å dokumentere undergangen til en art av store dyr. Når han dør, da er den Gyldne Bambuslemuren utdødd.
Ulohtsa, turisten fra stjernene, benytter sjangsen til å se døden inntreffe på vår jord.
Han understreker han hvor sårbare vi er, som art, for miljøkollaps. Vi er sårbare på øyer såvell som i vårt lokalmiljø.

5 av 5 stjerner * * * * *
..............................................

Those Graves of Memory
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 106 (20sider)
En historie om tilhørlighet. Kjære venner, minner og lengser som tapes og gjenvinnes gjennom et evig langt livsløp.

3 av 5 stjerner * * *
..............................................

Father Time
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 126 (14sider)
Om en mann som møter faren som ligger for døden, og som hopper fram og tilbake i tid mens han blir yngre.
Jeg kunne ikke forstå meg på denne historien.

1 av 5 stjerner *
..............................................

Day's Hunt
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 140 (14sider)
En verden fylt med søppel.
Et jaktlag legger utpå for å jakte fantasidyr kalt hvaler som lever i et hav av søppel. Underveis spiser de ubehandlet søppel....

1 av 5 stjerner *
..............................................
Wasps at the Speed of Sound
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 154 (46sider)
Kul tittel, men premissene for historien er helt usammenhengende og uforstålige.
Jeg mistet interessen da jeg ikke så noen sammenheng i premissene og hendelsene. Til slutt kom jeg gjennom novellen.

1 av 5 stjerner *
..............................................
What Goes Around
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 200 (31sider)
En overlagt rotete fortelling.
Arnold lever et miserabelt liv. Noen hyller ham som messias og bringer ham in i en annen tid, eller virkelighet. Det er ikke lett a vite om det er det ene eller andre.

1 ½ av 5 stjerner * ½
..............................................
Blue Train
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 231(32sider)
Andy er ute i bushen og søker etter skjerp med vann.
Han og hans juniorpartner har funnet vann, men et mektig firma kommer og gjør krav på funnet. Etter litt lav-teknologi sabotasje er senen satt for et lite opprør.

2 av 5 stjerner * *
..............................................

The Abbey Engine
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 263(35sider)
Uten samhandling smuldrer samfunnet bort. Denne historien er godt et tegn på at den forståelsen mangler.
Trekkende på amerikansk frykt for terrorisme bruker denne historien en klassisk bitter amerikansk egoist i en rolle der han kan gjøre stor skade på samfunnet.
Jeg er redd denne historien stinker av amerikanske egoisme og frykt.

1 ½ av 5 stjerner * ½
..............................................
The History of Photography
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 298(29sider)
Et hyggelig stykke som reflekterer over bedre tider. Gammel teknologi utnytter ofte egenskaper utilgjengelige i dagens kommerse digitale verden.
I denne fortellingen får vi en oppsummering av fordelene til gammeldagse kameraer. Mens dagens digitale kameraer er veldig gode,så undertrykker de også den artistiske utfoldelsen og utviklingen til den jevne bruker.
Vi følger en gammel bruker oppsummere hans følelser for, og mulighetene med, gamle kameraer

4 av 5 stjerner * * * *
..............................................
Summer's Humans
En novelle av: Derryl Murphy
Side 327(51sider)
Gammeldagse holdninger under stjernene. Og det Første stykke med samarbeid i samlingen.
Vi følger en familie som tvinges til å flykte ved utbruddet av en revolusjon. Morens ubehjelplighet til å omstille seg og hennes forferdelse over familiemedlemmenes tilpasninger til det nye livet stilles til skue.

3 av 5 stjerner * * *
..............................................

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wasps at the Speed of Sound
A novel by: Derryl Murphy
Published by: Five Rivers Publishing (Neustadt, Ontario, Canada, 2013-11-23)
ISBN: 978-1-927400-44-9
In this collection the reader are seldom pulled into the protagonists dilemma.
In the hope of finding salient critique of todays eco-society and technological advances I grasped the opportunity to review this collection.
I found but one story that carried a core of worry that mainstream literature would not dare to bring forth.
The memorable piece "Island of the Moon" is a sad tale to ruminate upon.
Out of this collection of eleven short stories by Derryl Murphy I found only three that I liked:
Island of the Moon 5 out of 5 stars * * * * *
The History of Photography 4 out of 5 stars * * * *
Summer's Humans 3 out of 5 stars * * *
All the stories are beeing introduced in short terms.

I was granted the possibility to review "Wasps at the Speed of Sound" from Five Rivers Publishing through LibraryThings "Early Reviewers" program in exchange for a honest review. An opportunity I grasped hoping to write a more fully appreciating and prompt review. After muddeling through this mediocre collection, I am sorry to say it is neither.

2 out of 5 stars * *

The Collection Includes
Fantasy and soft Science Fiction short stories:
Lost Jenny 3 ½ out of 5 stars * * * ½
Island of the Moon 5 out of 5 stars * * * * *
Those Graves of Memory 2½ out of 5 stars * * ½
Father Time 1 out of 5 stars *
Day's Hunt 1 out of 5 stars *
Wasps at the Speed of Sound 1 out of 5 stars *
What Goes Around 1 ½ out of 5 stars * ½
Blue Train 2 out of 5 stars * *
The Abbey Engine 1 ½ out of 5 stars * ½
The History of Photography 4 out of 5 stars * * * *
Summer's Humans 3 out of 5 stars * * *
.......................................................................
Lost Jenny
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 10 (39pages)
Two persons meet during critical circumstances. The mood is lightly optimistic in a desperate and unrealistic situation.
3 ½ out of 5 stars * * * ½
....................................................................
Island of the Moon
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 49 (57pages)
The approaching death of Archie offers the opportunity to document the demise of a species of great animals. When he dies, the final extinction of the species of the Golden Bamboo Lemur will be fulfilled.
Ulohtsa, the turist from the stars, exploits the opportunity to witness death occur upon our earth.
He underlines how vulnerabel we, as a species, are if the enviroment collapses. We are vulnerabel on islands as well as in our local enviroment.

5 out of 5 stars * * * * *
..............................................

Those Graves of Memory
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 106 (20pages)
A story of belonging. Dear frinds, memories and longings lost and regained through an eternally long tread of life.

3 out of 5 stars * * *
.......................................................................

Father Time
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 126 (14pages)
A story of a man meeting his father who is on his deathbed, and jumping back and forth through time while he grows younger.
I never grasped the point of this story.

1 out of 5 stars *
.......................................................................

Day's Hunt
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 140 (14pages)
The concept of a world filled with trash.
A hunting team sets out on a sea of trash to hunt great fantasy animals called whales. En route day eat untreated garbage....

1 out of 5 stars *
..............................................
Wasps at the Speed of Sound
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 154 (46pages)
Nifty titel, but the premises of the story was incoherent and unfathomable.
I lost interest as i could not see any voherencebetween the premises and the events occuring. I managed to muddle through in the end.

1 out of 5 stars *
.......................................................................
What Goes Around
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 200 (31pages)
A deliberatly jumbled story.
Arnold lives a sordid life. Some hail him as messaia and bring him into another time, or reality. It's hard to know which it is.

1 ½ out of 5 stars * ½
.......................................................................
Blue Train
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 231 (32pages)
Andy are out in the bush prospecting for water.
He and his junior partner have found some, but a powerful company moves in and claims his find. After some low tech sabotage the scene is set for a small uprising

2 out of 5 stars * *
.......................................................................

The Abbey Engine
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 263 (35pages)
With no cooperation society crumbles. This story is a fine example of the lack of this understanding.
Drawing on american fears of terrorism this peace puts a bitter egotistic man in position to wreak great havoc on society.
I'm afraid this short story reeks of american egotism and fears.

1 ½ out of 5 stars * ½
..............................................
The History of Photography
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 298 (29pages)
A nice piece reflecting upon better days. Old technology often exploits properties not awailable in todays digital and mass produced world.
In this story we get a summary of the advantages of the old style cameras. While modern digital cameras are really good, they also suppress the artistic expression and developement of the average user.
We follow and old user as he sums up his feelings for, and the opportunities with, the old cameras

4 out of 5 stars * * * *
..............................................
Summer's Humans
A short story by: Derryl Murphy
Page 327 (51pages)
An anacronism of mindsets among the stars. And the first peace of cooperation in this collection.
We follow a family forced to flee an outbreak of rebellion. The mothers disability to adjust and her horror of her families adaptions to their new life are displayed for all to see.

3 out of 5 stars * * *
.......................................................................

Wasps a the the Speed of Sound by Derryl Murphy

This is the newest edition of Wasps at the Speed of Sound, with 11 short science fiction stories (the original had 10). All of the stories have an environmental warning but this enhances the stories rather than detracts from them.

My favourite story was the Blue Train in which most of humanity that still exists after an extreme water shortage travels the world on a gigantic train in search of water and their subsequent freedom from this train by one man who dared to question the company's monopoly on the earths water.

Murphy constructs the world of each story so well, with little extraneous language as possible so the reader can create a vivid image of their own. Truly a pleasure to read for any science fiction fan and possibly for any environmentalist too.

I received this book from Library Thing Early Reviewers½

AN intrguiging collection of short stories all from the same author, and all loosely gathered around the same theme and topic - the environment, our interactions with it, and the future. They are generally distopian, and vary from the very depressing through to the might be slight bit of grey in the dark of the tunnel ahead. There's a forward by Peter Watss, which doens't really add very much, as he mostly talks about his own work, but at lerast he manages not to spoil any of the stories unlike most 'mainstream' author forewards I've read. The author commentary at the start of each story is only slightly less banal, but does occasionally add some insight into how the stories came to be.

As usual with a short story collection some are a bit more hit and miss than others. The title story appears about halfway through, and is about the equal of any of the others in the book. In an distopian future insects have evolved into larger meaner versions of those we hate already. Wasps now travel at supersonic speeds capable of denting sheet steel. But fortunetly the mathmaticians of the insect world - spiders - have developed interdimensional gateways in their now giant webs, allowing transfer to other less dispoiled earths. And not all insects are genetically disposed against humanity, if you can survive long enough to reach a web. Weird. But poignant. And well written. Like all the stories. They tend to fade away at the end without leaving a truly dramtic pause to finish them - something that is hard to achieve consistency on.

Enjoyable. I'm not quite sure that I'm up for reading this author in full novel length, but its' certainly a name to look out for.

WASPS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND is a collection of 11 SF short stories by Derryl Murphy, collected for the first time, including one that has never been published before. I was given a copy of this book by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program, so that I might provide an honest review. For some unknown reason, this book has been out for several years without acquiring a single review, which I find puzzling. I suppose the author has had the integrity to refuse to ask family and friends to write 5 star reviews! It is difficult to rate the whole by a 5-star system, since there are 6 excellent stories, 3 that are eh/OK, and then, 3 (the shortest ones) that are duds. Given that the current price listed for an e-copy is $4.99, and the book is short (175pp), with not all of it pulling its own weight, I hesitate to rate it too highly, yet there are 4 star stories within. I would recommend skipping the 3rd through 5th stories, which are collectively the length of one or two of the others.

"Lost Jenny" is a beautiful story of an abandoned youth and an alien on the run, with a poetic feel that falters only once, with the words "which as you know means". There is no real explanation for the title, since the alien is not named Jenny, but it seems to be a favorite name of the author's, since he uses it in three other stories.

"Island of the Moon" which is an old name for the island of Madagascar, where it takes place, is another tale with an alien being. It begins with a Madagasy field station employee (="native guide") shooting an ecology-disrupting feral cat. I noticed one minor editing error, a quotation mark used instead of an unquotation mark. This story is told from the point of view of a journalist. A primatologist fills him in on what he (and we) already know(s) at one point:
"Charismatic megafauna [megafauna having been defined, just before, as large animals]," I repeated.
"Good-looking animals that have great visual appeal. You ought to know exactly what I mean."
I nodded.
SPOILER ALERT***
Gradually it becomes clear that the reason for the journey is to cover the death of the last Golden Bamboo Lemur on a national park forest-island of the island of Madagascar, which parallels the coming extinction of the human race on Island Earth.
END OF SPOILER***

SKIP "Those Graves of Memory". Not much I can say about this one. Disappointing, but at least it's short.

SKIP "Father Time". Another mercifully short disappointment. A time travel story that goes nowhere. His first published story. Plenty of room for improvement!

SKIP "Day's Hunt". "…by what magic of technology Davies and his mates did not understand. But, more likely centuries later and unlike so many other found items it still worked," is a semi-comprehensible cheat. Perhaps more important, though, is that the author's intent seems to be to gross the reader out.
SPOILER ALERT***
Hunting a whale with two 3-fingered hands and no explanations as it swims in an ocean-sized cesspool is not my idea of a fun time, especially with a gruesome decapitation thrown in for good measure.
END OF SPOILER***

"Wasps at the Speed Of Sound" the eponymous story, has a killer title. The tale is only OK. I can't really comment without giving spoilers, which I would rather not do. I caught my second typo, "has" for "as".

"What Goes Around" I found my third typo, "it will happen right [a]way". There are couple more in this story. This is a time travel, alternate reality tale, written to be confusing both to the main character, and the reader. In his introduction to the piece, the author notes that it is farthest from the general theme of the book, Us and the Environment. Maybe you'll like this one better than I did. The basic plot line is that a TV show can influence the future, and vice versa. Yawn.

"Blue Train" Another beautiful story, about water rights.

"The Abbey Engine" is amazing and moving! I checked various references included, and they're all genuine.

"The History of Photography" Another beautiful story. I am reading it shortly after seeing TIM'S VERMEER for the 4th time, which certainly makes the opening discussion of the camera obscure easy to follow. The author claims that this is his best-known story, which, reprinted in a photography magazine without mentioning that it was fiction, generated a vast quantity of letters from outraged photographers…

"Summer's Humans" is the next to longest story of the collection, and the only one original to this book. The author states that it is a recasting of Nadine Gordimer's JULY'S PEOPLE. As he points out, the only "original" story is a remix. I have not read JULY'S PEOPLE, but after reading this, I've just put a hold on it at the library.

Imagine being able to manipulate numbers to do magic, just as so many fictional wizards manipulate words, as spells, to accomplish their ends. Imagine seeing everything as a number, with formulae streaming into the air from every physical thing, allowing you to bend and change them — using your abilities to smear a license plate into a new number, say, or blurring the serial numbers on dollar bills. It gives new meaning to the word “numerate.”

Derryl Murphy’s protagonist in Napier’s Bones is a numerate. As the novel opens, Dom is seeking an artifact of mathematical power when the numbers throw him far away, onto a bus in a city distant from his search. More than that, he has somehow picked up an adjunct; that is, residing in his body with him is the mind and soul of Billy, another numerate whose physical body died an unknown time ago. Billy remembers little of his past, but he knows that he and Dom are in danger from whatever entity threw them away from the artifact. As the two become acquainted, a young woman, Jenna, joins them at a large park where they are resting in the grass, claiming to be able to “see” Billy as a type of shadow. She can definitely hear the difference in Dom’s voice when Billy is using it; Billy has an English accent. The three are attacked by a series of “search numbers,” and begin a flight that takes them a continent, and ultimately a couple of realities, away.

It’s an interesting conceit, but Murphy doesn’t develop the phenomenon of numeracy as fully as he might. He does not explain how it works, that is, where the numbers come from and how they can be manipulated; he just posits that it is so. It does not appear that those who can manipulate the numbers have any special ability at mathematics of any sort — this isn’t a talent you can develop by becoming highly proficient at arithmetic, geometry or any other discipline, but is an inborn trait. As the trio travels from place to place, obtaining useful artifacts with interesting relationships to numbers (wiring from Apollo 13, for instance, carries substantial “mojo” because the rocket lifted off on the 13th of the month at 1313 hours; Dom explains that “Coincidences like that create a rush of numbers that push their way in, forcing out the bland, everyday number that make up the fabric of life. When they do that, there’s a dynamic that’s created, on the numerates can use to their benefit.” That’s about as much of an explanation as we ever get, and numeracy remains a mystery.

Why John Napier is trying to catch up to them and destroy them, as they eventually figure out, is another mystery that is never resolved. Napier is an historical figure who does not seem to have been evil, as portrayed in this book, though he was thought to have dabbled in necromancy and alchemy. He makes a good foil for the protagonist even if he is never explained, and the novel quickly becomes a fast, action-packed chase story rather than one that explores the magic system that sets the chase in motion.

The ending is a serious letdown from all the action, as things come together too quickly and a couple of deus ex machinas appear to aid the hardy trio of good guys. I was dismayed, for instance, to find out the identity of the Billy persona; there are no real clues to it in what went before. Nor is there any real explanation for Jenna’s sudden facility with quantum mathematics.
In short, this book strikes me as a fascinating idea that is not rendered particularly well. The concept of numeracy is so interesting that I kept reading the book even though I grew progressively more unhappy with Murphy’s failure to make more of it.

http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/napiers-bones/

Numerology takes on a quest. In a world where numbers contain magical properties, certain people possess varying talents in seeing and manipulating numbers in the air or within objects for protection, to cause violence, or to dupe.

A numerate's quest is to find mojos, objects packed with special numerical properties, and to use these for his own advantage. Dom, a numerate, having survived a fight against 2 other numerates in a desert, finds himself in a small town with Billy, a sort of spirit who had taken up residence in his body. With more questions than available answers, Dom meets a young numerate, Jenna, who tries to learn how to manipulate the numbers.

But there appears to be an unknown and powerful numerate determined to seek out and destroy Dom, and he is kept running to stay one or two steps ahead of this dark shadow. Things start getting a little wild at about the half way point in the book and the thrilling pace picks up, when the trio are met by an ex-communicated numerate priest who try to explain the quest they are on, a group of numbers that are able to group together to form a semi-solid shape that has the ability to speak, think and plan, Scottish giants, and familials that lead them to a series of mojos needed to thwart the enemy.

It's a pretty interesting story, but the pace is rather uneven, and after three quarters of the way through, there is too much the author appears to want to cram into the ending, making for a rather sloppy and confusing race to the finish line.½

Every once in a while, you find a book that confuses you yet utterly dazzles you at the same time. Napier's Bones is that book for me. I really think the confusion for me was all things mathematics-related. To put it nicely, I will never be a mathlete - ever. Any word related to math boggles my mind. ;)

Other than that, this book was amazing. It was easy to get into and well-written. The characters felt a little more like stock characters than extraordinarily unique ones, but they were developed well and each had their own voice that set them apart from others.

The action is non-stop and doesn't let up at all throughout the story. You never get confused or left behind because everything is explained well, although sometimes the explanations are a little long-winded. Overall, this was a great read, fast-paced with an explosive beginning and equally entertaining reading. There's the definite feel of an Urban Fantasy read to it, but other than that it is like nothing that I've ever read before. It's a book to add to your TBR lists, for sure.

A child's brain is run on a computer and develops at a much higher rate than her body. Good hard SF.