Metaplanetary

So for non-anthologies, I'll do a summary and then rate it based on five criteria. They're completely arbitrary.

Metaplanetary by Tony Daniel

The tagline on the cover reads "A novel of interplanetary civil war." That about sums it up. The story takes place in the 31st Century, when all of the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars for the Down's Syndromers out there) are linked by a vast network of nanotechnologically constructed cables that serve as transportation, housing, and really cool decoration. The outer planets don't have any cables, and as such are sort of the rugged frontier.

Nanotech is the driving force here. They've developed and refined it so much that it can do basically anything. God, I love this book so much I have no fucking idea how to even begin to explain. To start, nanotech is called "grist," which is where the address for this blog comes from, and which I think is cool. It's fucking everywhere and provides the basis for the merci, their version of the Internet, which has mutated into this monstrous construct that basically serves as an artificial universe that people practically live in, which is enabled by the grist that their bodies are practically made of. It's so refined that it works on the quantum level, using the properties of entangled particles to communicate faster than light.

In fact, it's so ingrained in human life that basically everyone can be split up into three parts: the aspect, which is the actual human body; the pellicle, which is the grist that's interpenetrated the body and even extends out into a cloud around the person and can do basically anything; and the convert, which is the electronic version of the person that inhabits the pellicle. Because of this setup, people have an unfortunate tendency to turn into Large Arrays of Personalities, which basically means the same mind inhabits multiple bodies, which can look like anything. Some of the biggest LAPs are cloudships, which are essentially huge conglomerations of grist that have accreted asteroid material around a human body (which is strictly optional) and which are maintained by physical copies of the controlling intelligence.

Actually, that's what the entire book revolves around. This dude who got beat up by drunkard daddy in the sewer of the inner planets takes over the government and starts "consolidating"--basically taking over all the grist in the solar system and incorporating it into himself. The inner system is so moronically addicted to merci entertainment that they're actually into the idea, while the outer system, which is a bit less accessible, fights back. Hence the "civil war"--although the entire solar system is technically subject to a single government based on Mercury, the outer system decides to secede and fight compu-Hitler. And no, that's not a ridiculous comparison. Apparently this guy hates individuality so much that he rounds up all the pure AIs he can find floating around in the grist and detains them in some camp on Mars where they basically have to spend their lives counting grains of sand until they go nuts.

There are some heroes, of course, and some villains. One of the more interesting ones is this guy called Tod who's nine feet tall, triple-jointed everywhere, and who apparently was designed to see the future, but experiences so much quantum interference that he's basically shitbags. He's called a "time tower." Another guy works on the same principle, but in his case, it was so successful that he became the future in some vague way. *shrug* I don't pretend to understand it, and neither does the author, apparently.

In any case, it's a pretty complete novel, written as part of a trilogy. There's a very, very detailed and believable history of quantum physics ("spooky" instantaneous info transfer at a distance) and its applications to nanotech, which enables all of this stuff to happen. There's lots of sex, lots of fucking strange shit (this guy pukes and the chunder turns into a woman), lots of action, lots of oh-wow stuff, lots of...goddammit. I'm going to re-read it.

Scale: Pretty huge. Covers basically all the bodies in the solar systems, asteroids and cables included (and in one case, the sun itself). Really, it's an epic. Call it a 5.

Audacity: A fat man's diarrhea-load of it. This guy's 31st Century is so far-out it's believable. Another 5.

Engagement: It can be easy to get lost between all the character/storyline shifts that try to unify underneath the larger arc of civil war. Then there are the chapters that focus on establishing the history and technological advancement, which can get pretty technical. Put it at a 3.

Characterization: Pretty big ensemble cast here. Most of them are pretty relatable--12-year-old girl who gets cut off from her AI mom and becomes a guerrilla, disenchanted priest who gets mixed up with some major figures, etc. Some are kind of too fucked-up to really get into, like the time tower, who's just too closed-off, or the dictator who really wasn't too, uh, sane from the start, no matter how much Papa carved up his back with a broken bottle. Eh...4.

Sexiness: Yeah, lots of it. The sheer sci-fi is boner-inducing, and there's plenty of copulation going on as well. Check out the truly bizarre sex scene between the dwarf and ferret inside the giant pumpkin-like shuttle. 5.

Average: 4.4. Just fucking read it, okay.

The sequel, Superluminal, was released a couple of years ago, but I probably should re-read it. Because I want to.