Candle (Meme Wars)

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 240 pages
• Published by: Tor Books
• Edition: 1st Edition February 12, 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 031289077X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0312890773
• Book Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 14.1 ounces

Product Review
It is the near-future, and in the wake of the Meme Wars, the world's population is much reduced, although, thanks to One True, the winning software meme, humankind is now a cooperative, noncompetitive species. One True manages the survivors by controlling both memory and the autonomic nervous system, and a copy runs in the mind of everyone on earth. Or almost everyone. Occasional cowboys, such as the one known as Lobo, purge themselves of One True, unplug from the global network, and survive by raiding civilized settlements.

Currie Culver is the bounty hunter who brought Lobo down--killing him, he believed, years ago in the Rocky Mountains. When One True informs Currie that Lobo survives, Currie must ride out once again on Lobo's trail. What follows is a splendid mix of Western, moral argument, and philosophical treatise. In a skirmish, Currie's copy of One True is damaged, and he is taken to a hideout where the wily Lobo begins to deprogram him. All, of course, is not as it seems.

It could be said that Barnes, best known for the juvenile space novel Orbital Resonance and the decidedly adult disaster tale Mother of Storms, occasionally allows his characters to degenerate into talking heads, but for most readers the meat of the matter will be the hugely enjoyable (if rather basic) examination of that place where the interests of the individual, society, and human identity collide. --Luc Duplessis

From Publishers Weekly
In a multitextured narrative that explores issues of free will and of the virtues and dangers of forced utopia, Barnes (Finity) portrays a world in which humanity is linked like a computer network under the "One True." The victor of the devastating war of the Memes--computer viruses able to operate in mind and machine alike--One True is working toward rebuilding Earth and keeping all of its humans happy. Through a program called Resuna, which is installed in individual brains, One True allows anyone to download the experiences and talents of anyone else. Resuna also keeps terrible feelings and memories from harming its host. Living outside this overly happy society are the "cowboys," who operate under their own free wills until they are caught and "turned" to One True. Barnes's protagonist, Currie Curtis Curran, was once a cowboy hunter. His final hunt was disastrous, however, ending in the death of members of his party as well as of his quarry--or so he thought. When the elusive cowboy once again appears on One True's radar, Currie is sent after him but is himself captured. The cowboy shuts down Currie's Resuna and, with it, his link to One True. He then shows the hunter the parts of his mind that he has been missing. Much more than a simple parable in tribute to freedom, Barnes's new novel will continually have readers questioning who is in control and who is in the right. Creative science; the creepiness inherent in the phrase "let overwrite, let override," which allows Resuna to take complete control of a person's mind; the complexity of Currie's character; the futuristic slang that sparkles throughout--all add up to a full, rich vision of the future, albeit one compressed expertly into 240 pages. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Candle (Meme Wars) (Mass Market Paperback) Out of the mainstream SF writers to emerge in the last ten or so years, John Barnes has stood out for a number of reasons, notably his consistent quality (especially given how prolific he seems), his excellent storytelling abilities and his interesting extrapolations of new ideas without getting so far "out there" that he loses the reader completely. In a previous book "Kalidoscope Century", Barnes gave us an overview of his near future history, including a look at the "Meme Wars" where basically intelligent computer programs used people as pawns to take over the planet (that's oversimpifying by a bit, actually). In this novel Barnes takes us back to just after that time, where hunter Currie Curran lives with his wife in a world where the meme "One True" controls everyone through its program Resuna, adjusting thoughts and memories and emotions in order to make everyone more effective and happy. Currie used to hunt "cowboys", people who hadn't been "turned" by One True and lived independent lives on the edge of society. There's one still left called Lobo and Currie goes out to hunt him one last time. It doesn't go well and Currie ends up Lobo's prisoner with his link to One True missing and his copy of Resuna disconnected. Here the story actually begins as Barnes tries to use this as a backdrop to explore the meaning of individuality and what it means in a wrecked society that needs repairing, as well as showcasing his imagination. The problem mostly lies with the execution. After the initial rather thrilling sequence of Currie remembering the first hunt against Lobo and then going out and getting the guy again, the book sort of loses all momentum and stops dead while the two fellows swap stories about what they were doing during the Meme Wars. While Barnes can craft a good tale, these tales on the whole come off as rather static and it's hard to get any kind of suspense when you have two grown men drinking wine and sharing a bath in the name of male bonding. Some action starts to get generated towards the end but the ending itself pretty much comes out of nowhere and seems way too warm and cuddly as well as far too forgiving of a lot of things that Barnes himself brought up. All in all, somewhat disappointing given the premise, Barnes really doesn't make it as interesting as he could (as he's proved in the past) and that makes the book frustratingly uneven. Fans will probably enjoy it to some extent, since it's not bad, just average, but newcomers would be wiser to start with some of his earlier novels and work down from there.