Crystal Silence

by Shingo Fujisaki, Naoyuki Katoh (Illustrator), Kathleen Taji (Translator)

It is 2071, and Mars is being slowly terraformed by many nations often cooperating in an uneasy truce that reflects tensions back on Earth. The water of the polar ice cap, the most important resource for all the Mars colonies, is jointly controlled by the US, China, Japan and Russia, and doled out to the second-tier colonizing groups (Europe, Canada, Australia, India) only grudgingly. A military build-up is under way as different groups jockey for control of this all-important resource, and then the bodies of what appear to be intelligent aliens are found under the Martian ice. Saya Askai is dispatched from Earth in realtime, separating herself from the virtual reality network that encompasses civilization, to investigate... and finds herself in a battleground of cyborgs, virtual reality plagues, and Schwarzchild traps that she may only be able to navigate through safely with the help of people who probably don't exist... Originally published in 1999, Crystal Silence was promptly voted the best Japanese SF novel of the year in the annual poll run by Hayakawa SF Magazine.

354 pages, Paperback

First published March 20, 2012

Reviews

[Made DNA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really what I was hoping it would be. Set in the same universe as Left Alone, a short story which is a FAR better. Had a hard time relating what it was that the author was trying to relay through the varied layers of the story, especially the comparisons of the First Martian culture to the Jomon era peoples. If you are into (very) slow, thought-provoking SF, this might be right up your alley. Frankly, I was not really impressed. I think the translation needed a bit more editing as well as there were some really rough spots compared to the eloquence of most of the book.

[Brent Millis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really what I was hoping it would be. Set in the same universe as Left Alone, a short story which is a FAR better. Had a hard time relating what it was that the author was trying to relay through the varied layers of the story, especially the comparisons of the First Martian culture to the Jomon era peoples. If you are into (very) slow, thought-provoking SF, this might be right up your alley. Frankly, I was not really impressed. I think the translation needed a bit more editing as well as there were some really rough spots compared to the eloquence of most of the book.

[Guilherme Gontijo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a pleasant surprise in Kindle Unlimited catalog. Crystal Silence is an unexpected blend of cyberpunk and hard SF. Easily one of my top 3 science fiction novels of all time. So beautifully crafted, the novel has not one single bad moment. Very very good.