Omega Point by Guy Haley

Published by Angry Robot on March 27, 2012

My reaction to Omega Point is similar to my feelings about Reality 36, the first Richards and Klein novel: Guy Haley's attempt to introduce an element of comedy detracts from the action-adventure science fiction story that dominates the plot. It's possible to write a tongue-in-cheek action-adventure sf novel -- John Scalzi did it quite well in The Android's Dream -- but Haley's comedy doesn't quite work for me: it's funny enough (sometimes), but it doesn't mesh with the rest of the story. I nonetheless enjoyed both novels, Omega Point somewhat less than its predecessor.

When we last saw Richards and Klein, the renegade AI known as k52 had seized control of a portion of the Reality Realms. In Omega Point, the cyborg Otto Klein, recovering from his injuries, is trying to track down a hacker who can infiltrate the Realms without alerting k52 -- but first he must get past Kaplinski, a holdover from the last novel. The AI Richards, stuck in human form and unable to turn off his pain receptors, is stranded inside the vanishing Realms, where a bear and a purple giraffe have taken him prisoner. Suffice it to say that if you haven't read Reality 36, you should do so or Omega Point won't make any sense. Even then, I'm not sure Omega Point will make perfect sense to anyone.

Nor am I sure that most of Omega Point does much to advance the overall plot. The last three or four chapters (the second to last is the best in the novel) bring the "investigation" to a conclusion, but much of the meandering story prior to those chapters is sort of pointless. Early on, Richards manages to discover what k52 intends to do with the Reality Realms he has infiltrated; after that, Richards chases around the Realms with pirates and toys. Klein, meanwhile, spends most of his time fighting Kaplinski. All well and good for action fans (and I'm one of those), but the action is a poor substitute for the substance that the first novel seemed to promise.

As was true in the first novel, the scenes that take place in the Reality Realms are too cartoonish for my taste. I understand that they're supposed to be funny and maybe they are -- some of Haley's humor made me smile -- but they seem out of place in the context of a futuristic action-adventure story. Talking teddy bears and armored weasels and dogs with Richard Nixon's head just don't mix well with cyborgs and androids and theoretical physics. The Reality Realm scenes go off on endless tangents (a battle between air pirates and the Punning Pastry Chef, for instance) that distract from the main plot.

I give Haley credit for having a big imagination. The framework of the two novels, the concept of the Reality Realms, and particularly Omega Point's ending, are well conceived. I also give Haley credit for developing the implications of a common sf theme: vesting Artificially Intelligent constructs with human rights. Haley takes the concept to an amusing extreme: what rights, for instance, should be given to an intelligent vibrator? Reality 36 develops that theme in greater depth than Omega Point. For that reason, and because less of Reality 36 takes place in the Reality Realms, I think Reality 36 is the better of the two novels. Still, I would like to meet Richards and Klein again, provided their next investigation doesn't involve talking teddy bears.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Reality 36 by Guy Haley

Published by Angry Robot in the UK on July 19, 2011 and in the US on August 30, 2011

Someone is trying (with apparent success) to kill Zhang Qifang, the leading proponent of human rights for sentient Artificially Intelligent (AI) beings. The problem: there seems to be more than one Qifang. Hired to investigate the mystery are a highly advanced AI named Richards and his partner Otto Klein, a human cyborg whose mechanical and information processing augmentations make him a formidable warrior. Conducting her own investigation is Qifang's former assistant, Veronique Valdaire. As the investigations proceed, it becomes apparent that Qifang had discovered concealed advances in the fields of AI and virtual reality that pose a threat to humankind.

Guy Haley does some interesting world building in Reality 36, although not of the conventional "alien planet" variety. Haley posits the existence of 36 virtual reality realms in which games were once played. At some point after the realms were created, the "civilizations of thinking creatures" that populate the realms gained the rights granted to all other sentient AIs. Now protected from gamers and other outsiders, the creatures inhabiting the realms have gone feral. Four of the realms are supposedly empty, used only for research, but Qifang's own research leads him to believe that mischief is afoot within those realms.

Richards and Klein are entertaining characters, albeit familiar ones. Klein has a gruff combat veteran's personality. We know that he has a military background but learn little about his past. Richards has the smugness of superior intelligence. There are only about six dozen AIs as advanced as Richards (and some of those are disappearing). They are apparently few in number because of a "crisis" at some point in the past that led to their recall and often to their destruction. Although we never learn the precise nature of the calamity, there are mentions of AIs going insane. Perhaps future entries in the Richards and Klein series will shed more light on that mystery.

The scenes that take place inside virtual reality realm 36 are the novel's weakness. They read like Alice in Wonderland combined with a role-playing game environment. Policing reality realm 36 are an armor-plated lion named Tarquinius and a knight named Sir Jagadith Veyadeep who says things like: "By Jove! Now I am believing we may be in some small degree of imperilment." His stilted dialog sort of makes sense within the context of the story but it's nevertheless annoying. The silly elements of realm 36 (including attack monkeys) are out of step with the thriller-like tone set by the rest of the novel. Fortunately the reader isn't required to spend much time in the reality realms.

Haley's writing style is well suited to the story. The pace is swift. My most serious complaint is the cliff-hanger ending that forces readers to acquire the next novel in the series (supposedly coming in 2012) to learn what happens to Richards, Klein, Valdaire, and for that matter, the world. I recommend the novel on its merits despite my dissatisfaction with its "to be continued" conclusion.

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