Although I like Alan Dean Foster a lot, the quality of his writing has been falling off lately and I haven't liked his last few works. However, The Mocking Program is perhaps closer to his old style with it's dry sarcasm and humor.
The cyberpunk details work well and his lead character is dark enough but the ending was disappointing in that there simply wasn't enough tension to make it exciting.
Also, the amount of explaining he did also turned me off. All writers are told: "Show, don't tell." Well, Mr. Foster did a lot of telling in this one. He simply spent too much time explaining the technology around the characters which detracted from the story a great deal.
The cyberpunk details work well and his lead character is dark enough but the ending was disappointing in that there simply wasn't enough tension to make it exciting.
Also, the amount of explaining he did also turned me off. All writers are told: "Show, don't tell." Well, Mr. Foster did a lot of telling in this one. He simply spent too much time explaining the technology around the characters which detracted from the story a great deal.
I had only read one other of Foster's books - Life Form - and was impressed enough with his story telling ability that I sought out another book by him. The Mocking Program didn't disappoint me, well except a bit a the end which I felt petered out a bit there. I would love to read more from this author although he's not quite at the William Gibson level ;-) Its nicely 'modern' without being too much cyberpunk.
Katcha
Katcha
