Soulminder Paperback – September 23, 2014

Timothy Zahn is my favorite writer. He seldom lets me down and this book was no different. The story is about a new technology where a person's soul can be captured at the moment of death. I found this book to be quite reminiscent of Asimov's first Foundation novel. Like Foundation, the book is broken up into isolated vignettes that focus on a specific dilemma or crisis point. Zahn's is seven distinct chapters that each contain their own story arc and can be read separate from the rest of the novel.Also like Foundation, there is very little in the way of character development. The people who populate the vignettes are disposable and are present only to tell the vignette. The real character of the novel is the Soulminder system and in each chapter we see how Soulminder has evolved and changed, similar to how psychohistory was a character.I found the concept of Soulminder fascinating and loved how Zahn addressed so many goods and evils that could arise from this technology. Each chapter played out quickly, but not rushed. Unlike so many other Zahn novels, he did not delve deeply into details and descriptions. But, there was no need to. Again, the main character is technology and there is no deep, complex plot. I think this novel was Zahn's way of describing a technological idea and then debating its values and troubles. I enjoyed the social, theological, and moral discussions. My only gripe is that I would have liked a few more chapters, as I can see other facets of Soulminder that can be addressed.

Not one of Zahn's better novels but just ok. The story itself is interesting but because it was originally published as a series of short stories in a magazine (a fact I learned from other reviews here) the chapters are basically stand-alone with no real solid connection to the others so the story moves in fits and starts and never really flows. Because each chapter jumps several years I found myself having to reengage into the story at the beginning of each chapter and once I figured out that each chapter was self contained there was no tension because you knew that whatever emergency came up in the chapter would be resolved within a few pages. This probably worked as a monthly serial when you had time to digest every part in between releases but it is annoying in a novel format.Compare to his Thrawn series where the well planned story arc runs through three complete novels and this one just falls short.I'd give it 3.5 stars but since Amazon still doesn't allow half a star I'm giving it four.

I must confess, the first time I tried to read this book I returned it back to the shelf before finishing the first chapter. While some aspects of the negative reviews (flat characters, lack of descriptions, poor scientific explanations and so on) can apply, it's not the reason I left it. I just thought that the (fantastic) subject didn't fit into the (realistic) way the story was told. Nonetheless, one night it happened to me that I had run out of reading and, well, I took "Soulminder" and decided to give it a second chance. I realized then that I had missed the point: "Soulminder" is not a novel, but a set of short tales around one single subject (something like Assimov's "I Robot") or, why not? a screenplay suitable for a fine Hollywood film. I have just finished the book and I have enjoyed it. I'm glad I gave it a second chance, as the Soulminder device does for ... well, let's not spoil the plot.

This was a good sci-fi "what if" story. Timothy Zahn takes an old idea, the potential for immortality, and then develops the story around the "what if" scenario...what if there was a way to save people from dying in order to give their bodies time to be healed. But then all kinds of other "what if's" are presented and shown in the story to become the "Frankenstein" element of something good going bad.Worth the read.

I've been a fan of Timothy Zahn for a long time, and this book has the content I've come to expect from him. That being said, the frequent lack of any break between shifts in point of view was jarring to the point of stopping the flow of the story to figure out the perspective. Perhaps this was a formatting problem, because this is the first book by Zahn where I've noticed this problem. Overall, great story. Reminds me a lot of "To live again" by Silverberg.

It's an interesting concept: what if your "soul" could be taken from your body when you're dying or badly injured and stored in a computer? Amusingly this concept was used in an episode of the old Transformers TV show when the Autobots's human friend Spike was badly injured and they transferred his brain into a robot body that ran amok. This is obviously more serious than that, perhaps to a fault. It goes into a lot of the issues that spring up with body swapping and so forth. It delves into attempts by governments to control the technology as well. Unfortunately while it's all an interesting concept it doesn't really make for that interesting of a story. I never really cared about any of the characters and even now I can't really name any of them. Definitely not one of Zahn's best.

Everything about this book is good. There are very few editing mistakes, only one loose end isn't tied up (and it's largely irrelevant), there are no wasted pages on a stupid unnecessary romance, the characters are interesting, and the story is compelling.This is one of only a handful of fiction books that I have read twice, and it was still enjoyable the second time.

OMG! So good! Man this was a story and a half. I Loved all the characters in this story, the details were on point. I loved how the tech did not get in the way of the story, the philosophical lines, the religious lines, the ethical lines, they all played well together. If this were to ever really happen, MAN, that would be some crazy stuff, but at least the outline has been laid out here on what to expect and what not to do.

Pretty good read. I found it interesting, but not captivating like his usual work. It made you think about the unintended consequences of technology development. Often it's more about can we than should we. It's definitely a work that causes you to think.