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The Algebraist on Schild's Ladder
As part of an attempt to read more novels I finally got around to reading "Schild's Ladder" by Greg Egan and "The Algebraist" by Iaian M Banks, both of which came out about 8 years ago just as I had somewhat overgorged myself on those authors and felt like a break (a long break, as it turned out, though I have reread their earlier books)
I'm rather amused by the base similarity between the books: both are rather self indulgent, idea rich escapism set in a distant future where everyone is immortal and to some extent can do whatever they like, and say a lot about the author. They also both started off promising, dragged a bit in the middle, then got interesting if a little confusing at the end, but that's true of a lot of sf.
In Iaian M Banks perfect future (reflected better in his Culture books, this one's somewhat dystopic) everyone has all the stuff they want, has lots of sex, takes lots of drugs, and owns many awesome shiny bits of technology. The positive characters tend to be left wing pacifist liberals with no preconceptions about class or gender (and they often change gender..off screen) who just happen to be rich, heterosexual men who are forced by circumstances to be horribly, destructively violent (with amazing, shiny guns which are way better than everyone else's).
In Greg Egan's future noone has a gender, people are biologically incapable of wanting or having sex with anyone they're not in a stable reciprocal emotional relationship with(*), and afaict the main things everyone in the entire universe really wants to do with their time are physics research and sightseeing (seriously, I don't remember a single reference to fairly universal human interests like art, sport, war etc)
I quite enjoyed the books regardless, though "Schild's Ladder" was a bit dry and mathsy (yes, too mathsy for me) and I'm getting increasingly annoyed at Iaian M Banks tendency to be all "edgy and imaginative" by making us empathise with torturers and baby enslavers while still in a lot of ways (often but not always) being rather blandly heterosexist-male in his POV. (See Wanted for a much worse example of this sort of thing) Apparently his next book is about a woman making her own way in a sexist society, which might be less annoying.
(*)And during this time they're physically incapable of having sex with anyone else. There is no indication that anyone finds this restricting.
I'm rather amused by the base similarity between the books: both are rather self indulgent, idea rich escapism set in a distant future where everyone is immortal and to some extent can do whatever they like, and say a lot about the author. They also both started off promising, dragged a bit in the middle, then got interesting if a little confusing at the end, but that's true of a lot of sf.
In Iaian M Banks perfect future (reflected better in his Culture books, this one's somewhat dystopic) everyone has all the stuff they want, has lots of sex, takes lots of drugs, and owns many awesome shiny bits of technology. The positive characters tend to be left wing pacifist liberals with no preconceptions about class or gender (and they often change gender..off screen) who just happen to be rich, heterosexual men who are forced by circumstances to be horribly, destructively violent (with amazing, shiny guns which are way better than everyone else's).
In Greg Egan's future noone has a gender, people are biologically incapable of wanting or having sex with anyone they're not in a stable reciprocal emotional relationship with(*), and afaict the main things everyone in the entire universe really wants to do with their time are physics research and sightseeing (seriously, I don't remember a single reference to fairly universal human interests like art, sport, war etc)
I quite enjoyed the books regardless, though "Schild's Ladder" was a bit dry and mathsy (yes, too mathsy for me) and I'm getting increasingly annoyed at Iaian M Banks tendency to be all "edgy and imaginative" by making us empathise with torturers and baby enslavers while still in a lot of ways (often but not always) being rather blandly heterosexist-male in his POV. (See Wanted for a much worse example of this sort of thing) Apparently his next book is about a woman making her own way in a sexist society, which might be less annoying.
(*)And during this time they're physically incapable of having sex with anyone else. There is no indication that anyone finds this restricting.