OnlineBookClub.org

It seems as if Kelly had not come into the picture: 1. She might still be alive, 2. her and Silver may not have been caught in the war zone and 3. Silver would have had his airship repaired, prior to landing there. With that, I think Agent Silver's future would, of course, turned out much better. And, as far as in the absence of Kelly goes to Silver's life, I'll leave that continuation up the author. But I do think it will be surprising.

I think that if Kelly would not have been in the book herself then there would be a need for another character to replace her. I believe all characters within a movie story or a form of entertainment is needed or the story would not be the same. If there was no need for Kelly and or if she was not in this book specifically then as I previously said there would need to have been someone else to keep Agent SIlver from losing it.

by Beth KG

Kelly was a device to move the story along as the author envisioned it. As such, she worked well but was not very well developed as a character. Her death didn't provoke an emotional reaction for me other than a slight bit of surprise.

Kelly is an important character in the story playing the role like a machine of sandwich maker without which the bread cannot be shaped into a sandwich likewise the absence of Kelly for the Silver is as the absence of sandwich maker for bread. So the presence of Kelly is much more important to shape the personality and to awaken the senses of Silver in the story.

I don't know why Kelly was even in the book. Sliver had already thought on his own with the Shredders. He was already "cheating" with Franklin conversations. Kelly was there, she died, that was her contribution. He already hated Ancarn, he didn't need her death for that.

Every character plays a pivotal part in the plot development. Kelly's absence would not have stopped the books development.

She brought back humanity into his life. For the most part, he was dealing with robotics on the board of his ship, and the times he had to deal with Fellrock for his next assignment, those encounters were brief and impersonal. So, Kelly was a real person who did not have an agenda in wanting anything from him and helped him to start to come back to his real self Theodore. I cannot imagine the book without her character. She was necessary for him to be able to overcome the programming that the corporation had him follow through brainwashing.

I think Kelly reacquainted Sliver with his human side because he had to take on the role of caregiver. I think she was a pivotal character and brought him back to life. He would have kept completing tasks like a robot without her.

The unexpected meeting with Kelly created a conflict fro Sliver. For the first time, he didn't know what to do. Or what he should do. Even as she lies unconscious, he feels a "connection" to her and recognizes that he's "starting, for the first time in years, to feel". The first line of the novel makes it clear that killing is "just a job" to Sliver. The meeting with Kelly, her anger over her murdered parents and her continued disdain fo his job as a paid assassin make Sliver question his life and role. Surprisingly, both Sliver and Kelly assign blams to him, despite the fact that the father set off thew bombs himself. By the novel's conclusion, Sliver has thrown off the yoke of his addictive serum and of the corporations. By refusing his last assignment, he's taken a moral stand, something he could not have done without Kelly's influence.

jcoad wrote: ↑10 Aug 2018, 08:18 I don't know why Kelly was even in the book. Sliver had already thought on his own with the Shredders. He was already "cheating" with Franklin conversations. Kelly was there, she died, that was her contribution. He already hated Ancarn, he didn't need her death for that.

It's true that Sliver had gone against the corporation in some ways, reprogramming the computer to converse, saving the Shredders when the corporation must have meant them to be killed. But these were more like games to him, minor acts of rebellion that he didn't expect to get punished for. Saving the shredders gave him a group of drinking buddies, while a talkative computer made the long hours in the air pass more quickly.

The first line in the novel says he viewed killing as "just a job". That started to change when he came across Kelly. Even as she lies unconscious outside the exploded farmhouse, he recognizes a "connection" to her that he surmises may be "sympathy". He "starts, for the first time in years, to feel".

He may, eventually, have gotten fed up with Fellrock's excuses and gone off to kill Ancarn. He may have found a way to get off the serum and managed to flee the corporations. But, I don't think that you can say that his character was not changed by the influence Kelly held over him. It may just have been the consequence of having to face someone who survived. I think her relative innocence, as someone brought up completely off the grid, may have provided a new perspective, a less jaded world view that still held a place for wrong and right.

Kelly's death was catastrophic. Her input is unquestionable. She made agent Silver a better persona.

I think that if it wasn't Kelly, something else would have set Silver off and he would have continued to have doubts about the work he was doing anyway. I still think that she was an important character but I still believe that Silver was already showing his own personality before he met her but she was a good catalyst.

Agent Silver character matures due to his association with Kelly. Kelly is a big influence on his life.

I think Kelly helped speed up Agent Silver's transformation as he was already doing stuff that he should not have been doing, including getting the ship to lie.

I think that without Kelly's influence, Sliver wouldn't have moved forward in his way as quickly. He was questioning things, but her influence made that escalate.