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Charles Stross has written
a number of well regarded short stories, but this is his first novel, and
what a good space opera it is!
Singularity
Sky
is set in the far future, in a universe where in the 21st century
groups & societies of men were randomly distributed across the galaxy as the
result of a technological singularity. This being the action of a mysterious
and powerful sentient AI known as the Eschaton. The Eschaton is usually
uninterested in human affairs, but it strictly enforces certain rules that
it has helpfully left scattered around the galaxy – on mountain sides,
diamond pyramids, computer networks, etc. The rules are quiet Douglas
Adamsian (HHGTG):
“1 I am the Eschaton. I am not your God.
2 I am
descended from you and live in your future.
3 Thou shalt
not violate causality within my historic light cone. Or else.” Causality
violations, in other words the use of faster than light travel to reach
points in your own relative past are strictly prohibited. “Or else” in the
past has meant having stars turned into supernovae.
So, to
Singularity Sky. Earth has recovered from the events of the 21st
century, and is now run by a non-government called the United Nations, which
uses its employees to prevent other worlds from breaking the Eschaton’s Rule
#3. UN Diplomat Rachel Mansour is one of these “spies”.
Martin
Springfield is an engineer (in F.T.L. space ship engines) who also works as
a “spy”, but for the Eschaton directly. He is currently on hire to a Russian
style planet which is upgrading its battle fleet, in order to protect one of
it’s satellite worlds which it feels is being attacked. This “attack”, on
Rochard’s World, is by the Festival – an alien information plague. The
Festival trades information for goods, literally anything you can imagine,
including working cornucopia engines, which are capable of producing
anything the engine has plans for including advanced weaponry. This explains
why “on the day war was declared, a rain of telephones fell clattering to
the cobble stones from the skies above Novy Petrograd”. And it also explains
why Rochard’s World is not so much being attacked, as imploding into
counter-revolutionary anarchy. This is what happens in the first couple of
pages of the book!
A large part
of the rest of the book describes the almost Quixotian voyage of the battle
fleet as it attempts a 4000 year journey into the future to loop back prior
to the Festival invasion. This is of course a causality violation… But
whereas Rachel Mansour is trying to diffuse the situation, Martin
Springfield is trying to prevent causality from being violated, before the
Eschaton takes more extreme measures.
This is
a good workmanlike first novel. Not perfect by any means, but it has a lot
of quite subtle dark humour. It is also stuffed full of technological ideas
– it is obvious that Charles has a technical computing background. I am
looking forward to reading his next novel Iron Sunrise, a sequel
which is out now in paperback. Watch out Iain Banks and Ken McLeod there is
a new Scots laddie creeping up behind you. |
