Book Review: WWW:Watch

By Sandy Amazeen May 25, 2010, 3:46 GMT

Award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer continues his "wildly though- provoking" science fiction saga of a sentient World Wide Web. Webmind is an emerging consciousness that has befriended Caitlin Decter and grown eager to learn about her world. But Webmind has also come to the attention of WATCH-the secret government agency that monitors the Internet for any threat to the United States-and they\'re fully aware of Caitlin\'s involvement ...more

Born blind, mathematical wiz kid Caitlin Decter was fifteen when she received an experimental implant designed to give her sight. What the implant did was to provide Caitlin with the unprecedented ability to see a worldwide web presence she dubbed Webmind. As Webmind learns about the real world through Caitlin, a group of secret government scientists looking for terrorist activities via the internet learn about the new entity. Terrified at the potential threat Webmind poses, the group decides to try to control or remove it from the internet. Caitlin reveals the presence of Webmind to her parents who pooh-pooh the idea until tests by her father convince them of the truth. As Webmind continues to learn and adapt new abilities Hobo, a special primate capable of using sign language begins to exhibit increasingly violent behavior toward his handler.

Subplots intertwine with the overlying themes of protectiveness and Big Brother watching remaining a constant. Caitlin’s warmth seen in WWW:Wake is sadly lacking in Sawyer’s second book of the trilogy and readers new to the series will definitely need to start with the first title to make sense of the subplots. Sawyer’s imaginative vision of a sentient being developing amidst technological advances puts a different twist to an old idea and leaves readers looking forward to watching Webmind’s continued evolution while wondering how the desire to protect might be subverted into something more sinister.