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Night Sky Mine
Melissa Scott's award-winning work is known for its vividly imagined settings that explore humanity's far future. IN NIGHT SKY MINE, young Ista Kelly is a foundling, the only survivor of a pirate raid on an asteroid mine. In a future where one cannot live without an official identity, this is the story of Ista's harrowing journey back to the asteroid to find her true identity.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
7 people are currently reading
372 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Scott
101 books450 followersScott studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, and earned her PhD. in comparative history. She published her first novel in 1984, and has since written some two dozen science fiction and fantasy works, including three co-authored with her partner, Lisa A. Barnett.
Scott's work is known for the elaborate and well-constructed settings. While many of her protagonists are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, this is perfectly integrated into the rest of the story and is rarely a major focus of the story. Shadow Man, alone among Scott's works, focuses explicitly on issues of sexuality and gender.
She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 1986, and has won several Lambda Literary Awards.
In addition to writing, Scott also teaches writing, offering classes via her website and publishing a writing guide.
Scott lived with her partner, author Lisa A. Barnett, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for 27 years, until the latter's death of breast cancer on May 2, 2006.
Scott's work is known for the elaborate and well-constructed settings. While many of her protagonists are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, this is perfectly integrated into the rest of the story and is rarely a major focus of the story. Shadow Man, alone among Scott's works, focuses explicitly on issues of sexuality and gender.
She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 1986, and has won several Lambda Literary Awards.
In addition to writing, Scott also teaches writing, offering classes via her website and publishing a writing guide.
Scott lived with her partner, author Lisa A. Barnett, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for 27 years, until the latter's death of breast cancer on May 2, 2006.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 20, 2023
Science Fiction probably treats the sexual orientation of characters more casually than any other genre. After all, what do details like gender preferences matter when transgalactic encounters loom? This can be profoundly liberating. Consider the transgressive work of writers like Samuel R. Delany, Thomas M. Disch, and Ursual K. LeGuin. Would their works have been nearly as exciting if they’d preached exclusively to the choir?
In Night Sky Mine, cyberspace, though intangible, represents a new frontier, an unprobed dimension with which specially equipped humans (often with implants) can interface, and Rangsey7Justin’s gayness seems much less noteworthy than that he’s “mechanized.” As one of the characters comments, “The opposite of real is not unreal.”
Umm … am I the only reader who already has a throbbing pain behind my left eye?
Melissa Scott’s book explores cyberspace in outer space, conjecturing an entire futuristic society along the way. The huge and confusing cast of characters includes Magloire12Sanye and Kelly2/Ista (“Ista” to her near-mother), and if the names don’t offer many clues about gender, how much more baffling is it when Ista deactivates her monocular and slips it back under the folds of her tripata? Confusing aspects proliferate. (My kingdom for a personal pronoun or an identifiable article of clothing.) Passages which don’t contain an invented word prove scarce, and Scott also demonstrates a fondness for acronyms. Operatives from ExA (External Affairs) and SID (Special Investigation Division) are scrutinizing employees of NSMCo (Night Sky Mine Company) who live on STL-ships (Slower Than Light spacecrafts), which are somehow connected to SVMU (no idea). What this book really needs is a glossary. Some of those little vodka bottles you get on airplanes might have been nice too.
Light fiction should probably not induce migraine. Meticulously assembled without ever growing remotely involving and admirable principally as an academic exercise – an elaborate socioeconomic construct – Night Sky Mine remains exasperatingly dull, escapist fare of an extremely specialized variety, recommended only for the most committed devotee of the subgenre. All others are encouraged to bring a decoder ring… and be sure to wear your karabels.
In Night Sky Mine, cyberspace, though intangible, represents a new frontier, an unprobed dimension with which specially equipped humans (often with implants) can interface, and Rangsey7Justin’s gayness seems much less noteworthy than that he’s “mechanized.” As one of the characters comments, “The opposite of real is not unreal.”
Umm … am I the only reader who already has a throbbing pain behind my left eye?
Melissa Scott’s book explores cyberspace in outer space, conjecturing an entire futuristic society along the way. The huge and confusing cast of characters includes Magloire12Sanye and Kelly2/Ista (“Ista” to her near-mother), and if the names don’t offer many clues about gender, how much more baffling is it when Ista deactivates her monocular and slips it back under the folds of her tripata? Confusing aspects proliferate. (My kingdom for a personal pronoun or an identifiable article of clothing.) Passages which don’t contain an invented word prove scarce, and Scott also demonstrates a fondness for acronyms. Operatives from ExA (External Affairs) and SID (Special Investigation Division) are scrutinizing employees of NSMCo (Night Sky Mine Company) who live on STL-ships (Slower Than Light spacecrafts), which are somehow connected to SVMU (no idea). What this book really needs is a glossary. Some of those little vodka bottles you get on airplanes might have been nice too.
Light fiction should probably not induce migraine. Meticulously assembled without ever growing remotely involving and admirable principally as an academic exercise – an elaborate socioeconomic construct – Night Sky Mine remains exasperatingly dull, escapist fare of an extremely specialized variety, recommended only for the most committed devotee of the subgenre. All others are encouraged to bring a decoder ring… and be sure to wear your karabels.
February 6, 2023
I like Melissa Scott's books, but they often leave me vaguely dissatisfied. After reading The Shapes of Their Hearts, which bored me, and Night Sky Mine, which I kind of liked but disappointed me, I figured out why. Scott's characters aren't given as much importance as her highly inventive worlds, and that's a problem for me as a personal preference.
She comes up with some great science fiction ideas. Night Sky Mine shows a future in which nanotechnology is so far advanced and prevalent that it's become a kind of microscopic wilderness of nano flora and fauna that reproduces and replicates on its own, just like plants and animals. People have their domesticated nanos and try to control the wild nanos. They capture and train nanos they want to use instead of building them.
Also, some people have implants that allow them to download software containing skill sets. You can be a pilot one week and an engineer the next. It also does the more usual cyberpunk thing of controlling machines around you if you're plugged in.
Interesting stuff, I thought.
The problem is that everything else is somewhat unsatisfying.
The plot involves a group of "pirates" who are killing people to preserve their secret, a girl searching for her hidden past and family and trying to attain citizenship, and two partners trying to find out what the pirates are up to.
The end is rushed, as many of Scott's endings are, as if she's not sure how to conclude things. But the really unsatisfying thing for me involved the partners.
On a "gimme!" level, I would liked some insight from Rangsey on how the implants feel when used. Scott only gives hints and vague outsider POVs on it.
It killed me that this book should have been so much better. That's more frustrating for me than a badly written, boring book. Because I can just put a badly written book down, whereas a good book with potential keeps me hanging on hoping.
She comes up with some great science fiction ideas. Night Sky Mine shows a future in which nanotechnology is so far advanced and prevalent that it's become a kind of microscopic wilderness of nano flora and fauna that reproduces and replicates on its own, just like plants and animals. People have their domesticated nanos and try to control the wild nanos. They capture and train nanos they want to use instead of building them.
Also, some people have implants that allow them to download software containing skill sets. You can be a pilot one week and an engineer the next. It also does the more usual cyberpunk thing of controlling machines around you if you're plugged in.
Interesting stuff, I thought.
The problem is that everything else is somewhat unsatisfying.
The plot involves a group of "pirates" who are killing people to preserve their secret, a girl searching for her hidden past and family and trying to attain citizenship, and two partners trying to find out what the pirates are up to.
The end is rushed, as many of Scott's endings are, as if she's not sure how to conclude things. But the really unsatisfying thing for me involved the partners.
On a "gimme!" level, I would liked some insight from Rangsey on how the implants feel when used. Scott only gives hints and vague outsider POVs on it.
It killed me that this book should have been so much better. That's more frustrating for me than a badly written, boring book. Because I can just put a badly written book down, whereas a good book with potential keeps me hanging on hoping.
January 17, 2008
So, I read Night Sky Mine by Melissa Scott recently. "Two-year-old Ista Kelly was found on a gutted asteroid mine, the only survivor of an apparent pirate raid. Now, as she approaches adulthood, the question of her past can no longer be ignored: in this society, no one can survive without an official identity, and she has vanished from the official records, or never was listed there. But in her search for her true identity takes her not only onto the familiar planes of the wildnet, crowded with the virtual animals that have evolved to populate the multi-linked computer networks, but forces her to confront the political and economic powers that shape her world." Interesting, though ultimately little disappointing -- the ending felt like a setup for a series, but as far as I know, there isn't more in the series. Also, I'm a little dubious about evolved programs acting like a biological ecosystem. That said, it's worth reading if you think there aren't enough queer characters in science fiction.
October 27, 2018
This was one of my favorite Scott novels, back in the mid 90s when she was doing some of the best and most original SF of the time. Another cyberspace adventure, this one featuring “wildnets”, software in a strange electronic ecology. And of course the asteroid-mine setting caught my attention right away. My booklog refers me to a paper journal entry, which I should look up. Another possible reread someday, in the sweet bye and bye, when the books aren't falling off the shelves and endtables....
May 31, 2021
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I bought a copy of this book.
My Summary (2/5): Overall I didn’t get through even the first chapter of this book...soooo. I probably don’t even deserve to write a review of it. However, I felt like since Scott was one of the authors I was most excited to read this year I should say something.
This book was incredibly dense and packed with a ton of sci-fi people, places, and things that are not explained at all. I only read the first 20 pages of this book but I think with all the re-reading and going back and forth trying to figure out what was going on, it took me nearly an hour to read that. I just did not have the energy for this. The first part was incredibly dense, a huge info dump, and still confusing as heck. I tried and I don’t have the energy to continue. I applaud those who made the effort to finish this, but based on reviews I’ve read things weren’t going to get better...so done is done.
My Summary (2/5): Overall I didn’t get through even the first chapter of this book...soooo. I probably don’t even deserve to write a review of it. However, I felt like since Scott was one of the authors I was most excited to read this year I should say something.
This book was incredibly dense and packed with a ton of sci-fi people, places, and things that are not explained at all. I only read the first 20 pages of this book but I think with all the re-reading and going back and forth trying to figure out what was going on, it took me nearly an hour to read that. I just did not have the energy for this. The first part was incredibly dense, a huge info dump, and still confusing as heck. I tried and I don’t have the energy to continue. I applaud those who made the effort to finish this, but based on reviews I’ve read things weren’t going to get better...so done is done.
June 22, 2023
Rep: Black lesbian mc, gay mcs
August 18, 2023
Once again another fantastic and prescient Melissa Scott scifi. Honestly she should be in the Scifi Canon of authors who predicted so much, so well.
Two things I will say I appreciated was the space flight/chase element and the software decompiling/reverse engineering.
Having in-universe space flight mechanics that remember that once you only need your jets to get up to speed, after that you stop firing because of the lack of gravity or air resistance. The way Melissa Scott writes a few of these scenes feels so realistic and I'd echo it with her recognition of just how mind-boggingly big space is. Oh cool the main characters are just in system and at maximum speed! That is still going to be a solid week before they get anywhere.
Also while the hammal/AI/wildnet stuff is such a beautifully different metaphor from modern computing I was enraptured with how time-intensive processes were like understanding what unknown code would do. As a career software engineer I have never felt so absolutely seen by a book on this level.
Two things I will say I appreciated was the space flight/chase element and the software decompiling/reverse engineering.
Having in-universe space flight mechanics that remember that once you only need your jets to get up to speed, after that you stop firing because of the lack of gravity or air resistance. The way Melissa Scott writes a few of these scenes feels so realistic and I'd echo it with her recognition of just how mind-boggingly big space is. Oh cool the main characters are just in system and at maximum speed! That is still going to be a solid week before they get anywhere.
Also while the hammal/AI/wildnet stuff is such a beautifully different metaphor from modern computing I was enraptured with how time-intensive processes were like understanding what unknown code would do. As a career software engineer I have never felt so absolutely seen by a book on this level.
October 11, 2024
This book is nearly 30 years old, and I haven't read much of the author's work for at least 20 of those 30 years. Inevitably, our concepts of artificial intelligence have changed massively in that time, and Scott's very fanciful, evocative picture of AI is unfortunately dated. In this world, AI programs swim in a virtual sea where they can be viewed as nearly-alive creatures ("hammals"), each with distinctive shapes, sizes, and abilities.
The story starts with Ista, who is apprenticed to be a hypothecary, a collector of hammals for clients with specific needs. Her mentor, Trindade, is teaching her how to explore in the AI wildnet, and what to watch out for there. The other plotline features Rangsey7 Justin, a member of the Union (a culture of spacefaring families where adults are supplied with chips which help them pilot ships and perform other technical spaceship tasks) and his lover Sein Tarasov, a planet-bound policeman.
Justin and Sein are drawn/invited/drafted into an investigation of a potential attack on a corporate ship which was acting as a mining platform. These attacks are thought to be very rare, but perhaps news of them has been suppressed. The investigation pulls Justin and Sein off their planet and connects them with Ista, who turns out to have been a foundling discovered on just such an attacked ship.
Intrigue, hijinx, and mysteries abound.
Reading this felt like a return to a style of science fiction that I love and often don't notice that I miss: really daring concepts, high adventure, fast-moving plot, characters to identify with, and suspense galore. My only complaint is that the Big Reveal is foreshadowed too strongly too early, and thus was neither as much of a surprise or as meaningful as it could have been.
The variety of hammals alone is worth the price of admission: in the first journey of Ista's we share in the wildnet, we see wallaroo, godwits, mandaleon, as well as the vetch being captured for one of Trindade's clients--and there are many more to come in this explosion of delights from Melissa Scott's brain.
The story starts with Ista, who is apprenticed to be a hypothecary, a collector of hammals for clients with specific needs. Her mentor, Trindade, is teaching her how to explore in the AI wildnet, and what to watch out for there. The other plotline features Rangsey7 Justin, a member of the Union (a culture of spacefaring families where adults are supplied with chips which help them pilot ships and perform other technical spaceship tasks) and his lover Sein Tarasov, a planet-bound policeman.
Justin and Sein are drawn/invited/drafted into an investigation of a potential attack on a corporate ship which was acting as a mining platform. These attacks are thought to be very rare, but perhaps news of them has been suppressed. The investigation pulls Justin and Sein off their planet and connects them with Ista, who turns out to have been a foundling discovered on just such an attacked ship.
Intrigue, hijinx, and mysteries abound.
Reading this felt like a return to a style of science fiction that I love and often don't notice that I miss: really daring concepts, high adventure, fast-moving plot, characters to identify with, and suspense galore. My only complaint is that the Big Reveal is foreshadowed too strongly too early, and thus was neither as much of a surprise or as meaningful as it could have been.
The variety of hammals alone is worth the price of admission: in the first journey of Ista's we share in the wildnet, we see wallaroo, godwits, mandaleon, as well as the vetch being captured for one of Trindade's clients--and there are many more to come in this explosion of delights from Melissa Scott's brain.
September 21, 2011
very interesting world creation.. good concept.. difficult to read, though, because of all the world-explanation comma-spliced into the sentences! characters were promising but somewhat shallow. the first part of the book is so slow and then BLAM last chapter is the entire plot. some of which seems like the easy way out rather than something she'd planned from the beginning.
August 22, 2023
This is a tough book to review.
On one hand, I enjoyed the story a lot, on the other hand, it took me very long to feel invested in it.
The premise, of computer programs living in an alternative world and behaving like plants and animals is really cool. I wonder how much of the codes and programs' descriptions would make more sense if I had any knowledge of programming myself.
However, this also made the book difficult to enjoy in the beginning. There was all the new vocabulary created specifically for the world building, which is never trully explained. You have to grapple the meanings from context and use. It felt like reading a book in a language you are not quite fluent in, which is tiring. But that is also one of the strengths of the book. There's so much of the world created, with hints of even broader horizons, that it makes it all feel real.
I think my biggest problem woth the book was the pacing. The begin is quite slow, and I couldn't really see the shape of where it was going. Then it speed up to a nice pace. But the resolution felt rushed and anti-climax.
On one hand, I enjoyed the story a lot, on the other hand, it took me very long to feel invested in it.
The premise, of computer programs living in an alternative world and behaving like plants and animals is really cool. I wonder how much of the codes and programs' descriptions would make more sense if I had any knowledge of programming myself.
However, this also made the book difficult to enjoy in the beginning. There was all the new vocabulary created specifically for the world building, which is never trully explained. You have to grapple the meanings from context and use. It felt like reading a book in a language you are not quite fluent in, which is tiring. But that is also one of the strengths of the book. There's so much of the world created, with hints of even broader horizons, that it makes it all feel real.
I think my biggest problem woth the book was the pacing. The begin is quite slow, and I couldn't really see the shape of where it was going. Then it speed up to a nice pace. But the resolution felt rushed and anti-climax.
June 21, 2021
Ista Kelly, the main character, is an apprentice hypothecary, licensed experts who harvests wild computer programs and analyzes code in the wildnet. At age two, Ista was the sole survivor of a mineship attack, and was adopted by her rescuer. Because she has no known parentage, she is not a legal citizen, and longs for this belonging. Meanwhile, a new mineship is attacked and a powerful governmental investigator recruits two local policemen (Rangsey and Tarasov) to pose as new age gypsies to find answers, where security forces are not welcome. Ista ask a school friend to help, hoping this work will lead to citizenship. When the two teenage girls use Ista’s friend’s father access credentials they flee with the investigators in their spaceship to find answers and avoid arrest. Good characters, but the worldbuilding was too complex, at least for me.
August 23, 2023
Melissa Scott creates a complex world where humanity is divided into Company, Union, and Traveller, and computer programs are anthropomorphized as animal and plantforms. The Internet has grown to include something called the Wild Net were there programs run wild and free, possibly even threatening to grow into something so monstrous as to destroy all other programs in the system. In this universe a small group of disparate characters find themselves thrown together to solve a mystery that blossoms into something bigger than they imagine. Scott's imagination and commitment to racial and sexual diversity was ahead of its time in 90's science fiction, and her imagination was taking early technological advances in software and web work to unimaginable heights.
Read
December 13, 2019I remember this one as taking place on a very large ship and it had the protagonist searching the wild net for programs (which were described like bugs) to capture and use or sell.
I'd like to re-read and see what I think after a dozen years trying to have a career in software development.
I'd like to re-read and see what I think after a dozen years trying to have a career in software development.
December 27, 2021
Great characters, but it felt like the first book in a series that was never written.
October 2, 2024
Pretty good overall! Some of the tech-stuff wasn't as interesting as other Melissa Scott books, but luckily there's plenty happening in the book. A great read!
June 1, 2015
At the very beginning of Night Sky Mine, we are thrown into a world where programs (hammals) run wild in the "invisible world," breeding, hunting, and generally living, as such things can live. Indeed, the worst possible thing to happen in this enclosed environment would be if one of the hammals were to gain sentience and the ability to come into the real world. Into this backdrop are inserted a young girl with a mysterious past who is learning to capture and breed hammals, and a couple who are investigating strange occurrences at the Night Sky Mine Company.
The plot moves quickly, as you would expect from a Melissa Scott novel. The reader is immersed in world-building and new vocabulary from the first page, and some may struggle to catch up. From there, it's easy to be drawn into the drama, but the main plot remains curiously backgrounded in favor of the small, personal dramas of Ista, Rangsey, and Tarasov.
As is usual with Melissa Scott books, the main characters are queer, but also very much a product of the mid-90s. Rangsey and Tarasov never quite gel as a couple, and can be best characterized as acrimoniously involved most of the time. Ista herself thinks about a romantic relationship with another girl, but no move is made on it by the end of the novel. It almost seems like this is the most Scott thought she could get away with at the time.
While I didn't buy the romantic relationship between Rangsey and Tarasov, they were compelling characters separately. The story is serviceable and engaging, and the character have unique voices and outlooks. I can absolutely recommend this book as a star of hard(ish) SFF from the 90s, but I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking specifically for queer fiction - you'll find it here, but it may not be as satisfying as you'd like.
The plot moves quickly, as you would expect from a Melissa Scott novel. The reader is immersed in world-building and new vocabulary from the first page, and some may struggle to catch up. From there, it's easy to be drawn into the drama, but the main plot remains curiously backgrounded in favor of the small, personal dramas of Ista, Rangsey, and Tarasov.
As is usual with Melissa Scott books, the main characters are queer, but also very much a product of the mid-90s. Rangsey and Tarasov never quite gel as a couple, and can be best characterized as acrimoniously involved most of the time. Ista herself thinks about a romantic relationship with another girl, but no move is made on it by the end of the novel. It almost seems like this is the most Scott thought she could get away with at the time.
While I didn't buy the romantic relationship between Rangsey and Tarasov, they were compelling characters separately. The story is serviceable and engaging, and the character have unique voices and outlooks. I can absolutely recommend this book as a star of hard(ish) SFF from the 90s, but I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking specifically for queer fiction - you'll find it here, but it may not be as satisfying as you'd like.
April 13, 2017
I feel like this is one of those books where the things I love about it are the things other people hate - that statement's based on the couple of "meh" reviews here. The book's all worldbuilding and little plot, it throws in-world terms at you without explaining, it doesn't resolve neatly at the end. I thought it was just such a cool and detailed world to be immersed in, and I loved that it never felt pedantic or overly tech-y; you get a really vivid visual and tactile sense of the sci-fi technology at play here and a very palpable sense of how restricted life is under the social system without it being spelled out for you. And I enjoyed the slow build of tension up to the sort of ambiguous semi-resolution such a story would probably get in real life. That goes for the major events as well as the relationship subplots; I found it refreshing to have those open-ended but with enough detail to be able to imagine for myself how they might progress.
That said, I did wish for a little deeper character development - like, stop telling me these two guys are in a loving but tense relationship, and show me instead! And as well-done as it was, there's only so much computer hacking and ship piloting I really want to read the whole process of - it's inevitably at least a little monotonous.
Definitely not a book for everyone, but a great read if an absence of dramatic action is more a plus than a minus for you.
That said, I did wish for a little deeper character development - like, stop telling me these two guys are in a loving but tense relationship, and show me instead! And as well-done as it was, there's only so much computer hacking and ship piloting I really want to read the whole process of - it's inevitably at least a little monotonous.
Definitely not a book for everyone, but a great read if an absence of dramatic action is more a plus than a minus for you.
December 3, 2013
I reread this novel as I was recovering from the flu and did not wish to challenge myself with a new book. I would not rate it as one of Melissa's Scott's best works, but as always I found myself caring about Ista's fate and her relationship that teeters on an awakening for both parties. The book begins with reports of space pirates raiding mining outstations and eventually a long trail emerges from what seems at first to be an isolated episode. Ista is in the middle of it because she is a salvaged child from an initial attack, lacking an identity. The politics between the corporations and various legal guilds is once again a fascinating exploration in a well developed alternative universe. It is not as easy to make the parallels between the historical civilizations like one might do in a Star trek series, and I found myself struggling with the virtual reality lingo. I look for others who have enjoyed this book for greater insight.
May 7, 2015
This is about the least intense book I can imagine about an orphan child on a space station going off after the pirates that killed her family. Stuff happens and there is a really weird computer environment that everyone has to deal with but while the characters are interesting enough there isn't ever any real drama or tension in the story, even when the characters' lives are supposedly in jeopardy because the computer's been hacked and they're being chased by those aforementioned pirates.
December 13, 2020
After reading my first book by Melissa Scott, I couldn't help working my way through her other books. All were quite fun to read and sometimes thought-provoking.
April 29, 2013
Loved this when it first came out, seems like it's holding up so far.
August 26, 2014
Good solid sf , wonderful world building.Realistic - not so much firecracker nonesense but engrossing right to the end.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews