Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful! A must for those who appreciate bold imagination.
Review: Sarah Zettel ventures into the realm of cyberspace in a
convincing manner. The plot unfolds and the characters develop
in a convincing manner. Mind expanding without being completely bizzarre
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing view on AI
Review: Sarah Zettle has a unique view on what AIs are capable of. This novel is an excellent choice for those interested in AI, and even for those who aren't. The attention to detail is great, and the reader is carried along for a wonderful ride into the techonology, and it's consequences, of tomorrow. You'll be kept in suspense until the very end, and each new trick will have more interested. A great choice.
Rating: 
Summary: So-So
Review: Sparse,Mediocre,Wierd,recycled plot. As good as sci-fi novels with all women casts get. If you're a literary garbage can.... read it, if you like Farrakahn and that kind of stuff.
Rating:
Summary: The AI View
Review: Technically feasible, eloquent and fast-paced, this book gives you interstellar space -- from the point of view of an artificial intelligence. Read everything, Zettel really starts to flex at page 121.
Rating:
Summary: Well written, starts better then it ends
Review: The characters are interesting, especially how they react to each other. The writing is good, it grabs the reader, and brings them deep into an inovative universe. However, many of the major plot twists were either expected, or lacked the impact they shoudl of had. This book pulled me in strongly, and then failed to live up to that potential. Don't get me wrong, it was still a enjoyable read. I think I'm mostly disappointed because the book had such potential, and never capitalized on it. I'll definitely pick up more by the author.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet sweet Dobbs
Review: The story is great and I enjoyed it a lot. Dobbs is adorable and her ending is very befitting her character. A shame she doesn't succeed in her relationship with the Human male.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read...
Review: This book kept popping up on my recommendations list, so I finally bought it. I am glad I did. Maybe it's just me, but lately I have gotten more and more picky as to what I like in a Sci-Fi novel. This book contains many of the elements that I have looked for in a book from this genre. There is pretty much one story line, but plenty of plot twists to keep the reader interested. The technology is, for the most part, believable, and it presents plenty of technical data, without overwhelming the average reader. It also shows that corruption can occur in any form of society, human or other... I heard talk of alot of "relationship stuff" in some of the prior reviews. I didn't see much of this, and in some cases I think it could have used much more, (case in point: Lipinski and Dobbs).All in all this was a very good read...Two thumbs up...
Rating:
Summary: Fool's War
Review: This challenging SF read seems to get a little bit better with each and every chapter, and by about the halfway point I was very excited with story. It certainly worked a lot better for me than another of the author's works, Kingdom Of Cages. In Fool's War, starship owner and entrepreneur Katmer Al Shei has no idea what she is letting herself in for when she sets out on her latest transport job with her colourful crew. To improve her ship's rating, she welcomes aboard a Fool named Dobbs, and a new pilot named Yerusha, both with mysterious pasts. Neither are quite what they seem--especially Dobbs, whose biggest secret is central to the novel's reason for being: a look at a dangerous future where human ingenuity finally gives rise to discontented Artificial Intelligence. In short, Al Shei's launch towards her latest destination is the beginning of what threatens to become a war between humans and machines that could rock the Solar System. This means that the scope in Fool's War is quite impressive, as are the tension and intrigue levels. I've hinted that the book was a bit hard to embrace at first; this mostly relates to Zettel's style, and on an even more fundamental level, her choice of scenes. I have yet to figure out how Zettel can practice such a clean, smooth, flowing writing style, and yet still come off as such a quirky storyteller. But I have a few theories. First off, despite any blurbs suggesting otherwise, she is not an action writer. So any "fast pace" the blurbists are praising comes more from her ability to create suspense and looming catastrophe--and in my opinion, an author who creates this kind of tension among characters, especially adversaries, needs to let the tension spill into actual action more often, rather than saving the real pyrotechnics for the very end. So, what the reader gets is strong tension--especially in enclosed environments like Zettel's well-realized spacecraft and space-stations--but some of her scenes do get repetitive, as if she's caught up in the build-up a little too much. In Fool's War, characters tend to confront each other verbally, negotiating or arguing while danger escalates--although, to be fair, when the novel starts shifting to the cyberspace environ showcased, there is combat. But, it's simulated, right?--and anyway, Zettel makes the choice to leave the reader envisioning her brand of cyberspace, without giving a lot of bonafide description. This book, then, has an aspect of greatness about it, and does deliver a compelling, precarious future that starts to unravel before the reader's eyes...with Al Shei and her brave associates (not counting imposters and traitors) trapped in the middle of it. All the characters are strong, important additions to the story--Lipinksi, Schyler, Yerusha, Cohen, and on into the villains (as they slowly get revealed)--and Zettel lets us get to know them very well. If she had just avoided a few too many similar scenes--all the repeated instances of characters pulled aside by other characters and being told Dobbs's shocking secret, as one glaring example--the book would have really hit the heights. Still, there's enough plot for me to assert the book never feels padded. And when it's good, it's grand. Come witness one of SF's strangest wars. It's worth it. And thank you, Sarah Zettel, for signing my copy of this book at TorCon3!
Rating:
Summary: A fine & twisty feminista space-opera.
Review: _____________________________________________
This one sat on my 'to-read' shelf for a long time, after I bounced off her first, Reclamation, which has an excruciatingly slow start. Fool's War was a New York Times Notable Book of 1997 (and Reclamation won a Locus Award for Best First Novel...) The setup is uncomfortably topical -- the story-now is 500 years after violent religious wars, started by Islamic extremists, almost wrecked Earth. The subsequent diaspora to the colony worlds simply spread out the same old hatreds. Now the ugly chickens are flapping home to roost.... I can't say very much about Fool's War's plot without spoiling things for you, but Zettel spins an impressively twisty tale. She constantly plays with the reader's expectations, and she (mostly) plays fair -- though her storytelling craft still has some rough spots in this sophomore effort. A cover blurb compares her to Heinlein and Asimov, but there's more than a touch of Van Vogt's signature rapidfire scene-changes here. Fool's War is somethng of a grrrl powr-fantasy -- and I do like a well-done power-fantasy, especially one with a light touch. Here's Pilot Yerusha, in a moment of reflection within the storm of denouement: "I'm saving the human race so I can go on a date..." If you like to see femmes kicking butt that *needs* kicking, you'll like Fool's War. Zettel's authorial hand does get a bit heavy with her villains, and in pointing characters where they need to go for the next plot-twist. But overall it's good, clean fun, and I'll have to do some Zettel catchup reading soon. review copyright 2001 by Peter D. Tillman
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