invisible sun
Oct. 3rd, 2021 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursulaDepending on how you count, Charles Stross's new novel Invisible Sun is either the conclusion to a trilogy that began with Empire Games, or the latest installment in a series that began with The Family Trade in 2004. Science fiction readers know the feeling of staring at a massive tome, a book heavy enough to merit a warning from Human Resources, and wondering, "Is this story actually going to end?" Due to a dearly lamented cat who used to eat books, I have shifted most of my reading to electronic format, but the slowly creeping percentage bar has some of the same emotional force. Here, therefore, is a FAQ about what kinds of resolutions to expect from Invisible Sun.
Q. Are there a lot of nuclear weapons in this book?
A. Yes. A truly obscene number of nukes appear in this book. They are used both in peaceful technologies and for offensive purposes.
Q. I read the first Merchant Princes series and now I'm getting worried. Does the US government murder all the humans on some version of Earth for a second time?
A. No. The first Merchant Princes series channeled anger about Bush-era government. This series offers a different flavor of chilling: a fractured and dystopian federal government that is more statesmanlike and more competent than the actual United States.
Q. Do we ever find out what the deal was with that miniature black hole?
A. Yes.
Q. Does it pose an existential threat to humanity that can't possibly be resolved unless Stross gets a contract for a follow-up series?
A. Well, sort of. But at the end of Invisible Sun, all the humans on the Earths we care about are safe, decisively. For a while.
Q. So, what does this book actually feel like?
A. It feels like a bureaucracy pulling off a heist.
The lumbering nature of bureaucracies is part of the aesthetic, for layered reasons: because one of the governments in play favors the proletariat over aristocratic fripperies, because old-fashioned technology is more amenable to radiation hardening, and because this book is riffing on Cold-War-era thrillers.
There are two different Cold-War-esque conflicts in play here. The first conflict is between an alternate United States and a shiny new North American democracy in another world. Here, we see Stross meticulously working out the implications of world-shifting technologies on larger and larger scales. This plot strand is full of tasty, crunchy spycraft, as well as German police officers being sarcastic about American lapses in civil liberties.
The second conflict is between humans across all kinds of worlds and something that is decisively not human. This conflict reminded me a bit of Mass Effect. That seems like convergence of tropes, rather than direct reference--to the best of my knowledge, Stross is not that sort of gamer!
Q. But it's a lot of fun to imagine Brilliana giving spy lessons to Commander Shepard, isn't it?
A. Yes!
(Disclaimers: I received an ARC for review from Netgalley, and I read part of a pre-publication draft of this book.)
Q. Are there a lot of nuclear weapons in this book?
A. Yes. A truly obscene number of nukes appear in this book. They are used both in peaceful technologies and for offensive purposes.
Q. I read the first Merchant Princes series and now I'm getting worried. Does the US government murder all the humans on some version of Earth for a second time?
A. No. The first Merchant Princes series channeled anger about Bush-era government. This series offers a different flavor of chilling: a fractured and dystopian federal government that is more statesmanlike and more competent than the actual United States.
Q. Do we ever find out what the deal was with that miniature black hole?
A. Yes.
Q. Does it pose an existential threat to humanity that can't possibly be resolved unless Stross gets a contract for a follow-up series?
A. Well, sort of. But at the end of Invisible Sun, all the humans on the Earths we care about are safe, decisively. For a while.
Q. So, what does this book actually feel like?
A. It feels like a bureaucracy pulling off a heist.
The lumbering nature of bureaucracies is part of the aesthetic, for layered reasons: because one of the governments in play favors the proletariat over aristocratic fripperies, because old-fashioned technology is more amenable to radiation hardening, and because this book is riffing on Cold-War-era thrillers.
There are two different Cold-War-esque conflicts in play here. The first conflict is between an alternate United States and a shiny new North American democracy in another world. Here, we see Stross meticulously working out the implications of world-shifting technologies on larger and larger scales. This plot strand is full of tasty, crunchy spycraft, as well as German police officers being sarcastic about American lapses in civil liberties.
The second conflict is between humans across all kinds of worlds and something that is decisively not human. This conflict reminded me a bit of Mass Effect. That seems like convergence of tropes, rather than direct reference--to the best of my knowledge, Stross is not that sort of gamer!
Q. But it's a lot of fun to imagine Brilliana giving spy lessons to Commander Shepard, isn't it?
A. Yes!
(Disclaimers: I received an ARC for review from Netgalley, and I read part of a pre-publication draft of this book.)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-04 04:21 am (UTC)Especially the "former" Nazi ones.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-04 10:34 am (UTC)Indeed! This is an alternate 2020s plotline.