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The Deserted Vineyard #2
A Cloud of Unknowing
"The universe requires sacrifice. It always has, and it always will. Because the universe is sacramental."
------
Broken and scattered, the survivors of the strange events in the Taklamakan Desert are trying to make sense of what happened while the rest of the world tries to store balance by scapegoating the artilects.
The Process--an ancient, alchemical plan to transform human consciousness--goes far deeper than anyone thought, and only the artificial magnetosphere known as St. Michael’s Shield prevents its fulfillment.
The Lucifer Particles may hold the answers, but the path to understanding them leads through the strange, sub-quantum world of the Holomovement, guarded by the secretive scientific cult known as the Divers. The price of knowledge may be too high.
In Rome, the Princes of the Church converge to elect a new Pope, while Father Gabriel Serafian, an exorcist and former neuroscientist, is drawn even deeper into a conspiracy of global--and possibly supernatural--dimensions.
Confusion reigns. New discoveries threaten the very foundations of both science and faith. A cloud of unknowing has descended upon the world.
Meanwhile, visions of a young Chinese girl who died during the genocides may point to a way forward...
------
Broken and scattered, the survivors of the strange events in the Taklamakan Desert are trying to make sense of what happened while the rest of the world tries to store balance by scapegoating the artilects.
The Process--an ancient, alchemical plan to transform human consciousness--goes far deeper than anyone thought, and only the artificial magnetosphere known as St. Michael’s Shield prevents its fulfillment.
The Lucifer Particles may hold the answers, but the path to understanding them leads through the strange, sub-quantum world of the Holomovement, guarded by the secretive scientific cult known as the Divers. The price of knowledge may be too high.
In Rome, the Princes of the Church converge to elect a new Pope, while Father Gabriel Serafian, an exorcist and former neuroscientist, is drawn even deeper into a conspiracy of global--and possibly supernatural--dimensions.
Confusion reigns. New discoveries threaten the very foundations of both science and faith. A cloud of unknowing has descended upon the world.
Meanwhile, visions of a young Chinese girl who died during the genocides may point to a way forward...
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First published February 19, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
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February 26, 2024DNF-ing this for right now as I am about 30% in and the story isn't really pulling me in at all. May come back to it at a future time but this could be a case where it's just not working with my current mood and I just need to move on and read something else. Don't think it's fair to give it a rating until and unless I finish it.
December 21, 2023
A Cloud of Unknowing is the sequel to the theological sci-fi masterpiece Our Lady of the Artilects, and a book I was really excited to read! Happy to say, it hit the mark and then some.
Id rank it alongside the more esoteric work of Philip K Dick, or Aasimov, for how it tackles it's big sci-fi questions around robotics, souls, consciousness and perception. ACOU is really about those last two.
Beloved characters return, including my favourite robot-exorcist. Adherents of science and faith are not enemies in this story, but pilgrims going up the mountain by different paths. The meat of the book is the dialogues and conflicts between these philosophical camps as they attempt to parse the difference between reality and perception in the wake of the first books events. It recaps the necessary information without breaking pace, thank goodness.
I could wax about Gillsmith's writing style, about how every chapter has at least one line that sent me scrambling to my notes file to record it, but truly the most impressive aspect of this story is the depth of expertise that he brings to the topic. This is a story about existential terror and faith, written by a man who absolutely understands both of these things and has read and researched it extensively. He draws upon many different scriptures and interpretations, cites theologians and scientists and scholars constantly.
I was gripped, start to finish, despite the relative lack of action. If tense dialogues about where consciousness originates are gun fights, this is a John Wick film.
It's stylish, unique, thought provoking and beautifully written. Highly recommended.
Id rank it alongside the more esoteric work of Philip K Dick, or Aasimov, for how it tackles it's big sci-fi questions around robotics, souls, consciousness and perception. ACOU is really about those last two.
Beloved characters return, including my favourite robot-exorcist. Adherents of science and faith are not enemies in this story, but pilgrims going up the mountain by different paths. The meat of the book is the dialogues and conflicts between these philosophical camps as they attempt to parse the difference between reality and perception in the wake of the first books events. It recaps the necessary information without breaking pace, thank goodness.
I could wax about Gillsmith's writing style, about how every chapter has at least one line that sent me scrambling to my notes file to record it, but truly the most impressive aspect of this story is the depth of expertise that he brings to the topic. This is a story about existential terror and faith, written by a man who absolutely understands both of these things and has read and researched it extensively. He draws upon many different scriptures and interpretations, cites theologians and scientists and scholars constantly.
I was gripped, start to finish, despite the relative lack of action. If tense dialogues about where consciousness originates are gun fights, this is a John Wick film.
It's stylish, unique, thought provoking and beautifully written. Highly recommended.
April 29, 2024
The first book in this series, Our Lady of the Artilects, was a very interesting read. It was a novel that stuck with me a long time. When I read the first one I stated that I was thankful that I have a religious studies degree, my specializations were Roman Catholic thought and Jewish studies but I did have to do a large number of world religions courses. I know many would struggle with some of the nuances as presented between different religions and even in Catholic thought and theology as presented in that novel. And I would say even more so with this second offering. That being said they are fascinating reads, both books in this series are well worth the read. As a lifelong Sci-Fi fan it is an intriguing premise and presentation. The dedication to book one states:
“Dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, Queen of Heaven and of all Angels”
The description of this volume states:
““The universe requires sacrifice. It always has, and it always will, because the universe is sacramental.”
Broken and scattered, the survivors of the strange events in the Taklamakan Desert are trying to make sense of what happened while the rest of the world tries to recover its balance by scapegoating the artilects.
The Process--an ancient, alchemical plan to transform human consciousness--goes far deeper than anyone thought, and only the artificial magnetic shield developed by astrophysicist Sarah Baumgartner is preventing the newly transhuman Ralph Channing from fulfilling it.
The Lucifer Particles, a mysterious high-energy flux that seems to originate from beyond spacetime itself, may hold the answers, but the path to understanding leads through the strange, sub-quantum world of the Holomovement, guarded by the secretive scientific cult known as the Divers. And the price of understanding might be Sarah's soul itself.”
This story continues with our main cast of characters and it is expanded. We still have a supper soldier/body guard, an exorcist who is also a scientist and newly made a Cardinal, an Islamic mystic and rulers of the three major powers in the world. This time they are not working together and they all have different agendas. The key point of the story is what to do with the artilects. Many blame them and wish to wipe them from the face of the earth. The pope dies and a conclave is called giving a short reprieve. But Gabriel leaves the conclave in search of answers. Why was he made a cardinal, and given the role of Cardinal you Archbishop of Xinjiang; the site of the genocide and experiments that created the artilects, the implants and the site where all the synths have gathered. But can they put the pieces together in time? To find out you will need to read the story.
In my first review I questioned: “If Android can dream of electric sheep, why would we not expect them to one day see visions and dream dreams of things to come?” And with this one we find out that not all things are as they appear and some battles we though over, resume and must be engaged again. Maybe even at great personal cost.
Before reviewing book one I had a discussion with a couple of college friends. We were reflecting on how some of the authors we read and loved in high school and even university were preaching a deeply humanist, and atheistic world view through their works. One that at times was openly, but more often subtly anti-Christian and even more anti Catholic. This book does not do that. But it does blur the lines and distinctions between religions. As such I would be cautious which teens and even young adults I would recommend it to. It was a book that caused me to think long on certain scientific theories, religious practices, and how humans have treated other humans especially the Chinese Government. It also made me reflect on good popes and bad popes in my lifetime and down through church history. As a long-time fan of Sci-Fi it was a very thought provoking read, one that leave me with a sense of melancholy but also of hope. I am thankful I gave it a read and it gets a very solid 5 stars. But I honestly hope it is not the end of the story of Serafian, Leone, Namono, Tiliwadi and Thierry. An excellent read.
This book is part of a series of reviews: 2024 Catholic Reading Plan!
“Dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, Queen of Heaven and of all Angels”
The description of this volume states:
““The universe requires sacrifice. It always has, and it always will, because the universe is sacramental.”
Broken and scattered, the survivors of the strange events in the Taklamakan Desert are trying to make sense of what happened while the rest of the world tries to recover its balance by scapegoating the artilects.
The Process--an ancient, alchemical plan to transform human consciousness--goes far deeper than anyone thought, and only the artificial magnetic shield developed by astrophysicist Sarah Baumgartner is preventing the newly transhuman Ralph Channing from fulfilling it.
The Lucifer Particles, a mysterious high-energy flux that seems to originate from beyond spacetime itself, may hold the answers, but the path to understanding leads through the strange, sub-quantum world of the Holomovement, guarded by the secretive scientific cult known as the Divers. And the price of understanding might be Sarah's soul itself.”
This story continues with our main cast of characters and it is expanded. We still have a supper soldier/body guard, an exorcist who is also a scientist and newly made a Cardinal, an Islamic mystic and rulers of the three major powers in the world. This time they are not working together and they all have different agendas. The key point of the story is what to do with the artilects. Many blame them and wish to wipe them from the face of the earth. The pope dies and a conclave is called giving a short reprieve. But Gabriel leaves the conclave in search of answers. Why was he made a cardinal, and given the role of Cardinal you Archbishop of Xinjiang; the site of the genocide and experiments that created the artilects, the implants and the site where all the synths have gathered. But can they put the pieces together in time? To find out you will need to read the story.
In my first review I questioned: “If Android can dream of electric sheep, why would we not expect them to one day see visions and dream dreams of things to come?” And with this one we find out that not all things are as they appear and some battles we though over, resume and must be engaged again. Maybe even at great personal cost.
Before reviewing book one I had a discussion with a couple of college friends. We were reflecting on how some of the authors we read and loved in high school and even university were preaching a deeply humanist, and atheistic world view through their works. One that at times was openly, but more often subtly anti-Christian and even more anti Catholic. This book does not do that. But it does blur the lines and distinctions between religions. As such I would be cautious which teens and even young adults I would recommend it to. It was a book that caused me to think long on certain scientific theories, religious practices, and how humans have treated other humans especially the Chinese Government. It also made me reflect on good popes and bad popes in my lifetime and down through church history. As a long-time fan of Sci-Fi it was a very thought provoking read, one that leave me with a sense of melancholy but also of hope. I am thankful I gave it a read and it gets a very solid 5 stars. But I honestly hope it is not the end of the story of Serafian, Leone, Namono, Tiliwadi and Thierry. An excellent read.
This book is part of a series of reviews: 2024 Catholic Reading Plan!
April 16, 2024
This sci-fi novel, which is the sequel to Our Lady of the Artilects struck me as more sci-fi-ish, and not being a devotee of that genre, I liked it slightly less than its predecessor. I really was puzzled by the "dives" and their relation to reality. The main characters remained interesting and charming. The dreams involving the Chinese girl were truly horrific and gave a glimpse of the evil that sometimes animates those who try to reject nature and try to remold it to the likeness they prefer. The activity in the conclave to choose a new pope was entertaining and enlightening. The picture of the mutual respect between the Catholics, Muslims, and Tibetans seems only possible in a fantasy novel, but I made me long to see more of it in reality. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series when Andrew Gillsmith finishes it.
April 26, 2024
I really enjoyed these books by Andrew Gillsmith.
My favorite type of book blends science fiction and technology with religion. These 2 novels do this very, very well just like some other amazing books I’ve read.
So, if you liked “The Sparrow” and its sequel “Children of God” by Mary Doria Russell; the Space Trilogy (series) by C.S. Lewis (my all-time favorite); or The Hyperion Cantos (series) by Dan Simmons, you’re going to absolutely love “Our Lady of the Artilects” and the second in the series, “A Cloud of Unknowing”.
My favorite type of book blends science fiction and technology with religion. These 2 novels do this very, very well just like some other amazing books I’ve read.
So, if you liked “The Sparrow” and its sequel “Children of God” by Mary Doria Russell; the Space Trilogy (series) by C.S. Lewis (my all-time favorite); or The Hyperion Cantos (series) by Dan Simmons, you’re going to absolutely love “Our Lady of the Artilects” and the second in the series, “A Cloud of Unknowing”.
March 8, 2024
One incredible Science Fiction series I recommend rear.
I found this book to be an great second book of the Deserted Vineyard series. It tied them together really well; which the reader will appreciate. The characters are well thought out with aspirations and motives behind their actions. I thoroughly enjoyed this book; and will have to read other works by Andrew Gillsmith.
I found this book to be an great second book of the Deserted Vineyard series. It tied them together really well; which the reader will appreciate. The characters are well thought out with aspirations and motives behind their actions. I thoroughly enjoyed this book; and will have to read other works by Andrew Gillsmith.
January 14, 2024
Exciting and profound continuation of the themes and plot lines begun in Our Lady of the Artilects.
I was particularly impressed with how Gillsmith skillfully explored and balanced so many different themes and plot lines, presenting new threats and conflicts that flow organically from the first story.
The author also did a great job wrapping up the story in a very satisfying way, while leaving the door open for the next installment. As before, the world building is inventive, believable and contains lots of texture.
What really appealed to me are the philosophical and theological musings that don't shy away from some very hard questions regarding the nature of God, reality and the value of suffering. There are no easy solutions here, but, just like in real life, the tension of unanswered questions makes for some beautiful and unforgettable drama.
I was particularly impressed with how Gillsmith skillfully explored and balanced so many different themes and plot lines, presenting new threats and conflicts that flow organically from the first story.
The author also did a great job wrapping up the story in a very satisfying way, while leaving the door open for the next installment. As before, the world building is inventive, believable and contains lots of texture.
What really appealed to me are the philosophical and theological musings that don't shy away from some very hard questions regarding the nature of God, reality and the value of suffering. There are no easy solutions here, but, just like in real life, the tension of unanswered questions makes for some beautiful and unforgettable drama.
March 19, 2024
Read this Review and more on my Medium page Distorted Visions
A Cloud of Unknowing continues the journey begun in Our Lady of the Artilects, pushing our understanding of the murky middle ground between faith and reality. Fusing the religious intrigue of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons with the metaphysical techno-philosophy of Cixin Liu’s Three Body Problem, this sci-fi series continues to be a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stifling genre of tired tropes.
While Our Lady of the Artilects ended on a bombastic, reality-bending climax of near biblical proportions, A Cloud of Unknowing is more of a novel dealing with the aftermath. The novel follows several key players, many of which are key players from the first book. The neurophysicist-turned-exorcist Gabriel Serafian, the neuroscientist Sarah Baumgartner, papal cardinal Marco Leone, imperial proctor Namono, and Sufi Imam Tilliwadi. The new perspective of the novel comes in the form of the gifted synesthete “diver” Ash.
Following the world-changing events of the first book, the world is now reeling from the after-effects of the androids, known as artilects having something akin to a human soul and what this means for established faiths of neo-Christianity and Islam. Moreover, the anomalous Lucifer Particles, high-energy particulates of otherworldly origin bombard the atmosphere, threatening the mental cybernetic implants now commonplace in billions of human souls.
For such an action-packed, tense premise for the sequel, A Cloud of Unknowing takes a rather serene, composed approach to plot development. Relying on lengthy philosophical discourse, both as internal monologs and expositional dialogs, the story progresses at a viscous pace.
That is not to say that Gillsmith does not wow us with entire plotlines of tense, intelligent, plotting, mainly in terms of the papal politicking behind closed Vatican doors, as various cardinals jockey to become the new Pope, in the face of world-threatening events. All of this while continuing to maintain the relevance of post-awakening faith in a world brimming with technological progress. There are bits of tense action in Namono’s storyline, with heavy influences drawn from Dan Brown’s writing.
What Gillsmith crafts expertly is the meta-commentary on the constant tug-of-war between knowledge accrued via science and the power and importance of faith. This reconciliation between faith and science is very apt to our present-day discourse and is a great example of how sci-fi as a genre serves as a pathway to human progress. The author does this while maintaining supreme respect for both, Christianity and Islam, levying intelligent criticism at organized religion, while also highlighting the importance of religion in the lives of the everyday man.
The story also begins to unravel the creation of the artilects via the major antagonist, the god-complexed Dr. Channing, as he continues to inflict his nefarious purpose via the “diver” Ash. His role in the unfolding of the story is both unnerving and frightfully realistic in theme, even though the actual circumstances are firmly in the realm of science fiction.
The scale of his atrocity is hammered home in the flashback interludes of a young Chinese Uyghur refugee in a concentration camp. These sections of the book are unrelentingly brutal and bleak, and hit far too close to home, considering the current political situation in the area. The narrations of the young girl as she is put on the treadmill of physical, mental, emotional, and metaphysical trauma is damn well grimdark in its scale.
Unfortunately, A Cloud of Unknowing does suffer from middle book syndrome and spends much of its page count setting up the pieces for the crescendo, making sure that motivations are cemented, key players are in place, and the necessary plot exposition is set up for the third (and assumedly) final book to take us home. The plot did feel plodding at times where the pacing reached mollasses-y speeds as various POV characters have lengthy internal monologs. While these do well to further character arcs, it does take away from the general pace of the novel and can be seen to be a bit tiresome as many of the themes begin to overlap and then become repetitive.
In addition, his descriptions of the reality-bending “dives” into the subconscious to “unlock” the next step in human understanding, while cool at first glance, does begin to grate as sci-fi-esque jargon is piled on and the motif gets wackier and wackier! The “dives”, and the Sarah-Ash-Channing plotline, which deals with these themes became increasingly exhausting to wade through as they were incredibly taxing on the reader's imagination. With heavy parallels to Liu’s Three Body Problem series, Gillsmith does do an admirable job with these abstract themes, but at the expense of other, more appealing plotlines.
Nonetheless, with a satisfying conclusion, and enough motivation set in motion for the conclusive actions that would tie various storylines together, I am intrigued to see where Gillsmith takes the story further.
The Deserted Vineyard continues to be a hidden gem of a series I wish more readers would dive into, as Gillsmith has created a truly unique futuristic world, dosed with intelligent philosophical themes and commentary, solid characters, and an intriguing plot, with hopefully an action-packed conclusion!
A Cloud of Unknowing continues the journey begun in Our Lady of the Artilects, pushing our understanding of the murky middle ground between faith and reality. Fusing the religious intrigue of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons with the metaphysical techno-philosophy of Cixin Liu’s Three Body Problem, this sci-fi series continues to be a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stifling genre of tired tropes.
While Our Lady of the Artilects ended on a bombastic, reality-bending climax of near biblical proportions, A Cloud of Unknowing is more of a novel dealing with the aftermath. The novel follows several key players, many of which are key players from the first book. The neurophysicist-turned-exorcist Gabriel Serafian, the neuroscientist Sarah Baumgartner, papal cardinal Marco Leone, imperial proctor Namono, and Sufi Imam Tilliwadi. The new perspective of the novel comes in the form of the gifted synesthete “diver” Ash.
Following the world-changing events of the first book, the world is now reeling from the after-effects of the androids, known as artilects having something akin to a human soul and what this means for established faiths of neo-Christianity and Islam. Moreover, the anomalous Lucifer Particles, high-energy particulates of otherworldly origin bombard the atmosphere, threatening the mental cybernetic implants now commonplace in billions of human souls.
For such an action-packed, tense premise for the sequel, A Cloud of Unknowing takes a rather serene, composed approach to plot development. Relying on lengthy philosophical discourse, both as internal monologs and expositional dialogs, the story progresses at a viscous pace.
That is not to say that Gillsmith does not wow us with entire plotlines of tense, intelligent, plotting, mainly in terms of the papal politicking behind closed Vatican doors, as various cardinals jockey to become the new Pope, in the face of world-threatening events. All of this while continuing to maintain the relevance of post-awakening faith in a world brimming with technological progress. There are bits of tense action in Namono’s storyline, with heavy influences drawn from Dan Brown’s writing.
What Gillsmith crafts expertly is the meta-commentary on the constant tug-of-war between knowledge accrued via science and the power and importance of faith. This reconciliation between faith and science is very apt to our present-day discourse and is a great example of how sci-fi as a genre serves as a pathway to human progress. The author does this while maintaining supreme respect for both, Christianity and Islam, levying intelligent criticism at organized religion, while also highlighting the importance of religion in the lives of the everyday man.
The story also begins to unravel the creation of the artilects via the major antagonist, the god-complexed Dr. Channing, as he continues to inflict his nefarious purpose via the “diver” Ash. His role in the unfolding of the story is both unnerving and frightfully realistic in theme, even though the actual circumstances are firmly in the realm of science fiction.
The scale of his atrocity is hammered home in the flashback interludes of a young Chinese Uyghur refugee in a concentration camp. These sections of the book are unrelentingly brutal and bleak, and hit far too close to home, considering the current political situation in the area. The narrations of the young girl as she is put on the treadmill of physical, mental, emotional, and metaphysical trauma is damn well grimdark in its scale.
Unfortunately, A Cloud of Unknowing does suffer from middle book syndrome and spends much of its page count setting up the pieces for the crescendo, making sure that motivations are cemented, key players are in place, and the necessary plot exposition is set up for the third (and assumedly) final book to take us home. The plot did feel plodding at times where the pacing reached mollasses-y speeds as various POV characters have lengthy internal monologs. While these do well to further character arcs, it does take away from the general pace of the novel and can be seen to be a bit tiresome as many of the themes begin to overlap and then become repetitive.
In addition, his descriptions of the reality-bending “dives” into the subconscious to “unlock” the next step in human understanding, while cool at first glance, does begin to grate as sci-fi-esque jargon is piled on and the motif gets wackier and wackier! The “dives”, and the Sarah-Ash-Channing plotline, which deals with these themes became increasingly exhausting to wade through as they were incredibly taxing on the reader's imagination. With heavy parallels to Liu’s Three Body Problem series, Gillsmith does do an admirable job with these abstract themes, but at the expense of other, more appealing plotlines.
Nonetheless, with a satisfying conclusion, and enough motivation set in motion for the conclusive actions that would tie various storylines together, I am intrigued to see where Gillsmith takes the story further.
The Deserted Vineyard continues to be a hidden gem of a series I wish more readers would dive into, as Gillsmith has created a truly unique futuristic world, dosed with intelligent philosophical themes and commentary, solid characters, and an intriguing plot, with hopefully an action-packed conclusion!
March 6, 2024
Great story...
... But the end product feels rushed. Lots of errors that could have been caught, like misspelling character names, and a few sections that I'm pretty sure have one character saying someone else's lines.
Which is weird because the writing itself is amazing! So many epic lines, profound explorations of weighty topics, and a nice dose of humor to boot!
I do recommend reading it if you've read and loved the first one.
Definitely gonna get the next one (please tell me there's a next one!), but I wouldn't mind waiting longer for edits to give the story the presentation it deserves.
... But the end product feels rushed. Lots of errors that could have been caught, like misspelling character names, and a few sections that I'm pretty sure have one character saying someone else's lines.
Which is weird because the writing itself is amazing! So many epic lines, profound explorations of weighty topics, and a nice dose of humor to boot!
I do recommend reading it if you've read and loved the first one.
Definitely gonna get the next one (please tell me there's a next one!), but I wouldn't mind waiting longer for edits to give the story the presentation it deserves.
December 18, 2024
A solid follow-up to the first book in this series. The interludes were heart wrenching. The book doesn't hold your hand, and does expect you to know what is going on in the world, which took me a little time to remember characters, locations, and events.
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September 22, 2024This review was originally posted on SFFINSIDERS.COM
In the 2023 fable The Mysteries, author Bill Watterson—a name I’m sure many of you will recognize as the philosopher/artist behind the transcendent Calvin and Hobbes—describes a world in which a fearful populace desperately seeks to understand the unseen powers that lurk in the woods: the eponymous “Mysteries”. One day, a knight returns from the woods with a captured Mystery in tow, which the knight hands over to the King’s wizards for study; study by which Watterson’s characters speculate “[the Mystery’s] powers might be thwarted”. Science confronts mysticism and conquers it, shifting the world of the fable into a new epoch in which the Mysteries are perceived as “surprisingly ordinary”.
Andrew Gillsmith’s A Cloud of Unknowing, the 2024 sequel to the fantastic Our Lady of the Artilects (which I reviewed earlier this year), stands then as a kind of sister tale to The Mysteries. The novels of what Gillsmith is calling “The Deserted Vineyard” series are firmly rooted in this exploration of the intersection of science and mysticism, and have become some of my favorite novels in the genre for that very reason.
The narrative of Our Lady of the Artilects, for those who haven’t read it, primarily involves the study of artificial persons known as “artilects” and whether or not it is possible for one (or any of them) to be possessed, have visions of God, or even have souls. Could something made by man be touched by God as if it were His own creation? A Cloud of Unknowing takes place in the immediate fallout of the events of Our Lady of the Artilects, and methodically unspools the investigations of the previous book, whilst tugging at new threads elsewhere on the tapestry. In the world of The Deserted Vineyard, many of the great mysteries of science have been conquered, answering questions that for centuries could only be “answered” by religion; and it is in this grand future that the once-mystical becomes, as Watterson said, surprisingly ordinary. At least, until it isn’t. Our Lady of the Artilects ends with the ordinary becoming quite extraordinary.
Though I loved Our Lady of the Artilects, A Cloud of Unknowing sat on my shelf far longer than I ever intended for the simple fact that I gave myself homework before I read it; and that homework took me far longer than expected to complete.
You see, the first thing I discovered when I typed the phrase “A Cloud of Unknowing” into the Amazon search bar was not Gillsmith’s novel, but rather a 14th century text titled The Cloud of Unknowing. I knew—or assumed from my reading of Our Lady and my then relatively few interactions with Gillsmith on Twitter—that this could not be a coincidence. For Gillsmith to have given his novel such a similar title to this ancient work of Christian mysticism had to mean something. And so I set about reading The Cloud before I would allow myself to read A Cloud.
But I quickly found that I was not entirely in the right headspace to read The Cloud of Unknowing. By way of brief explanation, The Cloud of Unknowing is a guide for a kind of contemplative prayer, through which the person partaking in said prayer or contemplation might “always rise higher and higher from sin, and nearer and nearer to God” (The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 4 - Anonymous).
The Cloud was a dense thing to parse, split into 75 chapters over the course of some 130ish pages (per the Penguin Classics edition I acquired); but I still could only read two or three chapters a day before I felt like my head had begun to spin just a little too much to properly comprehend any more of the anonymous author’s words. But my key takeaway was this (and I apologize for what will certainly be a grotesque generalization of the teaching contained in this manuscript): the author of The Cloud intended for their students to breach this “Cloud of Unknowing” in a very specific manner—through love. The author says this in Chapter 4:
“All rational beings…have in them, each individually, two principal active faculties, one a faculty of knowledge, and the second a faculty of love; and God, their maker, is forever beyond the reach of the first of these… but by means of the second, the loving faculty, [He] can be fully grasped by each individual being, to such an extent that each single loving soul may, by virtue of love, embrace within itself [Him] who is fully sufficient… This is the unending marvelous miracle of love.”
But now let’s pocket this away for moment, and pivot back to A Cloud of Unknowing:
Fans of Our Lady of the Artilects will certainly enjoy A Cloud of Unknowing. As I said in my review of Our Lady, these books are full of the exact kind of sci-fi I love: sci-fi that is technical, challenging, unpredictable, philosophical, and above all captivating. But if Our Lady of the Artilects has the texture of a Hollywood blockbuster, A Cloud of Unknowing has the texture of a stage play. Similar to something like Lem’s Solaris, long chunks of A Cloud’s narrative take place between people just sitting and talking to one another, politicking, philosophizing, expositing, or just generally shooting the breeze (I told Andrew over Twitter messages that I thought the book was “wonderfully meandering”); and yet the story does not ever feel like it is at risk of stalling out. Quite the contrary. Though much of the story is told through dialogue rather than action, there is a marked turning of the screws as each chapter continues into the next. The tension continues to ratchet up, despite the seeming calm of the literal events of much of the book.
The story of A Cloud of Unknowing takes place between four separate narratives (or four and a half, but we’ll get into that in a moment), told between a slightly greater number of POVs. The first arc of the story explores that of a papal conclave. Pope John XVIII, who presided over the Church during the events of Our Lady of the Artilects, has died; and a papal conclave must be convened to determine who will next fill the late Pope John’s seat. A wrinkle is thrown into the conclave when it’s revealed that one of John’s last acts as Pope was to elevate Gabriel Sarafian, the exorcist from Our Lady of the Artilects that had been sent to determine the authenticity of the supposed “possession” of the artilects, to the position of Cardinal; thus thrusting Sarafian into the dizzyingly political arena of the conclave, and isolating him (for a time) from the rest of the story—an isolation that will have profound consequences on the rest of the narrative.
The second thread follows Sarafian’s ex-wife Sarah and a Quantum Simulation “Diver” named Ash. Gillsmith’s author bio says he grew up in the “Golden Age of Cyberpunk”, and you can definitely see that influence in this story arc. More so than in Our Lady, A Cloud prominently bears the fingerprints of Gibson and Pondsmith and the works of Neuromancer and Cyberpunk respectively (the back cover of Our Lady cites Stephenson’s Snow Crash as another relatively contemporaneous cyberpunk inspiration), as Sarah and Ash “dive” into a world beyond ours, seeking to peel back the veil between that which we can see and that which we cannot (one might also point out some aesthetic similarities to The Matrix, as Sarah is even given her own form of that film’s red pill/blue pill moment). It is also this thread through which A Cloud most heavily ratchets up the stakes. As previously mentioned, due to the nature of the conclave, Sarafian is unable to communicate with the outside world, and so Sarah’s calls to him in the days preceding her first “dive” into the Quantum Simulation (called “The Holomovement”) go unanswered. The reader knows by this point that there is something dangerous lurking at the edges of these dives, and perhaps Sarafian could’ve talked Sarah out of participating. But such conversation never occurs, and Sarah dives; and with each subsequent dive the screws tighten, forming a knot in the story and a knot in the reader’s gut—a knot eventually wound so tight that we know it must inevitably burst. But when? And who will it strike?
The third thread follows the Muslim shaykh Ilham Tiliwadi, who now presides over a vast congregation of artilects in the Chinese desert, who’ve gathered together at the site of the final showdown in Our Lady of the Artilects. There is a ticking clock here too, as many of the world governments, in light of the events of Our Lady, would love to wash their hands of the artilect problem and nuke the whole encampment off the face of the earth; a destruction seemingly held at bay by the papal conclave, with the hopes that the new Pope might be able to sway what leaders would wish to enact this genocide. Under the shadow of this potential bombardment, Tiliwadi and his artilect companions discover that there are still a great many secrets lurking in the darker corners of the complex; and there is a set-up and pay-off in this thread that was so good I had to message Andrew about it the moment after I read it.
The final thread follows the Habsburg Praetor Namono Mbambu and the artilect Thierry (whom Sarafian exorcized in the previous book) as they attempt to covertly make their way through Africa and the Middle East to the artilect encampment in China.
But there is one final thread (the “half” a narrative I teased earlier), interwoven through all these stories; and it is the most important: a recounting of the final days of a young Chinese girl named Xingyun. I will not detail why her story is the most important, but trust me that it is.
As any good storyteller does, Gillsmith forces all of these threads to converge in the third act (or fourth act if we’re going by Gillsmith’s penned act breaks: “Blackening”, “Whitening”, “Yellowing”, and “Reddening”), and it’s here where we also see the themes of the book coalesce.
If we paint in the broadest of strokes, we could say that Our Lady (if you’ll recall from my review) was about empathy, and A Cloud is about love. I kept wondering, all through the book, where the influence of The Cloud would become clear. There were hints of it in Sarah and Ash’s story—the Holomovement bears some resemblance to what The Cloud’s author calls a “darkness…between you and your God”; a darkness that will “hold you back from seeing [Him] clearly by the light of understanding.” But it is in the final moments of the story that its inspirations from The Cloud are made plain. As empathy saved the world in Our Lady of the Artilects, so does love save the world in A Cloud of Unknowing. We might then remember the passage in the Gospel of John: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
That is as much of a spoiler as I am willing to give you in this review. A Cloud of Unknowing ends on a far more melancholy note than Our Lady, but one that leaves the door open for the next chapter of the story. I have my theories on where it will go, but I will not reveal them here. Andrew has also revealed to me the title for the next book, but it too will remain secret, for now. I’ll conclude then with another look at Watterson’s The Mysteries. Toward the end of the narrative, when the Mysteries have been conquered, made ordinary, and subjugated into irrelevance; Watterson notes that, “Nevertheless, the Wizards watched the horizon uneasily and made note of the strange creaks and shudders occurring far below in the ground.” A Cloud of Unknowing ends with a similar look to the horizon, so pick up your own copy of these books today so we can explore beyond that horizon together once the next chapter is available.
In the 2023 fable The Mysteries, author Bill Watterson—a name I’m sure many of you will recognize as the philosopher/artist behind the transcendent Calvin and Hobbes—describes a world in which a fearful populace desperately seeks to understand the unseen powers that lurk in the woods: the eponymous “Mysteries”. One day, a knight returns from the woods with a captured Mystery in tow, which the knight hands over to the King’s wizards for study; study by which Watterson’s characters speculate “[the Mystery’s] powers might be thwarted”. Science confronts mysticism and conquers it, shifting the world of the fable into a new epoch in which the Mysteries are perceived as “surprisingly ordinary”.
Andrew Gillsmith’s A Cloud of Unknowing, the 2024 sequel to the fantastic Our Lady of the Artilects (which I reviewed earlier this year), stands then as a kind of sister tale to The Mysteries. The novels of what Gillsmith is calling “The Deserted Vineyard” series are firmly rooted in this exploration of the intersection of science and mysticism, and have become some of my favorite novels in the genre for that very reason.
The narrative of Our Lady of the Artilects, for those who haven’t read it, primarily involves the study of artificial persons known as “artilects” and whether or not it is possible for one (or any of them) to be possessed, have visions of God, or even have souls. Could something made by man be touched by God as if it were His own creation? A Cloud of Unknowing takes place in the immediate fallout of the events of Our Lady of the Artilects, and methodically unspools the investigations of the previous book, whilst tugging at new threads elsewhere on the tapestry. In the world of The Deserted Vineyard, many of the great mysteries of science have been conquered, answering questions that for centuries could only be “answered” by religion; and it is in this grand future that the once-mystical becomes, as Watterson said, surprisingly ordinary. At least, until it isn’t. Our Lady of the Artilects ends with the ordinary becoming quite extraordinary.
Though I loved Our Lady of the Artilects, A Cloud of Unknowing sat on my shelf far longer than I ever intended for the simple fact that I gave myself homework before I read it; and that homework took me far longer than expected to complete.
You see, the first thing I discovered when I typed the phrase “A Cloud of Unknowing” into the Amazon search bar was not Gillsmith’s novel, but rather a 14th century text titled The Cloud of Unknowing. I knew—or assumed from my reading of Our Lady and my then relatively few interactions with Gillsmith on Twitter—that this could not be a coincidence. For Gillsmith to have given his novel such a similar title to this ancient work of Christian mysticism had to mean something. And so I set about reading The Cloud before I would allow myself to read A Cloud.
But I quickly found that I was not entirely in the right headspace to read The Cloud of Unknowing. By way of brief explanation, The Cloud of Unknowing is a guide for a kind of contemplative prayer, through which the person partaking in said prayer or contemplation might “always rise higher and higher from sin, and nearer and nearer to God” (The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 4 - Anonymous).
The Cloud was a dense thing to parse, split into 75 chapters over the course of some 130ish pages (per the Penguin Classics edition I acquired); but I still could only read two or three chapters a day before I felt like my head had begun to spin just a little too much to properly comprehend any more of the anonymous author’s words. But my key takeaway was this (and I apologize for what will certainly be a grotesque generalization of the teaching contained in this manuscript): the author of The Cloud intended for their students to breach this “Cloud of Unknowing” in a very specific manner—through love. The author says this in Chapter 4:
“All rational beings…have in them, each individually, two principal active faculties, one a faculty of knowledge, and the second a faculty of love; and God, their maker, is forever beyond the reach of the first of these… but by means of the second, the loving faculty, [He] can be fully grasped by each individual being, to such an extent that each single loving soul may, by virtue of love, embrace within itself [Him] who is fully sufficient… This is the unending marvelous miracle of love.”
But now let’s pocket this away for moment, and pivot back to A Cloud of Unknowing:
Fans of Our Lady of the Artilects will certainly enjoy A Cloud of Unknowing. As I said in my review of Our Lady, these books are full of the exact kind of sci-fi I love: sci-fi that is technical, challenging, unpredictable, philosophical, and above all captivating. But if Our Lady of the Artilects has the texture of a Hollywood blockbuster, A Cloud of Unknowing has the texture of a stage play. Similar to something like Lem’s Solaris, long chunks of A Cloud’s narrative take place between people just sitting and talking to one another, politicking, philosophizing, expositing, or just generally shooting the breeze (I told Andrew over Twitter messages that I thought the book was “wonderfully meandering”); and yet the story does not ever feel like it is at risk of stalling out. Quite the contrary. Though much of the story is told through dialogue rather than action, there is a marked turning of the screws as each chapter continues into the next. The tension continues to ratchet up, despite the seeming calm of the literal events of much of the book.
The story of A Cloud of Unknowing takes place between four separate narratives (or four and a half, but we’ll get into that in a moment), told between a slightly greater number of POVs. The first arc of the story explores that of a papal conclave. Pope John XVIII, who presided over the Church during the events of Our Lady of the Artilects, has died; and a papal conclave must be convened to determine who will next fill the late Pope John’s seat. A wrinkle is thrown into the conclave when it’s revealed that one of John’s last acts as Pope was to elevate Gabriel Sarafian, the exorcist from Our Lady of the Artilects that had been sent to determine the authenticity of the supposed “possession” of the artilects, to the position of Cardinal; thus thrusting Sarafian into the dizzyingly political arena of the conclave, and isolating him (for a time) from the rest of the story—an isolation that will have profound consequences on the rest of the narrative.
The second thread follows Sarafian’s ex-wife Sarah and a Quantum Simulation “Diver” named Ash. Gillsmith’s author bio says he grew up in the “Golden Age of Cyberpunk”, and you can definitely see that influence in this story arc. More so than in Our Lady, A Cloud prominently bears the fingerprints of Gibson and Pondsmith and the works of Neuromancer and Cyberpunk respectively (the back cover of Our Lady cites Stephenson’s Snow Crash as another relatively contemporaneous cyberpunk inspiration), as Sarah and Ash “dive” into a world beyond ours, seeking to peel back the veil between that which we can see and that which we cannot (one might also point out some aesthetic similarities to The Matrix, as Sarah is even given her own form of that film’s red pill/blue pill moment). It is also this thread through which A Cloud most heavily ratchets up the stakes. As previously mentioned, due to the nature of the conclave, Sarafian is unable to communicate with the outside world, and so Sarah’s calls to him in the days preceding her first “dive” into the Quantum Simulation (called “The Holomovement”) go unanswered. The reader knows by this point that there is something dangerous lurking at the edges of these dives, and perhaps Sarafian could’ve talked Sarah out of participating. But such conversation never occurs, and Sarah dives; and with each subsequent dive the screws tighten, forming a knot in the story and a knot in the reader’s gut—a knot eventually wound so tight that we know it must inevitably burst. But when? And who will it strike?
The third thread follows the Muslim shaykh Ilham Tiliwadi, who now presides over a vast congregation of artilects in the Chinese desert, who’ve gathered together at the site of the final showdown in Our Lady of the Artilects. There is a ticking clock here too, as many of the world governments, in light of the events of Our Lady, would love to wash their hands of the artilect problem and nuke the whole encampment off the face of the earth; a destruction seemingly held at bay by the papal conclave, with the hopes that the new Pope might be able to sway what leaders would wish to enact this genocide. Under the shadow of this potential bombardment, Tiliwadi and his artilect companions discover that there are still a great many secrets lurking in the darker corners of the complex; and there is a set-up and pay-off in this thread that was so good I had to message Andrew about it the moment after I read it.
The final thread follows the Habsburg Praetor Namono Mbambu and the artilect Thierry (whom Sarafian exorcized in the previous book) as they attempt to covertly make their way through Africa and the Middle East to the artilect encampment in China.
But there is one final thread (the “half” a narrative I teased earlier), interwoven through all these stories; and it is the most important: a recounting of the final days of a young Chinese girl named Xingyun. I will not detail why her story is the most important, but trust me that it is.
As any good storyteller does, Gillsmith forces all of these threads to converge in the third act (or fourth act if we’re going by Gillsmith’s penned act breaks: “Blackening”, “Whitening”, “Yellowing”, and “Reddening”), and it’s here where we also see the themes of the book coalesce.
If we paint in the broadest of strokes, we could say that Our Lady (if you’ll recall from my review) was about empathy, and A Cloud is about love. I kept wondering, all through the book, where the influence of The Cloud would become clear. There were hints of it in Sarah and Ash’s story—the Holomovement bears some resemblance to what The Cloud’s author calls a “darkness…between you and your God”; a darkness that will “hold you back from seeing [Him] clearly by the light of understanding.” But it is in the final moments of the story that its inspirations from The Cloud are made plain. As empathy saved the world in Our Lady of the Artilects, so does love save the world in A Cloud of Unknowing. We might then remember the passage in the Gospel of John: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
That is as much of a spoiler as I am willing to give you in this review. A Cloud of Unknowing ends on a far more melancholy note than Our Lady, but one that leaves the door open for the next chapter of the story. I have my theories on where it will go, but I will not reveal them here. Andrew has also revealed to me the title for the next book, but it too will remain secret, for now. I’ll conclude then with another look at Watterson’s The Mysteries. Toward the end of the narrative, when the Mysteries have been conquered, made ordinary, and subjugated into irrelevance; Watterson notes that, “Nevertheless, the Wizards watched the horizon uneasily and made note of the strange creaks and shudders occurring far below in the ground.” A Cloud of Unknowing ends with a similar look to the horizon, so pick up your own copy of these books today so we can explore beyond that horizon together once the next chapter is available.
August 12, 2025
Great follow up to the first novel. Again, a great mix of sci-fi, philosophy and religion. It was action packed and one of the storylines felt like i was watching a futuristic Conclave. Will definitely read the third if there ever is one.
March 4, 2024
This is the sequel to the excellent "Our Lady of the Artilects," which should definitely be read first. I loved every second spent reading "A Cloud.." Mr. Gillsmith engages meaningfully and responsibly with some very heavy philosophical and theological themes, all in the context of a fascinating, fast-but-not-too-fast-paced story with richly developed and relatable characters, action, international intrigue, and a bit of believable, wistful what-might-have-been romance between former lovers, one of whom is now celibate, still very much loves his former fiance, but does not regret or violate his celibacy.
I am so happy I found this duology (which I hope is a longer series in the making). In many ways, it feels like it was written just for me. The Big Questions it pursues--free will, transhumanism, perceived reality as interface, agnosticism, a longing for Existence Itself that's as Sufi as it is Thomist, are all themes I think about frequently. I'm not really of the mind that there are no coincidences, but it even has a long scene set in Khartoum which I read right after, out of nowhere, watching a 45 minute YouTube video about what's been going on in the Sudan the past few years.
At different times in my life--and, to be honest, at different times throughout each day--I have been just about every person in this book. I'm even very sympathetic to the ideas--though, let me be clear, not the actions--of the book's villain, which made for an interestingly dim and dark mirror in which to view myself.
There is satisfactory plot resolution should this be the end of the story, but also teasers for the direction another installment could go. I'd like to cast my vote firmly for keeping the story going. (I'd also love to see a prequel some day--I'd really like to see in detail how the geopolitics of this universe's 2250 got that way!) I don't know how Mr. Gillsmith knows so precisely exactly what interests me, but I hope he keeps it up!
I am so happy I found this duology (which I hope is a longer series in the making). In many ways, it feels like it was written just for me. The Big Questions it pursues--free will, transhumanism, perceived reality as interface, agnosticism, a longing for Existence Itself that's as Sufi as it is Thomist, are all themes I think about frequently. I'm not really of the mind that there are no coincidences, but it even has a long scene set in Khartoum which I read right after, out of nowhere, watching a 45 minute YouTube video about what's been going on in the Sudan the past few years.
At different times in my life--and, to be honest, at different times throughout each day--I have been just about every person in this book. I'm even very sympathetic to the ideas--though, let me be clear, not the actions--of the book's villain, which made for an interestingly dim and dark mirror in which to view myself.
There is satisfactory plot resolution should this be the end of the story, but also teasers for the direction another installment could go. I'd like to cast my vote firmly for keeping the story going. (I'd also love to see a prequel some day--I'd really like to see in detail how the geopolitics of this universe's 2250 got that way!) I don't know how Mr. Gillsmith knows so precisely exactly what interests me, but I hope he keeps it up!
February 5, 2024
Easiest 5 star I've ever given. This book belongs among the literary canon for theological fiction, and should be required reading for anyone going into AI and bioethics. Unlike many books that deal with faith, the conflict is not one of the faithful vs the faithless, or even of one faith over another. In fact, multiple religions, especially Catholicism and Islam, but with a few others included as well, are treated with equal respect. Instead, the central conflict is a challenge of certainty vs doubt, with the antagonist seeking to create a world without doubt - one which will threaten everything that makes humanity meaningful.
I wasn't sure how Gillsmith would follow the first excellent entry in this series, a book that perfectly encapsulates everything the incensepunk genre stands for, but Cloud of Unknowing takes everything that was great about its predecessor and delivers even greater returns, treating the metaphysical and the hard sciences with equal respect.
Like Our Lady of the Artilects, the book primarily follows Seraphian, a cognitive scientist-turned-exorcist, who due to his unique background has been pulled into a conflict that shakes the foundations of religion and science equally. In addition to Seraphian, we follow a number of other varied characters, including his mentor, a cardinal in the Catholic church; a robot (or artilect, as they are called in this series) who was central to the events of the first novel in the series; a praetor of the recently-restored Roman Empire; Seraphian's ex-fiancee, an astronomer whose work was pivotal in protecting the earth in the first book; her assistant, a synesthete who specializes in entering a world halfway between cyberpunk VR and supernatural vision; and a mysticist imam who has been spending time with a colony of artilects as the world decides how to treat them. Between sections, we also follow a young Chinese Christian, who due to her extreme empathy, was experimented on by the antagonist, and we slowly learn, is central to the book's main conflict, despite her death years earlier.
The book follows a major theme of the first, echoing the phrase "the universe requires sacrifice", but it elevates the thought by using it as one of the antagonist's major concessions. In addition, it adds questions about how much the ends can justify the means, and what exactly is meant by sacrifice. It raises the question - and answers it! - of what the difference is between human sacrifice and martyrdom.
I've been obsessing over this genre for several years now of theological fiction, especially science fiction, and haven't found entries that scratch the itch anywhere near as well as Gillsmith's Deserted Vineyard series. There are many science fiction works that warn us of the threats that AI can pose, but few explore the questions behind it about what it takes to create such a thing, and what it means for our humanity to have created beings in our own image. This series does so, and from so many angles at once that it is truly baffling that it was written by only a single author.
I will note that there are some extremely disturbing scenes, mostly in the interludes between sections, that should be skipped by squeamish readers - but if you can handle reading them, the rewards are well worth the discomfort.
I wasn't sure how Gillsmith would follow the first excellent entry in this series, a book that perfectly encapsulates everything the incensepunk genre stands for, but Cloud of Unknowing takes everything that was great about its predecessor and delivers even greater returns, treating the metaphysical and the hard sciences with equal respect.
Like Our Lady of the Artilects, the book primarily follows Seraphian, a cognitive scientist-turned-exorcist, who due to his unique background has been pulled into a conflict that shakes the foundations of religion and science equally. In addition to Seraphian, we follow a number of other varied characters, including his mentor, a cardinal in the Catholic church; a robot (or artilect, as they are called in this series) who was central to the events of the first novel in the series; a praetor of the recently-restored Roman Empire; Seraphian's ex-fiancee, an astronomer whose work was pivotal in protecting the earth in the first book; her assistant, a synesthete who specializes in entering a world halfway between cyberpunk VR and supernatural vision; and a mysticist imam who has been spending time with a colony of artilects as the world decides how to treat them. Between sections, we also follow a young Chinese Christian, who due to her extreme empathy, was experimented on by the antagonist, and we slowly learn, is central to the book's main conflict, despite her death years earlier.
The book follows a major theme of the first, echoing the phrase "the universe requires sacrifice", but it elevates the thought by using it as one of the antagonist's major concessions. In addition, it adds questions about how much the ends can justify the means, and what exactly is meant by sacrifice. It raises the question - and answers it! - of what the difference is between human sacrifice and martyrdom.
I've been obsessing over this genre for several years now of theological fiction, especially science fiction, and haven't found entries that scratch the itch anywhere near as well as Gillsmith's Deserted Vineyard series. There are many science fiction works that warn us of the threats that AI can pose, but few explore the questions behind it about what it takes to create such a thing, and what it means for our humanity to have created beings in our own image. This series does so, and from so many angles at once that it is truly baffling that it was written by only a single author.
I will note that there are some extremely disturbing scenes, mostly in the interludes between sections, that should be skipped by squeamish readers - but if you can handle reading them, the rewards are well worth the discomfort.
February 25, 2025
Enter the cloud or turn back now.
It rings true that writing a sequel is the worst ordeal for any author. First, there are the reader's expectations. Then, the challenge of reaching the plot points and filling in the blanks. Finally, the sequel has to justify itself and, in a way, surpass its predecessor. I can securely say that, though I liked "Our Lady of the Artilects" more, I think "A Cloud of Unknowing" achieved all those marks.
Concerning expectations, it's necessary to adjust to the story the author wants to tell: it expands the setting of the first book, develops old characters, introduces new ones and explores the darkest aspects already present in the prequel. It's more mature and austere in tone; sometimes, it mirrors true desolation in the fact that we get more substance for thought compensating for certain aridity while reading. It also becomes more character-driven, and it's for the better.
The book also did a good job of reaching plot points. The stories of Xingyun and Sarah, I think, are the most interesting in hindsight; but indeed the characters we already know — Serafian, Cardinal Leone, Namomo and Thierry — are the ones that carry most of the book, with their arcs and the mysteries they investigate.
Finally, the book justifies itself as a sequel, for it follows the open threads of the first and tackles heavy themes that would not be possible without the proper build-up. However, I agree that it isn't for everyone: I recommended the prequel to my godson of twenty years old, but I would wait for him to mature intellectually before reading "A Cloud of Unknowing". Mysticism is already a hard topic, especially when mingled with Islamic mysticism and Channing's quasi-gnostic ideology.
In this dark landscape, those few stupid moments with the characters are more than welcome. It was Serafian trading memes with Sarah, the Polish Inquisition easter egg and Thierry annoying Namomo. When I criticized the MCU dialogue in the first book, I was thinking particularly of the scene where Okpara asks Channing if he would give his villain speech; there were a few other instances, but I'm glad to say I did not have the same problem here. Still, I'm withholding, for now, the fifth star; overall, the second instalment would be an acceptable endpoint for the series, but a third one would have to turn the tables again and give a satisfying pay-off to everything we saw until now, character arcs, plotlines, revelations and so on. It would be a herculean task; may God help the author and bless his hands.
Again, it's a heavy book. As St. Thomas Aquinas said, the more excellent the master's doctrine, the more a disciple has to prepare himself for it; similarly, I would advise someone to be ready before entering this cloud. Once inside, don't turn back; trust the progress you can't see nor sense; for, as every road ends in a destination, in the same way, every cloud leads to a light.
It rings true that writing a sequel is the worst ordeal for any author. First, there are the reader's expectations. Then, the challenge of reaching the plot points and filling in the blanks. Finally, the sequel has to justify itself and, in a way, surpass its predecessor. I can securely say that, though I liked "Our Lady of the Artilects" more, I think "A Cloud of Unknowing" achieved all those marks.
Concerning expectations, it's necessary to adjust to the story the author wants to tell: it expands the setting of the first book, develops old characters, introduces new ones and explores the darkest aspects already present in the prequel. It's more mature and austere in tone; sometimes, it mirrors true desolation in the fact that we get more substance for thought compensating for certain aridity while reading. It also becomes more character-driven, and it's for the better.
The book also did a good job of reaching plot points. The stories of Xingyun and Sarah, I think, are the most interesting in hindsight; but indeed the characters we already know — Serafian, Cardinal Leone, Namomo and Thierry — are the ones that carry most of the book, with their arcs and the mysteries they investigate.
Finally, the book justifies itself as a sequel, for it follows the open threads of the first and tackles heavy themes that would not be possible without the proper build-up. However, I agree that it isn't for everyone: I recommended the prequel to my godson of twenty years old, but I would wait for him to mature intellectually before reading "A Cloud of Unknowing". Mysticism is already a hard topic, especially when mingled with Islamic mysticism and Channing's quasi-gnostic ideology.
In this dark landscape, those few stupid moments with the characters are more than welcome. It was Serafian trading memes with Sarah, the Polish Inquisition easter egg and Thierry annoying Namomo. When I criticized the MCU dialogue in the first book, I was thinking particularly of the scene where Okpara asks Channing if he would give his villain speech; there were a few other instances, but I'm glad to say I did not have the same problem here. Still, I'm withholding, for now, the fifth star; overall, the second instalment would be an acceptable endpoint for the series, but a third one would have to turn the tables again and give a satisfying pay-off to everything we saw until now, character arcs, plotlines, revelations and so on. It would be a herculean task; may God help the author and bless his hands.
Again, it's a heavy book. As St. Thomas Aquinas said, the more excellent the master's doctrine, the more a disciple has to prepare himself for it; similarly, I would advise someone to be ready before entering this cloud. Once inside, don't turn back; trust the progress you can't see nor sense; for, as every road ends in a destination, in the same way, every cloud leads to a light.
November 5, 2023
One of the foundational principles of Ignatian spirituality is to learn the difference between Consolation and Desolation. The Jesuits call this practice "the discernment of spirits."
In times of consolation, we feel close to God (or the "universe" or "ultimate reality" if you prefer). We are connected with our sense of purpose, with wonder, with...the sublime. We feel that joy which surpasses all understanding. I suppose there must be some people out there who live in a near-constant state of consolation, but most of us experience it only in flashes. Consolation is a foretaste of heaven.
Desolation, on the other hand, is an oceanic emptiness--the remoteness or absence of God, of purpose, or hope. Everyone, I believe, has experienced this. Including Christ himself, who felt it in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is, for lack of a better term, an aspiring void.
Ignatius Loyola counseled his followers not to make important decisions during times of Desolation.
But what if one is writing ABOUT desolation while also feeling it? What then?
That has been, for the most part, my experience while writing A Cloud of Unknowing. The material is dark, troubling. The characters experience suffering without much in the way of consolation. There is no one to offer a wet cloth to the dying man on the Cross. They are alone. They are confronting something beyond their understanding. Which is precisely how I felt whilst writing it.
This is not to say that it is a book without any hope. There is always hope. But sometimes, hope hides in the quantum spaces between space. It only exists when we observe it, willfully.
My hope is that this doesn't dissuade you from reading A Cloud of Unknowing. I poured blood, sweat, and tears into this book. I'm proud of it. I believe it is a fitting sequel to Our Lady of the Artilects. But you should know going in that it is quite a bit darker than its predecessor. It may or may not be the last book in this series. I have third in mind, but I need some time and space away from this material before I even attempt to write it.
So with that being said, I'm afraid it will be strictly space comedy from me for at least the next twelve months. That is my consolation.
In times of consolation, we feel close to God (or the "universe" or "ultimate reality" if you prefer). We are connected with our sense of purpose, with wonder, with...the sublime. We feel that joy which surpasses all understanding. I suppose there must be some people out there who live in a near-constant state of consolation, but most of us experience it only in flashes. Consolation is a foretaste of heaven.
Desolation, on the other hand, is an oceanic emptiness--the remoteness or absence of God, of purpose, or hope. Everyone, I believe, has experienced this. Including Christ himself, who felt it in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is, for lack of a better term, an aspiring void.
Ignatius Loyola counseled his followers not to make important decisions during times of Desolation.
But what if one is writing ABOUT desolation while also feeling it? What then?
That has been, for the most part, my experience while writing A Cloud of Unknowing. The material is dark, troubling. The characters experience suffering without much in the way of consolation. There is no one to offer a wet cloth to the dying man on the Cross. They are alone. They are confronting something beyond their understanding. Which is precisely how I felt whilst writing it.
This is not to say that it is a book without any hope. There is always hope. But sometimes, hope hides in the quantum spaces between space. It only exists when we observe it, willfully.
My hope is that this doesn't dissuade you from reading A Cloud of Unknowing. I poured blood, sweat, and tears into this book. I'm proud of it. I believe it is a fitting sequel to Our Lady of the Artilects. But you should know going in that it is quite a bit darker than its predecessor. It may or may not be the last book in this series. I have third in mind, but I need some time and space away from this material before I even attempt to write it.
So with that being said, I'm afraid it will be strictly space comedy from me for at least the next twelve months. That is my consolation.
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February 20, 2025I may come back and revise this rating/review if I can finish the book, but for now I find it difficult to go on. About halfway through.
I really enjoyed the first book! It was fun, fresh, and well paced. I reread it before diving into the sequel, and I think it still holds up, but I also think it might be better as a standalone. The gripes that I might have had with book one (unable to picture the characters, given very little information about them, for example) were pretty easily dismissed, because I was having fun and I figured, it wasn't that kind of story. But now we're in book two, and I'm only now finding out the nationality and age of some of the main characters! And you're left on your own to remember that Personally, I find it hard to get invested in the moves of players I cannot even picture in the setting. I also had problems with the narrative choices--graphic torture scenes in this book were unnecessary, because these actions were described in the first book, for example--and there were grave spelling and grammar errors that made everything look sloppy. I'd noticed similar errors in the first book, but since it was the author's debut novel, I was pretty understanding. Now, however? Misspelling a character's name consistently for an entire chapter?
Again, I might pick this back up and see if it redeems itself. But I'm very let down, as I was really looking forward to diving back into this interesting world.
editing to say: I didn't hate the ideas he plays with in this book, but I kept thinking, "this novel could have been a blog post." Or maybe even a nonfiction publication of his personal musings on these subjects.
I really enjoyed the first book! It was fun, fresh, and well paced. I reread it before diving into the sequel, and I think it still holds up, but I also think it might be better as a standalone. The gripes that I might have had with book one (unable to picture the characters, given very little information about them, for example) were pretty easily dismissed, because I was having fun and I figured, it wasn't that kind of story. But now we're in book two, and I'm only now finding out the nationality and age of some of the main characters! And you're left on your own to remember that Personally, I find it hard to get invested in the moves of players I cannot even picture in the setting. I also had problems with the narrative choices--graphic torture scenes in this book were unnecessary, because these actions were described in the first book, for example--and there were grave spelling and grammar errors that made everything look sloppy. I'd noticed similar errors in the first book, but since it was the author's debut novel, I was pretty understanding. Now, however? Misspelling a character's name consistently for an entire chapter?
Again, I might pick this back up and see if it redeems itself. But I'm very let down, as I was really looking forward to diving back into this interesting world.
editing to say: I didn't hate the ideas he plays with in this book, but I kept thinking, "this novel could have been a blog post." Or maybe even a nonfiction publication of his personal musings on these subjects.
July 3, 2025
A cloud of unknowing is indeed a very interesting read, although I've felt the end a little rush. I got to love the characters. Maybe that is the reason I resent Sarah's death-why was it necessary?
What happened with Channing and Ash? are they finished? Was Sarah's sacrifice worth it?
And then, there is Namono... She is a character that I've felt underdeveloped ... why has she replaced the loyalty she once felt to the Hanburg with Thierry? Where does this loyalty comes from in the first place?
What's with the disappearances? Why are they happening?
Where are they going?
I have to say they are some points I needed to be tied at the end that remain loose.
What happened with Channing and Ash? are they finished? Was Sarah's sacrifice worth it?
And then, there is Namono... She is a character that I've felt underdeveloped ... why has she replaced the loyalty she once felt to the Hanburg with Thierry? Where does this loyalty comes from in the first place?
What's with the disappearances? Why are they happening?
Where are they going?
I have to say they are some points I needed to be tied at the end that remain loose.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 7, 2025
Quite a tour de force. While I was reading this, I imagined the writer as a juggler adding ever more balls in the loop. .Catholicism , Quantum mechanics, Metaphysic, Sufism , AI ,SF , Christian mysticism, theology, etc,etc.
Halfway , the story stagnated somewhat. The amounts of information became somewhat overwhelming, and it sometimes felt as if I was reading the setup for a thesis rather than a fiction novel. Luckily this part gave way to a satisfying finale .
A very demanding novel, and certainly not for everyone. But for those who love a challenge, it's worth trying.
P.S : Pope Leo the x1v ? Talk about 'foreshadowing' ! ;)
Halfway , the story stagnated somewhat. The amounts of information became somewhat overwhelming, and it sometimes felt as if I was reading the setup for a thesis rather than a fiction novel. Luckily this part gave way to a satisfying finale .
A very demanding novel, and certainly not for everyone. But for those who love a challenge, it's worth trying.
P.S : Pope Leo the x1v ? Talk about 'foreshadowing' ! ;)
August 6, 2024
A fantastic sequel to an amazing novel. I love this book and this series so much. Totally worth the read if you like political dramas, religious thrillers, and sci-fi!
August 6, 2025
this second book in this series was harder to finish
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