You don't read Richard Powers for characters or plot. You read Richard Powers because no one sifts as many ideas through the fine weave of plots and characters as he does. You read Richard Powers because he offers you architecture, AI, art, and Arles on a single page -- and those are just the 'A's. Plowing the Dark returns to issues raised in Galatea 2.2, offering a pair of stories that question the limits of technology. In one case, anything is possible, while in the other, nearly nothing is possible. In the end, Powers leaves you with the sort of knife-sharp cut so clean you appreciate it aesthetically before noticing how it hurts.

Judith Zissman