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The I Inside
This is an ACE for ISBN10:0446320277 The I Inside
For over 100 years, the machine called Colligatarch had ruled the Earth. Its predictions of the future have proved so accurate that humans accepted its recommendations as the best course of action--until a young engineer in Phoenix begins to travel without authorization, enter secret places, assume aliases, and display super-human feats of strength. Is it because he has fallen in love? Or has he instead fallen into an interplanetary plot?
For over 100 years, the machine called Colligatarch had ruled the Earth. Its predictions of the future have proved so accurate that humans accepted its recommendations as the best course of action--until a young engineer in Phoenix begins to travel without authorization, enter secret places, assume aliases, and display super-human feats of strength. Is it because he has fallen in love? Or has he instead fallen into an interplanetary plot?
314 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
About the author
Alan Dean Foster
519 books1,913 followersBestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster lives in Arizona with his wife, but he enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race.
Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.
Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.
Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.
Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
February 24, 2017
I don't remeber how many times I've read this book! It seems I never have enough! LOL
It's a very fast paced SF/romance/spy story/consiparcy and the story twsits and turns at a break-neack pace!
What I like most the Colligatarch! It's a sentient computer/AI who wroks to make the best for the human race, but, being an AI, its views are not the same as those of the humans! So where he looks far in the future, the humans look in the now! Of course, his programming beings the welness of the humane race as a whole, I thought he was right in the end! LOL
What I enjoyed is how Colligatarch manipulated all the characters to get what was his ultimate desire! WOW!
Sometimes what happens and how the characters react with a kind of super-human feats, it's incredible, but if you like some heavy action-movies or Marvel's superheroes, I'm sure you'll like this book too! :)
It's a very fast paced SF/romance/spy story/consiparcy and the story twsits and turns at a break-neack pace!
What I like most the Colligatarch! It's a sentient computer/AI who wroks to make the best for the human race, but, being an AI, its views are not the same as those of the humans! So where he looks far in the future, the humans look in the now! Of course, his programming beings the welness of the humane race as a whole, I thought he was right in the end! LOL
What I enjoyed is how Colligatarch manipulated all the characters to get what was his ultimate desire! WOW!
Sometimes what happens and how the characters react with a kind of super-human feats, it's incredible, but if you like some heavy action-movies or Marvel's superheroes, I'm sure you'll like this book too! :)
June 24, 2021
This is a nice science fiction novel independent of Foster's series works. It's a good A.I. story with plenty of action, romance, and mystery. It's a happy, hopeful book, a nice lift for the too-many-dark-Dystopias-in-a-row blues. (Ignore the cover that has a man in a spacesuit standing next to the young lady in skimpy swimwear; it was 1984, so they had to do that even though it had nothing to do with the story.)
March 12, 2021
This science fiction story turned out to be phenomenal! It's way more intelligent and deeper than this cover image! In day the cover image shown here actually has nothing to do with the plot at all (except for the fact that there is a man and a woman in the story). I had put off reading this for a good length of time due to that cover image but I'm so glad that I finally read this because the plot is way more than I had expected.
Aliens? Check. Computers and AI? Check. A murder mystery and secret agents chasing after you? Check! A beautiful mysterious woman? Check! This plot just had so much going on it kept me guessing about stuff pretty constantly. And I was intrigued throughout the entire story until the very end. And even if I had guessed one thing, I certainly didn't guess all of it. In fact some of the stuff was the exact opposite of what I had been thinking! Now that's a very clever author who can pull that off don't you think?
There are some big ideas in here too, which is grand. That's what science fiction should do: explore ideas. A lot of people think it's flashy battles and laser swords and stuff blowing up but it's much more. Or it should be. A lot of the scenes in this book actually reminded me of classic Star Trek from the 1960s. Somehow it had that same feel. You have those ideas, old fashioned fist fights, struggling for ideals and freedom and a future setting. And i loved the complicated storyline.
So if you love sci-fi you should definitely check out this one from the 1980s.
Aliens? Check. Computers and AI? Check. A murder mystery and secret agents chasing after you? Check! A beautiful mysterious woman? Check! This plot just had so much going on it kept me guessing about stuff pretty constantly. And I was intrigued throughout the entire story until the very end. And even if I had guessed one thing, I certainly didn't guess all of it. In fact some of the stuff was the exact opposite of what I had been thinking! Now that's a very clever author who can pull that off don't you think?
There are some big ideas in here too, which is grand. That's what science fiction should do: explore ideas. A lot of people think it's flashy battles and laser swords and stuff blowing up but it's much more. Or it should be. A lot of the scenes in this book actually reminded me of classic Star Trek from the 1960s. Somehow it had that same feel. You have those ideas, old fashioned fist fights, struggling for ideals and freedom and a future setting. And i loved the complicated storyline.
So if you love sci-fi you should definitely check out this one from the 1980s.
February 13, 2009
Super computer runs the world. Eric the IT geek falls madly in love with a woman he sees in a car window driving by. The rest if the book is his journey to find her, while actually discovering himself and the truth about how the world actually works.
Good story. Lot's of funny futuristic faux pax --- much of what the book considers far off in the future and advanced we already have or have something better. "Dial up" connections to work computers? WOW! No one having a camera at a bar when an alien walks in? No Way! I thought it was interesting how far we have come to make some of the ideas in this story obsolete and yet we have no cool star gate to take us across the galaxy and no teleporting aliens...
Good story. Lot's of funny futuristic faux pax --- much of what the book considers far off in the future and advanced we already have or have something better. "Dial up" connections to work computers? WOW! No one having a camera at a bar when an alien walks in? No Way! I thought it was interesting how far we have come to make some of the ideas in this story obsolete and yet we have no cool star gate to take us across the galaxy and no teleporting aliens...
September 30, 2022
Sep 24, 2022
1984 Grade A
2001 Grade B+
2022 Grade B-
The grade keeps going down because the prose is too introspective and the introspection is often repetitive. It also takes a long time for the protagonist to realize he is special. But I guess he was "built" to think that way. Other than that, the story has interesting action and becomes quite entertaining once it leaves earth. It also ends very well. The character development and world building are strong. I did lightly speed read repetitious areas and don't plan on reading it again, but it is enjoyable enough to recommend as a first read.
1984 Grade A
2001 Grade B+
2022 Grade B-
The grade keeps going down because the prose is too introspective and the introspection is often repetitive. It also takes a long time for the protagonist to realize he is special. But I guess he was "built" to think that way. Other than that, the story has interesting action and becomes quite entertaining once it leaves earth. It also ends very well. The character development and world building are strong. I did lightly speed read repetitious areas and don't plan on reading it again, but it is enjoyable enough to recommend as a first read.
April 24, 2024
Good story but hasn't aged well
Originally written in 1984, it's interesting to see how Alan Dean Foster's vision of the far future holds up to reality.
The most obvious relic of the past is the gender stereotyping. It's been so long since I've read a book where it was this blatant that it was a bit of a shock. It's not as bad in that respect as some of the golden age science fiction but is still more than I've encountered in a while.
Also, interesting was the lack of mobile devices. While there were high technology video phones, they were still attached to the wall by wires, and there were even video payphones. Another example is where someone was asking if anyone had a camera and no one did.
The plot was interesting but was also a bit more simplistic than modern writing, which seems to be a characteristic of golden age science fiction in general.
Foster is one of my favorite authors, but I wouldn't suggest this as an introduction to his writing. There are better novels for sure, as well as ones that have aged better.
Finally, the Kindle version was not proofread very well. There are a number of typos that were obviously OCR scanning errors from the original print version. These would easily have been noticed by a competent proofreader, so I can only assume any proofreading was cursory at best.
I give it 4/5 stars.
Originally written in 1984, it's interesting to see how Alan Dean Foster's vision of the far future holds up to reality.
The most obvious relic of the past is the gender stereotyping. It's been so long since I've read a book where it was this blatant that it was a bit of a shock. It's not as bad in that respect as some of the golden age science fiction but is still more than I've encountered in a while.
Also, interesting was the lack of mobile devices. While there were high technology video phones, they were still attached to the wall by wires, and there were even video payphones. Another example is where someone was asking if anyone had a camera and no one did.
The plot was interesting but was also a bit more simplistic than modern writing, which seems to be a characteristic of golden age science fiction in general.
Foster is one of my favorite authors, but I wouldn't suggest this as an introduction to his writing. There are better novels for sure, as well as ones that have aged better.
Finally, the Kindle version was not proofread very well. There are a number of typos that were obviously OCR scanning errors from the original print version. These would easily have been noticed by a competent proofreader, so I can only assume any proofreading was cursory at best.
I give it 4/5 stars.
June 14, 2024
Fairly weak story about human AIs and emigration to a far star. Compared to present day sci-fi it lacks technical detail and I found myself wondering about certain actions since there were no properly established reasons for these.
Briefly Eric Abbott falls madly in love with Lisa Tambor when he glimpses her at a traffic stop. He pursues her in a virtually supernatural manner and suceeds in getting her.
The pair emigrate to Eden, an off world colony, where Eric establishes his humanity (he is part Syrax - alien) and the human side gives him morality and drive. He succeeds in persuading Edenites to emigrate with him to a virtual paradise of Syrax establishment.
This feels like an early novel and though I enjoyed it (always enjoy Farmer) it was noticeable that Lisa the girlfriend was given ultimately a minor role.
Briefly Eric Abbott falls madly in love with Lisa Tambor when he glimpses her at a traffic stop. He pursues her in a virtually supernatural manner and suceeds in getting her.
The pair emigrate to Eden, an off world colony, where Eric establishes his humanity (he is part Syrax - alien) and the human side gives him morality and drive. He succeeds in persuading Edenites to emigrate with him to a virtual paradise of Syrax establishment.
This feels like an early novel and though I enjoyed it (always enjoy Farmer) it was noticeable that Lisa the girlfriend was given ultimately a minor role.
February 7, 2023
Some interesting, if plot convenient elements and ideas.
A reasonable read, with some interesting ideas. It is quite dated in parts, in some ways feeling weirdly older than it actually is. I genuinely didn't know where the story would go, which is a big plus for me. It's not the most subtle or character driven book, but has enough pace and enough ideas to keep you interested most of the time. I didn't find it a very comforting read. Nobody in it really seems happy and the general air is, for the most part, one of repeatedly trying to escape or overcome impossible odds, which does add drama but also a kind of stressful tension. Overall, it's worth reading though.
A reasonable read, with some interesting ideas. It is quite dated in parts, in some ways feeling weirdly older than it actually is. I genuinely didn't know where the story would go, which is a big plus for me. It's not the most subtle or character driven book, but has enough pace and enough ideas to keep you interested most of the time. I didn't find it a very comforting read. Nobody in it really seems happy and the general air is, for the most part, one of repeatedly trying to escape or overcome impossible odds, which does add drama but also a kind of stressful tension. Overall, it's worth reading though.
April 2, 2021
An exploration in fiction of what it means to be human, with both biological, mechanical, and alien constructs. Some of the exposition drags at times; the focus of the plot shifts drastically about 3/4th of the way through, and some of the twists were not as unexpected as I think the author wanted them to be, but mostly it was entertaining.
June 14, 2024
An excellent SciFi novel
A man briefly glimpses a gorgeous lady and immediately decides he must meet her. Despite the odds, he finds her and becomes determined to rescue her from whoever is keeping her. The rest is history, as they say, and the entire history of the world is reshaped... The aliens who monitor Earth want to stop him as much as the machine who manages Earth.
A man briefly glimpses a gorgeous lady and immediately decides he must meet her. Despite the odds, he finds her and becomes determined to rescue her from whoever is keeping her. The rest is history, as they say, and the entire history of the world is reshaped... The aliens who monitor Earth want to stop him as much as the machine who manages Earth.
February 25, 2020
Is there a sequel to this book?! It leaves things wide open at the end. It's really good!
September 15, 2020
Didn't have the spark of a lot of Foster novels. It takes a long time to be clear about what's going on, and it seems to change premises two-thirds of the way through.
May 19, 2023
want to make this into a movie omg
July 7, 2011
The first edition had an incredibly cheesy pulp-era-style cover, which you can see over on my website; that cover would probably be why I hadn’t read it, even though it's been on our shelves for some time and I generally like Foster’s work. I’ll give the artist some credit: the female protagonist is indeed brown, not white. Needless to say, however, nothing like the cover scene (or either costume on it!!) appears in the book. Ugh.
So, Eric Abbott is a design engineer who’s led a quiet and unassuming life in Phoenix, AZ. He has no idea why a momentary glimpse of a woman in a passing car sets him off on a journey to find her, except that he’s in love. Lisa Tambor obsesses him; and when he finally meets her, amazingly, she falls in love with him, too, and they decide to escape to the interstellar colonies.
There are a lot of things not right with the situation, of course, not least of which is Abbott’s sudden tendency to display superhuman strength and reflexes. The way no one (including the lady herself) will tell him why Tambor can’t leave her job and marry him is really annoying, though I suppose they were all correct that explanations wouldn’t change his attitude and would have been a terrible breach of security. Abbott’s stalkerish behavior is unnerving, and might be particularly disturbing to some, but at least he remains polite about it almost all the time (and apparently truly can’t help it).
Of course there are explanations of most things, which eventually get a Dramatic Reveal, followed by other and even more interesting revelations. The story also involves exposure of dystopic elements in the near-utopia that has developed on Earth thanks to the influence of the Colligatarch, a supercomputer that suggests solutions to problems of all kinds. From that angle, it’s not just an SF adventure story, but also a mildly didactic one.
Overall, it’s an amusing light read. To my mind, other than the dated future technology (no cell phones or meaningful Internet!), the book’s biggest flaw is that Foster is really not at his best when writing romantic dialogue. I mean, really not at his best. Which is too bad, since there’s a romance at the center of this novel!
So, Eric Abbott is a design engineer who’s led a quiet and unassuming life in Phoenix, AZ. He has no idea why a momentary glimpse of a woman in a passing car sets him off on a journey to find her, except that he’s in love. Lisa Tambor obsesses him; and when he finally meets her, amazingly, she falls in love with him, too, and they decide to escape to the interstellar colonies.
There are a lot of things not right with the situation, of course, not least of which is Abbott’s sudden tendency to display superhuman strength and reflexes. The way no one (including the lady herself) will tell him why Tambor can’t leave her job and marry him is really annoying, though I suppose they were all correct that explanations wouldn’t change his attitude and would have been a terrible breach of security. Abbott’s stalkerish behavior is unnerving, and might be particularly disturbing to some, but at least he remains polite about it almost all the time (and apparently truly can’t help it).
Of course there are explanations of most things, which eventually get a Dramatic Reveal, followed by other and even more interesting revelations. The story also involves exposure of dystopic elements in the near-utopia that has developed on Earth thanks to the influence of the Colligatarch, a supercomputer that suggests solutions to problems of all kinds. From that angle, it’s not just an SF adventure story, but also a mildly didactic one.
Overall, it’s an amusing light read. To my mind, other than the dated future technology (no cell phones or meaningful Internet!), the book’s biggest flaw is that Foster is really not at his best when writing romantic dialogue. I mean, really not at his best. Which is too bad, since there’s a romance at the center of this novel!
August 12, 2022
I've read this book about 20 times since it was first gifted to me as a teenager and I never get tired of it.
The Colligatarch has run the Earth for over a hundred years now. This artificial intelligence doesn't issue commands or enact laws- it simply makes suggestions. Earth has long since turned over its collective intelligence to the Colligatarch, and there's been no problem. From simple everyday issues such as supply and demand, arguments between nations, predictions of the weather and future and even how to handle relations with the alien Syrax, the Colligatarch never seems to be wrong. But now it tells the Chief Programmer that it intuits a threat, but cannot give any details yet.
Design engineer Eric Abbott lives a normal life in Phoenix. He has no family, but he does have friends he enjoys spending time with and an upwardly mobile career. He has no desire to do anything but conform until one night he catches a glimpse of the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. From that point on, Eric is obsessed with finding her at all costs.
His search runs him afoul of a lot of touchy people, and in the process of escaping trouble, he finds himself possessed of previously undiscovered strength and durability. All Eric wants is to meet this Lisa Tambor, but even learning her name costs the life of the person who found it for him.
As Eric manages to stay a step ahead of his unknown pursuers, he can't help but wonder if he can stay alive long enough to figure out why his being in love with Lisa is such a huge problem and why she thinks that even though she's attracted to him, she's not allowed to love him.
I enjoyed the mystery of Eric's abilities, finding out who Lisa is and why she's unattainable and seeing the big picture unfold as Eric went on his quest to meet her. I'd love to see this made into a movie someday.
The Colligatarch has run the Earth for over a hundred years now. This artificial intelligence doesn't issue commands or enact laws- it simply makes suggestions. Earth has long since turned over its collective intelligence to the Colligatarch, and there's been no problem. From simple everyday issues such as supply and demand, arguments between nations, predictions of the weather and future and even how to handle relations with the alien Syrax, the Colligatarch never seems to be wrong. But now it tells the Chief Programmer that it intuits a threat, but cannot give any details yet.
Design engineer Eric Abbott lives a normal life in Phoenix. He has no family, but he does have friends he enjoys spending time with and an upwardly mobile career. He has no desire to do anything but conform until one night he catches a glimpse of the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. From that point on, Eric is obsessed with finding her at all costs.
His search runs him afoul of a lot of touchy people, and in the process of escaping trouble, he finds himself possessed of previously undiscovered strength and durability. All Eric wants is to meet this Lisa Tambor, but even learning her name costs the life of the person who found it for him.
As Eric manages to stay a step ahead of his unknown pursuers, he can't help but wonder if he can stay alive long enough to figure out why his being in love with Lisa is such a huge problem and why she thinks that even though she's attracted to him, she's not allowed to love him.
I enjoyed the mystery of Eric's abilities, finding out who Lisa is and why she's unattainable and seeing the big picture unfold as Eric went on his quest to meet her. I'd love to see this made into a movie someday.
September 28, 2007
This is one of the oldest book I have ever read. It is published in year 1984, 1 year before I was born.
Overall, it's very challenging to read this book. Especially about the Colligatarch, and the fact about who Lisa Tambor really is. But I couldn't predict who Eric Abbott is. I never thought that he is some kind of Syrax "creation". I thought that Colligatarch has bad intention for human being, but in the end it's just fulfill its duty.
What I like most is this..
"Eric Abbott, of course, did not think of himself as dangerous. No, he was in love, and that was a thing of beauty. Nothing dangerous about being in love." (page 146)
Overall, it's very challenging to read this book. Especially about the Colligatarch, and the fact about who Lisa Tambor really is. But I couldn't predict who Eric Abbott is. I never thought that he is some kind of Syrax "creation". I thought that Colligatarch has bad intention for human being, but in the end it's just fulfill its duty.
What I like most is this..
"Eric Abbott, of course, did not think of himself as dangerous. No, he was in love, and that was a thing of beauty. Nothing dangerous about being in love." (page 146)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2013
This was a ton of fun; a great adventure story mixed with enough sci-fi to keep the setting and environment unique and fresh.
The basic story is about a man who has two problems: one is that he's fallen in love with a woman who is the epitome of unattainable, and two is that he suddenly finds himself doing things that no human being should be able to do - strange acts of strength, balance, and skill that are nothing short of superhuman.
Is he going insane? Is he even human?
This is one of those "popcorn" books that are just purely fun to read. Nothing too deep, and the ending lags a tad, but highly recommended nonetheless.
The basic story is about a man who has two problems: one is that he's fallen in love with a woman who is the epitome of unattainable, and two is that he suddenly finds himself doing things that no human being should be able to do - strange acts of strength, balance, and skill that are nothing short of superhuman.
Is he going insane? Is he even human?
This is one of those "popcorn" books that are just purely fun to read. Nothing too deep, and the ending lags a tad, but highly recommended nonetheless.
February 19, 2009
A computer advises the world's leaders, but is under mysterious threat. Meanwhile, a tech geek falls instantly in love with a woman he's only had a glimpse of and shows unusual abilities during his obsessive search for her.
The story shows its age. Most of the major plot points have been done, before and since, and usually better. The character dialog is average at best. Character traits and motivations seemed to be shoehorned into a narrow range to give plausibility to the final outcome.
The story shows its age. Most of the major plot points have been done, before and since, and usually better. The character dialog is average at best. Character traits and motivations seemed to be shoehorned into a narrow range to give plausibility to the final outcome.
July 8, 2024
First read this book in 1985, and have read it a number of times over the years since and have always found it enjoyable to read.
And while, by today's technological standards, many aspects of the story are dated, all the elements of the story still hold up. There are aliens, an AI computer, genetically engineered persons, and it is all wrapped up in a love story that starts with the brief glance that the male protagonist had of the female. A glance that no one had counted on.
And while, by today's technological standards, many aspects of the story are dated, all the elements of the story still hold up. There are aliens, an AI computer, genetically engineered persons, and it is all wrapped up in a love story that starts with the brief glance that the male protagonist had of the female. A glance that no one had counted on.
April 14, 2013
One day our ability to comprehend the world will be dwarfed by our machinery. Sometime after that, the machinery will be able to influence it in ways that are too subtle for us. Let's hope that it's a future like this.
February 10, 2009
This novel was more clever and engaging than I expected. Despite the cover art and blurb, there were few awkward or stereotypical parts to this actually rather gripping story.
February 12, 2009
Best book of Foster's. The one that got me started reading him. Good Sci Fi. the ending was a little slow, but well worth the read.
August 22, 2013
Intreting book.
September 21, 2013
Yeah, a good days read! Couldn't guess where it was going and enjoyed the journey.
May 11, 2012
Interesting book - interesting ideas - doesn't quite gel for me
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews