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The Golden Transcendence
The books are firmly in the space opera genre with a dash of Heinlein libertarianism tossed in for good measure. The story takes place in the far future when artificial intelligences (known as sophotechs) and humans live immortal lives in a libertarian society of near unlimited technology. The experience of real physical interaction is replaced in many cases by remote bodies, recorded experiences of others, and complete control of what a person perceives. Humanity has moved beyond the one body - one brain system and has adopted many different systems of thought and even physical form
Mr. Wright puts forth a brilliant vision of technology and society in the far future where wealth is measured in seconds of computer time and physical labor is non-existent. In this future, there is are still wealthy and poor people but in a different way. In a good interview, Mr. Wright explains:
There would still be rich and poor, even if the poorest of the poor were absurdly well off by our standards. No advancements can eliminate differences in the abilities of men, or the differences in how men value the abilities of their fellow man (which is what causes inequality of prices and hence of incomes). If only by comparison, there will be poverty, even in Arcadia. My characters Ironjoy, Oshenkyo, and the Afloats [...] are meant to represent this idea of future poverty; the Seven Peers represent wealth.
As an example as just one of the concepts presented, we can look at the idea of 'sensefilters.' Perception is no longer what organic senses directly tell the mind. The signals received by the body or remote bodies are processed to be acceptable to the person's particular preferences. If a person doesn't like to see advertising, their mind eliminates the advertising from their vision and fills in the scene with what would be there if the advertisement wasn't there. Consciously, the person isn't aware of this, only that they have requested not to see advertisements. Sensefiltering can be used to remove (or add) objects, people, and even ideas from an individual's perception. The plot devices are interesting stuff that Mr. Wright explores in just enough detail to keep you wanting more throughout the trilogy.
The protagonist, Phaethon, is the son of one of the most important people in the society (known as the Golden Oecumene). In the first two books, Phaethon struggles against first the realization that he is missing parts of his memory, his struggle against society, his fall into exile, and his return to strength.
The third book finds Phaethon poised to fight against the true enemy that has been revealed to him. Without spoiling too much, Phaethon is forced to fight for the very survival of his society (which tossed him out) or allow it to be destroyed.
The author, John C. Wright, obviously has a libertarian heart and embodies the attributes of individuality, resourcefulness, ingenuity and desire for progress in Phaethon, the hero. In the opening novel, we find a society content with things how they are, willing to simply stop progress to prevent anything from changing their utopia in any meaningful way. Phaethon is a man of action in opposition to the statist Golden Oecumene. The underlying theme is that without mankind's strive for exploration and new goals, it is doomed.
Overall, an excellent book and series for the science fiction reader looking for something more than blasters and evil six-legged aliens. Getting used to the terminology and concepts is slow at first but well worth the effort.
Final note: If you enjoy Iain Banks's Culture series, Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn, or John Varley's Eight Worlds, you will enjoy the The Golden Transcendence and the entire Golden Age Trilogy.You can purchase The Golden Transcendence from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Funny, but I don't remember plagerizing anything. In fact, the only thing I remember was typing the comment using my nifty PBG4. Shame on you for accusing me. Instead you should be brave enough to show your face and accept that somebody has a similar opinion.
Ray Bradbury was "real" Science Fiction at the time. Today, like most of Jules Vern, it has become the past. If you want examples of hard Science Fiction(Deffinition, Take today, advance technology one step, see what happens), try "Kim Stanley Robinsons" Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars Trilogy. Also try Robert A. Heinlen and James P. Hogan. They usually stick to hard SF as well. Most of the books you see in the Science Fiction section are borderline Fantassy. Super Science (Star Trek and the like) are either very soft SF or Fantassy.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
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Off the top of my head...
Dune
2001
The Man Who Folded Himself
The Demolished Man
A Deepness in the Sky
Ubik (and/or) Valis
Tales of Known Space / The Smoke Ring / Ringworld
Hyperion novels (4 of them?)
Ender's Game
uhh that's it for now...
wait a minute. is this a troll?
Try Iain M. Banks. It Culture series is well known and I've found it very entertaining reading with well fleshed out characters and good storyline
:-)
Or try Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game' and the companion 'Shadow' series (Ender's shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets) All of Card's books tend to focus more on his characters and storyline than on science. He's also written a lot of fantasy, so you might want to check that out. You can read the first chapter of some (all?) of his books on his website.
Anyway, there are tons of good books out there. Just sample here and there and you're bound to find something that suits your taste. And bluntly speaking, there is no such thing as real SF, just different "subgenres". If you find an author whose books you like, to h*ll with your friends and enjoy yourself
CodeSong
Guet, if you haven't read his stuff already, I think you will enjoy Ken MacLeod's books.
Dystopian near-future Science Fiction written by a Scottish ex-Trotskyite programmer with degrees in Zoology and Biomechanics.
MacLeod is an astonishing writting talent and I think you will enjoy the political aspect of his books.
"The Golden Age" was very much worth the effort and for me is a stand-out book of recent vintage. I was however very frustrated when nearing the end of the first book, realising that there was no way Wright could tie up all the loose ends in the few pages remaining. I didn't know it was a trilogy. Nothing on the blurb suggested that it wasn't a stand-alone. Only on the last page of the first book was there a line about the story continuing in 'Phoenix Exultant'.
Now I don't mind reading long series if they're good, but I thought it misleading of the publishers not to inform the reader. I expected (perhaps naively) that it was a stand-alone novel. That it wasn't was frustrating; "You mean I'll have to wait another few years to read the end of the story!"
In the book, 'sensefilters' can be used by both 'persons' with meat bodies as well as completely incorporeal uploaded 'persons'.
In the latter case, for the person involved, both the 'visual' and 'physical' are filterable. It is only for 'persons' with meat bodies that one could be slapped and kicked invisibly. One of the taboos in the Golden Oecumene is acting contrary to the sense-filtered worldview of others.
So then you prefer the Liberal myth that one can only achieve success by suckling at the taxpayer teat?
No, I prefer the myth that I am the chosen one; specially favored among all creation.
An irrelevant and unrealistic example. That implies that the investors have no other investments besides the risky one to choose from.
For all the posters who take analogies too literally, a little research would probably have clued you in that I was referring to recent results in economics and finance which indicate that individual ability is not the only driving factor in wealth distributions, more info here. I am not arguing against personal responsibility or merit, merely pointing out that there are financial forces as inevitable as the curvature of spacetime which shape the course of events as well. The upshot is, whether everyone is equally able or not, as long as there is a chance of failure in investment activities, wealth will not be evenly distributed. In fact, as time passes, inequalities will increase, this has nothing to do with taxation, victimization or the availability of a good insurance policy. There are quite a few corollaries to consider as well, but I'll let you return to your ad hominem straw man attacks now.
David Brin. I believe David Brin to be one of the best hard science fiction authors writing today. Stong, complicated stories, engaging characters, set against backdrops of highly imaginative projections of our universe. About the only novel that could have been better put together would be "The Postman" which I have not been able to read more than once. His Uplift series is particularly brilliant. Richard.
I don't think the Diamond age is cyberpunk, I'd rather class it as an post-cyberpunk kind of story, with some interesting ideas.
OTOH, N. Stephenson previous one : "SnowCrash", is a pretty good cyberpunk novel.
You could try also the rest of Gibson writings. It slowly departed from cyberpunk to move to plain anticipation in the latest work of his though.
Another author I really like, and who made a few cyberpunk stories : Walter Jon Williams his early work).