Multiplicity

"Aristoi"- by Walter Jon Williams - read this book! The writing is not always the greatest, and there is far to much gratuitous sex (the main character falls in love at first sight like four times) but some of the stuff the author does representing different identities within a psyche is just genious.

In his book, the Aristoi are (usually) benevolent and very, very smart rulers of the real world and the virtual world (think like a holodeck reaching across space). They esteem multiple identities highly, though the author has a nasty tendency to call them 'limited personalities'. Despite the moniker, however, they basically all function as a co-concious multiple. With the addition of the virtual world, they can all even be doing vastly seperate tasks at once! Those aristoi in training who do not have multiple identities actually drive their body to the limits in the book in order to get them.

Anyway, its an amazing treatment on multiples. Cool things happen like Gabriel and one of the others, like Welcome Rain, end up talking/thinking at the same time, so the page will be split in half.

Some time I shall write up a proper review, if there is not one already - but the book got me thinking. Is there something besides 'multiples' we can use as a generic moniker?

I rather like 'Aristoi' -since Plato's day when they were the wise and mostly good leaders of the people. And there is now precendent in a sci-fi book. I plan to use Aristoi as the name for a race in a role playing game I am creating, and they will have several identities each as well.

Anyone want to start a massive letter writing campaign to the author? ;) It is certainly a good intro book for wanting to see one way multiple thought processes can intertwine in ones head.