House of Suns
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| House of Suns | |
| Image:Alastair Reynolds House of Suns bookcover.jpg | |
| Author | Alastair Reynolds |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
| Publication date | 17 April 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-575-07717-4 |
House of Suns is a 2008 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds ( ISBN 0-575-07717-4)[1]. He announced the title on June 7, 2007, and the fact that he was about halfway done writing it at the time.[2][3] He had announced a few months earlier that he was working on a new novel that was not set in the Revelation Space universe and which he then referred to as "Book 8" (and would be his eighth book if only novels are counted, not collections). It is set in the same universe as his novella "Thousandth Night", which appears in the anthology One Million A.D. (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois. House of Suns would then make this the fourth multi-story universe of Reynolds's, besides his Revelation Space universe, 'Sloth' universe (featured in the collection Zima Blue and Other Stories) and Merlin universe, although he has stated on his blog that House of Suns 'does not attempt slavish consistency' with Thousandth Night.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
[edit] Summary
"Thousandth Night", set in the same universe as House of Suns, took place in the year one million A.D., in a Milky Way galaxy that has been thoroughly colonized by humans and is devoid of any other sentient life. Technologies that are available include antigravity, inertialess propulsion, force fields, and stasis fields. The galaxy is dominated by humans and various posthumans. Human civilisations almost invariably seem to fall within a few millenia (referred to as "turnover" in the novel), apparently due to the limits of sub-lightspeed travel making it too difficult to hold interstellar empires together. Civilisations and organisations that inhabit only one planet tend to last considerably longer, as do the "lines"- organisations that do not inhabit any planets or star systems, but instead continually travel, meeting with other line members at periodic intervals.
‘House of Suns’ concerns a group of people called the Gentian Line, also known as the House of Flowers (in fact, every member is named after a different type of flower); 1000 clones (or ‘shatterlings’), male and female, of an individual named Abigail Gentian. The clones travel the Milky Way Galaxy helping young human civilizations, collecting knowledge and experiencing what the universe has to offer. Every 200,000 years the clones meet up for a 1000 day-long reunion ceremony before going their separate ways for another 200,000 years or ‘circuit’. The action of the novel takes place six million years after the initial cloning; 31 circuits into the life of the Gentian Line. It has two major storylines: the main story arc is set roughly 6 million years in the future, concerning shatterlings Campion and Purslane, while a sub-plot set roughly 3000 years from now, follows Abigail before she decides to create the shatterlings.
The novel is divided into eight parts, with the first chapter of each part taking the form of a narrative flash-back to Abigail Gentian’s early life, before the cloning and the creation of the Gentian Line. Every chapter is narrated from the first-person perspective, shifting between three individuals; Abigail Gentian herself (in the flashbacks) and two clones called Campion and Purslane who are engaged in a relationship which is frowned upon, even punishable, by the Line.
[edit] Abigail
The novel opens in a human empire set in the solar system called the 'Golden Hour', in which Abigail Gentian lives as a young girl in a giant mansion that is ever expanding and growing, such that it encompasses virtually all of the asteroid it is built on. Abigail’s development into adulthood has been suspended, resulting in her being a “child” in her thirties. She has only one friend; a boy from a similarly wealthy family who visits her by spaceship. She introduces him to a virtual-reality simulator called ‘Palatial’; a game which enables the users to live-through and enact a medieval/fantasy adventure in which they take on the roles of two step-siblings warring for control of a kingdom. They begin to spend more and more time in this game (despite the fact that those who do so run the risk of being subsumed by the personalities of the characters they play as). Abigail learns that her family are specialists in cloning, and supplied clone soldiers during a war. As a result her mother suffered from extreme guilt and is now a barely-conscious sufferer of horrific psychological illnesses and her chances of ever being cured are small.
By the fourth flashback, her childhood's extension is removed and she is permitted to continue growing. Ludmilla Marcellin, matriarch of another powerful family, has decided to split herself into multiple clones and explore the galaxy. Abigal decides to do the same. Meanwhile, her childhood friend (who she has been separated from due to their families business relationship ending) persuades her to continue to play against him in Palatial. She forgets her original identity inside and spends her fifth and sixth flashbacks entirely in the world of Palatial; she uses magic to destroy an army of ghost soldiers in a scenario strikingly similar to the one in which the Gentian Line eliminated the First Machines.
In the final flashbacks, it is revealed that she had to be medically extracted from Palatial, as she had become so immersed in it. The boy, however, was not as lucky and is so insane with addiction to the alternate reality that he can no longer be removed from it. Later on, she clones herself 999 times and makes herself the 1000th member of Gentian line. In doing so, she has her memories and body altered so that nobody, not even herself, knows which is the original Abigail.
[edit] Campion and Purslane
The primary storyline begins six million years in the future, when shatterlings Campion and Purslane have been sent to repair a stardam; an artificial structure built around a star using technology left by a now extinct civilization known as the Priors. Upon fixing the dam, Campion and Purslane make their way to the next reunion of the Gentian Line. They are lovers, which could land them in trouble if discovered (even consorting during circuits is frowned upon). Aware that they are going to be late, they take a detour to contact a being known as ‘Ateshga’ in the hope of upgrading the speed of their ships.
After being tricked by Ateshga, Campion and Purslane manage to turn the tables on him and leave his planet with a being he had been keeping captive; a golden robot called Hesperus, a member of the ‘Machine People’; an advanced civilization of robots. The two shatterlings hope that, although they will be late for the reunion, they will be let-off the hook by bringing such an eminent guest as Hesperus.
Hesperus suffers from memory-loss due to his captivity by Ateshga, but he believes that his initial mission in space was to visit ‘The Vigilance’; a giant Dyson Swarm staffed by creatures known only as The Curators. The Vigilance acts as a giant memory bank of information. Campion gives a flash-back of his visit to the Vigilance, where he discovered that the purpose of the Curators is to explain an event known as the Absence; that is, the apparent disappearance of the Andromeda Galaxy. Campion boards his ship, the 'Dalliance', Purslane boards hers, the 'Silver Wings of Morning', and the pair enters ‘abeyance’, (the line's term for any form of stasis or suspended animation), until they reach the planet of the reunion.
Before reaching the reunion world, Campion and Purslane encounter a message from Fescue, another Gentian Line-member. He warns them that there has been an ambush in which the majority of the Gentian Line was wiped-out. The ambushers are unknown. Despite the recorded warning, Campion and Purslane approach the reunion planet looking for survivors. They find a ship with several Gentian Line members still alive, and manage to rescue them and the prisoners they have captured. However, in a struggle with the ambushers, Hesperus is badly injured and stops functioning. The group then make their way to the planet Neume, in the hope of re-grouping with any Gentians who may have survived the ambush.
Upon reaching Neume, Campion, Purslane and the shatterlings they rescued are greeted by a survivor called Betony, who has taken informal lead over the remaining Gentians. He informs them that there are only a handful of survivors, and they move down to the planet for a small reunion party, at which Campion and Purslane meet two more robots of the Machine People; Cadence and Cascade, guests of another shatterling. As they have breakfast the following day it is decided that Mezereon, one of the shatterlings rescued by Purslane and Campion, will take charge of interrogating the prisoners for information on the ambush. They have only one clue, a name ‘House of Suns’ on which to work. In a later meeting of the remaining shatterlings, it is revealed that Purslane must give up her ship the Silver Wings of Morning to the two robots of the machine people, Cadence and Cascade. Purslane’s ship is the fastest available and will carry them to their home territory quickest, although Campion and Purslane feel sure that in taking the ship the shatterlings are punishing them for their relationship.
Campion and Purslane are permitted to take the shattered body of Hesperus to visit the Spirit of the Air; a machine entity consisting of thousands of robots in a cloud, in the hope that Hesperus can be healed. It is revealed that the Spirit of the Air used to be a human from the Golden Hour. When Hesperus is presented to this being, the golden robot vanishes. During the next few days, Mezereon continues her interrogation of the prisoners; during which one shatterling, Cyphel, is mysteriously murdered, which fuels the Line’s concerns that there is a traitor amongst them.
One evening Purslane and Campion are told that Hesperus has returned, seemingly cured of his bodily damage by the Spirit of the Air. However, despite his body being repaired, he remains functionless. Purslane and the two machine people, Cadence and Cascade, move Hesperus’ body to Silver Wings of Morning. Once onboard Hesperus wakes up and reveals that Cadence and Cascade are highly dangerous beings. He also reveals that his body and mind are shared between two beings; part Hesperus, part the Spirit of the Air, who has decided to become a mobile individual again. Cadence and Cascade take control of the ship and start moving it away from the planet Neume.
Hesperus reveals to Purslane the reason why the other two robots are acting against the Line. They have discovered that the Line was involved in the accidental extermination of an early race of machine people, dubbed the ‘First Machines’. The Lines erased all knowledge of this from their memories but, in the ambush at the reunion, somebody was seeking revenge for the destruction of the earlier machines. Hesperus and Purslane take refuge in a ship in the cargo hold of the larger Silver Wings of Morning.
Campion and several other shatterlings discover that Purslane’s ship is speeding away and vow to give chase to it. Meanwhile, on board the Silver Wings of Morning Hesperus and Purslane manage to disable and capture Cadence, one of the two machine people who have hijacked the ship. The shatterlings in pursuit open fire on the renegade ship, and several of them are killed in the ensuing battle.
Campion, in pursuit of Purslane’s captured ship receives a message from the shatterlings back on planet Neume. Mezereon’s interrogation of the prisoners has been successful and revealed that the shatterling Galingale is the traitor who killed Cyphel. As Galingale is part of the party pursuing Purslane’s ship he reveals his true nature to the others. He is part of the House of Suns, a secret Line established to destroy any evidence that there was an early race of machines that had been wiped out by mankind, at any cost. It is also revealed that Cadence and Cascade are heading to a stardam sixty thousand years travel away. Once there they will use the technology hidden onboard Purslane’s ship to enter the stardam and travel through an ancient wormhole, bringing the survivors of the First Machines into the Milky Way galaxy. The shatterlings agree that this action must be stopped, in case the First Machines have hostile intent towards the humans.
Campion pursues Purslane’s ship for sixty thousand years, during which time he and Purslane, on their separate ships, are suspended in Abeyance. Despite efforts to stop the hijacked ship from reaching the stardam, Cascade succeeds in breaking through and enters the wormhole, travelling to the Andromeda Galaxy. On board Silver Wings of Morning Hesperus reveals that while Purslane had been in Abeyance, he and Cascade had engaged in a marathon battle, lasting thousands of years.
Campion, now the only shatterling still in pursuit, enters the wormhole after them and emerges in the Andromeda galaxy, a place apparently devoid of all sentient life, although otherwise intact, with no evidence of the Absence. The Milky Way galaxy also appears to be hidden within another Absence. In his search for Purslane and her ship he lands on a planet and is greeted by a single, mechanical being, which announces itself to be the last of the First Machines in the Andromeda galaxy; the others having left in pursuit of more Prior technology and knowledge. It also announces that the First Machines have no hostile intent towards the humans, and reveals the Absences are due to the existence of the wormhole connecting the two galaxies to prevent violation of causality. The First Machine tells Campion that, due to anomalies in the wormhole, Purslane arrived seventeen thousand years before he did. Campion, now distraught, believes that his lover is lost to him forever.
However, in the final passages of the book, the First Machine tells Campion that Hesperus managed to steer the ship to the same planet as Campion, but the damage sustained by Silver Wings of Morning as it travelled through the wormhole was too great. In his final action Hesperus had sacrificed himself to save Purslane by using his body as a suit of armour for her. The First Machine reveals Hesperus’ body to Campion and states that, inside, is the body of a human, kept in a comatose state. Campion is overjoyed at Hesperus’ selfless act of sacrifice to save his lover. As the novel ends, Campion sobs with joy, realising that, when she is free of the suit made from Hesperus’ body, he will be reunited with his lover for the first time in over seventy seven thousand years.
