Scan barcode
fluffles's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
mmparker's review
3.0
Full of interesting ideas, but weak characterization and dialogue. Fast read, though.
justcatherine's review
4.0
My first Schroeder book! Maybe he wasn't as good at developing characters, but the world he created, the history he detailed, the conflict he introduced? I was hooked from the first few chapters, curious to know how things would work out, and my imagination was working like crazy figuring out details about the new civilizations he described! Um, I loved it :)
chronotope's review
5.0
This book is a masterpiece, Schroeder deftly combines philosophy, hard sci-fi, excellent characters and a deep plot to create one of the best novels out there.
frakalot's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This is a good adventure story with plenty of imaginative science fiction and a fair share of action scenes. The universe is well formed and interesting even though I didn't quite grasp it all. The plot moves forward in little leaps at times which works well, it doesn't follow every damn minute of every journey. A couple of times early on the narrative switched perspective to follow another group which was also fine, but there was no real introduction for those characters.
The main characters are preeetty good, although I wouldn't call any of them loveable. You certainly root for them to succeed and I really wanted to like the main character, she is about 17 when the story starts and she has escaped the toxic environment of her family life but I just found her to be somewhat inconsistent. The author has her feeling her way through her new found independence which is appropriate, but sometimes frustrating. Sometimes she would make a decision based on whether a person was cute. What? Yeah, I know. And it was so out of place compared with the rest of this reasonably well written book.
The setup is a bit silly but is also a fun series of events. Meadow Rue Cassels, or just Rue as she prefers, bails out of the station where she lived and worked to escape her bully of a brother, Jentry. She shoots her brother in the face then peels out in the shuttle that they had inherited from their late mother. Oh, don't worry. Jentry isn't dead.
It just keeps piling on. Rue has no idea where she's going. The ship's AI informs her that she can make it to another station safely, but when she learns the cost of visiting the station she realises it is well beyond her budget. While she is ruminating over her lack of options the AI announces that a massive comet is registering on sensors. You bloody beauty! Rue is going to be rich and quickly stakes a claim which is legally recognised only hours later. Oh, damn. That's not actually a comet.
When Rue arrives at Treya, the "nearby" planet which had recognised her claim she learns that further investigation revealed her discovery to be another ship rather than the comet which she had hoped to cash in on. She had become something of an overnight celebrity and switched off comms to ignore the inundation of messages from people trying to get their fingers in her pie, so she was completely surprised by the news which she received on arrival. Ah, but don't give up. There is still hope.
Once the news had been updated, the family who she expected to meet on her arrival at Treya deserted her and she arrives to find only a single cousin, Maximilian, is waiting to greet her. It takes a bit of to-and-fro-ing for Rue to learn to trust Max, but he lifts her spirits when he; 1 - Wants to help her claim the vessel and 2 - Turns out to be rich enough to do so. They set up the shuttle for the trip to capture and redirect the wayward "Cycler", organise a slapdash crew and next thing you know Rue is the captain of this crazy plan.
The competition is on though, because other interested parties want to claim the Cycler vessel. Unlike claiming a comet which is done by simply reporting the find, ownership of a salvaged vessel goes to whoever reaches it first. And there you have my five paragraph summary of the madcap setup for this story. Up to this point we've only heard snippets about a religion called Permanence but with no apparent connection to Rue's mission.
The setup has you thinking you're about to read a Great Starship Race adventure story, but it's a deceptive introduction that really serves to setup the crew of Jentry's Envy, the salvaged Cycler. There does turn out to be more than a single race in the story but it's much more about the significance of the Cycler which Rue has discovered and how it will affect the balance of power in the system.
I can't properly explain how the political structure of this system works. At about a third of the way in we have had various elements of it introduced to us but I can't claim to have comprehended it very well. I'll do my best to summarise what I got out of it. Instead of a Financial Economy it is referred to as a Rights Economy, which is weird to grasp because money is still used to pay for goods and services. There is a governing body, probably made up of planetary governments which are overseen by the Erythrion system government. But the Erythrion system (and presumably other systems of halo worlds) are yet still overseen by Rights Owners back on Earth.
The Rights Owners, as I understood it, own the rights to perform various activities or provide certain types of services and therefore get a slice out of every pie underneath their banner. The Rights Owners have the fattest bank accounts and inevitably hold sway over the decisions made by the governments, but I think it might be in a more direct fashion than simply paying off their favourite politicians. Sorry, this isn't very clear for me.
In this system it is "illegal for a religion not to charge for its services". Religions are an important part of the power structure, with Permanence being the dominant religious group. Permanence is on a kind of eternal pilgrimage to connect all alien life to the meaning of the universe.
There's a group called the Compact which seemed like the Rights Owners of interplanetary travel at the very least. The Compact is in some sort of trouble, but with loyal Cycler crews running the remaining Cyclers in the system for them, they control all travel between the halo planets. Again, apologies for my basic handling of what is probably a complex web of interacting beliefs and systems.
Other than that society seems pretty much as you'd expect it. The rich folks live in nice areas and the poor and working classes live in rougher suburbs with varying levels of (dis)comfort.
"Since the lit worlds abandoned us we haven't seen a new Cycler in 20 years".
Lit worlds are worlds that orbit a large, bright star, like Earth orbiting Sol. Erythrion is the system that our cast live in, named after a brown dwarf star, one which is comparably dim and lower in mass, the halo worlds are those which orbit such stars. Halo worlds like those in the Erythrion system don't have enough gravity for departing ships to fire up their FTL drives so they use these ships called Cyclers instead, which appear to use "plow sails" for both propulsion and protection against particles in space (I pictured these as what we call "solar sails"). Cyclers take a long time to get going but can still reach incredible speeds (sub-lightspeed of course) and it takes a long time to slow them down using complex braking maneuvers.
The author has clearly put a lot of thought into the structure of this system and my lack of understanding should not indicate its impenetrability. I've been distracted by life and I had to stop reading several times to concentrate on real things which unfortunately hindered my processing of the details.
There's just loads of tech in this story, all very futuristic and fun. An example is the "Inscape", which is fairly important to the plot. The inscape is worn as an implant and is somehow configured into the view of the user, so that what a person sees is partly a façade tacked onto reality. Grey concrete walls are transformed to marble, a few scattered streetside stalls are displayed as part of a lively carnival market and that type of thing. Ironically, it costs the user more money to remove the frilly illusions, no doubt a mechanism by the off world Rights Owners for maintaining higher satisfaction among the planetary populations. Much more can be done with these, including removing yourself from other people's views and can you imagine what mayhem might ensue if these devices were hackable? Mmhmm.
This review may represent the highest words:sense ratio that I've written yet, which is not a good feat. Too many words and not enough sense. But I do recommend this book to you and I'll probably come back at it for a second run myself at some point.
The main characters are preeetty good, although I wouldn't call any of them loveable. You certainly root for them to succeed and I really wanted to like the main character, she is about 17 when the story starts and she has escaped the toxic environment of her family life but I just found her to be somewhat inconsistent. The author has her feeling her way through her new found independence which is appropriate, but sometimes frustrating. Sometimes she would make a decision based on whether a person was cute. What? Yeah, I know. And it was so out of place compared with the rest of this reasonably well written book.
The setup is a bit silly but is also a fun series of events. Meadow Rue Cassels, or just Rue as she prefers, bails out of the station where she lived and worked to escape her bully of a brother, Jentry. She shoots her brother in the face then peels out in the shuttle that they had inherited from their late mother. Oh, don't worry. Jentry isn't dead.
It just keeps piling on. Rue has no idea where she's going. The ship's AI informs her that she can make it to another station safely, but when she learns the cost of visiting the station she realises it is well beyond her budget. While she is ruminating over her lack of options the AI announces that a massive comet is registering on sensors. You bloody beauty! Rue is going to be rich and quickly stakes a claim which is legally recognised only hours later. Oh, damn. That's not actually a comet.
When Rue arrives at Treya, the "nearby" planet which had recognised her claim she learns that further investigation revealed her discovery to be another ship rather than the comet which she had hoped to cash in on. She had become something of an overnight celebrity and switched off comms to ignore the inundation of messages from people trying to get their fingers in her pie, so she was completely surprised by the news which she received on arrival. Ah, but don't give up. There is still hope.
Once the news had been updated, the family who she expected to meet on her arrival at Treya deserted her and she arrives to find only a single cousin, Maximilian, is waiting to greet her. It takes a bit of to-and-fro-ing for Rue to learn to trust Max, but he lifts her spirits when he; 1 - Wants to help her claim the vessel and 2 - Turns out to be rich enough to do so. They set up the shuttle for the trip to capture and redirect the wayward "Cycler", organise a slapdash crew and next thing you know Rue is the captain of this crazy plan.
The competition is on though, because other interested parties want to claim the Cycler vessel. Unlike claiming a comet which is done by simply reporting the find, ownership of a salvaged vessel goes to whoever reaches it first. And there you have my five paragraph summary of the madcap setup for this story. Up to this point we've only heard snippets about a religion called Permanence but with no apparent connection to Rue's mission.
The setup has you thinking you're about to read a Great Starship Race adventure story, but it's a deceptive introduction that really serves to setup the crew of Jentry's Envy, the salvaged Cycler. There does turn out to be more than a single race in the story but it's much more about the significance of the Cycler which Rue has discovered and how it will affect the balance of power in the system.
I can't properly explain how the political structure of this system works. At about a third of the way in we have had various elements of it introduced to us but I can't claim to have comprehended it very well. I'll do my best to summarise what I got out of it. Instead of a Financial Economy it is referred to as a Rights Economy, which is weird to grasp because money is still used to pay for goods and services. There is a governing body, probably made up of planetary governments which are overseen by the Erythrion system government. But the Erythrion system (and presumably other systems of halo worlds) are yet still overseen by Rights Owners back on Earth.
The Rights Owners, as I understood it, own the rights to perform various activities or provide certain types of services and therefore get a slice out of every pie underneath their banner. The Rights Owners have the fattest bank accounts and inevitably hold sway over the decisions made by the governments, but I think it might be in a more direct fashion than simply paying off their favourite politicians. Sorry, this isn't very clear for me.
In this system it is "illegal for a religion not to charge for its services". Religions are an important part of the power structure, with Permanence being the dominant religious group. Permanence is on a kind of eternal pilgrimage to connect all alien life to the meaning of the universe.
There's a group called the Compact which seemed like the Rights Owners of interplanetary travel at the very least. The Compact is in some sort of trouble, but with loyal Cycler crews running the remaining Cyclers in the system for them, they control all travel between the halo planets. Again, apologies for my basic handling of what is probably a complex web of interacting beliefs and systems.
Other than that society seems pretty much as you'd expect it. The rich folks live in nice areas and the poor and working classes live in rougher suburbs with varying levels of (dis)comfort.
"Since the lit worlds abandoned us we haven't seen a new Cycler in 20 years".
Lit worlds are worlds that orbit a large, bright star, like Earth orbiting Sol. Erythrion is the system that our cast live in, named after a brown dwarf star, one which is comparably dim and lower in mass, the halo worlds are those which orbit such stars. Halo worlds like those in the Erythrion system don't have enough gravity for departing ships to fire up their FTL drives so they use these ships called Cyclers instead, which appear to use "plow sails" for both propulsion and protection against particles in space (I pictured these as what we call "solar sails"). Cyclers take a long time to get going but can still reach incredible speeds (sub-lightspeed of course) and it takes a long time to slow them down using complex braking maneuvers.
The author has clearly put a lot of thought into the structure of this system and my lack of understanding should not indicate its impenetrability. I've been distracted by life and I had to stop reading several times to concentrate on real things which unfortunately hindered my processing of the details.
There's just loads of tech in this story, all very futuristic and fun. An example is the "Inscape", which is fairly important to the plot. The inscape is worn as an implant and is somehow configured into the view of the user, so that what a person sees is partly a façade tacked onto reality. Grey concrete walls are transformed to marble, a few scattered streetside stalls are displayed as part of a lively carnival market and that type of thing. Ironically, it costs the user more money to remove the frilly illusions, no doubt a mechanism by the off world Rights Owners for maintaining higher satisfaction among the planetary populations. Much more can be done with these, including removing yourself from other people's views and can you imagine what mayhem might ensue if these devices were hackable? Mmhmm.
This review may represent the highest words:sense ratio that I've written yet, which is not a good feat. Too many words and not enough sense. But I do recommend this book to you and I'll probably come back at it for a second run myself at some point.
pelican85's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
riduidel's review against another edition
5.0
Non mais dites donc ! Si [b:Ventus|394024|Ventus|Karl Schroeder|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312037639s/394024.jpg|574928], son précédent roman était pas mal, il m'avait laissé un goût d'incomplet, ou plutôt un côté pas complètement éclairci (1). Heureusement pour moi, ça n'est vraiment pas le cas de ce roman, qu'on peut tout de suite placer dans la catégorie des très, très bons romans.
Mais reprenons du commencement. Dans ce roman, on suit d'abord les aventures de Rue Cassels, une jeune femme qui, par un jeu de circonstances de l'ordre de l'extraordinaire (2), se retrouve en possession d'un vaisseau spatial étrange. Rapidement, elle se retrouve accompagnée par un tas de personnages assez sympathiques - ou pas. Evidement, le plus intéressant d'entre eux est Michael ... heu ... j'ai oublié son nom.
Comme je l'ai dit dès le début, j'ai trouvé ce roman très intéressant, pour bien des raisons d'ailleurs.
La première, c'est simple, c'est une révélation. A un moment, Michael, tiraillé par une crise de sa foi non métaphysique, nous fait entrevoir le destin inéluctable de l'espèce humaine et, d'une certaine façon, son unicité. Si je me souviens bien (3), il commence par expliquer que toutes les civilisations spatio-pérégrines se sont éteintes, pour une raison simple et franchement terrifiante à l'échelle humaine : pour vivre dans l'espace, il faut être adaptable, mais être adaptable, c'est un trait qui apparaît seulement chez les espèces inadaptées à leur milieu, et ça veut aussi dire le maintien de conditions de vies non naturelles, et donc forcément sujettes à extinction, ce qui implique la destruction de l'espèce. En un mot comme en cent, [a:Schroeder|588558|Lisa Schroeder|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1256568733p2/588558.jpg] prononce dans ce roman la fin obligatoire de l'Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Et ça, pour moi, c'est un choc. Parce qu'il ne prononce pas "la fin de la civilisation telle que nous la connaissons", ni la fin de l'humanité unifiée. Non, lui, il prononce la fin de l'être humain en tant qu'espèce. C'est-à-dire que, selon lui, la seule chose qui permettrait à l'homme de survivre plus de quelques millions d'année, c'est de ne plus être humain, mais aussi, et surtout, de ne plus être conscient. Effrayant, en un sens, non ?
Donc, ça, c'est une révélation qui m'a beaucoup fait réfléchir.
L'autre attrait de ce roman,c 'est la façon de révérer l'univers qu'ont les héros, chacun à leur manière. Michael essaye de trouver l'esprit divin de chaque lieu, et Rue quant à elle essaye de faire de sa vie quelque chose qui mérite d'être revécu, car elle est persuadée que l'unviers est cyclique, et que sa vie, qu'elle le veuille ou non, lui reviendra à la figure. Des conceptions très différentes de notre monde, pour un monde lui aussi très différent, et très poétique, j'ai trouvé.
Enfin, la partie poétique, pour être honnête, ce sont bien évidement ces mondes du Halo, plongés dans une pénombre naturelle que ne peuvent changer que des soleils artificiels nourris à la magnétosphère des étoiles naines autour desquelles gravitent ces mondes (rien que de l'écrire, je trouve ça beau). Parce que de l'autre côté, c'est-àdire dans l'économie des droits, c'est autre chose. je pense - à titre purement personnel - que c'est dans cette économie que l'auteur a essayé d'être le plus prospectiviste. il an ainsi choisi de nous présenter une civilisation spatiale ne cherchant que le maintien d'un état de fait inacceptable, dans un univers qui ne peut pas être vu de cette manière. Qui plus est, l'état de fait qu'il nous présente, avec les droits attachés à chaque objet, m'a furieusement fait penser à une version légèrement futuriste du système capitalistique actuel. La grande force dans cette civilisation, d'ailleurs, c'est que l'auteur ne prend pas vraiment partie. oh, bien sûr, on sent bien que les rebelles ont sa sympathie. Mais c'est peutêtre parce qu'ils favorisent indirectement les mondes du Halo sur lesquels s'appuie l'intrigue du roman. Mais ça n'est pas très franc. Et ça permet du reste - comme d'habitude, j'aurais tendance à dire - à l'auteur d'être moins manichéen dans la vision de cette société, et du coup beaucoup plus percutant dans son analyse de ce système économique.
Je pourrais dire encore bien des choses, je pense, de ce roman, positives pour la plupart (comme les intercepteurs de la fin, qui sont une espèce de saut quantique dans cet univers, et d'incroyable machine à sensations pour le lecteur), négatives pour certaines (comme le côté un peu facile de l'intrigue, mais je pense que c'est presque voulu). Mais je crois que ce serait louper le coeur de cette histoire, qui ne tient pas vraiment à la course après l'étrange artefact extra-terrestre qui va changer l'univers (puisque c'est le style de récit space-op dans lequel s'inscrit théoriquement ce roman), mais beaucoup plus à la réflexion sur le destin des civilisations, la vacuité d'une volonté expansionniste qui ne permet pas réellement d'exister sur le long terme, et plus de promettre aux voisins galactiques un joyeux feu d'artifice.
A titre tout à fait personnel, tout cela m'a énormément plu. C'est un roman solide, profond (même si Rue m'a parue un peu archétypale, dans son rôle de cheftaine scoute toujours prête à repousser ses limites, mais pétrie de doutes sur ses moyens), intéressant par sa conclusion qui est loin, très loin d'être claire quand j'y réfléchis bien. A mon sens, tout cela suffit largement à en faire l'un des tous meilleurs space-opera ... Bon, j'ai dit ça il y a peu de temps pour [b:Sculpteurs de ciel|6575432|Sculpteurs De Ciel|Alexander Jablokov|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|1677240] et c'est vrai pour les deux, même si ce sont des romans très différents. mais c'est ça l'intérêt majeur de la science-fiction, non ? Offrir des oeuvres toujours renouvellées, toujours intéressantes, dans des directions très différentes.
(1) Je veux dire par là que certaines choses n'étaient pas complètement claires une fois la dernière page lue.
(2) Pratchett nous dirait qu'en toute logique, comme il y a environ une chance sur un million pour que ça arrive, ça arrive en fait neuf fois sur dix. Mais on n'est pas chez Pratchett, et le concours de
circonstance qui la rend fabuleusement riche est tout sauf commun.
(3) Oui, c'est un spoiler, oui, j'abuse des notes de pied de page, mais je fais un peu ce que je veux, pas vrai ? Quant au spoiler, il est assez mineur et avant tout d'ordre, comment dire ? D'ordre philosophique.
Mais reprenons du commencement. Dans ce roman, on suit d'abord les aventures de Rue Cassels, une jeune femme qui, par un jeu de circonstances de l'ordre de l'extraordinaire (2), se retrouve en possession d'un vaisseau spatial étrange. Rapidement, elle se retrouve accompagnée par un tas de personnages assez sympathiques - ou pas. Evidement, le plus intéressant d'entre eux est Michael ... heu ... j'ai oublié son nom.
Comme je l'ai dit dès le début, j'ai trouvé ce roman très intéressant, pour bien des raisons d'ailleurs.
La première, c'est simple, c'est une révélation. A un moment, Michael, tiraillé par une crise de sa foi non métaphysique, nous fait entrevoir le destin inéluctable de l'espèce humaine et, d'une certaine façon, son unicité. Si je me souviens bien (3), il commence par expliquer que toutes les civilisations spatio-pérégrines se sont éteintes, pour une raison simple et franchement terrifiante à l'échelle humaine : pour vivre dans l'espace, il faut être adaptable, mais être adaptable, c'est un trait qui apparaît seulement chez les espèces inadaptées à leur milieu, et ça veut aussi dire le maintien de conditions de vies non naturelles, et donc forcément sujettes à extinction, ce qui implique la destruction de l'espèce. En un mot comme en cent, [a:Schroeder|588558|Lisa Schroeder|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1256568733p2/588558.jpg] prononce dans ce roman la fin obligatoire de l'Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Et ça, pour moi, c'est un choc. Parce qu'il ne prononce pas "la fin de la civilisation telle que nous la connaissons", ni la fin de l'humanité unifiée. Non, lui, il prononce la fin de l'être humain en tant qu'espèce. C'est-à-dire que, selon lui, la seule chose qui permettrait à l'homme de survivre plus de quelques millions d'année, c'est de ne plus être humain, mais aussi, et surtout, de ne plus être conscient. Effrayant, en un sens, non ?
Donc, ça, c'est une révélation qui m'a beaucoup fait réfléchir.
L'autre attrait de ce roman,c 'est la façon de révérer l'univers qu'ont les héros, chacun à leur manière. Michael essaye de trouver l'esprit divin de chaque lieu, et Rue quant à elle essaye de faire de sa vie quelque chose qui mérite d'être revécu, car elle est persuadée que l'unviers est cyclique, et que sa vie, qu'elle le veuille ou non, lui reviendra à la figure. Des conceptions très différentes de notre monde, pour un monde lui aussi très différent, et très poétique, j'ai trouvé.
Enfin, la partie poétique, pour être honnête, ce sont bien évidement ces mondes du Halo, plongés dans une pénombre naturelle que ne peuvent changer que des soleils artificiels nourris à la magnétosphère des étoiles naines autour desquelles gravitent ces mondes (rien que de l'écrire, je trouve ça beau). Parce que de l'autre côté, c'est-àdire dans l'économie des droits, c'est autre chose. je pense - à titre purement personnel - que c'est dans cette économie que l'auteur a essayé d'être le plus prospectiviste. il an ainsi choisi de nous présenter une civilisation spatiale ne cherchant que le maintien d'un état de fait inacceptable, dans un univers qui ne peut pas être vu de cette manière. Qui plus est, l'état de fait qu'il nous présente, avec les droits attachés à chaque objet, m'a furieusement fait penser à une version légèrement futuriste du système capitalistique actuel. La grande force dans cette civilisation, d'ailleurs, c'est que l'auteur ne prend pas vraiment partie. oh, bien sûr, on sent bien que les rebelles ont sa sympathie. Mais c'est peutêtre parce qu'ils favorisent indirectement les mondes du Halo sur lesquels s'appuie l'intrigue du roman. Mais ça n'est pas très franc. Et ça permet du reste - comme d'habitude, j'aurais tendance à dire - à l'auteur d'être moins manichéen dans la vision de cette société, et du coup beaucoup plus percutant dans son analyse de ce système économique.
Je pourrais dire encore bien des choses, je pense, de ce roman, positives pour la plupart (comme les intercepteurs de la fin, qui sont une espèce de saut quantique dans cet univers, et d'incroyable machine à sensations pour le lecteur), négatives pour certaines (comme le côté un peu facile de l'intrigue, mais je pense que c'est presque voulu). Mais je crois que ce serait louper le coeur de cette histoire, qui ne tient pas vraiment à la course après l'étrange artefact extra-terrestre qui va changer l'univers (puisque c'est le style de récit space-op dans lequel s'inscrit théoriquement ce roman), mais beaucoup plus à la réflexion sur le destin des civilisations, la vacuité d'une volonté expansionniste qui ne permet pas réellement d'exister sur le long terme, et plus de promettre aux voisins galactiques un joyeux feu d'artifice.
A titre tout à fait personnel, tout cela m'a énormément plu. C'est un roman solide, profond (même si Rue m'a parue un peu archétypale, dans son rôle de cheftaine scoute toujours prête à repousser ses limites, mais pétrie de doutes sur ses moyens), intéressant par sa conclusion qui est loin, très loin d'être claire quand j'y réfléchis bien. A mon sens, tout cela suffit largement à en faire l'un des tous meilleurs space-opera ... Bon, j'ai dit ça il y a peu de temps pour [b:Sculpteurs de ciel|6575432|Sculpteurs De Ciel|Alexander Jablokov|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|1677240] et c'est vrai pour les deux, même si ce sont des romans très différents. mais c'est ça l'intérêt majeur de la science-fiction, non ? Offrir des oeuvres toujours renouvellées, toujours intéressantes, dans des directions très différentes.
(1) Je veux dire par là que certaines choses n'étaient pas complètement claires une fois la dernière page lue.
(2) Pratchett nous dirait qu'en toute logique, comme il y a environ une chance sur un million pour que ça arrive, ça arrive en fait neuf fois sur dix. Mais on n'est pas chez Pratchett, et le concours de
circonstance qui la rend fabuleusement riche est tout sauf commun.
(3) Oui, c'est un spoiler, oui, j'abuse des notes de pied de page, mais je fais un peu ce que je veux, pas vrai ? Quant au spoiler, il est assez mineur et avant tout d'ordre, comment dire ? D'ordre philosophique.
speljamr's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a top notch sci-fi read, blending new ideas with a classic feel, and has immediately catapulted Karl Schroeder into my favorite authors list. This book falls into the category of hard sci-fi, but with interesting characters, a well thought out story, and some philosophy thrown in for good measure.
The scientific concepts that are integrated into the setting offer a look at some of the more recent ideas about what exists between solar systems, from Kuiper Belt objects to Brown Dwarfs and their possible planetary systems, referred to in the book as the Halo worlds. The setting implies the frequency of these objects is higher than what we know of today, making these dark worlds reachable with a pre-Faster-Than-Light technology. Humans have discovered FTL drives as well, but they seem to require the deep gravity wells of normal stars to work.
The aliens of this universe are few and far between as well, and none of them are anything like humans, so much so that humanity still feels very alone in the universe. I love authors who pull off unique aliens as that is what I expect such an alternative evolutionary track would do, and it helps to make it feel like it could be real.
The book includes some philosophical & religious exploration as well, centered mostly on what it takes to build a sustainable galactic type civilization that could encompass many different intelligent species. The religion of many people in the current universe is called Permanence. This religion is based on the methodology and technology required for maintaining the current human civilization and also on expanding it. The religion still maintains it's following among the Halo worlds, but is repressed on the worlds around stars, where FTL can be used. From a philosophical side, the book explores the implications of FTL vs. non-FTL travel between worlds, and it's affects on the sustainability of a civilization spread across the stars.
There's plenty of politics here as well, with the repressive like Right Economy which nano tags everything with a value and ownership, allowing the enforcement of payment on all uses of information and items owned by others. Ultimately this appears as a libertarian dystopia, exposing the flaws in extreme economic libertarianism. There's also some repression of freedom of religion as well, but there is not much else discussed to expose what other types of rights might also be repressed.
As my initial introduction to Karl Schroeder, I found the book highly enjoyable and look forward to reading many more novels by him. In fact, I think he has managed to claim a spot in my short list of all-time favorite authors.
zetasyanthis's review
5.0
I don't think I've encountered a book this ambitious (or this well executed) since the Hyperion Cantos. This book has kind of shaken me in a way few ever have.
The primary protagonist of the story, Rue Cassels, is an amazing young girl who is force to quickly grow into strong young woman after being thrown a few fairly crazy life twists. When the book starts, her brother is attempting to sell her into slavery, only to have that turned on its head when she discovers of an abandoned starship and is thrown into a world she barely understands. She has a good heart though, and it slowly draws a crew around her and the ship that in some cases don't even know they've joined until the critical moment.
The rest of the characters are likable, and all have their little twists! From the NeoShintoist rebel with his life-changing kami, to the professor and his studies of other alien species, everyone is just trying to survive and do the best they can while not being overwhelmed by fate and a civil war that threatens everything they hold dear. And that's to say nothing of Rue and the other halo-worlders whose life-affirming Cycler Compact is under threat from simple apathy and abandonment. Everyone has something to lose, and it takes them coming together and risking it all to make something truly special.
Now, the Cycler Compact and the Rights Economy. Those two are an interesting take on interstellar civilizations, and there's a lot of politics and economics blended into their mixes. While the R.E. is a bit like capitalism gone mad (and unsurprisingly so, given the economics of travel posited in the book), the Cycler Compact is at once somber and life-affirming. I could be mistaken, but Karl may be putting his own little seed out there, and seeing how it might grow. ;) For years, I've actually worried a bit about the viability of ever creating an interstellar civilization without faster than light travel, but I'm not so sure that's a loss anymore. I think the Compact could be a better way. A hopeful way. Together.
I'm going to treasure this one, forever.
The primary protagonist of the story, Rue Cassels, is an amazing young girl who is force to quickly grow into strong young woman after being thrown a few fairly crazy life twists. When the book starts, her brother is attempting to sell her into slavery, only to have that turned on its head when she discovers of an abandoned starship and is thrown into a world she barely understands. She has a good heart though, and it slowly draws a crew around her and the ship that in some cases don't even know they've joined until the critical moment.
The rest of the characters are likable, and all have their little twists! From the NeoShintoist rebel with his life-changing kami, to the professor and his studies of other alien species, everyone is just trying to survive and do the best they can while not being overwhelmed by fate and a civil war that threatens everything they hold dear. And that's to say nothing of Rue and the other halo-worlders whose life-affirming Cycler Compact is under threat from simple apathy and abandonment. Everyone has something to lose, and it takes them coming together and risking it all to make something truly special.
Now, the Cycler Compact and the Rights Economy. Those two are an interesting take on interstellar civilizations, and there's a lot of politics and economics blended into their mixes. While the R.E. is a bit like capitalism gone mad (and unsurprisingly so, given the economics of travel posited in the book), the Cycler Compact is at once somber and life-affirming. I could be mistaken, but Karl may be putting his own little seed out there, and seeing how it might grow. ;) For years, I've actually worried a bit about the viability of ever creating an interstellar civilization without faster than light travel, but I'm not so sure that's a loss anymore. I think the Compact could be a better way. A hopeful way. Together.
I'm going to treasure this one, forever.