A World Called Solitude

A World Called Solitude is the Stephen Goldin novel that takes a quietly ambitious premise (Aric Davidson is the sole human survivor on what was supposed to be a successful colony world; the colony failed catastrophically decades ago; the only intelligence he interacts with is a planetary AI named Solitude that has been his companion for years) and runs it as a careful character study rather than as a thriller.

Goldin handles the loneliness material with the kind of patience that the form does not require. The AI characterization is genuinely interesting; Solitude has been developing its own personality across the decades and is in a kind of relationship with Aric that the SF form of 1981 did not have a clean vocabulary for. The arrival of a rescue ship in the back half is the engine of the plot and also the engine of the emotional crisis.

The book is short, the prose is careful, and the ending lands harder than I expected.

Four stars. An underrated quiet SF novel of the early 80s. Recommended to readers of contemplative SF and to anyone interested in the prehistory of contemporary AI fiction.