Rating: 
Summary: Orson! Get the Sequel Out, man!
Review: Lovelock was excellent, the collaboration has given OSC additional insight into what it's like to be a minority-species sentient among cheerfully biased majority-species sentients. I and several of my friends are becoming really annoyed at the spate of books that have been emerging from OSC's "garret," with no sequel to Lovelock! We have been left dangling. Rating goes down one point for each additional year of delay.
Rating: 
Summary: Well worth the read
Review: Lovelock's narative view is refreshing. The book badly needs its sequal. Don't expect closure when your through with this
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular
Review: Orson Scott Card and Kathryn Kidd did a wonderful job of life from the view of a monkey named Lovelock. Though Lovelock is truly the 'hero' of the story, the human characters are a necessity. Lovelock seems to be the... person... we all want to be. Everybody thinks what Lovelock thinks, and how he feels. This is a very good book, I suggest and OSC fan reads it. I can't await the sequel. I've read the other critiques, and I noticed that not many (if any) people gave credit to Kathrynn Kidd. Remember, Card didn't do it himself, and if he did I believe the book would have been very different.
Rating:
Summary: Servant, Slave, or Man?
Review: Robert Heinlein's "Jerry Was a Man" and David Brin's Uplift series have approached this problem before: when does an 'enhanced' animal become human? And if he's human, does he have a soul? What moral imperatives apply to such a being? How should such a being be treated? With this book, we get a deep and different look into this as we follow Lovelock, a genetically enhanced and psychologically conditioned monkey as he performs his tasks as a 'witness', a being specifically engineered to record every waking moment and action of a person deemed so significant that their lives are worthy of such attention. The object of Lovelock's attention is Carol Jeanne Cocciolone, premier gaiologist, who has decided to travel on the Ark to the nearest stars in search of a habitable planet. By his conditioning, Carol Jeanne is Lovelock's love, his obsession, his paragon of virtue, a person he will do anything to protect. Along with Carol Jeanne comes her husband and his parents and her own two children, though none of them truly have any of the skills that are needed by the Ark, as a perk to entice Carol Jeanne to come. Seeing these people through Lovelock's eyes is a quick eye opener: the mother-in-law as a status hungry moocher and lay-about and the father-in-law and husband as wimps who meekly go along with just about anything the mother-in-law wants. Not the best group of people to try and integrate into a society that is supposed to be full of some of the best and brightest Earth has to offer - but as quickly becomes obvious, quite a few of the other travelers on the Ark are just as bad in their own ways. It is partially this quite dysfunctional setup that begins to set Lovelock off on his own journey of self-discovery, finding that he is not just a mute 'witness', but has thoughts and desires of his own - desires that eventually allow him to defeat some of the conditioning imposed on him, to remove Carol Jeanne from the pedestal she was placed on by his conditioning, and to take prohibited action to try and implement some of those desires. Lovelock continues to grow as person throughout this book, slowly wrapping the reader inside his problems. And his problems are those that all humans face, questions of morality: should I keep silent or tell a white lie to avoid harming someone? Do my own desires outweigh the good of the community? Why must I obey those strictures imposed by my surrounding society? Can I commit murder to save myself? At the end, there is only one possible conclusion: Lovelock is as human as you or I, and should be awarded both the rights and responsibilities of that condition. Characters other than Lovelock are also well drawn, though some of them are almost caricatures, but each is definitely an individual worthy of some attention. Less well imagined is the Ark itself. I had quite a problem with a design that required that functioning ecologies be totally ripped upped and moved, right down to the dirt, whenever the ship changed from spin-induced gravity to an acceleration induced one - this is poor design, and there are other possible constructions that would obviate this need. The computer system of the ship as described is also less than what it could be - even given the state of the art when this book was written, I cannot imagine any system that would still leave back-door passages into the administrative privileges. Finally, the idea that the Ark would be planned with multiple communities of 'like-minded' individuals doesn't seem very plausible to me. But all of these problems are comparatively minor. This is a very good study of an individual growing to be a man, in all senses of the word, and is worthy of reading by everyone, from libertarians to xenophobes. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the Ender books, but good nonetheless.
Review: Start with the idea of slavery.
Add the concept of using genetic engineering to make the enslaved like it.
Now you have this book.
The main character, Lovelock, is a genetically engineered monkey who is fully sentient, smarter than many humans, but treated as another dumb monkey and conditioned to be subserviant.
By the middle of book, Lovelock is beggining to break through his conditioning. However, he is generally out of control and can't tell wheather what he thinks about his master Carol Jean is programed and what are his own feelings. He is generally out of controll.
One point I'd like to make about this book is Card is not afraid to make a less than perfect character. If anyone thinks Lovelock is supposed to be perfect, let me point out that Lovelock describes Mormons as fanatics and calls sermon in general "group therapy thought up by cows." Card is Mormon.
Very good, the existance of the Ender series prevents me from giving it 5 stars, but still definately worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating premise
Review: The Ark leaves Earth on an exploratory mission of a lifetime (on the ship) while relatively centuries will have passed on the planet. On board is the renowned climatologist Carol Jeanne Cocciolone, who volunteered herself, her family, and her witness for the ride. Carol Jeanne's witness, a capuchin monkey the brilliant Lovelock, will be with her to record her work and her life for future historians. Lovelock worships his master due to implants and behavioral modification. However, as much as he cherishes Carol Jeanne, he finds her family as unnecessary. As the Cocciolone family struggle to adapt to their new environs, Lovelock realizes that his perfect statue has flaws and begins to crumble in his eyes. In spite of the deep behavioral conditioning light-years beyond Skinner, he starts to refocus on himself rather than just exclusively on Carol Jeanne, who he now knows never appreciated his loyalty, friendship, and love. LOVELOCK is a reprint of a well-written character driven science fiction novel that is the opening act of The Mayflower Trilogy. The story line narrated mostly by Lovelock concentrates on how he sees the world, which means Carol Jeanne. Readers will root for Lovelock to break his mental chains especially as he begins to dream of freedom when he realizes that his faithfulness is not reciprocated. The novel ends with way too many loose strings, leaving the audience a bit frustrated yet wanting Book II. However, there is no mention in the book or the blurb sheet when the next tale will be released. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining story from and unusual point of view
Review: The collaborative effort by Orson Scott Card and Kathryn Kidd
produced a fun and imaginative book. Written from the unusual point
of view as a story in the fist person of one of the characters.
Card's style of character development and is quite evident. Although
some of the characters remind me a bit too much like characters
in an earlier novel. The humor of Lovelock's point of view is obviously
created by Kathryn Kidd. I feel that this is a strong collaborative effort and the framwork is picked up by other authors.
Rating:
Summary: A bit like "Survivor" in space, very fun reading
Review: The protagonist, climatologist Carol Jeanne Cocciolone volunteers for what will certainly be a historic mission on a colonizing mission aboard an "Ark." Her family tags along, more or less willingly, in the shadow of her fame. She is provided with a "witness", Lovelock, a genetically modified and conditioned capuchin monkey who records her every waking moment for posterity. Her husband also gets a witness to assuage his ego, but it's a pig, not the ideal animal candidate for the job. The "Ark" is populated with all kinds of people who are to be useful and productive in the new colony. Acceptance criteria are strict (married, heterosexual couples, useful skills.) Good behavior is monitored by an amusing secret police force, the physical education teachers and coaches who work out fanatically to stay ahead physically of anyone who could cause trouble. And they have other tricks, too. But never underestimate the propensity for people to create mischief, and the best-laid plans go astray. And even the best-conditioned witness monkeys can get unwired as well. One of the fun thing about the book is the popularity contest in this small, enclosed world. Just being famous and necessary to a mission is no assurance who is the most popular. This reminds me a lot of "Survivor" so if you enjoyed the TV show, you may well enjoy this sci-fi novel too.
Rating:
Summary: A bit like "Survivor" in space, very fun reading
Review: The protagonist, climatologist Carol Jeanne Cocciolone volunteers for what will certainly be a historic mission on a colonizing mission aboard an "Ark." Her family tags along, more or less willingly, in the shadow of her fame. She is provided with a "witness", Lovelock, a genetically modified and conditioned capuchin monkey who records her every waking moment for posterity. Her husband also gets a witness to assuage his ego, but it's a pig, not the ideal animal candidate for the job. The "Ark" is populated with all kinds of people who are to be useful and productive in the new colony. Acceptance criteria are strict (married, heterosexual couples, useful skills.) Good behavior is monitored by an amusing secret police force, the physical education teachers and coaches who work out fanatically to stay ahead physically of anyone who could cause trouble. And they have other tricks, too. But never underestimate the propensity for people to create mischief, and the best-laid plans go astray. And even the best-conditioned witness monkeys can get unwired as well. One of the fun thing about the book is the popularity contest in this small, enclosed world. Just being famous and necessary to a mission is no assurance who is the most popular. This reminds me a lot of "Survivor" so if you enjoyed the TV show, you may well enjoy this sci-fi novel too.
Rating:
Summary: Great! Where is the sequel?!!
Review: The story of a genetically enhanced capuchin monkey hoping to escape from his human owners is absolutely mesmerizing. I highly recommend it, especially for Ender fans. Now, where the heck is the sequel? Isn't this supposed to be the first part of a three part series?!
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