Superluminal: A Novel of Interplanetary Civil War

by Tony Daniel

Book Overview

Once or twice in a score of years, the realm of science fiction reveals a vision of tomorrow of epic and transforming scope. These are the dreams of the Asimovs, the Heinleins, the Bears, and the Brins. Tony Daniel brilliantly dreamed this future in his groundbreaking Metaplanetary, and now continues with Superluminal. It is a time when individuals take astounding forms and live astonishing lives. But it is also a future at war for humankind's...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061051438
• ISBN13: 9780061051432
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Length: 470 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Amazing

This book, a sequel to the amazing Metaplanetary, was meant as one more part of the epic series that started with Metaplanetary. Unfortunately, his publisher at Eos decided not to continue his contract with them and so he was unable to finish the series. Personally, I find that very tragic, these two books are some of the best SF I've read, interesting and intriguing in some of the very original concepts put forth. The way the author presents the ideas behind time towers and LAPs (Large Array Personalities) is fascinating; the entire culture he creates is very unique among the other SF I've read. He hopes to one day find a way to finish the story, and I truly hope he does, this story really needs to be finished.

Amazing book -- but the publisher should be shot

This novel is as good as all the other reviewers say it is -- each chapter really does have enough new ideas to sustain an entire book! My issue is with the publisher. They're pulling the same shoddy trick they tried with the first volume of the series, Metaplanetary. Just as that book was ruined for many readers because nowhere on the cover did it state that it was the first novel in a series, anyone who hasn't read the first book could pick up this second volume with the expectation that they're starting a stand-alone novel. The only place the true nature of Superluminal is mentioned is in the author's bio on the inside back cover. This is clearly intentional on the publisher's part, but you have to wonder why are they doing it? Why are they positioning these two novels as stand-alones, rather than as parts of a series? Guess they just don't believe in the power of the entire trilogy to sell itself. This is just stupid!

great followup to Metaplanetary!

Superluminal is the sequel to the wonderful Metaplanetary, and it rocks as well! Set in an interconnected solar sytem in the far future, it tells of the war which will determine the form (or forms) humans will wear when they reach out to the stars...intelligent space opera with lot of heart... :)

Great fun despite the lack of any resolution

I went looking for this book after reading Metaplanetary. I ended up so wrapped up in that book that I had to know how it all turned out. Like some of the other reviewers, I had no idea when I picked up Superluminal that it was the middle book of a more extended series, not the conclusion I had sought. It was clear by the time I was half way through the book, though, that there was far too much complexity and far too many quantum-entangled plot lines for it all to be resolved in one book. Despite my dashed expectations (Thanks, EOS), I very much enjoyed this book. It features technology that's advanced in very believable ways, a society that appears to have evolved naturally from this technology, complex and evolving characters, a grand sweep and vision, wonderful inventiveness, intelligent writing and on and on. It's everything a really good space opera can and should be. My only criticism, and it's a weak one, is that the complexity and the presentation might make it difficult to keep track of all of those interweaving threads if the book were read over an extended period. I doubt that "extended" will be an issue for most readers. In any case, there are convenient appendices in the back to refresh one's memory on the characters and locations as needed. So imagine my dismay when I went looking for information on the sequel and discovered that there wasn't one planned! Thanks, EOS (Or did I already say that?). I sincerely hope that the author finds an outlet for the last book. It's a story that deserves to be told. Oh - this is not a warning against purchasing the book. It's worth it even without a conclusion. There's more than enough intriguing material here to serve as a good start for imagining your own.

Excellent world-building and military action

A thousand years from now, humanity has spread through the solar system--and mankind is no longer alive. Artificial intelligences have grown so complex that they have taken on life--become 'free converts.' And 'physical' humans themselves have uploaded themselves into the omnipresent nanotechnology/communications net. War has broken out between the inner (Mercury/Venus/Earth/Mars) systems and the interconnected 'Met' and the outer systems with the inner systems, under director Ames, attempting to eliminate human rights for the free converts and to bring everyone under centralized control. The outer systems are outnumbered, outgunned, and faced with stupid generals, but they have powerful weapons of their own and fight back hard. Author Tony Daniel examines the lives of a number of people living in both the Met and in the outer systems, exploring the developing war through their eyes and virtual eyes. A young woman develops an affair with a nine-hundred year-old jeep, a rock-balancing monk re-falls in love, a punk-kid is adicted to 'glory' and a free-convert military leader tries to hold off the overwhelming force of the inner systems' attack. Daniel does a fine job balancing the lives of different 'people' with the need to move the story along. His powerful world-building provides a strong structure on which to hang the story and it works. SUPERLUMINAL is a big book (and part of a series) but it didn't take long for me to get hooked into it--reading until my wife had to beg me to turn the light off so she could sleep. The combination of first-class world-building, intriguing characters, and innovative military action adds up to one of the best Science Fiction titles I've read in years.