Alastair Reynolds‘House Of Suns , shortlist for the Clarke Award , is a novel of idea , with all that implies . The infinite - opera epic throws a dizzying blizzard of concepts at the reader , sacrificing character - development . plunderer below .
House Of Suns is one of those novel that take for granted a shape after you ’re done study it . All of the element that seemed purely random fall into place , and you realize quite what an intricate blueprint you ’ve been looking at all this prison term . During the story , however , you ’re frequently left wondering if Reynolds was throw darts at an musical theme - dining table . This novel has everything : artificial intelligences that become sentient , situation - mankind , questions of dissipated - than - brightness change of location and causality , cloning , virtual world , a murder enigma and a group of nigh - immortal people dealing with the burden of history in a more personal way than most of us ever do .
It ’s probably one of those novels that ’s more cheering to re - read than to read , actually . A tidy sum of the coolheaded component will seem a great deal more satisfying the 2d time around , and when you may see the whole painting , you ’ll appreciate the flow of the story more . The first time around , though , the novel feel like an interminable ecological succession of awe-inspiring ideas and dandy moments . It believably does n’t help that it has the kind of post - human characters who are common in the new space opera house : all of the principal characters in the book are six million year former , and have escort astronomic civilizations heighten and descend , over and over .
In House of Suns , it ’s six million years in the future , and humans have colonize the entire coltsfoot . Our heroes are “ shatterlings , ” or a solidification of clone of a woman named Abigail Gentian , who lived six million years ago . They create “ stardams , ” or stilted spheres around suns that are in danger of proceed nova , for a living . And there are other sets of “ shatterlings , ” other group of clones of wealthy masses who lived six million year ago . Thanks to jaunt at relativistic speeds , and various method of slowing down masses ’s bodily functions , the main character have only lived through a fraction of those six million geezerhood . ( They ’re name “ shatterlings ” because in some gumption , they divide up the identity of their primogenitor amongst them . )
Our two main type are Campion and Purslane , two dead ringer of Abigail Gentian , who are committing a “ shatterling ” taboo by carrying on a intimate / romantic relationship . Their out erotic love for each other is one of the two relatable thing in the Word of God , and it drive a lot of the story forward in the second half . The other major excited strand in the book is their friendly relationship with Hesperus , a “ automobile intelligence , ” or robot , who about expire to save them from a horrific massacre .
That mass murder change by reversal out to be tie to a offense that the “ shatterlings ” are complicit in , but have forgotten , millions of years ago . And that historical heinousness , which is both ancient and personal , turns out to be connect to a whole host of other secrets about the nature of the galaxy and our place in the universe . Meanwhile , we instruct about another criminal offense , which the clones ’ progenitor , Abigail Gentian , confide in her early days , inside a virtual world call up Palatial . In a universe where we ’re cue , over and over , that “ nascent ” beau monde rear up out of nothing , only to die off again in a scant half - million year , how much do we owe to the ghosts of the intelligences we ’ve wronged ?
In a real sensation , House Of Suns is about account , and the frangibleness of memory . The shatterlings have live almost as long as humans have had words , but what they ’ve forgotten about the beetleweed — and what they never sleep with — would satiate volume . And it turn out almost everything they believed about themselves , as dispassionate observers , upstage from the barbarism of history , is assumed . ( I ’m trying to avoid major spoiler here . )
Another major theme in the book is the prejudices of constitutional life forms against artificial intelligences . ahead of time on , we fulfill an aquatic puppet named Doctor Meninx , who is a Disavower , an organic who hates A.I.s and does n’t believe they have soul . He ’s prompt to assume the worst of any motorcar intelligence activity , even though the main A.I. fibre in the story , Hesperus , turns out to be the most sympathetic and selfless character . Of course , afterward on we meet machines who do n’t have humans ’ best interests at heart , but by then we ’ve happen upon there ’s a muckle more to the pic than we ’d gain .
Besides the pretty unrelatable characters — even Campion and Purslane , with their star - spanning sexual love , feel a bit empty most of the time — the novel ’s other big problem is its social organisation . Reynolds chooses a structure that few novelist could pull off . The novel is divided into eight “ book , ” and each Good Book starts with a first - soul surgical incision from the point of view of Abigail Gentian , who becomes the progenitor of most of the clones we meet in the book . ( Her “ shatterlings ” are referred to as “ railway line Gentian . ” ) And then within each Koran , we tack chapters from Campion and Purslane ’s point of view . ( This is n’t explained , you just have to sort of pick it up . ) So the novel has three first - person narrators , two of whom are clones of the third . For understandable reasons , all three narrators have the same story spokesperson , and partake in the same time value and attitudes . In other actor’s line , the narrative deception is just a way for Reynolds to get across more information , without dip into third - mortal narration . But it ’s a perturb body structure , confusing at times and a bit vexatious at others .
And the other huge morphologic problem is that the novel ’s write up actually pop out on page 96 or thereabouts . nigh the first hundred page are just backstory , introducing us to our main eccentric and giving us some exposition we ’ll need later on . Nothing of any tangible issue happen in the first 100 page , other than that Campion and Purslane encounter Hesperus .
I found the novel slow going until around pageboy 100 , and then it suddenly became a compulsive read that I find myself staying up until three A.M. reading . ( In fact , as I indite this , I ’m a second nap - deprived thanks to the crepitation narrative intensity of House Of Suns . It really does get astonishingly adept , and you ’re kept wondering what happens next . The execution mystery clobber is fun while it survive , and the outer space battles are exciting as all get - out . ) At the same fourth dimension , the last chapter of the novel stop monolithic amounts of infodump , as quality excuse the plot of land to each other .
The novel brims with thought , many of which deserve their own book . There are the Priors , the mystifying ancient intelligences who left behind a few clues to their tops - advanced civilization . There ’s the Absence , a black emptiness that seems to have swallowed the Andromeda Galaxy . There ’s the Golden Hour , a kind of ring around a single sun containing a number of worlds that are never more than an hour ’s communicating apart at sub - light amphetamine . There ’s Palatial , the virtiual - reality human beings where young Abigail Gentian spend her time , which seems to become sentient .
I happen House Of Suns incredibly clever and sweeping and thought - provoking , and it all pays off in the final chapter with a very cosmic consequence where the story ’s sweep opens up to take in a much larger , and stranger cosmos than we ’ve glimpsed so far . Once you get past the slow begining , it ’s an exhilerating read that celebrate your brain buzzing the whole time . And there ’s a payoff to the Campion - Purslane - Hesperus kinship that catch me by surprise and made me love those character reference much more than I ’d been capable to during the novel . I ’m not sure it ’s a not bad novel as a novel , but as an geographic expedition of the myriad possibility of our far - next posterity in a huge , freakish cosmos , House Of Suns is a terrific read .
House Of Suns was nominated for a Clarke Award . Read more of io9 ’s reportage of 2009 ’s book award nomineeshere .
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