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A review by bibliophagic
Inter Ice Age 4 by Kōbō Abe
2.0
Well, it's no [b: Woman in the Dunes|9998|The Woman in the Dunes|Kōbō Abe|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1361254930s/9998.jpg|58336].
[b: Inter Ice Age 4|956650|Inter Ice Age 4|Kōbō Abe|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1324359085s/956650.jpg|58326] starts with an interesting enough premise: several world nations have developed a computer technology that can, given enough input, predict the future. Various of the nations respond in different ways - the USSR computer MOSCOW II is under sanctions because it predicted a communist world government. In Japan, a government subcommittee demands that their researchers stay away from asking their computer anything with political applications.
That's the first premise. Things get weird when [a: Kobo Abe|6526|Kōbō Abe|http://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1315397169p2/6526.jpg] tries to connect this story to another one about a future where the majority of the planet is under water and humans have been genetically engineered to live out their lives in the ocean.
Unfortunately, both premises suffer - the political intrigue and implications of various nations' interpretations of the future get lost when the tale veers off into the aquatic future of humanity, which is disappointingly crammed into the last few pages of the book, and so also left largely unexplored.
[b: Inter Ice Age 4|956650|Inter Ice Age 4|Kōbō Abe|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1324359085s/956650.jpg|58326] starts with an interesting enough premise: several world nations have developed a computer technology that can, given enough input, predict the future. Various of the nations respond in different ways - the USSR computer MOSCOW II is under sanctions because it predicted a communist world government. In Japan, a government subcommittee demands that their researchers stay away from asking their computer anything with political applications.
That's the first premise. Things get weird when [a: Kobo Abe|6526|Kōbō Abe|http://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1315397169p2/6526.jpg] tries to connect this story to another one about a future where the majority of the planet is under water and humans have been genetically engineered to live out their lives in the ocean.
Unfortunately, both premises suffer - the political intrigue and implications of various nations' interpretations of the future get lost when the tale veers off into the aquatic future of humanity, which is disappointingly crammed into the last few pages of the book, and so also left largely unexplored.