Revelation Space
Alistair Reynolds
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Revelation SpaceAlistair Reynolds
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I just finished reading the first example of non internet science fiction that deals with transhumanist ideas. The book 'Revelation Space' by Alastair Reynolds shares many concepts with OA though in practice they are very different.
The book is based in the 26th century. There are three main locals that book explores. The first is a semi barren planet around Delta Pavonis that was once home to an alien civilization. The planet Resurgam was rendered uninhabitable by a massive solar flare style event millions of years ago. It is now home to a small human colony founded to reserach the aliens. The second world is known as Yellowstone and orbits Epsilon Eridani. Yellowstone is somewhat like one might imagine Titan. There are mentions of methane floods for example. The third local is a lighthugger, a STL interstellar vehicle that is the size of a very large city, called "Nostalgia for Infinity".
The story revolves around three people that seem completely unconnected to one another at first glance. The first is a Archeologies from Resurgam (former head of the colony and Yellowstone native), the second is a Soldier from Sky's Edge who due to a clerical error got sent to Yellowstone in a cyronic sleeper pod on a ship, the third is one of the roughly six member crew of the light hugger with an afinity towards weapons.
The story includes a nano plague on Yellowstone that infects other nano systems including personal implants. One of the main characters is contract assasin that hunts people that pay her to do so as a kinda sport played by the new immortal Yellowstone citizens. There is uploading, various subturing AI programs, human cladization, virtual reality, radical genemods, radical cyborg mods, cyborgization is practically universal. There is even a neutron star computer of alien origin. A event known as the Transenlightment. Star drives that seem a mixture of ramscoop and GUT. These things all just scratch the surface of things.
I highly recommend this book. It is as hard science as OA and is somewhat less dystopian. Things are described beautifully and are sure to thrill people interested in transhumanism ideas. However I should stress that it doesn't deal with the singularity or similar ideas which makes it far more palatable.
