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Some Books with similiar themes to Orion's Arm |
note: rating of relevance to the Orion's Arm setting is often subjective
the Culture
novels - show a number of parallels, connections, and
inspirations for Orion's Arm. Look to Windward,
his latest Culture novel, is perhaps not of the standard of Use
of Weapons or Player of Games, but a good book
that shows you quite a bit of daily life in supertechnology utopia. It
really felt a bit more like Orion's Arm than the others,
showing a bit more how a society like the Utopia Sphere might work in
practice, that even supertechnology can be fooled and of course, Banks'
marvellous imagination.
Consider Phlebas might give a hint of the vastness of an interstellar war like the second consolidation war or the version war.
Use of Weapons - IMHO his best Culture novel. Very complex, very dark humor. Deals with a man who in Orion's Arm might be an operative from one of the empires dealing with the outer volume systems. His tactical talent might show just how clever even the average superior is in everyday life.
Player of Games - Expresses Banks' philosophy about the Culture fairly well. Some wonderful locations like the planet Echronendal with its perpetual forest fire.
Excession - What happens when something appears that is beyond the ken of the Culture? Shows the kind of advanced warfare the empires might use, as well as how an eager species can exploit the plots of the AIs. Explains a bit about how the Culture holds together and why it has not transcended.
Look to Windward - Describes the kinds of things Culture citizens do for recreation (I really want to render a picture of Pylon Country or lava rafting). Gives some hints on how devious AI god-like intrigue can be.
Against a Dark Background - Has a great setting for OA: a system that has been inhabited many thousands of years, crammed with history and odd scenery (everything from planet-spanning plants over monks attached to rails in the walls to a clarketech weapon).
Inversions - a very subtle novel. Not at all like the others, but with some very subtle ties.
In my opinion, Use of Weapons and Excession would be the primary targets to read for OA.
Diaspora - The book about
posthuman life, nanotech, picotech and femtotech entities. Begins in
the year 3000 when most of the human population has either uploaded
into the net, become cyborgs or highly modified posthumans, and then
gradually expands it scope towards more and more grandiose themes. Not
an easy going at times, but crammed with ideas. Overall, Greg Egan has
written several novels and short stories relevant to Orion's Arm.
Schilds Ladder Greg Egan is without doubt, the hardest of the current crop of Hard SciFi writers in the market today, and this is more than evident in his latest novel Schilds Ladder.
For the past 20,000 years, physics has conformed to the Sarumpaet Rules, every observable phenomena has been predicted by these rules, that is untill a 2mm high physicist, Cass, upsets the apple cart and creates a new kind of vacuum which begins to spread out from the laboratory and subsume the vacuum around it.
Skip forward 600 years, to the science vessel Rindler which keeps pace with the novo-vacuum border, studying it while the two factions onboard the ship itself attempt to resolve what to do with the vacuum. Attempt to destroy it, as it has destroyed over 2000 star systems; or to yield to it, attempt to cross over the border and establish a civilization there. Shaking the terragens society out of the rut it has fitted itself into. A conflict which is brought to the reader through two childhood friends, who have ended up in opposing camps.
As in Diaspora, Schilds Ladder represents a society in which baseline humanity is no longer the top-dog, or even relevant. Humanity is now post-human and effectively immortal, either uploaded into polises or running in synthetic bodies, governed via a minaturised quantum computer called a Quisp; allowing complete mastery over self.
Filled with interesting questions on the nature of self, not-light mathematics, some intersting graphs and entertaining nods and the occasional swipe at Transhumanism; Schilds Ladder is well worth the year long wait, and a worthy addition to any science fiction fans collection.
SB: �10.99 HB: �15.99 ISBN: 0-575-07123-0
Revelation Space - ESA
Scientist Alistair Reynolds first book is exceptional son of space
opera hard sci-fi, based around an astroarchaologists attempt to
contact what can be described as an alien race hiding behind a fold in
space/time, whilst avoiding a revolution on the planet he is
investigating, and the mercenary crew of a lighthugger starship who
want his uploaded father to save there captain from an alien nanoplague.
Filled with fascinating, and rational, technology (the cyborged rat cleaners/spys on the lighthugger a particular favorite). Aliens that as Phil Dick described are not like us and interesting characters make this a very impressive first novel, begging to be mined for OA ideas.
Chasm City Although set in the same universe as Revelation Space, this book could best be described as a Sci-Fi technothriller/revenge story, that although starts at a blistering pace with the sabotage of an orbital elevator, seems to loose pace midway through and not pick up till towards the very end.
There are two narratives throughout the book, one being that of Tanner Mirabel, whose desire for revenge leads him across 300 years to the planet Yellowstone and what was the center of interstellar culture, Chasm City, currently having its own set of problems with the same alien nanoplague from the first book. As he hunts down the man who killed his employer and employers wife. The second narrative is that of Sky Haussman, founder of the Sky's Edge colony, and religious messiah for some of the natives. Tanner being infected with an indoctrinal nanovirus before he left skys edge.
Although well envisioned, it comes with an obvious twist at the end, rather reminicent of The Prisoner episode, The Schizoid Man. Well written and full of ideas ready to be slotted into O.A, it is not up to the standard of the first book.
another
review (external link)
Diamond Dogs - Novella By Alastair Reynolds
PS Publishing is a very small UK publishers who never the less have managed to get some of the best science fiction authors in the world to write a novella; of which a small number are printed (500 paperback and 400 Hardback). All books are signed by Alastair Reynolds, while the hardbacks are also signed by the forewords writer Stephen Baxter.
Set in the same universe as Revelation Space and Chasm City, and starting on Yellowstone just prior to the nanoplague; it is the story of two descendants of the eighty, an ultra captain, a time travelling industrial spy from the glitter ring an expert on the pattern jugglers and a renegade cyberneticist. They travel to a planet called Golgotha, on which one of their number has discovered an alien citadel, access to which is governed by a labyrinth containing complex mathematical puzzles.
Its very difficult to describe this book without giving the game away; yet be assured that it reads just as you would think an OA rpg adventure would be carried off - absolutley stunning and yet again packed with technology just waiting to be mined for OA or any other science fiction scenario.
It currently costs �8 paperback or �25 hardback which is rather pricey for a 110 page book, however it will probably be released halfway through next year in a compilation called "Futures" with three other novellas for �13, just in time infact for the release of his new book "Ressurection Ark".
As of writing (11/12/01) I only know of one bookstore stocking both versions of Diamond Dogs, the demand being such that even the publisher has none remaining, and that is the Deansgate branch of Waterstones in the UK. Their mail order department can be reached on +44 (0)161 837 3050; and no I am not getting any kind of kickback from them.
Redemption Ark How is it best to describe the third book by Alistair Reynolds? Well it's very much a sequal to Revelation Space, seeing the return of Nostalgia for Infinity and Triumvir Voylova, the doomsday weapons, the Captain and of course the Inhibitors. However they for the most part play a minor/supporting role.
Indeed prehaps the only way I could briefly describe Redemption Ark is to say it is sheer bloody briliance, and you should buy this book rather than eat!!
The story's protagonist is one Nevil Clavian (a character in a number of short stories by Reynolds). The Butcher of Tharsis, former soldier in the Coalition for Neural Purity and for the past 400 years a member of the Conjoiner faction of Humanity; a group mind responsable for many of the technological advances in Reynolds universe. Clavian from the outset represents a fascinating character, a man regardless of consequences who has always done the right thing. It is this attitude that causes him to turn his back on the Conjoiners, and cross the dozens of lightyears to Resurgam in a stolen lighthugger to do battle not only with the Triumvir, but also the Inhibitors and the Conjoiners, who are being directed by messages from one possible future, for the future of humanity.
Al Reynolds is truely the most exciting of all the new crop of Son of Space Opera authors. He has a genuine eye for action sequences, of which there are many in this book, coupled with a knack for epic storytelling and as an Astrophysicist himself, a well imagined and consistent style of technology. All of which are fully on display in this book; which deserves pride of place on the bookshelves of all OA fans.
Hell, buy this book just for the chapter where a Gas Giant is converted into a Dyson motor. Now thats Megascale Engineering...
SB: �10.99 HB: �17.99 ISBN: 0-575-06880-9
Ventus is well-written and fun, as well
as having IME the most realistic treatment of nanotech I've yet
encountered in SF. Schroeder is definitely an author to watch (this is
his first novel). The setup is that some agents from the local galactic
civilization have come to an off-limits world hunting a powerful cyborg
who may be carrying the last copy of an extremely dangerous AI god. The
tough part is that the world is off-limits because the nanotech on that
world is controlled by AIs that destroy all technology not made by
them, and aren't terribly human-friendly.
Brain Plague - by Joan Slonczewski -
definitely OA relevant. A decadent nanotech city with
baroque buildings (many are citizens themselves), uplifted simians,
immortal "elves", nanotech citizens with disturbing bodies and a plague
of intelligent drugs. The artist protagonist is enhanced by having a
civilisation of intelligent organisms living in her skull, giving her
the assistance of an entire internal city - as well as the problem of
dealing with microbial politics and being a god.
Accelerando
Personal review: Excellent description and story surrounding Earth’s approach to the singularity and beyond. Geometric technological growth followed by singularity and the eventual dismantling of the solor system (end result Matroishka Brain). Absolutely hard sci fi. If you are not up on computers, you will get confused by this book.
Concepts: Timing channel attack, low entropy background radiation, venture altruism, weakly godlike intelligence
Singularity Sky
Rough outline:
What happens when a mediumtech interplanetary civilization encounters a post scarcity, ultratech relativistic civilization’s exploration probes?
Iron Sunrise
A
Fire Upon the Deep. I read it last summer. It's one of
Vinge's best books, I think. And there are definite similarities with
the OA universe with regard to AI's, although Vinge has
not elaborated the details of AI levels to the same degree as in OA.
What Vinge has done, after many years of thinking and writing about the
Singularity and its implications, is to create a universe-or at least a
galaxy, ours-that is divided into levels according to degrees of possible
high technology, including artificial intelligence and superluminal
drives.
As diagrammed in the prefatory section of A Fire Upon the Deep,
the galaxy is divided into zones extending from the core region outward
in irregular concentric zones that roughly parallel the lens shape of
the Milky Way. The core region is the Slow Zone in which no high
technology can function for long. Next outward comes the Low Beyond.
Moderate high tech is possible here. Then come the Middle Beyond and
High Beyond, where increasingly sophisticated high tech can function.
Beyond that lays the Transcend. Here be both super monsters and AI
gods, both of which originated from individual High Beyond
civilizations that made the dangerous leap into super-tech
transcendence.
From what I have read of Vinge's explanations of his writings, it seems
clear that this division into zones of potential high tech is more of a
writing device than a statement of what he believes about the structure
of the universe. Basically, Vinge faced an enormous writer's block back
in the late 1980s to early 1990s due to his belief that the approaching
Singularity will create such a radical break that we cannot imagine how
history will turn and what we may become from that point onward. In his
introduction to a story from that period titled "The Blabber" (which
introduced the Tines species now included in A Fire Upon the Deep,
by the way) Vinge wrote about the galactic zone structure and gave the
explanation I presented above.
Most notable about Vinge's worldview with regard to AI's and the
Singularity is its essential ambivalence. The history of struggle
between forces we might label good and evil (no matter how defined)
does not cease, even in
the Transcend. In this regard, it is very much like the OA universe.
A Deepness in the Sky - The prequel to A Fire
Upon the Deep, set 30,000 [ed: or rather 6,000 - see Transcript
of Chat] years earlier. Contains magnificent ideas
about relativistic trade empires.
book review
book reviews
Review:
A Fire Upon the Deep: Special Edition (Palm Digital Media)
Transcript
of Chat with
Vernor Vinge on June 24, 1999
Vernor Vinge
home page
Darwinia - The story takes place in the
extreme future and fairly recent past. The universe is cooling down and
the details of all histories for all civilizations ever to exist
(pretty much) have been stored in gigantic "noospheres". Unfortunately
remnants of a bygone war have invaded the noospheres and the contained
histories have been unfrozen so as to deal with this. In a virtual
(though real enough to the inhabitants) world, particular portions of
history are forced to confront changes that have taken place to their
world seemingly overnight.
Transhuman aspects are present but largely not embraced by the
characters, thought they are forced to deal with certain toposophic
aspects of their existence. The high technological aspects of the story
are also mostly distant from the characters. Memetics is not covered
very heavily and there is a definite right vs. wrong tone to the story.
This story could very well take place in the OA universe, though in the
very very distant future. Some variants on the story could be
applicable to sections of the current OA setting.
The Golden Age : A Romance of the Far Future
It is at least 10,000 years in the future if not more. People are
immortal and the Solar System has been transformed. The Sun is threaded
with controlling structures to manage its output and control its
reactions. Venus and Mars are terraformed and Jupiter is a new star.
AIs rule everything (sort of, and maybe we are getting the government
we deserve) and humanity and its 'Sophotechs' are linked into the
Mentality, a vast mix of virtual and realized layers that allows people
to copy themselves, erase or fake memories and tele-
transport themselves all over the solar system.
Into this Utopia comes Phaethon who, during the Masquerade leading up
to the once every thousand years High Transcendence learns that he is
not entirely who he thinks he is. The story unfolds into a clash
between those who would seek growth, freedom and adventure against
those who want only safety and security above all else.
By the end of the book you are more than ready to move on to the sequel
(not yet published) to see how it will all come out.
Buy it.
The Golden Age, -
review, comparison and contrast with OA
REVIEW: The
Golden Age by John C. Wright
Ferocious Poet's Heart
Commanding: An Interview With John C. Wright
Neverness by David Zindell. Also the
follow-up trilogy (which is rather more longwinded), The
Broken God, The
Wild, War in Heaven -
Zindell's style and setting is very like Orion's Arm. A far
future setting where mankind has diverged into many incompatible
directions: everything from normal humans to civilisation critics who
turned themselves into neo-neanderthals and dolphin-humans building
planetary minds to nanotechnological gods in space. Deals with the
mythic quests of a hero (Neverness) and his son (the others). A
lot of philosophy, mysticism and worldbuilding. Zindell's style
unfortunately suffers from turgidity, but great for ideas.
Space
This is one of the best hard
science stories i've read. An epic voyage through space and future
time of OA-esque proportions, and the descriptions of planets (moon,
Venus, other worlds) and stars are so vivid you feel you really are
there.
The down side, as with most work of this sort, is that the character development is not upto much Only Malenfant seems to have any sort of personality, and even he seems stilted. The rest are either one dimensional or interchangable, strangely deficient next to the richness of the hard science element.
One thing also that irritates me about this novel is the way that humanity is, since 2020, shown to be in a state of constant decline and decay, barely clinging on, the colonies managing to survive until being wiped out by the next disaster, but somehow giving rise to further colonies who likewise maintain their tenious grip before being themselves destroyed. While this is fine one time, it becomes a bit repetitive, and just plain silly, as the centuries (and the plotline) unfold. As does one of the characters who keeps popping up deus ex machina fashion at every plot turn.
Some good OA-applicable stuff here even so. Lunar habitats, alien "robots", solar-sail vessels, dyson trees, space adapted tweaks... Some fascinating original ideas as well - "Paulis mines" that tap the volitiles deep in the lunar core (might these really work? if so, they should certainly find a place in the OA scenario), non-FTL teleportation through quantum-entagled "Saddle Point Gateways", and Bussard Ram for Interplanetary (not interstellar) travel. And a nice attempt at answering the Fermi paradox.
Yet the differences with OA are also very marked. No AI (other than some minor sentient software) for one. Technology being mostly quite primitive (nanotech is hinted at a number of times but never quite specified) for another; none of the alien races (apart from the unknown builders of the Gateways) seem more advanced (for most of the story) than the middle Interplanetary age of OA. And the fragile humanity of Space (which recalls but at least is not as depressing as the pessimism of the Xeelee series) is in dramatic contrast to the vigorous terragen expansion of our scenario.
Before reading this book I always said there was no other space opera that is true hard science like OA (the Xeelee dont count because they have hyperdrive - i consider that "firm" (or medium) rather than "hard" science fiction). Now I can see I was mistaken. Baxter does it, with this book. For all its faults, this is a book to recommend, and one that truely stands out.
the Uplift Books - Describes an
universe where all intelligent species (with the possible exception of
humans) has been uplifted from the animal level by other species,
forming a eon-old galactic culture. Not directly applicable, but plenty
of ideas can be adapted and the sense of a vast, complex and dangerous
universe inhabited by numerous kinds of alien entities is very good.
David
Brin Home Page
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~tshipley/Encyclopedia/FrontMatter/Pdiabffr.htm
for an encyclopedia well worth imitating. (review
of this) Forever
War
Damn cool book, that. It worked for me on several levels; its
harder-than-normal science, its grittiness, and its ever-changing
cultural
backdrop.
He did a sequel to it, which I wasn't too keen on - the plot
resolved itself
via deus ex machina
, which is more than a little sucky.
Maintained his
relatively hard science approach though (large portions based on a
planet with
an orbit of relatively high eccentricity, combined with a seasonal tilt
cycle
3 times a solar year, leading to a complex seasonal system). I quite
liked
that aspect of it.
There is another book pertinant to the topic of humanoid mechas; Forever Peace. Remote controlled (via human brain interface) mechs, but on a relatively small scale (2.5 meters high at most). The treatment they were given was quite cool. Especially given that they're designed for anti-personnel warfare. The plot revolves largely around what happens when you link a number of humans together with brain taps. Very cool.
Joe Haldeman Home Page
Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy ( The
Reality Dysfunction - Emergence, The
Reality Dysfunction - Expansion, The
Neutronium Alchemist - Consolidation, The
Neutronium Alchemist - Conflict and The
Naked God - Flight, The
Naked God - Faith ) is a good example of a fairly hard
sf (with some wild exceptions) space opera that builds a complex and
interesting world. While the setting itself may not fit any era in Orion's
Arm and much (such as the main plot?) is irrelevant to our
setting, many planets and ideas could be used - from the Edenists, a
biotech culture that seem to fit many tweak ideas perfectly, to
corporate kingdoms to various interesting aliens.
A longer review of The Reality Dysfunction A review of The Confederation Handbook
- the companion volume to the trilogy Fallen
Dragon - (Minor Spoilers)
This is Peter F. Hamilton's first stand alone novel, and although Hamilton lacks Reynolds' scientific background or Zindell's incredible world building skills, he more than makes up for it with compulsive, page turning storytelling.
In the 24th century, Mankind, with the assistance of Artificial Sentience (AS) programs, has reached the stars using FTL technology. Several worlds have been terraformed and now contain millions of colonists, however this has cost Earth dearly in economic terms. Megacorps; now, to balance the books, visit the colonies every ten years to conduct "Asset Realisation", a polite term for piracy.
Lawrence Newton, sergeant in Zantiu-Braun's srategic security division and hero of the story, has plans to undertake his own asset-realisation mission in hopes of gaining enough to increase his stakeholder value and gain entrance into Z-B's starflight program, his dream since childhood. After all Lawrence and his squad of biological power armour equipped troops should be able to clean out that small group with all the advanced tech, hiding out in the hills of Thallspring...
Of all Hamilton's work this prehaps has the most relevance to Orion's Arm, especially the late first federation era. Packed full of transhumanist references (See the Santa Chico colony) and well realised technology such as one shot wormholes, skin bio-armour, i-war tools, alien nanotech and a touch of time travel. Fallen Dragon is a combination of action/adventure, romance and thriller with a fast pace, deserving a place on any sci-fi fan's bookshelf
Herbert's Dune
and its sequels - equalling Asimov's Foundation
in its grandeur - is another of the great classics of science fiction.
The story of the powerful and ancient warring houses inspired me to add
the Great Houses to the Orion's
Arm setting. However, technologically, Dune is
quite medieval ( in keeping with its feudalistic plotline), or rather
Bedouin (whenever Fremen comes up I keep thinking of Lawrence of
Arabia!). Although the characters are a lot richer and more realistic
than those of Foundation, the tech and "soft sci fi" setting has almost
nothing in common with our setting, and the Sandworms are ecologically
and biologically absurd. I also find Herbert heavy and tiring to read.
Nevertheless, some good ideas to be found scattered among the rich
tapestry of his narration. Check out the two movie versions as well.
While it is true that Herbert's Duniverse is more like a mankind's past, than a strange new future, Herbert himself was never much interested in technology and Science in itself. What interested him was humanity and its abilities. This was an avenue much explored in the Dune chronicles which is more like fantasy than SF anyway...But some of his less well known novells, especially the above mentioned and also the so-called Pandora Saga (cowritten with Bill Ransom) depicts societies much more like those envisioned by the Orions Arm project (Albeit not going quite as far as Orions Arm).
When rereading Chapterhouse Dune it struck me that the Dune books contain just about the most accurate portrayals of su/superbright interaction e.g. just about every conversation of the Bene Gesserit.
Apropos novels, maybe we should mention some Stanislaw Lem in the book section. I suggest his Golem XIV, which is the dryest, most academic sf I have ever read. It is a veritable sleeping pill, and at the same time amazing. It is a collection of two lectures (as well as some commentary) held by the superintelligent computer Golem XIV about evolution, humanity and the nature of intelligence. Golem points out the essential dilemma of humanity: either remain as it is, and stagnate, or autoevolve, and thus become something alien to current humanity.
His The Cyberiad is another wonderful book. It is the kind of fairy tales Metasoft parent objects tell to their child objects before the memory consolidation period. It deals with a fairy tale world inhabited by robot kings, cybernetic knights, probability dragons and the two constructors Trurl and Klaupatius. These two friends/competitors invent marvellous machines such as the electronic poet, the machine that could make anything beginning with 'N', the memory transfer device, a simulated kingdom for a deposed tyrant and artificial gods. Many stories sound like they belong in OA.
Lem is a great thinker, and can switch between being enormously dry and academic into total slapstick instantly. I have already mentioned him in passing with the King Gnuff Syndrome and toposophy.
Anders SandbergHis first four books are mostly "near-future"/cyberpunk affairs but overall they take a look at how AI evolves from todays tech, baseline humans interacting with uploaded "fast-folk" and the construction of a proto-Culture (along with a proto Special Circumstances ref: The Cassini Division).
His new trilogy (Engines of Light) is probably closer to some of the memes in OA but isn't as well written.
Deception
Well and Vast
- Far future setting where humans are trapped in an ancient war of
ecological succession and evolution against the nanodevices and
planet-killing ships of the Chenzeme, the mysterious planet Deception
Well and the Cult Virus. Definitely good material for various tweak
societies.
Marrow
Wonderful novel is set on the same vast space ship he has featured in
some of his short stories. The ship is quite literally the size of
Jupiter and is traveling across the galaxy at around 0.9 C. People from
various star systems visit and trade when it passes nearby and it has a
truly vast number of passengers.
Kirinyaga
: A Fable of Utopia. A set of connected short stories
taking place on the terraformed planet Kirinyaga. The stories deal with
a group called the Kikuyu, originally of Kenya, who are attempting to
live out a tribal utopia in this new world. The central figure in the
stories is the mundumugu: project architect, spiritual leader, cultural
coordinator, and witch-doctor. Kirinyaga is maintained physically by an
orbital space facility called Maintenance. Culturally it is maintained
through the sheer will and clever memetic engineering of the mundumugu.
However, while Kirinyaga is not the worst place one might hope to live, it is more distopia than utopia. Internal and external pressures make it's simple and primitive equilibrium extremely tenuous.
Although this book does not fit directly into the OA setting, it does have some useful perspectives on memetic engineering and cultural interaction as well as the relationship of technology, magic, faith, and religion. The level of technology in Kirinyaga is not described in detail serving mainly as a not totally improbable deus ex machina, which actually works well in this context. Another area of divergence from OA is the lack of AI presence, or at least AIs and transhuman elements are not heavily dealt with.
Mars Trilogy. Impressive epic
tale about the colonization and terraforming of Mars streches over 3
books, 3 centuries and a host of
beliveable, and detailed characters. Though powerful selfaware AIs are
nonexistent in the
Mars Trilogy and the setting is the nearfuture, the novels can still be
described as being quite relevant for OA simply because of the use of
correct science, and the visions about possible new ways of organizing
societies, and economies under the influence of accelerating technology.
Mars Trilogy
- complete review Venus of Dreams. This book
deals with the terraforming of Venus. There are two major conflicting
cultures, one space based, one Earth based. And elements within these
cultures also conflict. Much of the story has to do with a girl growing
up and dealing with her cultural and family attachments and obligations
as she attempts to leave the Earth and help in the Venus project. The
characters, cultures, and conflicts they encounter are well through out
and realistically presented.
The Earth based culture is largely running the Venus project (the space based culture is already doing something with Mars), but not without some assistance from the space culture.
Transhuman elements are present but limited. The main such element is a wireless cerebral interface system largely used to connect to a sort of internet. Among the space culture this system is a birthright. Among the Earth culture the system is allowed only to a select minority running things, although virtual reality interaction is nearly universal on Earth. There are no significant AIs or nanotech in the story, but at least one megascale project is under way.
Hyperion Cantos One of the best
written works of science fiction around - less because of technological
marvels (althought there are those too) as for the human depth of the
characters. This is actually three volumes in one - the first, Hyperion,
is a sort of rehash of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" as seven travellers
embark on a journey to gain an audience with a menacing superhuman
being (I would be tempted to say a transapient or even a minor AI God,
although nothing resembling those concepts appears in this work) called
the Shrike, the second, The
Fall of Hyperion concludes that part of the story,
while a third, Endymion,
is set two hundred and seventy-four years after the events of the Fall
of Hyperion.
The story is set against a wider backdrop of an interstellar civilization bound together by a nexus of artificial wormholes, and overseen by superhuman AIs that are themselves divided into factions. Actually Hyperion was the book that provided me with the seed inspiration for the basic setting of Orion's Arm. Things have developed a great deal since then, and much of Simmon's opus, while enjoyable to read, is not very pertinant to our current project.
Update: The Hyperion Cantos now runs to four books with the publication of The Rise of Endymion ((He is also writing a new SF series based on the Iliad called Olympus(?). Due for publication next year (2004)).
Stapledon's First
and Last Men will stand forever as one of the great
visionary novels of Science Fiction. Despite being historically dated
(the book's future history begins in the 1930s and obviously gets it
wrong), this account of the vast sweep of human evolution through
seventeen different species, three or four planets and vast aeons of
time is awesome in its reach. While later writers have spanned a galaxy
rather than merely a solar system, the scope of their imagination does
not come close to Stapledon's.
See the review for Starmaker
Schismatrix
- an Interplanetary civilisation divided between cyborg technocrats and
bioengineered "shapers". Decaying orbitals, jovian states, the Ring
Council, cladizing humanity and incompetent space pirates all feature
in this dense and well-written tale. Some of these ideas adapt well
into the Interplanetary
Age Orion's Arm. Sterling however does not have
advanced AIs and instead uses a race of large bird-like aliens to
represent the "other".
Vacuum Flowers Written in 1987,
Vacuum Flowers is one of a number of cyberpunkish
interplanetary age space-operas that appeared around that time, (others
include Schizmatrix and Voice of the Whirlwind).
The story is fast-moving and involves some interesting OA-relevant
themes, such as frontier-capitalist asteroid polities (the Klusters)
who specialise in advanced wetware engineering, Dyson Tree settlements
in the Oort Cloud, Earth-bound humanity absorbed into a sort of
posthuman entity called the Comprise that has developed an advanced
form of space propulsion, and a People's Mars, which gives a new twist
to the idea of "the Reds" :-) who are working on terraforming Mars. A
few gripes - the central theme of a wetware personality taking over so
completely I find frankly implausible, and it is never explained how
the Vacuum Flowers (which infest everything on the outside of space
habitats etc) came about; they are just this surreal element, a
metaphor of sort, or a kind of magical realism, just sitting there and
at odds with the rest of the relatively hard science setting. Otherwise
a great read, and it is worth noting that Swanwick uses the Dyson Tree trope long before
Simmons wrote Endymion
A
longer review of Vacuum flowers (external link)
Evolution's Darling - a disturbing and powerful
meditation on consciousness and individuality. Despite the ship
captain's best efforts, his navigational computer achieves a Turing
level, indicating sentience. When the machine intimately befriends his
daughter, the captain tries to have it erased, only to find that his
daughter is willing to betray him to preserve her symbiotic love.
Centuries later, the immortally bereft machine, now a being called
Darling, searches the universe for meaning and tries not to remember
the darkness of his past. When a human assassin on a mission to destroy
an AI artist encounters Darling, they begin a relationship that is
beyond intense, with a violent sexuality and a deep connection that
ultimately calls into question their nature as separate entities.
Echoes
of Earth. By 2163, the first lawless wave of
singular AI has decimated baseline humanity in the Solar System; but
that's nothing compared to what is bearing down on them from space.
It's quite like the first singularity age in OA.
Foundation Series With the
novel Foundation
and its sequals, the master of the Space
Operatic genera presents the epic story of the attempt by the great
psychohistorian Hari Seldon and his successors to ameliorate the fall
of galactic civilization and lay the seeds for a new era. Asimov's
style is immensely readable, even if his characters frequently have
about as much depth as a cardboard cutout. The women especially, when
they are in the narrative at all, being like housewives from 1950s
suburbia but with atomic-powered washing machines, and his explanation
of religion is laughable. Still, for all its datedness, this is
intelligent science fiction, and the reliance more on ideas and
diplomacy then on battlefleets, aliens, and ray guns, fits in quite
neatly to the Orion's Arm perspective. Especially the
Foundation's strategy of subversion and persuasion though out-thinking
one's rivals is very like the memetic engineering of the AIs,
corporations, and polities of our setting. Oh yes, and Asimov was the
guy who first coined the term Encyclopedia
Galactica
Rissa
Kerguelen and associated books. These are
interesting because Busby is positively trying to get to grips with
the problem of the commanding economy fall out
of touch with the colonies. The heroes are offspring and clients of a
proto
Great House, which cultivates "The Long View" in terms of investments
and military force assembly. Time dilation and cold sleep keep them
alive from one end of the story to the other, over sixty years or so;
but it would take more contrived and stranger methods to maintain
purpose over a few centuries.
C.J.Cherryh's Downbelow
Station and Cyteen
each begin with a
historical recap for the first couple of centuries of relativistic
travel, before the FTL drive. Again, the commanding economies fall out
of touch with the colonies. It's very well thought out.
Ribofunk
- a collection of short stories of rather uneven quality. Range from
so-so to excellent. I guess everyone will have their own favourites.
Much of the setting is not pertinent to Orion's Arm, and
getting even the most radical bio-modifications is so physiologically
and psychologically trauma-free as to be mere caricaturish. But the
poignant fate of long-suffering and mistreated "splices" is another
matter, as are the well-drawn characters of many of the splices
themselves. In fact this was the book from which I (MAK) was inspired
to choose the term "splice"
as genetically engineered human-animal hybrid uplift in the first
place. Also, the emphasis on biotech
rather than dry tech is certainly
one that is important to our setting (althoufgh we incorporate both in
equal measure).
Mr Di Filippo has very kindly given his permission for us to use the
term splice officially in OA.
Neuromancer
- this classic work of Cyberpunk is also quite pertinant to the Information Age of our
scenario, albeit much bleaker than the Orion's Arm view
of the future. Cyberspace, AIs, even a Singularity ascension of sorts
all figure in this prophetic novel
The Cthulhu Mythos - one of the
most imaginative, and frightening, horror scenarios ever. Lovecraft's
style and the power of his Cthulu mythos leaves the tired old legion of
vampire, undead, freddy, jason, chucky, zombie, etc clones for dead.
Sure, his characters are flat and one-dimensional, but what does that
matter if you are scared out of your pants? Although not directly
relevant to Orion's Arm, Lovecraft's portrayal of an
inhuman universe peopled by ancient brooding malevolent (and
benevolent) superhuman powers conveys the sort of ambience that does
not go astray. Check out also the delightful rpg adaptation (Cthulupunk
if you will ;-)
Sandkings - Short stories of
Charles R.R. Martin set in a common, future setting. There are a few
transhuman elements and at least one story deals heavily with memetic
engineering. The setting is largely distopic and harkens back to the
gothic and romantic movements. Clades and norms are diverse and the
alien civilizations (ancient and recent) are clustered so thick it is
clear that Fermi never lived in this universe.
There are also heavy paranormal elements in some stories that are a quite a bit heavier than those of OA. Technology includes jump drives and similar things, much more along the lines of traditional space opera than Orions Arm setting. Also there are no AIs or similar beings used heavily in the stories. Still the tone, atmosphere, and smorgasbord of arcane and forgotten history presented in the book did seem in keeping with Orions Arm and might be of some inspiration.
Side note: a heavily modified version of the title story was used as an episode of "The Outer Limits". The rest of the book should not be judged on the basis of this story or the T.V. episode in particular.
The Changeling Plague - Ms Mitchell's book is a fairly-hard-science look at some of the problems with gene-tech, as well as some of the opportunities thereof. The book follows two people who meet in a plague zone, a doctor who's an expert in altered geneomes and a child whose sister dies from a plague caused by a flawed genetic treatment for a disease. This plague leads to a worldwide moratorium on genetic technologies, yet a second plague is later caused (using in part the initial doctor's work, stolen by a less-than-ethical coworker) to treat a rich man.
To go on further would be to spoil the twists and turns of this pretty gripping book. Just for reference, this takes you less than a third of the way through the fairly slim (200-300 page) book, and the best story bits are yet to come.
There are some points where suspension of disbelief is required, IMO, but on a scale of 1-10, I'd give the book a 9 for enjoyability and an 8 for scientific plausibility. I'd reccomend it in general, and especially for those interested in genetic modification . These latter people I'd suggest the book as a thought experiment for ONE possible way we might end up developing the technology.
(I've read one other book by Ms Mitchell, Technogenesis, and found it also quite interesting, if somewhat less feasible)
Legacy of Heorot - (with Steven Barnes) - one of the finest "colonial" forms of science fiction ever written
The Mote in God's Eye - Although not very OA compatible, this is still probably one of the greatest "First Contact" novels ever written.
Venus, Inc. - A set of two
stories that also revolve around the terraforming of Venus. While there
is a lack of conspicuous nanotech, AIs, and transhuman elements, this
book does have a couple elements that are worthy of note. Foremost is
applied memetics gone terribly bad: "Cambellian ordinance", an
ethically questionable form of advertising/weapon that addicts it's
recipient to a product nearly instantly.
The other, though really minor, element that comes to mind from the story is "Chicken Little", a gigantic block of chicken muscle tissue that workers walk inside and carve off pieces of. Admittedly a crude method of food harvesting, but something that a few OA clades might find appealing.
In his somewhat surreal and satirical series of
"cyberpunk" (if that is the right genre) works Software,
Wetware, Freeware, and
Realware, Rucker tells the story of the
"moldies", biological shape-changing robots that, exploited by man, set
up their own society on the moon. While his actual setting has very
little in common with Orion's Arm, his concept of
erototechnological "moldie" is wonderful.
Angel
Station - a rather neat look at an expanding human
civilization which meets an alien race in interstellar space. Although
elements of this tale may be usefully applied to our setting, the story
lacks superhuman AIs, also it states that ships have to be equipped
with naturally occurring mini black holes for FTL, but it has since
been shown that mini black holes are unstable. If they formed in the
early universe they would quickly evaporate. And if they were
manufactured artificially they would also evaporate (however, the mini
black hole trope is also used in the very hard science Transhuman Space RPG). A nice novel
nevertheless.
Aristoi
- Describes a sophisticated, slightly decadent su culture, perhaps
applicable to the federation
period or the outer
volumes.
Voice of the Whirlwind - like
Sterling's Schizmatrix, this is
pretty much a sort of mild cyberpunk set in the Interplanetary age. A
lot of useful ideas here - Condecology nation states (essentially
arcologies with their own laws, currency etc), Policorps (Political
Megacorps, rather like the megacorps of Orion's Arm),
clones, backup memories, genetically engineered space adapts and
superior races of humans....This scenario is a little closer to that of
Orion's Arm than Angel Station. However,
like many SF writers Williams resorts to the over-used dramatic device
of an alien race that has contacted humanity
Star Maker review