num_pages: 204
description: Simeon Krug designed &amp; created androids in an era of human underpopulation &amp; labor shortage in response to the poor decision-making &amp; lack of creativity of mechanical robots. In chemical vats, the building blocks of life are assembled into living, thinking synthetic humans. By design, androids are distinct from natural humans in a number of ways: their skin is a bright scarlet color, they've no hair &amp; they're incapable of reproduction. There are three classes of androids: gammas, designed for strength &amp; reliability but not very smart; betas, designed for supervisory roles, smarter than gammas but also strong; &amp; alphas, designed for intelligence &amp; leadership. You have to suspend your disbelief to imagine such a project actually getting off the ground over moral objections, but once you do the story unfolds very compellingly. The androids especially come alive, with their hopes &amp; dreams of freedom, &amp; their religion devoted to their creator. Aside from the androids, the other main focus of the book involves Krug's project to respond to the mysterious message from space, the 1st proof of extraterrestrial life. It's for this purpose that he builds the tower, for it's a giant transmitter with the sole purpose of answering the signal. The technology of shunting (from Ringing the Changes) figures prominently in the story, as do transmat booths, teleportation devices allowing instant transport around the globe.
language: English
title: Tower of Glass
titlecomplete: Tower of Glass
characters: Simeon Krug
genres: Literature, Science Fiction, Novels, Artificial Intelligence, Science Fiction Fantasy, Religion, Robots, Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction
ratings_count: 1810
awards: awardedAt: 31564800000
name: Hugo Award
category: Best Novel, awardedAt: 28800000
name: Nebula Award
category: Best Novel, awardedAt: 31564800000
name: Locus Award
category: Best SF Novel, awardedAt: 31564800000
name: Ditmar Award
category: Best International Long Fiction
publisher: Panther