"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Caprica 1.3: Daughters, Missing and Present

"53 mentions of your broadcast name today," Daniel Graystone's personal house robot, Serge, tells him when he comes home to his beautiful home on the water in Episode 1.3 of Caprica.  It's something I can relate to - I'm always Googling for mentions of my name.   But this typifies the unusual, original mix that is Caprica - 1940s fedoras, 1980s videotapes, along with maglevs, robots, and now a Cylon - old, recent, near and further future by contemporary Planet Earth standards.   It's an intriguing, reasonable mix for a planet that is not ours.

The story, however, is powerfully human.   Parents struggling with the loss of their children.   Sam Adama beating Daniel Graystone over the loss of Adama's niece, in a brutal scene reminiscent of the tone of Battlestar Galactica.   Joseph Adama coming to Daniel for help in reaching his lost daughter, whose essence exists in virtual reality, and when Daniel is unable to locate her, Joseph goes back home and tells his brother Sam to kill Daniel's wife Amanda.

And the Graystones stuggling on their own, attempting to deal with the loss of their own daughter, Zoe.  Not only can Daniel not find Tamara's avatar, he has no idea that Zoe's intelligence, in a Cylon he created, is standing right next to him and his wife as they argue about Amanda's deluded confession on television last week that Zoe set off the terrorist bomb (not true).   Even worse, Daniel and Amanda making love right in front of the Cylonic Zoe, not knowing it/she's Zoe.

This is tough, real science fiction, in a world much more beautiful than Battlestar Galactica, but every bit as unflinching about life-and-death, wrenching issues.

I'm staying tuned for more.


5-min podcast review of Caprica

See alsoBattlestar Galactica Caprica: Exquisite, Flawed Copies ... 1.2:  Dawn of a Different Machine







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