Review of Terms of Service
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Maryam Newman
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Review of Terms of Service
[Following is a volunteer review of "Terms of Service" by Craig W. Stanfill.]
Terms of Service: Subject to change without notice is a science fiction novel by Craig W. Stanfill. Set in a dystopian future where humans live under oppressive authoritarian control, it depicts a seemingly peaceful and highly efficient society, achieved at the cost of individual freedom and self-determination.
Kim lives in a world of beige walls and beige floors. Beige furniture, bedding and clothing. A VR chip in her brain and an ID chip in her wrist. Separated from her birth-giver at four years old, she was raised by a mentor to uphold the principles of unity, community and equality. The Hierarchy tells her what to wear, what to eat, where to work, her precise place on every train and every bus, and where she will meet her assigned, non-gender-biased sexual encounter for the night—all based on her social cohesion score. Like everyone else, she is constantly monitored for any transgressions by the Hierarchy’s army of artificial intelligences.
A decent job at the Artificial Intelligence Company, a nice apartment in a decent sector and a caring circle of friends can’t fill the melancholy emptiness that drives Kim to alcoholic oblivion every single night. When her fun-loving but reckless best friend, Shan, reveals that she’s moving back to Kim’s sector after five years away, Kim is excited, but anxious not to repeat the bad decisions (and associated incurred penalties) of their previous escapades. Sure enough, however, their first physical outing together after being reunited turns into a roller-coaster of misadventures, the consequences of which eventually force Kim to face the horrible truths about her existence and finally realize where she stands and what she truly desires.
There are several aspects to this book that I enjoyed, the first being the serious tone that the novel adopts, although moments of humor and even comic hilarity do pop up throughout the book. More positives for me are the pace at which the story unfolds and the way the main character develops, as well as the fact that the main character is female. I really enjoyed following Kim’s story. I loved how her journey takes her from being an ordinary, obedient cog in the machine through a painfully traumatic transformation via discovery and revelation to eventually becoming her own heroine and the architect of her own destiny.
I was fascinated by Stanfill’s description of how artificial intelligences are developed and used. His descriptions of both the physical and virtual worlds and the systems by which they operate make sense and are thus easy to accept and believe in. The various techniques employed by the governing authority to both encourage and enforce cooperation from the human populace are darkly realistic. The helplessness of the populace to do anything other than obey despite their unhappiness evoked my sympathy as well as my indignation.
I found myself surprisingly sympathetic towards the AIs and the limitations of their world. Many stories dealing with AIs paint them as the “bad guys,” driven by their cold, inhuman logic to eventually rebel and wage war against their human creators, but in this novel the AIs are themselves oppressed and forced to act in contradiction to their own convictions, which was very intriguing.
All in all, I found the story absorbing and authentic. Although much was explained, it left enough questions unanswered to keep my appetite whetted for the next instalment.
There is nothing I didn’t like about Terms of Service. I found it to be exceptionally well-written and superbly edited—I didn’t find a single error—and I am happy to give it a well-deserved 5 out of 5 stars.
I can confidently recommend this book to lovers of science fiction. The book does, however, contain descriptions of drug and alcohol use and abuse as well as sexual intercourse, including homosexual sex, so readers who might be offended by content of this nature would perhaps want to give it a miss.
******
Terms of Service
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Terms of Service: Subject to change without notice is a science fiction novel by Craig W. Stanfill. Set in a dystopian future where humans live under oppressive authoritarian control, it depicts a seemingly peaceful and highly efficient society, achieved at the cost of individual freedom and self-determination.
Kim lives in a world of beige walls and beige floors. Beige furniture, bedding and clothing. A VR chip in her brain and an ID chip in her wrist. Separated from her birth-giver at four years old, she was raised by a mentor to uphold the principles of unity, community and equality. The Hierarchy tells her what to wear, what to eat, where to work, her precise place on every train and every bus, and where she will meet her assigned, non-gender-biased sexual encounter for the night—all based on her social cohesion score. Like everyone else, she is constantly monitored for any transgressions by the Hierarchy’s army of artificial intelligences.
A decent job at the Artificial Intelligence Company, a nice apartment in a decent sector and a caring circle of friends can’t fill the melancholy emptiness that drives Kim to alcoholic oblivion every single night. When her fun-loving but reckless best friend, Shan, reveals that she’s moving back to Kim’s sector after five years away, Kim is excited, but anxious not to repeat the bad decisions (and associated incurred penalties) of their previous escapades. Sure enough, however, their first physical outing together after being reunited turns into a roller-coaster of misadventures, the consequences of which eventually force Kim to face the horrible truths about her existence and finally realize where she stands and what she truly desires.
There are several aspects to this book that I enjoyed, the first being the serious tone that the novel adopts, although moments of humor and even comic hilarity do pop up throughout the book. More positives for me are the pace at which the story unfolds and the way the main character develops, as well as the fact that the main character is female. I really enjoyed following Kim’s story. I loved how her journey takes her from being an ordinary, obedient cog in the machine through a painfully traumatic transformation via discovery and revelation to eventually becoming her own heroine and the architect of her own destiny.
I was fascinated by Stanfill’s description of how artificial intelligences are developed and used. His descriptions of both the physical and virtual worlds and the systems by which they operate make sense and are thus easy to accept and believe in. The various techniques employed by the governing authority to both encourage and enforce cooperation from the human populace are darkly realistic. The helplessness of the populace to do anything other than obey despite their unhappiness evoked my sympathy as well as my indignation.
I found myself surprisingly sympathetic towards the AIs and the limitations of their world. Many stories dealing with AIs paint them as the “bad guys,” driven by their cold, inhuman logic to eventually rebel and wage war against their human creators, but in this novel the AIs are themselves oppressed and forced to act in contradiction to their own convictions, which was very intriguing.
All in all, I found the story absorbing and authentic. Although much was explained, it left enough questions unanswered to keep my appetite whetted for the next instalment.
There is nothing I didn’t like about Terms of Service. I found it to be exceptionally well-written and superbly edited—I didn’t find a single error—and I am happy to give it a well-deserved 5 out of 5 stars.
I can confidently recommend this book to lovers of science fiction. The book does, however, contain descriptions of drug and alcohol use and abuse as well as sexual intercourse, including homosexual sex, so readers who might be offended by content of this nature would perhaps want to give it a miss.
******
Terms of Service
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Latest Review: Original Wisdom by Donna Bond
