I must admit that in *Centuries*, Attanasio does not do the best job of
capturing the superior intelligence of his metasapients, but then most authors
usually have problems in representing more-than-human intelligence. Walter Jon
Williams did a good job of it in *Aristoi*, as did Charles Sheffield in
*Proteus*, but I know of few writers who succeeded. Any names?
I personally hated one of Attanasio's books, *The Last Legends of Earth*,
which was almost a mental torture to read, even though some passages were
brilliant. I am also sometimes appalled by his cruelty (read *Wyvern* for
instance, which involves Borneo headhunters and pirates in the 17th century;
*Silent*, which I think was cowritten with a substance-abusing murderer,
probably also qualifies) and irritated by his more psychedelic passages
(perhaps influenced by the likes of Carlos Castaneda), but I do think he is
one of sf's greatest authors (though I've only read seven of his novels so
far; still a dozen to go).
BTW, when I characterized "Inherit the Stars" as one of the worst novels on the Extropian reading list, I meant "Voyage to Yesteryear", which I found unreadable and totally devoid of dramatic interest. "Inherit the Stars", on the other hand, though not great literature, is a very pleasant mystery novel on the scale of a planetary system.
Jean-Francois Virey,
Douai, France.