Wonder - Robert J. Sawyer

A superb near-future SF trilogy of an awakened Internet.

The Internet has become sentient. The world's governments are terrified, it seems the evolution of a new intelligence might have left mankind behind. It is up to one blind girl, a maths genius, to convince mankind that this new digital life is not its enemy.

Perfect for fans of Charles Stross and Vernor Vinge this is a rich imagining of a future that may be just around the corner.

Series: WWW #3, Genre: Sci-fi even if there is not much sci-fi there, and it feels very YA too, Pages: 352, Published: 2012 (2011) by Gollancz, Source: For review

My thoughts:

The good thing about this book is that I could just start reading without having read the previous books (this I of course did not know when I started.) Sure things are mentioned that happened before, yes I would like to read about these things as the book was interesting. But as it is now, it worked and I never felt a bit lost at all.

Did I understand all of the science talk? No, not really, but this did not matter either cos he made it real easy for you. I also linked how he sprinkled a bit of pop culture here and there, like Big Bang and the Skynet clause (look it up). There was also a certain presidential candidate that I saw clearly who he based it on. He made it very now and it felt like it could happen any day.

But to the story then. It's about a blind girl who can see again thanks to modern science. Caitlin is living her life, having a boyfriend and communication with the presence known as Webmind. This is the thing then. The Internet was awakened, an AI was formed and now the news about this is everywhere. The US government is scared and wants to shut it down, the Chinese wants to shut down the outside internet in general. All while webmind tries to tell everyone that he so to say come in peace. He cures cancer, because he can. But like all things that are just too big to understand he is feared and this book is all about trying to kill him, while others tries to understand him. And Caitlin tries to save him.

Conclusion:
The book was interesting, it made you think a bit and of course I understood the fear some had. I would fear him, then again the things he could do...Of course I already feel that google has a mind of its own ;)