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Virga #4
The Sunless Countries: Book Four of Virga
The Sunless Countries is t he fourth novel in the Virga series of hard science fiction space opera adventures
In an ocean of weightless air where sunlight has never been seen, only the running lights of the city of Pacquaea glitter in the dark. One woman, Leal Hieronyma Maspeth, lives and dreams of love among the gaslit streets and cafés. And somewhere in the abyss of wind and twisted cloud through which Pacquaea eternally falls, a great voice has begun speaking.
As its cold words reach from space to the city walls―and as outlying towns and travelers' ships start to mysteriously disappear―only Leal has the courage to try to understand the message thundering from the distance. Even the city's most famous and exotic visitor, the sun lighter and hero named Hayden Griffin, refuses to turn aside from his commission to build a new sun for a foreign nation. He will not become the hero that Leal knows the city needs; so it is up to her to listen, and ultimately reply, to the voice of the worldwasp―because an astonishing disaster threatens Virga.
In an ocean of weightless air where sunlight has never been seen, only the running lights of the city of Pacquaea glitter in the dark. One woman, Leal Hieronyma Maspeth, lives and dreams of love among the gaslit streets and cafés. And somewhere in the abyss of wind and twisted cloud through which Pacquaea eternally falls, a great voice has begun speaking.
As its cold words reach from space to the city walls―and as outlying towns and travelers' ships start to mysteriously disappear―only Leal has the courage to try to understand the message thundering from the distance. Even the city's most famous and exotic visitor, the sun lighter and hero named Hayden Griffin, refuses to turn aside from his commission to build a new sun for a foreign nation. He will not become the hero that Leal knows the city needs; so it is up to her to listen, and ultimately reply, to the voice of the worldwasp―because an astonishing disaster threatens Virga.
336 pages, Paperback
First published August 4, 2009
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457 people want to read
About the author
Karl Schroeder
95 books383 followersKarl Schroeder is an award-winning Canadian science fiction author. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as nanotechnology, terraforming, augmented reality and interstellar travel, and have a deeply philosophical streak. One of his concepts, known as thalience, has gained some currency in the artificial intelligence and computer networking communities.
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July 20, 2024
The Sunless Countries: Book Four of Virga Kindle Edition
by Karl Schroeder
This is book four of the Virga Chronicles. Author Karl Schroeder has been revealing the amazing world of Virga by shifting viewpoint characters as he tells his adventure story. The first book began with Hayden Griffin, a young man from the nation of Aerie. Aeri was conquered by the nation of Slipstream. Griffin entered the service of Slipstream’s navy and became involved in a dangerous adventure that revealed secrets about Virga. The second book shifts the perspective to Venera Fanning. Venera married into the aristocracy of Slipstream and was part of Hayden Griffin’s expedition. The third book features Chaison Fanning, Venera’s husband and an aristocrat of Slipstream. Chaison is as noble and honest and Venera seems to be conniving.
In the fourth book we are introduced to Leal Malspeth, a historian in the sunless country of Sere. She meets up with Hayden, who has fulfilled his mission of giving a sun to Aerie, and the focus moves out from the world of Virga.
This is a call-back to classic science fiction with big ideas about big objects. Virga is a planet-sized, gas-filled bag in space. It lacks gravity. It is inhabited by humans who have created low-tech versions of artificial gravity through centrifugal force. Lumps of soil provide farmlands. Water may exist in vast bubbles. Animals have evolved to move by flying. We know nothing of the universe outside of Virga, except that there are hostile artificial intelligences who are prepared to take over Virga if the field surrounding Virga that suppresses electronics is turned off.
The center region of Virga is home to Candesce, the Sun of Suns, which illuminates the central region of space. Candesce is an artificial sun. Other artificial suns in outlying regions allow humans to live outside the central regions in nations that stay together and float in the air current around Virga.
The inner skin of Virga is the home of icebergs. The region toward the skin is the “sunless countries” where no one has built an artificial fusion reactor.
Sere is in the sunless countries. Sere has recently fallen under the control of an political/religious faction – the Eternists - that defines truth as that which the majority of the population votes for. This is a ploy to ram a religious/political orthodoxy down the throat of Sere which defines as truth the propositions that Virga has always existed and that there is nothing beyond or outside of Virga.
Leal is a historian who knows differently.
Needless to say, the Eternists are committed to destroying the university where Leal works.
Added to this is the complication that when Hayden Griffin turned off Candesce in the first book, he let in entities from outside that wanted to occupy the one place in the universe that is not under the control of “artificial nature.” It seems that one of those entities is tearing up the outskirts of Sere.
This novel is about the plots and counterplots in Sere and the expeditions to discovery what it is from outside that came into Virga.
I enjoyed the book. I think that someone who didn’t read the prior books might find themselves lost since there are callbacks to the events of the prior stories. Also, the story ends on a cliffhanger, as did the first book. The various “books’ of the Virga Chronicles are probably better thought of as chapters in a much larger novel.
by Karl Schroeder
This is book four of the Virga Chronicles. Author Karl Schroeder has been revealing the amazing world of Virga by shifting viewpoint characters as he tells his adventure story. The first book began with Hayden Griffin, a young man from the nation of Aerie. Aeri was conquered by the nation of Slipstream. Griffin entered the service of Slipstream’s navy and became involved in a dangerous adventure that revealed secrets about Virga. The second book shifts the perspective to Venera Fanning. Venera married into the aristocracy of Slipstream and was part of Hayden Griffin’s expedition. The third book features Chaison Fanning, Venera’s husband and an aristocrat of Slipstream. Chaison is as noble and honest and Venera seems to be conniving.
In the fourth book we are introduced to Leal Malspeth, a historian in the sunless country of Sere. She meets up with Hayden, who has fulfilled his mission of giving a sun to Aerie, and the focus moves out from the world of Virga.
This is a call-back to classic science fiction with big ideas about big objects. Virga is a planet-sized, gas-filled bag in space. It lacks gravity. It is inhabited by humans who have created low-tech versions of artificial gravity through centrifugal force. Lumps of soil provide farmlands. Water may exist in vast bubbles. Animals have evolved to move by flying. We know nothing of the universe outside of Virga, except that there are hostile artificial intelligences who are prepared to take over Virga if the field surrounding Virga that suppresses electronics is turned off.
The center region of Virga is home to Candesce, the Sun of Suns, which illuminates the central region of space. Candesce is an artificial sun. Other artificial suns in outlying regions allow humans to live outside the central regions in nations that stay together and float in the air current around Virga.
The inner skin of Virga is the home of icebergs. The region toward the skin is the “sunless countries” where no one has built an artificial fusion reactor.
Sere is in the sunless countries. Sere has recently fallen under the control of an political/religious faction – the Eternists - that defines truth as that which the majority of the population votes for. This is a ploy to ram a religious/political orthodoxy down the throat of Sere which defines as truth the propositions that Virga has always existed and that there is nothing beyond or outside of Virga.
Leal is a historian who knows differently.
Needless to say, the Eternists are committed to destroying the university where Leal works.
Added to this is the complication that when Hayden Griffin turned off Candesce in the first book, he let in entities from outside that wanted to occupy the one place in the universe that is not under the control of “artificial nature.” It seems that one of those entities is tearing up the outskirts of Sere.
This novel is about the plots and counterplots in Sere and the expeditions to discovery what it is from outside that came into Virga.
I enjoyed the book. I think that someone who didn’t read the prior books might find themselves lost since there are callbacks to the events of the prior stories. Also, the story ends on a cliffhanger, as did the first book. The various “books’ of the Virga Chronicles are probably better thought of as chapters in a much larger novel.
September 19, 2020
Quite spectacular. Recommended.
June 19, 2020
Back to Virga, and I'm happy to report that I found this fourth volume a lot more engaging than the previous
Pirate Sun
. In this book, the hero from the start of the series returns, but he's not the book's protagonist. Instead, it's a new character: Leal Maspeth, a historian in the nation of Abyss, which is about as far from Candesce - Virga's "Sun of Suns" - as one can get.
The last book offered hints of Virga's history and of an existential threat from outside this bubble universe. The Sunless Countries expands on that by putting the world's history itself in peril. Leal's nation has been taken over by a party of religious extremists whose beliefs are that Virga is all that exists in the universe, and that its history is "eternal" - in other words, small and nonexistent. Leal's quest is to preserve what knowledge remains from being destroyed in the fires of political expediency, and to decipher a message received from a "monster" that's invaded from outside Virga's shell - a realm the Eternists deny even exists.
The extent to which this novel blows open the setting of the series surprised me. I compared the first book to Larry Niven's Ringworld, and this series definitely falls within the "Big Dumb Object" subgenre of SF. However, most of those novels, like Ringworld or Rendezvous with Rama, involve explorers discovering the BDO from afar. Schroeder turns that conceit on its head by telling his story from the point of view of the BDO's inhabitants, those who don't know that the universe is supposed to be any other way, and letting them discover the true nature of their world gradually. It's a marvelous approach, and in The Sunless Countries the sense of discovery goes into overdrive - while the act of discovery itself is what's under threat.
The last book offered hints of Virga's history and of an existential threat from outside this bubble universe. The Sunless Countries expands on that by putting the world's history itself in peril. Leal's nation has been taken over by a party of religious extremists whose beliefs are that Virga is all that exists in the universe, and that its history is "eternal" - in other words, small and nonexistent. Leal's quest is to preserve what knowledge remains from being destroyed in the fires of political expediency, and to decipher a message received from a "monster" that's invaded from outside Virga's shell - a realm the Eternists deny even exists.
The extent to which this novel blows open the setting of the series surprised me. I compared the first book to Larry Niven's Ringworld, and this series definitely falls within the "Big Dumb Object" subgenre of SF. However, most of those novels, like Ringworld or Rendezvous with Rama, involve explorers discovering the BDO from afar. Schroeder turns that conceit on its head by telling his story from the point of view of the BDO's inhabitants, those who don't know that the universe is supposed to be any other way, and letting them discover the true nature of their world gradually. It's a marvelous approach, and in The Sunless Countries the sense of discovery goes into overdrive - while the act of discovery itself is what's under threat.
January 15, 2010
Like so much of my reading I read the forth of Karl Schroeder's Virga series, The Sunless Countries first. My newly opened library has designed their new books section to look like a book store. It makes the new books so appealing that I've been grabbing books later in the series.
The first three books follow Hayden Griffin a man bent on revenge for the deaths of his parents. They had been sun builders, a very valuable skill in the dark balloon skin of Virga. In The Sunless Countries Schroeder introduces a new main character and explores life in the darkest areas of Virga.
Leal Hieronyma Maspeth is a lecturer hoping for tenure at her local university. Unfortunately her town is in the grips of a conservative take over and the new government has its sights on the university and any other point of view that is contrary to their religious views.
Of course though (and probably for fans of the first three books), Leal ends up being an outcast from her town and ends up in alliance with Hayden Griffin. Together they explore the darkest and scariest parts of Virga and learn more about the world's history (exactly what the relgious leaders don't want).
Schroeder does a fantastic job of creating Virga and the worlds contained within. He makes Leal's day to day life believable and compelling.
I tore through the book in about a day and a half. I loved it. I couldn't put it down. I know that's a cliche but for this book it's true. It was in my hands whenever I had a free moment of time.
I am now working my way through the previous three books.
The Virga Series:
* Sun of Suns (Virga, #1)
* Queen of Candesce (Virga, #2)
* Pirate Sun (Virga, #3)
* The Sunless Countries (Virga, #4)
The first three books follow Hayden Griffin a man bent on revenge for the deaths of his parents. They had been sun builders, a very valuable skill in the dark balloon skin of Virga. In The Sunless Countries Schroeder introduces a new main character and explores life in the darkest areas of Virga.
Leal Hieronyma Maspeth is a lecturer hoping for tenure at her local university. Unfortunately her town is in the grips of a conservative take over and the new government has its sights on the university and any other point of view that is contrary to their religious views.
Of course though (and probably for fans of the first three books), Leal ends up being an outcast from her town and ends up in alliance with Hayden Griffin. Together they explore the darkest and scariest parts of Virga and learn more about the world's history (exactly what the relgious leaders don't want).
Schroeder does a fantastic job of creating Virga and the worlds contained within. He makes Leal's day to day life believable and compelling.
I tore through the book in about a day and a half. I loved it. I couldn't put it down. I know that's a cliche but for this book it's true. It was in my hands whenever I had a free moment of time.
I am now working my way through the previous three books.
The Virga Series:
* Sun of Suns (Virga, #1)
* Queen of Candesce (Virga, #2)
* Pirate Sun (Virga, #3)
* The Sunless Countries (Virga, #4)
January 10, 2010
The Sunless Countries is not as engaging as the three previous books in this series, set in a created haven for humanity, a balloon world called Virga that orbits the star Vega. Much of the book is spent in review and exposition, carefully explaining the events of the earlier novels from the point of view of historian Leal Maspeth. The details of the world's creation are intriguing, but it comes across as almost documentary when compared to the swashbuckling steampunk feel of the rest of the series. Leal doesn't serve as quite the counterpoint that Hayden Griffin needs, in the manner that Chaison Fanning balanced the newly introduced Antea Argyle in Pirate Sun with their competing senses of duty. Leal is a more tame heroine (although anyone would seem tame in a series that showcases the likes of Venera Fanning), and Hayden, who has lost his drive, seemed to need someone flashier to share the spotlight with him.
However, if one eliminates comparisons with the rest of the series, it is still a good read. The countries on the edge of Winter never see the light of the world's fusion engine "suns" and they fear the things in the dark with them. Their desire to reduce truth to a democratic process, and the consequential creation of a dystopia, is an attempt to control their fears. Leal successfully makes a character journey from daydreaming academic to thinking hero, and her peek at what lies outside the sanctuary of Virga's enclosed walls gives more solidity to the threat of the Artificial Nature that is the villain of the series.
However, if one eliminates comparisons with the rest of the series, it is still a good read. The countries on the edge of Winter never see the light of the world's fusion engine "suns" and they fear the things in the dark with them. Their desire to reduce truth to a democratic process, and the consequential creation of a dystopia, is an attempt to control their fears. Leal successfully makes a character journey from daydreaming academic to thinking hero, and her peek at what lies outside the sanctuary of Virga's enclosed walls gives more solidity to the threat of the Artificial Nature that is the villain of the series.
Read
February 19, 2012Karl Schroeder’s Virga sequence is undoubtedly one of the best science fiction series in recent years, and in my opinion even among the best ever. It is almost like a small encyclopedia of science fiction in itself in that it showcases so many of the forms the genre takes – planetary romance, golden age adventure story, hard science speculation, singularity and steampunk. And the wonder of the series is that it pulls all those elements into a believable and even plausible whole and turns them into a compulsive read. I really cannot praise this series enough and it should be on the reading list of everyone with even a passing interest in what science fiction is, has been and can be.[return][return]This fourth volume is a bit of a departure for Schroeder’s series – Pirate Sun resolved all the threads of the various characters introduced in Sun of Suns. The Sunless Countries introduces a new main character, a historian named Leal Maspeth, and also shifts emphasis somewhat – there is a lot about the big picture in the rest of the galaxy here, and for its ending the novel even ventures outside of Virga for the first time; also, similar to the development of Leal in this novel, it has less swashbuckling and significantly more politics than previous volumes. It is not less of an exciting read for that, and I already pre-ordered the fifth volume, Ashes of Candesce.
September 15, 2018
These books are so close to being perfect... but the people just don’t work for me. Leal is an improvement as a character over Chaison Fanning, but the author’s effort to write an anti-romance ends up coming off as almost condescending.
He’s trying to write a character journey where she goes from thinking she deserves to be rescued and fantasizing about being involved with the sun-lighter to being an independent woman. And her character does that. But it’s all in the telling, not the showing. Leal is always pretty independent as far as I can see. And lot of her negatively-perceived character traits are coded as feminine wish fulfillment.
It’s not a romance. And that’s ok, it’s not what I came for. But that doesn’t make romance bad.
In general I enjoyed the idea of the Sunless Countries. The takeover of the Eternists was also cool to read, especially in the current political environment. But again, these books are so close to perfect, that I find myself wishing for characters who are just a little more... something. It’s ok that they are Big Idea books instead of character books, though, I guess.
He’s trying to write a character journey where she goes from thinking she deserves to be rescued and fantasizing about being involved with the sun-lighter to being an independent woman. And her character does that. But it’s all in the telling, not the showing. Leal is always pretty independent as far as I can see. And lot of her negatively-perceived character traits are coded as feminine wish fulfillment.
It’s not a romance. And that’s ok, it’s not what I came for. But that doesn’t make romance bad.
In general I enjoyed the idea of the Sunless Countries. The takeover of the Eternists was also cool to read, especially in the current political environment. But again, these books are so close to perfect, that I find myself wishing for characters who are just a little more... something. It’s ok that they are Big Idea books instead of character books, though, I guess.
August 12, 2022
I liked the first three Virga books a lot, but this one seems to falter. I give Schroeder props for switching things up and introducing a new protagonist (former hero Hayden Griffen appears but in a secondary role), and I kind of like that this new hero, Leal Maspeth, is an academic (a historian), as one does not get too many academic heroes. That said, I didn't find her particularly engaging. The plot is also perhaps a bit too on the nose in its representation of a society governed by ideologues who basically refuse to acknowledge reality when it conflicts with their preferred beliefs. The book also feels rushed in its final chapters, with what seem to be abrupt temporal shifts--and it doesn't end so much as just stop. As I recall, the earlier books in the series were pretty readable on their own, but this one ends halfway through the story. That always irks me.
September 17, 2023
I first read (correction: listened to) Karl Schroeder's Virga series as it was being released. Somehow, I missed this fourth book in the series, and so am returning after more than a decade. I liked how this book focused on a different set of characters and a part of the world that was barely touched on in previous books in the series. Here, the main action is set in a town named Sere that is located far from the large artificial sun that lights most of Virga. The people of Seer have adapted to the perpetual twilight and some of my favorite passages in the book describe what their lives are like. AND . . . tiny spoiler alert . . . there are some really great passages depicting how the protagonist, Leal, reacts when she sees sunlight for the first time.
A good part of the plot is driven by the politics of the city of Seer, which have become dominated by a group of refuseniks who deny that there is a greater universe outside of Virga. History teachers must only teach the curricula that is approved by the government, and books that do not conform are burned. This book came out in 2009 and while Schroeder is in fact a professional futurist, I'm sure he was just following in the venerable footsteps of Orwell and Bradbury, rather than actually foretelling the ascension of similar science denial we see now in 2023. Still, the echoes in current affairs were chilling for this reader, and it's thought experiments like this that keep me reading scifi.
In sum, I liked this book more than the third one, because this one focused on more cerebral questions and less on action sequences.
[I listened to this with narrators Joyce Irvine and David Thorn, both excellent. They co-narrated the previous audio book in this series, and there it made sense to have two narrators, as the action was moving between two different characters, one female and one male. That wasn't the case with this story, and I struggled to understand why the narrators were switching back and forth. It wasn't terrible, but it was a bit distracting.]
A good part of the plot is driven by the politics of the city of Seer, which have become dominated by a group of refuseniks who deny that there is a greater universe outside of Virga. History teachers must only teach the curricula that is approved by the government, and books that do not conform are burned. This book came out in 2009 and while Schroeder is in fact a professional futurist, I'm sure he was just following in the venerable footsteps of Orwell and Bradbury, rather than actually foretelling the ascension of similar science denial we see now in 2023. Still, the echoes in current affairs were chilling for this reader, and it's thought experiments like this that keep me reading scifi.
In sum, I liked this book more than the third one, because this one focused on more cerebral questions and less on action sequences.
[I listened to this with narrators Joyce Irvine and David Thorn, both excellent. They co-narrated the previous audio book in this series, and there it made sense to have two narrators, as the action was moving between two different characters, one female and one male. That wasn't the case with this story, and I struggled to understand why the narrators were switching back and forth. It wasn't terrible, but it was a bit distracting.]
July 23, 2024
3 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
Leal Maspeth is a history professor in a country that's trending more and more authoritarian and stifling. Hayden Griffin, legendary sun-lighter, is visiting her country for his own reasons. Both become entangled in an adventure that literally takes them out of their world.
Review
I greatly enjoyed the first three books of the Virga series; Schroeder created a fascinating world and fairly deftly outlined the arcs of three core characters. In this fourth book, however, he stumbles a bit.
To begin, we start with a brand new character in a new region of Virga. While protagonist Leal eventually links up with prior characters, much of the book feels quite divorced from the preceding arcs. And where Schroeder does link them up, through the relationship between Leal and sun-lighter Hayden, it’s awkward and unfulfilling. It feels like Schroeder has made the barest of required gestures toward a (completely unconvincing) romantic relationship – banking more on expected tropes than actual character development – and I found the whole thing more irritating than interesting.
The story as a whole is also fairly muddled in terms of both plot and worldbuilding. We hear about Virga inhabitants with vague names that Schroeder does little to distinguish. Even partway through, I constantly had to remind myself which was which among world wasps, precipice moths, capital bugs, and wraiths. Even when we do finally get outside Virga itself, which should have been a tremendous climax, the mood is so flat and underplayed that I hardly cared. It’s not even really described very well, in contrast to Schroeder’s excellent work in preceding books. The result is okay, but not great.
All in all, treat this book as a somewhat unfortunate bridge book between a very strong start (though trending down) and (what I hope will be) a similarly strong finish.
Summary
Leal Maspeth is a history professor in a country that's trending more and more authoritarian and stifling. Hayden Griffin, legendary sun-lighter, is visiting her country for his own reasons. Both become entangled in an adventure that literally takes them out of their world.
Review
I greatly enjoyed the first three books of the Virga series; Schroeder created a fascinating world and fairly deftly outlined the arcs of three core characters. In this fourth book, however, he stumbles a bit.
To begin, we start with a brand new character in a new region of Virga. While protagonist Leal eventually links up with prior characters, much of the book feels quite divorced from the preceding arcs. And where Schroeder does link them up, through the relationship between Leal and sun-lighter Hayden, it’s awkward and unfulfilling. It feels like Schroeder has made the barest of required gestures toward a (completely unconvincing) romantic relationship – banking more on expected tropes than actual character development – and I found the whole thing more irritating than interesting.
The story as a whole is also fairly muddled in terms of both plot and worldbuilding. We hear about Virga inhabitants with vague names that Schroeder does little to distinguish. Even partway through, I constantly had to remind myself which was which among world wasps, precipice moths, capital bugs, and wraiths. Even when we do finally get outside Virga itself, which should have been a tremendous climax, the mood is so flat and underplayed that I hardly cared. It’s not even really described very well, in contrast to Schroeder’s excellent work in preceding books. The result is okay, but not great.
All in all, treat this book as a somewhat unfortunate bridge book between a very strong start (though trending down) and (what I hope will be) a similarly strong finish.
October 1, 2018
Summary: Surely Steam SF doesn't get better than this? The premise is incredible. It wouldn't work in reality, but as a concept to explore and set stories in motion ... well wow. Against this premise is a set of very interesting characters and an intricate plot ... a little bit far fetched, but hey it works.
Plotline: Plenty of intrigue and complications set in a huge scope. Plenty to keep the reader interested. Huge plot that keeps going and going
Premise: Incredible. It really wouldn’t work. Outside of Virga is very interesting.
Writing: Pretty good, a bit simple in places
Ending: OK but the story is left hanging. Disappointing compared to the earlier books
Pace: Never a dull moment! (less)
Plotline: Plenty of intrigue and complications set in a huge scope. Plenty to keep the reader interested. Huge plot that keeps going and going
Premise: Incredible. It really wouldn’t work. Outside of Virga is very interesting.
Writing: Pretty good, a bit simple in places
Ending: OK but the story is left hanging. Disappointing compared to the earlier books
Pace: Never a dull moment! (less)
July 1, 2023
I still like this series best when it doles out some awesome worldbuilding. The steampunk elements in this hard SF -- construct -- of Virga are okay and fairly entertaining. The adventure to learn more and turn aside from their previous desires was pretty much the best part.
That isn't to say that I wasn't slightly put off with the later wall-of-text, because I was, but I decided to be tolerant. Good SF can sometimes be a little difficult.
That isn't to say that I wasn't slightly put off with the later wall-of-text, because I was, but I decided to be tolerant. Good SF can sometimes be a little difficult.
October 30, 2018
A country where basic facts are determined not by knowledge or objective reality, but by a majority vote of the citizenry? A giant monster with a vague mission and ineffable methods? The ability to create fusion power, but flying vessels are made primarily of wood and rely on gyroscopes for navigation?
Welcome to the penultimate Virga tale. It's a wild one.
Welcome to the penultimate Virga tale. It's a wild one.
June 8, 2023
By far my favorite book in the series
Leal as a main character unlocked something in me I didn't know I needed. She's such an incredible person to read and her journey to finding the truth of her home world is vastly creative and explores the dynamic of humanity that we are kind of going through now with growing tech
Leal as a main character unlocked something in me I didn't know I needed. She's such an incredible person to read and her journey to finding the truth of her home world is vastly creative and explores the dynamic of humanity that we are kind of going through now with growing tech
September 3, 2018
As a huge fan of this world and this series, this one started to run out of steam just a little for me. I still love the idea of Virga and all the characters. This is a fun entry into the series but I think I'm going to back off for a while.
June 5, 2020
A nice adventure that never follows the expected path.
October 3, 2023
We start to learn more about the outside threats, although taking a different approach track from the previous book. Politics eerily echo some the issues we’re dealing with in our own world.
April 24, 2013
Leal Maspeth is a scholar in the city of Sere, on the edge of winter, far from any of the suns in Virga, and the only light they enjoy is the light they make themselves. But they're approaching a dark age of a completely different sort, as a particularly anti-intellectual religious faction is maneuvering itself into political power... but that may not be the biggest problem. For there's a new force out in the dark, making ships and towns disappear, and the fate of their whole world may depend on learning what's out there.
This is another in the Virga series, which started with Sun of Suns. Each of the three previous books told a complete story, while advancing the story of the world as a whole slowly. This book is not like that, it's clearly gearing up for the series endgame. It brings back the hero of Sun of Suns, Hayden Griffin, this time in a secondary role, with new character Leal taking the lead.
It has all that I've come to love in the series... incredibly strange and yet compelling situations due to the world building (Virga is, for anyone reading this review without reading any of the other books, the interior of an Earth-sized sphere filled with air and small clumps of matter, lit and heated in some parts by fusion suns), fun characters, boatloads of adventure, and, despite the generally low-tech setting, a dollop of really cool high science-fictional ideas.
There are a few problems. The book occasionally jumps forward in time, which happened in the rest of the series, but here it felt jarring and more unnatural... sometimes when I was just getting excited about seeing how something would turn out, we'd jump to weeks later. It's less of annoyance on the second read when you're already prepared for it, but it bothered me the first time around. The other minor flaw is that, as much as Schroeder is capable of creating characters and physical environments that seem well-thought out and believable no matter how crazy they are, sometimes he invents certain social dynamics for a society that strain credibility. In this case, the particular mechanics of the Eternist's reign through "democracy of facts". It might be a little more believable in an internet-enabled society, but I never bought in to it existing in Virga (the religion itself was perfectly believable). I can still appreciate these social musings in his books as a semi-allegorical thought experiment that highlights potential new ways of doing things, or dangerous ways of thinking, or just playing around with a few cool ideas, and it's valuable as that, but it doesn't mesh perfectly with the narrative.
There is one other issue of note: unlike the other books, it ends in something of a cliffhanger, with development but very little resolution, setting up for the final book in the Virga series, which I'm excited to finally be reading.
This is another in the Virga series, which started with Sun of Suns. Each of the three previous books told a complete story, while advancing the story of the world as a whole slowly. This book is not like that, it's clearly gearing up for the series endgame. It brings back the hero of Sun of Suns, Hayden Griffin, this time in a secondary role, with new character Leal taking the lead.
It has all that I've come to love in the series... incredibly strange and yet compelling situations due to the world building (Virga is, for anyone reading this review without reading any of the other books, the interior of an Earth-sized sphere filled with air and small clumps of matter, lit and heated in some parts by fusion suns), fun characters, boatloads of adventure, and, despite the generally low-tech setting, a dollop of really cool high science-fictional ideas.
There are a few problems. The book occasionally jumps forward in time, which happened in the rest of the series, but here it felt jarring and more unnatural... sometimes when I was just getting excited about seeing how something would turn out, we'd jump to weeks later. It's less of annoyance on the second read when you're already prepared for it, but it bothered me the first time around. The other minor flaw is that, as much as Schroeder is capable of creating characters and physical environments that seem well-thought out and believable no matter how crazy they are, sometimes he invents certain social dynamics for a society that strain credibility. In this case, the particular mechanics of the Eternist's reign through "democracy of facts". It might be a little more believable in an internet-enabled society, but I never bought in to it existing in Virga (the religion itself was perfectly believable). I can still appreciate these social musings in his books as a semi-allegorical thought experiment that highlights potential new ways of doing things, or dangerous ways of thinking, or just playing around with a few cool ideas, and it's valuable as that, but it doesn't mesh perfectly with the narrative.
There is one other issue of note: unlike the other books, it ends in something of a cliffhanger, with development but very little resolution, setting up for the final book in the Virga series, which I'm excited to finally be reading.
December 3, 2012
Another strong book by Karl Schroeder. It's set in his bubble-world, Virga, which was constructed around an artificial sun. This book takes place in the darkness, far away from the lit inner countries, in Sere. This city may be the most intriguing visual yet, with its streets of copper burnished down the middle and green with verdigris at the untrodden edges, its vast turning wheels, sonorous foghorns,sweeping floodlights, and flea cars leaping from wheel to wheel to taxi their occupants to work. Steampunk in aesthetic, and quite sophisticated and surprising in its technology. Schroeder is the only author I can think of offhand who can combine a steampunk feel with a post-Singularity universe.
Leal, our protagonist, comes across initially as sort of feather-headed and naive. She's a historian in a university in a city that's being swept by political change. The Eternists believe that history and science should conform to popular belief and vote instead of elitist evidence that only a few trained professionals can understand- it's a bit chilling in the wake of our recent elections. Leal is forced to change to survive political games, and comes to be much more introspective.
Schroeder is clearly playing a lot with metaphor here, with the dark Sunless Countries being swept by an anti-intellectual tide that leads to a different kind of darkness. There's a vague threat in the darkness that no one can define, but that many people want to use as leverage for their own ends. There's a great scene where Leal is exposed to the sunlit countries for the first time and almost has a panic attack due to the sudden change in perspective and being able to see how small she really is in comparison to the world. All sorts of great imagery and parallels here, and I could go on and on.
Into the mix we get Hayden Griffin, the sun-lighter from the first book in the series. He's the obvious hero, but things don't go the obvious way. Without saying too much, a lot of what readers have learned about Virga gets turned on its ear and a great change seems to be coming our way.
Leal, our protagonist, comes across initially as sort of feather-headed and naive. She's a historian in a university in a city that's being swept by political change. The Eternists believe that history and science should conform to popular belief and vote instead of elitist evidence that only a few trained professionals can understand- it's a bit chilling in the wake of our recent elections. Leal is forced to change to survive political games, and comes to be much more introspective.
Schroeder is clearly playing a lot with metaphor here, with the dark Sunless Countries being swept by an anti-intellectual tide that leads to a different kind of darkness. There's a vague threat in the darkness that no one can define, but that many people want to use as leverage for their own ends. There's a great scene where Leal is exposed to the sunlit countries for the first time and almost has a panic attack due to the sudden change in perspective and being able to see how small she really is in comparison to the world. All sorts of great imagery and parallels here, and I could go on and on.
Into the mix we get Hayden Griffin, the sun-lighter from the first book in the series. He's the obvious hero, but things don't go the obvious way. Without saying too much, a lot of what readers have learned about Virga gets turned on its ear and a great change seems to be coming our way.
August 4, 2012
I have revised my opinion of this book.
The first time I read this book I really didn't enjoy it as much as the previous books in the Virga series. Its heroine seemed weaker and the story was less about crazy physics and world-building and more about a society teetering on the verge of authoritarianism. And then the ending got kind of weird.
This time around, however I appreciated that Leal Maspeth, the heroine, is actually a much subtler and more interesting character than the swashbuckling heroes of the previous books such as Hayden the Sunlighter. In fact the author spends a lot of time explicitly contrasting her maturity and introspection to his brash heroism.
And the idea of people shutting out the things that they don't want to believe in resonates with the larger themes of the book. The fact that this book even has a theme sets it apart from the previous books, which were more about swashbuckling, steampunk, gravity-defying adventure. And that's all well and good. But in The Sunless Countries Schroeder is taking the series in a more mature direction. I think that threw me the first time I read it. But the second time, I appreciate it. For all its brilliant world-building, Sun of Suns was pretty shallow.
The end of this book clearly sets up for Book V, Ashes of Candesce, which I will read next. The reader and our heroes find themselves beyond the walls of their world of Virga, facing utterly alien worlds and enemies. That's a little bittersweet, because Karl Schroeder has spent so much time building up his intricate, plausible steampunk world that I hate to leave it, and I suspect it's going to be turned upside down and changed forever in the next book anyway. But Schroeder is a brilliant sci-fi author who is able to dream up fantastic ideas and then explore them to their logical limits. He is, in short, a sci-fi genius. So I am looking forward to what comes next.
The first time I read this book I really didn't enjoy it as much as the previous books in the Virga series. Its heroine seemed weaker and the story was less about crazy physics and world-building and more about a society teetering on the verge of authoritarianism. And then the ending got kind of weird.
This time around, however I appreciated that Leal Maspeth, the heroine, is actually a much subtler and more interesting character than the swashbuckling heroes of the previous books such as Hayden the Sunlighter. In fact the author spends a lot of time explicitly contrasting her maturity and introspection to his brash heroism.
And the idea of people shutting out the things that they don't want to believe in resonates with the larger themes of the book. The fact that this book even has a theme sets it apart from the previous books, which were more about swashbuckling, steampunk, gravity-defying adventure. And that's all well and good. But in The Sunless Countries Schroeder is taking the series in a more mature direction. I think that threw me the first time I read it. But the second time, I appreciate it. For all its brilliant world-building, Sun of Suns was pretty shallow.
The end of this book clearly sets up for Book V, Ashes of Candesce, which I will read next. The reader and our heroes find themselves beyond the walls of their world of Virga, facing utterly alien worlds and enemies. That's a little bittersweet, because Karl Schroeder has spent so much time building up his intricate, plausible steampunk world that I hate to leave it, and I suspect it's going to be turned upside down and changed forever in the next book anyway. But Schroeder is a brilliant sci-fi author who is able to dream up fantastic ideas and then explore them to their logical limits. He is, in short, a sci-fi genius. So I am looking forward to what comes next.
February 23, 2011
I was on the fence. Two-and-a-half stars. I was going to give it the benefit of the doubt and round up to three. But then the end of the book came up fast and caught me off guard.
The book just ... ended. But the story didn't. I don't know what happens next. I don't know if the heroen succeeds in her quest. I don't know if she finds love, or saves her country from social and political unrest. The book clearly was designed for a sequel, but I can't figure out if a sequel is forthcoming and, more importantly, I thought this was the conclusion to the Virga series, not the beginning of a new storyline. It's book four, pherphuxake. I was expecting things to be wrapped with a nice pretty bow, not splayed out with pieces left lying around like my kids' lego set at bedtime.
The writing itself wasn't the best I've read but it was adequate. And the book explored questions like what is history and what is truth, and who owns history and truth, and who has the authority to say what those things are? But those ideas were lost in the tangle left raveled at the end. I've read pretty much everything Karl Schroeder has written and, while he's not my favorite author, he's better than this.
The book just ... ended. But the story didn't. I don't know what happens next. I don't know if the heroen succeeds in her quest. I don't know if she finds love, or saves her country from social and political unrest. The book clearly was designed for a sequel, but I can't figure out if a sequel is forthcoming and, more importantly, I thought this was the conclusion to the Virga series, not the beginning of a new storyline. It's book four, pherphuxake. I was expecting things to be wrapped with a nice pretty bow, not splayed out with pieces left lying around like my kids' lego set at bedtime.
The writing itself wasn't the best I've read but it was adequate. And the book explored questions like what is history and what is truth, and who owns history and truth, and who has the authority to say what those things are? But those ideas were lost in the tangle left raveled at the end. I've read pretty much everything Karl Schroeder has written and, while he's not my favorite author, he's better than this.
April 6, 2010
Here's how the Virga books work. You get a slow build where you learn about the characters and the world they inhabit. The characters are probably new and the specific setting is definitely new. Schroeder's world building is so original, detailed and internally consistent you keep reading until you realize you're ripping through the last act like starving piranha being fed ham.
The first three Virga books resolved into jaw dropping swashbucklers, did I say jaw dropping? More like mandible un-freaking-hinging. This one is much less action oriented but it's all about the world building. You're still a little hungry fish shredding a tasty morsel.
Short on details? Yup. ANY detail about this book is spoilerific, except when I tell you to read the damn thing already.
The first three Virga books resolved into jaw dropping swashbucklers, did I say jaw dropping? More like mandible un-freaking-hinging. This one is much less action oriented but it's all about the world building. You're still a little hungry fish shredding a tasty morsel.
Short on details? Yup. ANY detail about this book is spoilerific, except when I tell you to read the damn thing already.
July 19, 2011
The four book in the series and the one that made me hate the last three books.
This is a story mainly told from the perspective of a history teacher. Sound exciting? Yeah, it's not. The book uses the same plot devices as the other three. The characters live with a corrupt government and that is their major nemesis. There is only one character from any of the other books and it's basically a cameo.
There is nothing interesting, intriguing or interesting. The only reason to read this through to try to figure out what the author was thinking.
Not to mention how the book ended with a anti-climatic thud.
I feel sorry for the half a dozen characters that were shallow plot devices.
This is a story mainly told from the perspective of a history teacher. Sound exciting? Yeah, it's not. The book uses the same plot devices as the other three. The characters live with a corrupt government and that is their major nemesis. There is only one character from any of the other books and it's basically a cameo.
There is nothing interesting, intriguing or interesting. The only reason to read this through to try to figure out what the author was thinking.
Not to mention how the book ended with a anti-climatic thud.
I feel sorry for the half a dozen characters that were shallow plot devices.
November 16, 2014
There was a good bit of time between my reading the previous book in the series and reading this one, so I have only vague memories of the previous book. Fortunately, that's not much of a detriment as this book is capable of standing on its own. There are a few characters and sub-plots that are pulled in from the previous books, but they are new to the main character so they have to be introduced to her. The biggest problem with choosing to read this book as a standalone, were someone to do that, is that the ending doesn't feel very conclusive. It feels like it needs more, which I guess is fortunate for us that there is a book 5.
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December 21, 2014There's still some clunky story telling, but this is certainly the best of the series this far. My main complaint is the reliance on lame coincidence to drive the plot. It's not as grievous as whatshername picking up the sacred widget and falling into the town where it gives her super social powers, fortunately. But it still grates.
These novels shine in their creative setting, throwing together bits from many genres. It's just fun!
These novels shine in their creative setting, throwing together bits from many genres. It's just fun!
May 5, 2016
Schroeder is a hard science fiction writer who builts fascinating worlds AND populates them with interesting characters. Joyce Irvine, who also narrates the other books in this series, has a unique voice that I absolutely love. David Thorn is also a very competent narrator.
I did find it annoying that Irvine and Thorn often switch off narration in the middle of a scene. Whenever they switched at a point that wasn't a chapter break, it distracted me for a couple of minutes.
I did find it annoying that Irvine and Thorn often switch off narration in the middle of a scene. Whenever they switched at a point that wasn't a chapter break, it distracted me for a couple of minutes.
March 25, 2013
Out of the whole series this is the one I enjoyed the least. Most of the book is a bit slow compared to the other books, I think this is because a completely new character is introduced so her story needs to be setup. But the ending I think makes for it, but I would have liked what happens there to be explored more.
November 23, 2013
Suffers from a seriously problem of...tension. There seems to be little of it, we never really get the sense that the characters are actually in any of the danger that they say they are.
The main character (new in this outing) is also a "quirky bookish female" and those kind of character tropes leave a bad taste in my mouth.
The main character (new in this outing) is also a "quirky bookish female" and those kind of character tropes leave a bad taste in my mouth.
April 17, 2014
Sometimes you just want a straight-forward adventure novel with believable, complex characters in a richly-imagined, detailed, and internally consistent environment. Books like that are startlingly hard to find, especially well-written ones.
Virga has the advantage of being a strikingly original and breathtaking complete world.
I highly recommend these books.
Virga has the advantage of being a strikingly original and breathtaking complete world.
I highly recommend these books.
December 30, 2014
Overall, I have enjoyed the Virga series so far. But that said, I'm not much of a series-oriented reader; there are few that I follow to completion. While The Sunless Countries was good and provided more technical/scientific detail behind the "balloon world" of Virga, I think I've exhausted my interest in this universe.
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