Against Gravity

by Gary Gibson

If you lived long enough, this could be your future, too

It is the late 21st century, and it is a very different world. Little is as it used to be, and many are not what they seem. Kendrick Gallmon, survivor of an infamous secret research facility called the Maze, is trying to pick up the pieces of his life, even though he knows his nervous system, which is riddled with unstable nanotech augmentations, is slowly killing him. Then one day his heart stops beating, forever, and a ghost urges him to return to the source of all his nightmares, a long-abandoned military complex filled with entirely real voices of the dead.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

524 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Gary Gibson's first novel, Angel Stations, was published in 2004. Interzone called it "dense and involving, puzzling and perplexing. It's unabashed science fiction, with an almost "Golden Age" feel to it ..."

His second novel was Against Gravity in 2005; the Guardian described it as "building on current trends to produce a convincing picture of the world in 2096."

Stealing Light was first published in 2007, and garnered a wide range of positive reviews. The London Times called it: "A violent, inventive, relentlessly gripping adventure ... intelligently written and thought-provoking".

Stealing Light is the first volume in a four-book space opera, the final volume of which, Marauder, was published in 2013.

To date, Gary has written ten novels, most recently Extinction Game and its sequel, Survival Game.

Reviews

[Xabi1990 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oye, leed la sinopsis y si os gusta la CF tened huevos (ovarios) a decir que no os atrae :

A finales del siglo XXI, miles de prisioneros políticos malviven confinados en el Laberinto, donde los investigadores los utilizan como cobayas para crear el soldado perfecto.
Kendrick Gallmon, un superviviente de los experimentos, intenta reunir las piezas de su vida, consciente de que las mejoras nanotécnicas que los científicos han introducido en su sistema nervioso lo están matando lentamente. Un día, su corazón deja de latir para siempre y un fantasma lo apremia a regresar a la fuente de todas sus pesadillas: un complejo militar abandonado hace mucho tiempo donde todavía resuenan las voces de los muertos...

Ualaaaaaa, futuro inmediato con un Estados Unidos arrasado por destrucción medioambiental, con el ejército sublevado.
Ualaaaaa, nanotecnología descontrolada en los cuerpos de civiles arrestados ilegalmente y sometidos a experimentación militar para crear el supersoldado (llamados cobayas).
Muertos nanotecnológicos. Complejo militar fantasmagórico. Facciones militares versus megamillonario de la nano tecnología. Presidente americano medio (o totalmente) loco. Energía del Punto Cero (existe, y planteado por Einstein. Ahora vais y lo buscáis). El Punto Omega (tb existe). Edimburgo, Venezuela, Los Angeles post bomba atómica y una estación espacial con nanotecnología autoconsciente descontrolada.Y chicas y chicos buenos y malos, claro.
Tiene de todo, ¿no? …pues me ha costado un triunfo acabarlo. Nos va contando la historia con flashback por cada capítulo y con un personaje principal –Kendrick- que me ha dejado totalmente frío. Y el resto de personajes, tres cuartos de lo mismo.
La historia avanza por el método narrativo de sumergir al lector en la acción e ir desvelándole pedacitos de información sobre por qué son los personajes como son. Que si está bien hecho es muy efectivo y personalemente me gusta más que la parrafada explicativa al comienzo de la novela, pero es que el señor Gary Gibson no da con la tecla para que esa entrega informativa sea atrayente durante la lectura.

Un montón de posibilidades que se han arrastrado durante toda la novela esperando alzar el vuelo y atrapar al lector. Y llegamos a la recta final y, sí, alza el vuelo …pero de forma (para mí, claro) confusa y nada acorde con lo que íbamos leyendo. Me deja con mal sabor de boca, co la idea de haber perdido el tiempo empleado en su lectura.

Pues eso, que he acabado la novela y lejos de atraparme salgo huyendo del autor. Por ahí he leído que es su peor novela. Por su bien, espero que sea cierto.

Lo que más me ha gustado es que he aprovechado para informarme de eso de la Energía del Punto Cero (curioso, algo me sonaba) y de la existencia del subgénero nanopunk (e incluso biopunk, qué cosas).

[Creative A · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the story about Kendrick, a man who was kidnapped during America's collapse in the 2080's, and was used as a labrat in military scientific experiments. Now he's a fugitive with rouge nanite implants that are slowly killing him, with a kind of intelligence beyond normal understanding. Other survivors think there's a way to keep themselves alive. It has to do with The Archimedes, a station in space with AI meant to figure out the deepest secrets of the universe, and in essence find God. This intelligence calls itself The Bright. What they've learned about the universe could change all of humanity and all of time...and they want the experiment survivors to be a part of it.


Before this book, I'd never read anything by Gary Gibson. He's pretty big in SF but I have to say I wasn't impressed. The writing style was amatuerish and overdone, the characters hard to connect with, and even Kendrick comes across as petulant. The plot has a surreal, feverish quality that makes the whole experience like a bad dream. Half the time I didn't know what motivated these people or why a plot obstacle was such a big deal. And I hated, absolutely HATED, the ending. It left the whole rest of the book meaningless.

I will say one thing for Gison, though; I was compelled to read on. Something about the way he crafted the story and wove his mystery made me want to figure out what was happening. I kept thinking about it. I believe the best part of the story was the flashbacks to Kendrick's time being experimented on. After that, the story lost much of its oomph.

In the end, I wasn't mad I'd read the story, I was just glad it was over. 2 stars.

[Sara]

Sail the life
play piano kill
its stuped game
just forgive that kill lab
its us who want peace
just remmber that use us
we come
gd night mirror
tg.e real voices of died come back
many enemy want us to be like that
the source of what found of mind
diead
pain
wand
game lab
still come back
to laffender field
to miss care betwen many walls
come back
from noise dust
from lazy dew
from hard moment
lost by against grafity

[Kristian Lindqvist · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought Gary Gibson's novel at the same time as Neal Asher's because there was something similar about the (good looking) covers, and I was desperately seeking something hard to bite, akin to Iain M. Banks or Alastair Reynolds.

Well, Against Gravity begins okay as a suspenseful cyberpunk thriller, but too soon the plot is revealed from the viewpoint of other actors in the "big game", which is a shame since this story would have worked better if it had been from the perspective of the protagonist (Kendrick) all the time.

Some nice ideas and pulpy B-science fiction fun but ultimately six months later I don't remember anything of this novel when I'm writing this short review now...

Still, worth checking out, and I'm going to try the "Shoal" series next.

[Adrian Leaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A near future, post cyberpunk (nanopunk) dystopian thriller. It is generally considered to be Gary Gibson's weakest novel. I really enjoyed it however, I actually thought it was one of his best.
It deals with The Omega Point Theory head on and has a very morally ambiguous slant. The characters are pretty well drawn too, far better than in some of Gibson's other work.
Quite a lot to chew on, highly recommended.

[Eric Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book so much I read it over 2 days. Cyperpunk future 2096, where American elects its first "Tea Party" president, LA gets nuked and the US becomes a second world country.. The story follows a character who was used as an "medical experiment" for nano bots..

[Alexander Borgen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ending in it self makes it lose a star. I am a huge fan of his work, but reading this left me disappointed.

[Penny Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

weird ending

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I found this novel confusing and repetitive. It wasn't up to par with the author's other sci-fi novels that I've read so far (Final Days and The Thousand Emperors were both very good)

[Andreea Pausan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those who do not not their history are doomed to repeat it. This book reminded me of the atrocities of WWII, when thousands of people were marched into extermination camps and experimented upon. The story happens in a not so distant future, when US is ruled by President Wilson, under martial law. Due to the terrorist threat (real of used as an excuse), thousands of people are locked in a vast subterranean complex called the Maze. There they are tortured, killed or transformed: implanted with experimental nanites that enhance their senses and turn them into super soldiers. Then they must kill each other in a sick game. But the implantation has unexpected results: the Labrats, as they are called, are contacted by a higher intelligence. Years later, after everything is exposed and the Labrats are released, their implants go rogue and start killing them. The answer seems to be back in the Maze. Kendrick is a normal person, a journalist who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and got thrown into the Maze. When his implants go rogue, he does everything he can to survive. Even if in order to do that, he must go back to hell and face his demons. He is constantly under terrible pressure, threatened, hit, abused over and over, pursued by multiple enemies, afraid and sick and, above all, relentless. He never gives up, despite everything.

What I found most terrifying about this book is its realistic claustrophobic atmosphere, the feeling that this could happen anytime, to any of us.

[Scifimoth · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a general rule I do not like books where the main character has a low level of agency - where they are subject the winds of fortune around them with very little impact. In my view this book suffered from this failing, so I do not like it anywhere near as much as the others from the author. I lost track of the number of times the main character was kidnapped or taken at gunpoint against his will - probably over 7 times. I did finish it though. It finishes rather abruptly.

[Penny · Rating 2 out of 5]

AAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHH ... you know, in SciFi we take for granted that there is an initial suspension-of-disbelief to kick off the premise -- but afterwards, it's fair to assume that the story will proceed logically within its framework. This thing was preposterous. It was also frustrating in the technique of incessant flip-flopping in time&place.

[Terry]

Gary Gibson gets it. In today's mass-produced publishing blitz that stresses profit over quality the authors who actually have some writing ability stand out from the norm. Mr. Gibson is one of those. More please.

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good adventure. Character driven. A good ending.

[Michael O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing was great. Scenes were set quickly and were vivid. Story line fractured at the end. The final scene drove this from a 3 to a 4. Good read.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read!