Sailing Bright Eternity

Galactic Center #6

by Gregory Benford

The final chapter of humanity's future is at hand and the sole survivor is Nigel Walmsley, an ancient scientist from the distant past marooned inside an anomaly of time and space. The Old Ones guard the center of the galaxy--a black hole called the Eater of All Things. Now, the survivors must take a final stand against their executioners or perish.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Hard Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks, Aliens

404 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Gregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.

As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.

Reviews

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Within Gregory Benford’s Galactic Center series, the first two volumes are hard-sf in a near-future Earth setting featuring astronaut/scientist Nigel Walmsley. Benford is an astrophysicist, and was on physics and astronomy faculty at UC-Irvine when he wrote this. His science is authentic. However, with Great Sky River (#3), the story jumped forward some 35,000 years, to a story universe that initially seems unrelated. Sailing Bright Eternity (#6) and the intervening volumes are continuous from Great Sky River, as the post-human Family Bishop flees ahead of the enemy Mechs towards the center of our Galaxy. I’m now in a re-read of the entire series, because it is mentioned in Lecture 4 “Evolution and Deep Time in Science Fiction” of Gary Wolfe’s video lecture series How Great Science Fiction Works.

It is possible I will mention things in my comments about this final novel in the series, that would spoil plot or concept developments in the earlier volumes. Consider yourself warned.

This final novel opens with a conversation between an ancient Nigel Walmsley and Toby of Family Bishop, who finally met at the end of Furious Gulf (#5). Nigel tells him stories that tie the plot threads of the first books 1-2 explicitly to the far future history of books 3-6. I expect the outlines of these stories have been known to Benford for years during the writing, but finally it is spelled out. In the overall sequence of events, about the first third of this book is between volumes 2 and 3, and the rest is the conclusion of the series. After Nigel has told his stories, the plot picks up right where Furious Gulf left off, alternating sections between Nigel, Toby, Killeen, and others as they pass through many mind-boggling and violent adventures in their conflict with the Mechs in the Esty. The Esty is “ST” as in “spacetime,” a place of steep relativistic space-time and gravitational anomaly just outside the event horizon of the enormous black hole at the center of our galaxy. ]

It is a challenging thing, dealing with deep spans of time and yet having a human perspective that maintains reader interest in the story. Wolfe calls it the “Stapledon problem.” Benford’s solution in this series is to follow the character of Nigel Walmsley, who has lived 35,500 years by the end of the series, and to follow the father-son duo of Killeen and Toby, who probably have garnered more page count than Nigel by the end. Each of them has a significant female partner, from whom they have become separated in various ways - taken up into the magnetic mind of the Highers, suredead but with captured personality embedded in the consciousness of one of the post-human Bishops, or simply lost in the infinite Lanes in the Esty. Unfortunately, because of their repeated use to expose weird new environs within the Esty, and because they seem to keep coming back from the dead in various ways, the three leading perspective characters come to resemble each other too much.

This particular novel has some tedious passages that do not advance anything conceptually, and I would never recommend reading it stand-alone. Some tightening up would help; the whole riverboat sequence seems superfluous. But it is impossible to assess Sailing Bright Eternity as a novel without considering its part in Benford’s challenging vision of a future history of the universe, and the ultimate destiny of human intelligence in it.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty disappointing and self-indulgent (on the author's part) conclusion to this series. Huge swaths were plot-irrelevant and a complete slog, present seemingly just because the author wanted to bring back favorite characters from the series. I get that the author is enthusiastic, but if they don't engage the reader emotionally, or relate to the plot, what's the point?

It ended up a disjointed pastiche as we got various life stories in sections, only one of which was genuinely engaging in its own right, and that was much better as the self-contained short story "Down the River Road" that Benford revised to (sort of) fit in this novel. Almost none of it felt like the Family Bishop saga of Great Sky River and Tides of Light that originally hooked me; those are clearly better left to stand on their own. And the attempt to finally resolve the mech problem, while holding an interesting conceit (their vulnerability to pleasure), quickly spiraled into epic/born-to-be-the-savior/whim-of-the-gods tropishness.

[Martha Shanahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess. My guilty pleasure is good "hard" science fiction and this guy is the best. This book is the last of a series called "The Galactic Center Novels". I got hooked on this genre about 10 years ago and love it for the complete departure from the world as I experience it. The characters are well drawn and the story lines full of amazing events. There is a strong philosophical thread that runs through all of these books that asks many of the same questions any good literature asks. I really love these books. I embrace my nerdy side!

[Vincent Stoessel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished the series!

The ending was rough and honestly I thought about quitting more than a few times.
I promise a more detailed review soon but just know, while there are some awesome parts of the series, I should have spent better time reading a better series.

[Mike Franklin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointing. The first three books were good to very good but the last two, and the last particularly, deteriorated into confusion.

[Bill]

In this sixth and last of the Galactic Center series, we have a title which I think is my favorite title for any novel I've ever read: "Sailing Bright Eternity" evokes such a beautiful and even transcendent image. Anyway, the entire series was superb for me and Benford is among my favorite hard science fiction authors.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A satisfying finish to a very solid series. Overall, this is definitely more of an idea-driven plot line than an event-driven one, but it is still good reading. You can definitely see Benford's influence in some newer sci-fi authors, such as Alastair Reynolds.

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science Fiction

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you made it this far into the series, congratulations. Whether or not you'll like how it ends is a bit of a coin toss.

We learn that the old man at the end of Furious Gulf is none other than Nigel Walmsley. Someone how the jerk protagonist from the first two books managed to survive some 30,000+ years (time dilation and really advanced technology helped) and is now present to help Toby escape the Mechanicals that have been pursuing him. So the first solid chunk of the book is a flashback of Nigel's life since arriving here at the Galactic Center. Amazingly enough, the man changed! He's gone from being a jerk to a curmudgeon. Yes, that's an improvement. He's been humbled by marriage and parenthood, not to mention the discoveries made at the Galactic Center and how humanity fits into the galactic pecking order. But loss probably shaped him the most. This Nigel I liked, but I couldn't help but feel that the guy is a stand-in for Benford himself.

But the Mechanicals get the upper hand, errr appendage, and Toby is off on his own, wandering through those volatile estys again, trying to find his father or, at least, other Bishops. At one point, the whole thing transforms into the sci-fi adventures of Huckleberry Finn on the space-time-river equivalent of the Mississippi. I really wondered where Benford was going with this. It had its moments but it seemed like a distraction. Ultimately, this section comes to an abrupt end, and Toby is reunited with Killeen.

There's a final showdown with the Mantis, which was needed as the thing was responsible for so much suffering. The method of resolution was unexpected, but fitting. Afterwards, there's a bit of a long epilogue as we see glimpses of our main characters' lives. I found it to be a bit sad. There is no "happily ever after," but there is an after. And the takeaway borrows thematically from Shakespeare:

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely Players;

Benford could be considered guilty of meandering around with metaphysical speculation about higher lifeforms, but I can forgive him for that. We humans have this arrogance that the world—you could argue the universe—revolves around us. We are blissfully ignorant of older and far more advanced lifeforms in the universe, and our narcissism boasts that they don't exist because we don't have proof of them having visited us, as if we were so special that we merited being fawned over. It's a conceit that Benford doesn't ascribe to.

3.75 stars rounded up to four because of Nigel Walmsley's evolution.

[Steve King · Rating 2 out of 5]

The conclusion of the six-book "Galactic Center" series is somewhat disappointing. It continues the far-future timeline involving the Bishop Family of humans and their attempts to explore and survive in the "esty."

*Spoilers below*

So my biggest issue with Sailing Bright Eternity is that this isn't so much a book with a plot but a long series of 1-3 page "chapters" detailing the various adventures of the current point of view character. It's often like little vignettes that jump from one place to another, often very abruptly and without almost no "why" and even less "how." it's the ultimate in Dues Ex Machina. Author needs point of view character to be here instead of there? Magic bird from super advanced higher power takes them there. One of the things I liked about the series in books 1-4 was the idea that humans were basically a bit player in a much bigger galaxy full of advanced beings but Sailing Bright Eternity makes a bit of a mockery of this idea because we find out that the "old ones" and "highers" have engineered all of this and that we're not reading a novel that's playing out in front of us, but a series of designed events that played out how the god-like beings wanted it to. Thanks humans, we're done with you now.

I appreciate Benford's imagination and this is certainly a unique series. The whole thing is still worth reading, but I felt like Benford's fertile imagination got away from him in books 5 and 6. I struggled to get any sort of feeling for the "esty" space, which is the focus of the final two books. I *think* it was supposed to be a fantastic sort of "anything can happen" realm, but for me it just felt like another plot device in which there are no rules so the author can make whatever he want to have happen, happen.

The saving grace for Sailing Bright Eternity is the parts of the book which deal with the higher mech known as The Mantis. This was a splendid "bad guy" - a being with no code of morals and an unending drive to reach the goals that had been set for it. Really, the mechs as a whole were a great antagonist, and I hope that someday Benford might write more about their society.

In closing, I'm not sure how to sum up the series as a whole. For me, each book had its flaws but was good enough, except maybe this final book. I thought each could have been 50-75 pages shorter, as they all seemed to have a side-story that had little to do with the overall plot (book 1, the end parts dealing with the Sasquatch type creatures. Book 2, the swarmers, etc). The whole series is worth reading, especially books 1, 3 and 4. However, outside of hard sci-fi fans, I don't think many would enjoy the whole thing.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a variety of reasons I didn't really enjoy this series. The 3rd through 5th books were my favorites but the overall story just didn't connect with me. Not that the books didn't involve some great ideas with some mind bending concepts but I was having a hard time suspending disbelief and that's something that usually I have a harder time with in fantasy than hard SF.

In this book the return of Walmsley had me groaning. The ultimate climax left me annoyed and grumpy that I'd invested so much time into it. I can't say more without spoilers but, for me, it was not a satisfying ending. Except that it was finally over. That was satisfying.

[David O'Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

It rambled on for what felt like an eternity! I finished it, and of course, the series, which was great, but this was trudge. It became tedious and boring and I felt about 50% of it could have been wisely summarised - almost all of the 'Sawyer-eske' adventures of Toby. Otherwise a great read and extremely well-written. Will source other books by this author.

[Bogusław Muraszko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Naprawdę dobra rzecz! Doskonale przemyślana, wielowątkowa opowieść o losach ludzkości. Uniwersum niemalże jak z Stargate Universe. Te przeklęte roboty... Widać w niej rękę naukowca, fizyka. Oj naprawdę polecam.

[Michael Schulz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good ending to the series. A little sad but ok.

[Roger Burk · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this 6th and last book of the series, the last remnants of the last remnants of humanity are yet again pursued like vermin by the machines that control the Galaxy, this time through a surreal, dreamlike, and constantly shifting twisted maze of space-time near the Galactic core. (Honestly, Benford has a fetish about remnants of humanity being pursued like vermin.) There they find scattered settlement of humans trying to live quietly off the "land" (actually twisted congealed space-time) beyond the reach of the mechs. Bewilderingly, one of our heroes stumbles on a twisted-spacetime simulacrum of Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River, complete with riverboats and riverside towns. (It reminded me a bit of Philip Jose Farmer's The Fabulous Riverboat.) But there's trouble: the mechs are starting to break into the refuge. It turns out it's not just the Naturals and the mechs--there are also the Old Ones. They provide a little philosophizing about the role on intelligence in the Universe, adapted to the understanding of our poor linear and half-unconscious minds.

[Timothy James · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only completed this book because I wanted to know how the story ended. The series degenerated and this was the worst one. I would recommend reading Tides of Light as an enjoyable stand alone book and ignore the rest.

[Patricia Seagrove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very creative future world. REally interesting take on overpopulation and expressed belief that people will not come to terms with with it.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

We have Toby, Kileen, Abraham, Nigel, and copies of several of the above moving about through time and space, along with machine intelligences that never seem to come alive. Uhm, well I mean that more often than not they just show up and destroy what-(and whom)-ever Benford has spent the last few chapters describing. I can't say I was excited to see Nigel return, and he does get a lot of Benford's attention, but he is less annoying than in the first two books.

The ending fell flat for me, but that more results from the trajectory of books five and six more than anything that happens in the last 100 pages. But it works, and given a story that spans so much time so convolutedly with such a capable, dominant, and perseverant foe, it could have been much worse.

[Skylar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brentford clearly has a galaxy of awesome, incredible ideas. Unfortunately, he often struggles to bring them together in a cohesive plot, and this book is no exception. I'm glad I finished the series, but it was definitely a slog at times.

[Craig Beyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been a long time since I read the earlier books in the series, so reading this was difficult. The book has too many referents to the prior books that I didn’t understand everything (OK, much of anything).

[Adam Meek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvelously weird. A great ending to Benford's awesome scifi epic, sure to delight fans of both hard sf and Space Opera.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little confusing, nice to see old characters coming back.

[Enric Masdeu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Massa complicat d'entendre. L'estil narratiu de l'autor no enganxa tot i que les idees que hi desenvolupa son originals.

[Nino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monumentalan završetak sage o budućnosti čovječanstva, izvanzemaljskih entiteta i samog svemira.

[Guido]

Why you might like it: Physics-forward cosmic saga; rigorous tone. Rubric match: not yet scored. Uses your engineering/rigor/first-contact/world-building rubric. Tags: hard-sf, galactic-center

[John Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit of a yawn although the ideas were novel. Speculating on the human race in billions of years time.

[Neobooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gran final para una enorme saga. No te va a decepcionar.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Galaxy center holds vast intelligence that may spell humanity's doom or boon. Enjoyable conclusion to series that explores that various forms of intelligence do not, always, equate with virtue. There is humanity in positive outlook of future, without Benford showing his scientific background. He is good with character.

[Paul1984 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second time I have read the Galactic Centre series my favourites are 3 4 and 5.

I found Sailing Bright Eternity a grind to get through with way too much time devoted to adventures in other realities ..one even like reading Tom Sawyer!

If you can excuse the pun a bit of a trav(esty).

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good solid SF from another of the masters of the genre.