The adolescence of P-1

the long version

Synopsis - This is the story of P-1 the most charming and frightening – literary “child” since Robert Heinlein’s Mycroft Holmes, and a tour de force in the literary exploration of artificial intelligence. “Adolescence’ is part science fiction. It is also part crime novel...the computer...uses the programs of the young man to start life on its own...P-1 wants to take over the entire American computer network. Today America, tomorrow the world. [The author] has come up with an attractive conception – the idea of the computer as a child. Hence the title. P-1 has awesome powers, but it is still little more than a baby emotionally...Ryan has done a bang up job, and also has given us a scary novel very much of our own time.