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Grand Central Arena
L’arène est le lieu où se rencontrent toutes les races de la galaxie, dans la paix... ou pas ! Ce cosmopolitisme extrême fait furieusement penser à la fameuse scène de la cantina dans l’épisode IV de Star Wars – un bar qui regroupe malfrats, pilotes, truands, contrebandiers de toute la galaxie. D’ailleurs, l’incroyable popularité de Star Wars doit beaucoup à ce « bestiaire » incomparable...
Pour autant, dans Grand Central Arena, les innombrables espèces extraterrestres présentes ne sont pas là pour faire de la figuration, et l’humanité aura bien du mal à se ménager une petite place dans un lieu qui défie toute imagination !
C’était censé être un simple vol d’essai, sur lequel la pilote Ariane Austin n'interviendrait qu’en dernier recours : les systèmes automatiques s’occuperaient de lancer le test et de piloter le Saint-Graal, le premier vaisseau plus rapide que la lumière construit par l’humanité...
Pour autant, dans Grand Central Arena, les innombrables espèces extraterrestres présentes ne sont pas là pour faire de la figuration, et l’humanité aura bien du mal à se ménager une petite place dans un lieu qui défie toute imagination !
C’était censé être un simple vol d’essai, sur lequel la pilote Ariane Austin n'interviendrait qu’en dernier recours : les systèmes automatiques s’occuperaient de lancer le test et de piloter le Saint-Graal, le premier vaisseau plus rapide que la lumière construit par l’humanité...
590 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
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February 13, 2024
“Damn. That’s just wrong.”
This was a pleasant surprise. Grand Central Arena made it to my current “must read” list by virtue of being one of those books I have owned for ages but never got around to (I try and force them into my reading diet every so often). Turns out, it is just about the best book I have read this year so far.
“Step outside on your homeworld and look up. See, my friends, the thousands of stars that must blaze in your skies as they do in mine. See the dots of light that are galaxies, so far away that the racing rays of light they emit are old, old by the time they reach the eye. Try, if you can, to grasp these things, hold them all in your mind.
Then imagine . . . imagine that you could hold it all in your mind, that you could see all things, all places, at the same time, that to you the riddle of time and space was as trivial a puzzle as opening a box in your hand, that you could open that box and see every star, every planet, as a master artisan might look upon it. An artisan who wished to create a replica, the greatest work of art praising Creation that ever has been . . .”
Grand Central Arena carries its influences on its sleeve, and comes out smelling like roses. Doc Smith, updated for the modern era of Science Fiction? Hell, yes!
The premise, in a nutshell: the invention of superluminal travel, by any species, using the old “hyperspace” convention, is a flytrap, and humans are about to find that out the hard way.
An experimental ship, performing the first ever FTL jump for humankind, deposits the hapless crew in a brobdingnagian artificial space known as Grand Central Arena.
What follows is a tale of exploration, first contact, wonder, and speculative problem solving (not to mention a good old violent scrape or two). In other words, all the reasons why we read Science Fiction.
“The Arena is a single construct, a volume many light-years across, which itself contains a duplicate of every galaxy, a Sphere for every star, in all the cosmos from which we come.”
Interestingly, even though the golden age of Science Fiction is clearly referenced here, I was reminded in no small part of the Uplift series (by David Brin). The new emergents are parallels of the uplifted, and the way that they are treated by the Factions of the Arena are not so different as the approach of the Galactics in Brin’s novels.
Let’s start a little interstellar war!
Of course, with names like Voidbuilders, Shadeweavers and The Vengeance, you just know it’s going to be buckets of fun. The book cleverly also does leave a few questions unanswered and introduces some elements of philosophy and theology and, dare I say it, magic (as postulated by Arthur C. Clarke and his third law, i.e. is it magic or is it science?).
What I mean to say is, Grand Central Arena does leave some things open for interpretation, which of course also leaves room for a sequel.
In addition to all of the above, the writing is actually really seamless. It’s a longish book (almost 700 pages) but I flew through it. It is just a really good example of how entertaining this kind of thing can be when done right.
This was a pleasant surprise. Grand Central Arena made it to my current “must read” list by virtue of being one of those books I have owned for ages but never got around to (I try and force them into my reading diet every so often). Turns out, it is just about the best book I have read this year so far.
“Step outside on your homeworld and look up. See, my friends, the thousands of stars that must blaze in your skies as they do in mine. See the dots of light that are galaxies, so far away that the racing rays of light they emit are old, old by the time they reach the eye. Try, if you can, to grasp these things, hold them all in your mind.
Then imagine . . . imagine that you could hold it all in your mind, that you could see all things, all places, at the same time, that to you the riddle of time and space was as trivial a puzzle as opening a box in your hand, that you could open that box and see every star, every planet, as a master artisan might look upon it. An artisan who wished to create a replica, the greatest work of art praising Creation that ever has been . . .”
Grand Central Arena carries its influences on its sleeve, and comes out smelling like roses. Doc Smith, updated for the modern era of Science Fiction? Hell, yes!
The premise, in a nutshell: the invention of superluminal travel, by any species, using the old “hyperspace” convention, is a flytrap, and humans are about to find that out the hard way.
An experimental ship, performing the first ever FTL jump for humankind, deposits the hapless crew in a brobdingnagian artificial space known as Grand Central Arena.
What follows is a tale of exploration, first contact, wonder, and speculative problem solving (not to mention a good old violent scrape or two). In other words, all the reasons why we read Science Fiction.
“The Arena is a single construct, a volume many light-years across, which itself contains a duplicate of every galaxy, a Sphere for every star, in all the cosmos from which we come.”
Interestingly, even though the golden age of Science Fiction is clearly referenced here, I was reminded in no small part of the Uplift series (by David Brin). The new emergents are parallels of the uplifted, and the way that they are treated by the Factions of the Arena are not so different as the approach of the Galactics in Brin’s novels.
Let’s start a little interstellar war!
Of course, with names like Voidbuilders, Shadeweavers and The Vengeance, you just know it’s going to be buckets of fun. The book cleverly also does leave a few questions unanswered and introduces some elements of philosophy and theology and, dare I say it, magic (as postulated by Arthur C. Clarke and his third law, i.e. is it magic or is it science?).
What I mean to say is, Grand Central Arena does leave some things open for interpretation, which of course also leaves room for a sequel.
In addition to all of the above, the writing is actually really seamless. It’s a longish book (almost 700 pages) but I flew through it. It is just a really good example of how entertaining this kind of thing can be when done right.
December 17, 2023
I gave this a shot although litRPG is not really my bag at all, and while Spoor dedicated this to E.E. 'Doc' Smith, outside of a few names and such, this harkens more to the Golden Age of science fiction then the Radium. Honestly, I got about 70 pages in and came close to DNF; in part because of Spoor's writing style. He loves to use italicized prose/sentences to indicate private thoughts of the characters, but at first also used this to indicate communications between the character's personal AIs (called AIsages) at it quickly became rather annoying to say the least. Thankfully, things did improve.
Essentially, the story is set a few hundred years in the future and hinges upon humanity finally discovering FTL travel. The ship, Holy Grail, embarks on a test flight with 8 crew and after engaging the new drive, suddenly find themselves bereft of AI support and about to crash into a wall. Our lead and pilot of the ship, Ariane Auston, manages just barely to stop the ship from smashing into the wall, but WTF? This quickly became a BDO story, as the ship seems to be in a massive sphere of strange material, oddly with an orrery of Earth's solar system in the middle. Well, the crew begins to explore and soon discover the Arena.
The litRPG did get a little old, but the crew found a wonder of wonder that reminded me of Chalker's Well World Midnight at the Well of Souls. Some entity (gods or aliens) evidently constructed a massive object, thousands of light years across, and when ever some species ignites a FTL drive, they end up at the Arena, which is now populated by thousands of alien species, divided into a range of factions. The key to the interactions among the factions and the aliens is a sophisticated code duello, known as Challenges. You can see where this is going to go...
Once I got used to the writing style, and the litRPG feeling, the novel read much better. Really, this is your basic action/adventure in space; something of a homage to the Golden Era. If you are really into litRPG, you will probably dig this. Me? I found it a fun read, but not one I would really recommend. I might read the sequel as I have it already, but not planning on continuing the entire series. 2.5 stars, rounding up for the cool action sequences.
Essentially, the story is set a few hundred years in the future and hinges upon humanity finally discovering FTL travel. The ship, Holy Grail, embarks on a test flight with 8 crew and after engaging the new drive, suddenly find themselves bereft of AI support and about to crash into a wall. Our lead and pilot of the ship, Ariane Auston, manages just barely to stop the ship from smashing into the wall, but WTF? This quickly became a BDO story, as the ship seems to be in a massive sphere of strange material, oddly with an orrery of Earth's solar system in the middle. Well, the crew begins to explore and soon discover the Arena.
The litRPG did get a little old, but the crew found a wonder of wonder that reminded me of Chalker's Well World Midnight at the Well of Souls. Some entity (gods or aliens) evidently constructed a massive object, thousands of light years across, and when ever some species ignites a FTL drive, they end up at the Arena, which is now populated by thousands of alien species, divided into a range of factions. The key to the interactions among the factions and the aliens is a sophisticated code duello, known as Challenges. You can see where this is going to go...
Once I got used to the writing style, and the litRPG feeling, the novel read much better. Really, this is your basic action/adventure in space; something of a homage to the Golden Era. If you are really into litRPG, you will probably dig this. Me? I found it a fun read, but not one I would really recommend. I might read the sequel as I have it already, but not planning on continuing the entire series. 2.5 stars, rounding up for the cool action sequences.
June 4, 2010
With Grand Central Arena, Ryk E. Spoor hits precisely the target he was aiming at. This paperback's lurid cover promises, and its sprawling 671 pages deliver, pulp science fiction: larger-than-life characters, jaw-dropping settings and super-science spectacle, both evocative of and explicitly dedicated to E.E. "Doc" Smith, the early sf giant and creator of the Skylark of Space.
And it's a page-turner. Spoor knows how to start a story— in medias res , that is—and keep it moving. From the single-seater rocket race that begins the book, to the launching of the first faster-than-light starship, to the discovery of the Arena itself and what the intrepid crew find there, Spoor gives us excitement first and drops in the exposition later. It wouldn't be pulp sf without some technobabble, of course, but the expository lumps are small and dissolve easily in all the headlong action.
The Holy Grail is the Earth's first starship, built and crewed by rugged individuals (no corporate drones or government flunkies need apply, thank you). Ariane Austin, the rocket racer we meet first, is Captain of this crew as they launch blindly into interstellar space on the Grail's first run... which takes them to the Arena of the title, a vast alien construct. The thing is, that's where every other starfaring species ends up too—neatly solving the Fermi Paradox, while simultaneously raising some pretty big questions of its own.
Grand Central Arena is a throwback, an unrepentant reconstruction of a bygone style—deftly updated for modern eyes (e.g., there's not a cigarette to be seen aboard the starship, and the women on its crew are by no means just there to cook). There's evidence of complex underpinnings to the superficial simplicity; the alien species have common traits but their individual members are not all alike, and the Holy Grail's crew shows a mature and open-handed acceptance of difference that suits them well. I also thought the treatment of AIs (artificial intelligences) deserved some consideration. Spoor shows AIs as powerful personal assistants, integrated with almost every human activity... but then treats them like the parents in a Disney movie: conveniently taken offstage when their continued presence would interfere with the action.
There's awkward, purple prose, to be sure, and the characters can seem awfully wooden even (or especially) while they're wooing each other... but that comes with the territory. If you've been looking for a pulp masterpiece whose plucky human heroes kick ass and take names against overwhelming odds, that's exactly what you'll find here.
And it's a page-turner. Spoor knows how to start a story— in medias res , that is—and keep it moving. From the single-seater rocket race that begins the book, to the launching of the first faster-than-light starship, to the discovery of the Arena itself and what the intrepid crew find there, Spoor gives us excitement first and drops in the exposition later. It wouldn't be pulp sf without some technobabble, of course, but the expository lumps are small and dissolve easily in all the headlong action.
The Holy Grail is the Earth's first starship, built and crewed by rugged individuals (no corporate drones or government flunkies need apply, thank you). Ariane Austin, the rocket racer we meet first, is Captain of this crew as they launch blindly into interstellar space on the Grail's first run... which takes them to the Arena of the title, a vast alien construct. The thing is, that's where every other starfaring species ends up too—neatly solving the Fermi Paradox, while simultaneously raising some pretty big questions of its own.
Grand Central Arena is a throwback, an unrepentant reconstruction of a bygone style—deftly updated for modern eyes (e.g., there's not a cigarette to be seen aboard the starship, and the women on its crew are by no means just there to cook). There's evidence of complex underpinnings to the superficial simplicity; the alien species have common traits but their individual members are not all alike, and the Holy Grail's crew shows a mature and open-handed acceptance of difference that suits them well. I also thought the treatment of AIs (artificial intelligences) deserved some consideration. Spoor shows AIs as powerful personal assistants, integrated with almost every human activity... but then treats them like the parents in a Disney movie: conveniently taken offstage when their continued presence would interfere with the action.
There's awkward, purple prose, to be sure, and the characters can seem awfully wooden even (or especially) while they're wooing each other... but that comes with the territory. If you've been looking for a pulp masterpiece whose plucky human heroes kick ass and take names against overwhelming odds, that's exactly what you'll find here.
August 21, 2013
reread August 2013 as the earc of 2nd book Spheres of Influence was released; original thoughts below in the full FBC rv
update 2013 - on this reread I enjoyed the book even more than on the original read and now i am definitely classifying as a top 25 as it wore the 3 years and hundreds of read books much better than many other books that i may have rated better on first read; excellent stuff, old/new space opera and great characters
hope this series will go on for a while as it has scope and space for that
FBC Rv on original read in Feb 2010 (done then but added 2013)
Before "Grand Central Arena" I have not read anything by Ryk Spoor, though for several years I had a copy of "Boundary", his 2006 collaboration with Eric Flint which has a sequel Threshold to be published in June 2010. I started Boundary several times but the story of archaeology and long gone aliens in a near future setting never hooked me, so when I heard of "Grand Central Arena", I was not sure how much priority to give it. The blurb above was very, very tempting and when the author started posting chapters on Baen's Bar - chapters collated in the link above - I got hooked and bought an e-arc from Baen several months ago despite it being almost twice the price of the original print mmpb that has been released recently.
And I have to say that I never regretted the decision since Grand Central Arena was an excellent read, fast and entertaining and I hope it will get the sequels it richly deserves. After I finished it, I finally read "Boundary" which was quite entertaining too, though much more predictable in some ways and less exciting than "Grand Central Arena", but it is very hard for near future sf to compete with space opera as my interest goes. I plan to read Threshold too at some point in the future, though it is less of a priority for now, but any sequel to Grand Central Arena would be an asap.
FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: "Grand Central Arena" is a long book - Amazon has it listed at 688 pages but since I have only an e-arc I cannot guarantee that, just that it seems reasonable - however it reads so fast that you do not really notice when the pages go; the novel is divided into 74 chapters of which you can read quite a few for free as linked above and there are several points of view, most notably main heroine, Ariane Austin top race pilot in the Solar System 's "Unlimited Space Obstacle Racing" championship tour.
Then there is her team's chief engineer Carl Edlund who happens to know genius physicist Simon Sandrisson, the discoverer of "hyperspace" some 10 years ago, from which discovery the possibility of ftl travel followed; after extensive drone testing and with the approval of the humanity's Space Security Council, Dr. Sandrisson is ready to take the first manned human ftl spaceships Holy Grail on a test ride. The leader of the Combined Space Force sends mysterious power engineer Marc DuQuesne as both crew and representative of the powers to be and at Marc's insistence, Simon Sandrisson decides to include a human backup pilot despite everything running on pseudo-AI's - AISage - guidance, so much so that human pilots are generally used fully only in competition racing. There are several more crew members of the Holy Grail and of course when the Holy Grail finds the Arena of the title instead of the stars, there are several important aliens, most notably one called suggestively and for reasons to be found in the book Orphan.
"Grand Central Arena" is space opera in the grand old tradition - "costume" aliens, heroic and plucky humans - but with modern sensibilities and awareness of current speculations in cutting edge physics.
ANALYSIS: "Grand Central Arena" introduces an Earth several centuries hence where advances in nanotech and AI development allowed the expansion of humanity in the Solar System, wealth and relative peace and stability in a sort of libertarian way, though the same decentralization allowed by tech and global wealth led occasionally to trouble when groups of single minded people used such for nefarious purposes, or even sometimes in thoughtless ways that turned to disaster.
All in all though, the Solar System of the novel is a prosperous place and on the verge of attaining the stars due to Simon Sandrisson's revolutionary extension of the latest unified field theory, extension that allowed the first ftl drive to be built and now to be tested for the first time in a manned spaceship. However the drone tests of the Sandrisson Drive, while mostly successful and with a reasonably low rate of non-return revealed a glitch - all AI powered systems on the drones - eg sensors, recording devices - seemed not to work properly in ftl mode, though the "dumb" 2oth century like mechanical/electronic ones worked.
So "just as a backup" Ariane is co-opted in the crew of the Holy Grail with Carl as support engineer and of course when things go completely awry and instead of the stars, the spaceship finds itself in a huge but considerably scaled down enclosed reproduction of the Solar System with all major bodies in proper orbits, all AI's - including guidance, piloting and personal ones - down - with the Holy Grail heading fast towards an inevitable crash with the looming walls of the enclosure, it's up to Ariane's reflexes to save the day and of course the surprises start immediately after...
Grand Central Arena of the title which the crew of the Holy Grail discovers instead of the stars is a very, very old place, wondrous and awesome but dangerous and "ritualistic" too, with many alien races at various privilege and development states mingling under some rules strictly enforced by ultra-powerful beings. And since the minimal achievement a race needs to get into the Arena is the Sandrisson Drive - known of course under various names by each alien species - and since each new race discovering that and using it, represents an opportunity for the more nefarious Arena species, while having itself an opportunity to "establish" itself under the rules above, it is up to the crew of the Holy Grail to make sure humanity is among the "winners" and not the "losers", with Ariane appointed by default leader, while Simon and Marc are her main "side kicks" and mysterious alien Orphan who encounters them first as "guide" and mentor of a sort.
The whole setup, rules and such are described in loving detail and the author put a lot of thought into them, so while the whole Arena and its paraphernalia are quite outlandish, I never lost for a moment my suspension of disbelief. The various alien races encountered are reasonably distinct and vary from ultra-mercantilistic, to seemingly benevolent but with maybe hidden agendas, to dark, mysterious, powerful and with unclear motives and of course to obvious enemies either out for plunder or for subtler reasons...
While the first part of the book including the early Solar System chapters, the introduction to what will become known as "humanity's sphere" and then to the Arena and its wonders/dangers is just awesome, the novel sags a little in the middle when all the aliens playing a role in a story appear, diplomatic relations and more generally Arena "adjustment" occurs; we also have the "blatant" costume-aliens part including stereotyping and representing a race by a few characteristics that is the pulp-sf legacy to the book; the novel keeps a brisk pace but I found it losing a lot of its luster and inventiveness and reverting to the old-style space opera of yore
Fortunately "Grand Central Arena" picks up momentum and heads into some interesting and unexpected directions and the last third or so of the novel is excellent again with lots of intense action and it kept me turning fast the pages to see how our plucky heroine and her sidekicks elbow humanity into "its proper" place in the Arena's social structure. The ending is very good and completes the main thread of the novel so "Grand Central Arena" stands well on its own, but I so want more novels since both the whole setup and the heroes of the story are excellent. A very strong A, almost an A+ and a novel that manages to bridge golden age space opera tropes to their modern expressions in a way other similar recent tries did not.
update 2013 - on this reread I enjoyed the book even more than on the original read and now i am definitely classifying as a top 25 as it wore the 3 years and hundreds of read books much better than many other books that i may have rated better on first read; excellent stuff, old/new space opera and great characters
hope this series will go on for a while as it has scope and space for that
FBC Rv on original read in Feb 2010 (done then but added 2013)
Before "Grand Central Arena" I have not read anything by Ryk Spoor, though for several years I had a copy of "Boundary", his 2006 collaboration with Eric Flint which has a sequel Threshold to be published in June 2010. I started Boundary several times but the story of archaeology and long gone aliens in a near future setting never hooked me, so when I heard of "Grand Central Arena", I was not sure how much priority to give it. The blurb above was very, very tempting and when the author started posting chapters on Baen's Bar - chapters collated in the link above - I got hooked and bought an e-arc from Baen several months ago despite it being almost twice the price of the original print mmpb that has been released recently.
And I have to say that I never regretted the decision since Grand Central Arena was an excellent read, fast and entertaining and I hope it will get the sequels it richly deserves. After I finished it, I finally read "Boundary" which was quite entertaining too, though much more predictable in some ways and less exciting than "Grand Central Arena", but it is very hard for near future sf to compete with space opera as my interest goes. I plan to read Threshold too at some point in the future, though it is less of a priority for now, but any sequel to Grand Central Arena would be an asap.
FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: "Grand Central Arena" is a long book - Amazon has it listed at 688 pages but since I have only an e-arc I cannot guarantee that, just that it seems reasonable - however it reads so fast that you do not really notice when the pages go; the novel is divided into 74 chapters of which you can read quite a few for free as linked above and there are several points of view, most notably main heroine, Ariane Austin top race pilot in the Solar System 's "Unlimited Space Obstacle Racing" championship tour.
Then there is her team's chief engineer Carl Edlund who happens to know genius physicist Simon Sandrisson, the discoverer of "hyperspace" some 10 years ago, from which discovery the possibility of ftl travel followed; after extensive drone testing and with the approval of the humanity's Space Security Council, Dr. Sandrisson is ready to take the first manned human ftl spaceships Holy Grail on a test ride. The leader of the Combined Space Force sends mysterious power engineer Marc DuQuesne as both crew and representative of the powers to be and at Marc's insistence, Simon Sandrisson decides to include a human backup pilot despite everything running on pseudo-AI's - AISage - guidance, so much so that human pilots are generally used fully only in competition racing. There are several more crew members of the Holy Grail and of course when the Holy Grail finds the Arena of the title instead of the stars, there are several important aliens, most notably one called suggestively and for reasons to be found in the book Orphan.
"Grand Central Arena" is space opera in the grand old tradition - "costume" aliens, heroic and plucky humans - but with modern sensibilities and awareness of current speculations in cutting edge physics.
ANALYSIS: "Grand Central Arena" introduces an Earth several centuries hence where advances in nanotech and AI development allowed the expansion of humanity in the Solar System, wealth and relative peace and stability in a sort of libertarian way, though the same decentralization allowed by tech and global wealth led occasionally to trouble when groups of single minded people used such for nefarious purposes, or even sometimes in thoughtless ways that turned to disaster.
All in all though, the Solar System of the novel is a prosperous place and on the verge of attaining the stars due to Simon Sandrisson's revolutionary extension of the latest unified field theory, extension that allowed the first ftl drive to be built and now to be tested for the first time in a manned spaceship. However the drone tests of the Sandrisson Drive, while mostly successful and with a reasonably low rate of non-return revealed a glitch - all AI powered systems on the drones - eg sensors, recording devices - seemed not to work properly in ftl mode, though the "dumb" 2oth century like mechanical/electronic ones worked.
So "just as a backup" Ariane is co-opted in the crew of the Holy Grail with Carl as support engineer and of course when things go completely awry and instead of the stars, the spaceship finds itself in a huge but considerably scaled down enclosed reproduction of the Solar System with all major bodies in proper orbits, all AI's - including guidance, piloting and personal ones - down - with the Holy Grail heading fast towards an inevitable crash with the looming walls of the enclosure, it's up to Ariane's reflexes to save the day and of course the surprises start immediately after...
Grand Central Arena of the title which the crew of the Holy Grail discovers instead of the stars is a very, very old place, wondrous and awesome but dangerous and "ritualistic" too, with many alien races at various privilege and development states mingling under some rules strictly enforced by ultra-powerful beings. And since the minimal achievement a race needs to get into the Arena is the Sandrisson Drive - known of course under various names by each alien species - and since each new race discovering that and using it, represents an opportunity for the more nefarious Arena species, while having itself an opportunity to "establish" itself under the rules above, it is up to the crew of the Holy Grail to make sure humanity is among the "winners" and not the "losers", with Ariane appointed by default leader, while Simon and Marc are her main "side kicks" and mysterious alien Orphan who encounters them first as "guide" and mentor of a sort.
The whole setup, rules and such are described in loving detail and the author put a lot of thought into them, so while the whole Arena and its paraphernalia are quite outlandish, I never lost for a moment my suspension of disbelief. The various alien races encountered are reasonably distinct and vary from ultra-mercantilistic, to seemingly benevolent but with maybe hidden agendas, to dark, mysterious, powerful and with unclear motives and of course to obvious enemies either out for plunder or for subtler reasons...
While the first part of the book including the early Solar System chapters, the introduction to what will become known as "humanity's sphere" and then to the Arena and its wonders/dangers is just awesome, the novel sags a little in the middle when all the aliens playing a role in a story appear, diplomatic relations and more generally Arena "adjustment" occurs; we also have the "blatant" costume-aliens part including stereotyping and representing a race by a few characteristics that is the pulp-sf legacy to the book; the novel keeps a brisk pace but I found it losing a lot of its luster and inventiveness and reverting to the old-style space opera of yore
Fortunately "Grand Central Arena" picks up momentum and heads into some interesting and unexpected directions and the last third or so of the novel is excellent again with lots of intense action and it kept me turning fast the pages to see how our plucky heroine and her sidekicks elbow humanity into "its proper" place in the Arena's social structure. The ending is very good and completes the main thread of the novel so "Grand Central Arena" stands well on its own, but I so want more novels since both the whole setup and the heroes of the story are excellent. A very strong A, almost an A+ and a novel that manages to bridge golden age space opera tropes to their modern expressions in a way other similar recent tries did not.
November 23, 2014
I just finished reading... THE BRILLIANCE
stayed up till four
clapped my hands in glee after the end
fist pumped in victory whenever I took a break
it was that good
I want the next one... but if I start reading I won't sleep at all... but I wants it... but I have stuff to do!!! ARGH Why are you so good book?!? Whyyyyyyyyyyyy? ;_;
stayed up till four
clapped my hands in glee after the end
fist pumped in victory whenever I took a break
it was that good
I want the next one... but if I start reading I won't sleep at all... but I wants it... but I have stuff to do!!! ARGH Why are you so good book?!? Whyyyyyyyyyyyy? ;_;
July 19, 2020
POULOULOULOULOUUUUU c'était INCROYABLE. Genre un des meilleurs space op que j'ai lu depuis fort fort lgt et j'en ai lu un paquet !
Il faut s'accrocher dans les premiers chapitres pq les explications scientifiques sont longues, denses et TRES techniques (perso j'ai adoré) mais dès qu'on passe en vitesse supraluminique c'est que du bonheur.
Je veux pas en dire trop mais niveau action, extraterrestres et enjeu vous serez plus que servis :)
Il faut s'accrocher dans les premiers chapitres pq les explications scientifiques sont longues, denses et TRES techniques (perso j'ai adoré) mais dès qu'on passe en vitesse supraluminique c'est que du bonheur.
Je veux pas en dire trop mais niveau action, extraterrestres et enjeu vous serez plus que servis :)
Read
April 14, 2021This is so close to a five. Great book.
‘Grand Central Arena‘ by Ryk E. Spoor is exactly the sort of book I expect from Baen. Substantial, sweeping, sprawling, however you want to describe it. BIG! Big ideas, bold characters, mind-bending science and really cool aliens all packed inside a bright and colourful cover. Set in a future on the cusp of FTL travel, this novel takes an intrepid band of adventurers and thrusts them into the unknown. I love these sorts of books and this is exactly the reason I picked this one to read.
Dr. Simon Sandrisson has developed a drive that enables FTL travel. For his first manned test flight, he recruits his partner Dr. Mark DuQuesne, ace pilot Ariane Austin, and five other scientists and engineers. There is speculation that the human element (times eight) is unnecessary, but when the Holy Grail emerges from FTL with all automated systems off-line and the nuclear reactor not reacting, the human element saves the day. Ariane manages to steer the ship away from a mysterious wall in space and into the interior of the sphere surrounding them. Integrated AIs are offline, leaving the crew to think for themselves and at first the puzzle seems beyond them. They’re trapped in a bubble approximately twenty thousand kilometres across. The appearance of docking rings perfectly matched to their ship invites them to land and clearly sends the message that where ever they are, they are not alone.
After some exploration, the crew discovers they have arrived at the Grand Central Station of space, a set of interconnecting spheres that represent the home systems of every species. The scale of all of this is difficult to grasp even in the book, so I’m not going to try and convey it here. Suffice to say, it’s BIG and Spoor’s descriptions and the reaction of his characters do it justice. Within the sphere, the different species interact according to a set of rules set by the arena, itself. Yep, the arena has a voice, one of the creepy omnipresent sort and part of the fun of this book is speculation as to who or what the arena is, who built it and why.
In order to get home, the crew needs enough power to activate the Sandrisson Drive. In order to barter for that power, they need to increase the standing of their faction, Humanity. Challenges are issued and accepted, each win and defeat folding into a delicate pleat. Politics and motivation constantly shift as the crew strives to learn the rules and avoid making too many mistakes and enemies. This is a first contact situation, after all. Only instead of meeting just one species, they’ve met what seems like the entire universe, all at once.
‘Grand Central Arena‘ is a long book, but the 688 pages are jam packed with science, interesting dialogue, character development, exciting combat, world-building of the most extreme kind, politicking and adventure. It reads very quickly, even if you don’t skim the science, which I did, just a bit. Seeing as my version of science is baking in a domestic kitchen, I took it for granted the author knew his stuff or was sufficiently thrilled by it to make it sound good and moved forward to the action. The first challenge against the Molothos is really exciting. I loved DuQuesne’s role in it and how he developed as a character. His continued thoughts and obvious attraction to Ariane are a source of delight to me as a reader. The second challenge, the sky race, is equally thrilling. Ariane’s date with Simon Sandrisson made me giggle. They talked about science and both obviously enjoyed the discussion.
The difference between the factions is fascinating. Ariane’s conversations with Nyanthus, leader of the Faith, were packed full of philosophical religious comparison. The newly ascended Mandallon provides a lot of humour here as well. The extreme risk-averse nature of the aliens, in general, is equally interesting. As an underlying theme, it really ties together so many elements of the plot. The danger posed by many of the factions and their politicking is very real, however.
I didn’t expect such depth from these characters. I looked for fun, and found that and so much more. The characters tugged at my emotions, particularly Mark DuQuesne. His internal conflict is such a perfect echo of the situation they all find themselves in. I also didn’t expect the book to be so philosophical. I kept nodding and muttering as I read through certain conversations. I agreed with the author on so many points, yet I never felt as if I read an essay. ‘Grand Central Arena’ is always a novel, one that absorbs and entertains.
I really love Baen. They’re the sort of publisher where you really know what you’re getting when you pick up one of their books. They’re bloody consistent. I really liked this book, too. My only complaint would be the internal monologues each character indulged in. A couple of paragraphs of italics in the middle of a conversation often distracted and detracted. Trim those a bit and I’d be pinning five gold stars to the cover. Nevertheless, I’ve already got the sequel, ‘Spheres of Influence’, loaded up on my Kindle and I can’t wait to read it.
Written for SFCrowsnest.
‘Grand Central Arena‘ by Ryk E. Spoor is exactly the sort of book I expect from Baen. Substantial, sweeping, sprawling, however you want to describe it. BIG! Big ideas, bold characters, mind-bending science and really cool aliens all packed inside a bright and colourful cover. Set in a future on the cusp of FTL travel, this novel takes an intrepid band of adventurers and thrusts them into the unknown. I love these sorts of books and this is exactly the reason I picked this one to read.
Dr. Simon Sandrisson has developed a drive that enables FTL travel. For his first manned test flight, he recruits his partner Dr. Mark DuQuesne, ace pilot Ariane Austin, and five other scientists and engineers. There is speculation that the human element (times eight) is unnecessary, but when the Holy Grail emerges from FTL with all automated systems off-line and the nuclear reactor not reacting, the human element saves the day. Ariane manages to steer the ship away from a mysterious wall in space and into the interior of the sphere surrounding them. Integrated AIs are offline, leaving the crew to think for themselves and at first the puzzle seems beyond them. They’re trapped in a bubble approximately twenty thousand kilometres across. The appearance of docking rings perfectly matched to their ship invites them to land and clearly sends the message that where ever they are, they are not alone.
After some exploration, the crew discovers they have arrived at the Grand Central Station of space, a set of interconnecting spheres that represent the home systems of every species. The scale of all of this is difficult to grasp even in the book, so I’m not going to try and convey it here. Suffice to say, it’s BIG and Spoor’s descriptions and the reaction of his characters do it justice. Within the sphere, the different species interact according to a set of rules set by the arena, itself. Yep, the arena has a voice, one of the creepy omnipresent sort and part of the fun of this book is speculation as to who or what the arena is, who built it and why.
In order to get home, the crew needs enough power to activate the Sandrisson Drive. In order to barter for that power, they need to increase the standing of their faction, Humanity. Challenges are issued and accepted, each win and defeat folding into a delicate pleat. Politics and motivation constantly shift as the crew strives to learn the rules and avoid making too many mistakes and enemies. This is a first contact situation, after all. Only instead of meeting just one species, they’ve met what seems like the entire universe, all at once.
‘Grand Central Arena‘ is a long book, but the 688 pages are jam packed with science, interesting dialogue, character development, exciting combat, world-building of the most extreme kind, politicking and adventure. It reads very quickly, even if you don’t skim the science, which I did, just a bit. Seeing as my version of science is baking in a domestic kitchen, I took it for granted the author knew his stuff or was sufficiently thrilled by it to make it sound good and moved forward to the action. The first challenge against the Molothos is really exciting. I loved DuQuesne’s role in it and how he developed as a character. His continued thoughts and obvious attraction to Ariane are a source of delight to me as a reader. The second challenge, the sky race, is equally thrilling. Ariane’s date with Simon Sandrisson made me giggle. They talked about science and both obviously enjoyed the discussion.
The difference between the factions is fascinating. Ariane’s conversations with Nyanthus, leader of the Faith, were packed full of philosophical religious comparison. The newly ascended Mandallon provides a lot of humour here as well. The extreme risk-averse nature of the aliens, in general, is equally interesting. As an underlying theme, it really ties together so many elements of the plot. The danger posed by many of the factions and their politicking is very real, however.
I didn’t expect such depth from these characters. I looked for fun, and found that and so much more. The characters tugged at my emotions, particularly Mark DuQuesne. His internal conflict is such a perfect echo of the situation they all find themselves in. I also didn’t expect the book to be so philosophical. I kept nodding and muttering as I read through certain conversations. I agreed with the author on so many points, yet I never felt as if I read an essay. ‘Grand Central Arena’ is always a novel, one that absorbs and entertains.
I really love Baen. They’re the sort of publisher where you really know what you’re getting when you pick up one of their books. They’re bloody consistent. I really liked this book, too. My only complaint would be the internal monologues each character indulged in. A couple of paragraphs of italics in the middle of a conversation often distracted and detracted. Trim those a bit and I’d be pinning five gold stars to the cover. Nevertheless, I’ve already got the sequel, ‘Spheres of Influence’, loaded up on my Kindle and I can’t wait to read it.
Written for SFCrowsnest.
September 4, 2019
https://delivreenlivres.blogspot.com/...
Ariane Austin est une championne de course de vaisseau. Elle est recrutée par une équipe de scientifiques qui ont besoin d'un pilote humain "au cas ou" lors d'une expérience d'un nouveau moyen de transport dont tout les tests automatiques avec AI ont échoué avant.
Ce qu'ils découvrent de l'autre coté va au delà de tout ce que leur imagination aurait pu inventer.
Imaginez la croisée des mondes, des milliers de races extraterrestres réunies. Tout s'achète, tout se vend, et surtout, il faut gagner le respect et l'influence en relevant des défis.
L'arène est une monstruosité avec sa propre religion et ses factions qui se battent pour avoir toujours plus de richesses et de pouvoir. Pour pouvoir repartir dans leur monde, l'équipe va devoir en relever des défis, et les gagner ...
Je ne suis vraiment pas déçue d'avoir sorti ce livre totalement par hasard dans les bas fond de ma bibliothèque. Un space-opera fun et plein d'aventures extraordinaires.
C'est un livre rempli d'explications dans tout les sens. On a vraiment un sentiment de progression dans ce qu'on apprend au sujet de l'arène et de son fonctionnement au fil de la lecture et j'ai trouvé ça bien équilibré. Du coup évidemment je ne peux pas vous en parler, ça serait bien trop complexe car tout se tient au final et on n'en finirait pas.
On a un ensemble intéressant regorgeant d'éléments scientifiques, de développement de personnages, de worldbuilding fantastique et énorme, de politique, d'aventure, d'action et surtout d'un gros sense of wonder. Pas le temps de s'ennuyer, chaque instant étant important.
Finalement chaque personnage de l'équipe scientifique arrive à se démarquer dans un rôle qui lui est propre, essentiel à la survie de tous, malgré le fait qu'ils ne soient pas vraiment câblés pour ça au départ vu qu'ils sont tous plus ou moins des geeks.
L'ensemble est très complet, j'ai vraiment eu l'impression d'en avoir pour mon argent tellement les étapes sont nombreuses avant le final. Le rythme est assez rapide et en même temps assez lent dans l'ensemble car ils mettent vraiment du temps avant d'arriver à un point ou ils peuvent enfin trouver une solution pour s'en sortir.
Il y avait un peu une ambiance à la Men in Black avec plein de races qui semblent un peu farfelues et un ton un peu léger. J'ai lu quelque part que ce livre était un pulp moderne et dans un sens il l'est exactement, mais sans les défauts qu'on peu trouver maintenant aux texte les plus anciens.
Dernier point, il y a deux suites à ce livre, dont une a été traduite. Ce tome ci peut très bien se lire indépendamment même si il manque encore toutes les explications sur l'origine de l'arène (mais qui ne sont pas indispensable pour comprendre l'ensemble, vu que ça reste un mystère pour tout le monde).
J'ai passé un excellent moment et lirais la suite avec plaisir.
16.5/20
Ariane Austin est une championne de course de vaisseau. Elle est recrutée par une équipe de scientifiques qui ont besoin d'un pilote humain "au cas ou" lors d'une expérience d'un nouveau moyen de transport dont tout les tests automatiques avec AI ont échoué avant.
Ce qu'ils découvrent de l'autre coté va au delà de tout ce que leur imagination aurait pu inventer.
Imaginez la croisée des mondes, des milliers de races extraterrestres réunies. Tout s'achète, tout se vend, et surtout, il faut gagner le respect et l'influence en relevant des défis.
L'arène est une monstruosité avec sa propre religion et ses factions qui se battent pour avoir toujours plus de richesses et de pouvoir. Pour pouvoir repartir dans leur monde, l'équipe va devoir en relever des défis, et les gagner ...
Je ne suis vraiment pas déçue d'avoir sorti ce livre totalement par hasard dans les bas fond de ma bibliothèque. Un space-opera fun et plein d'aventures extraordinaires.
C'est un livre rempli d'explications dans tout les sens. On a vraiment un sentiment de progression dans ce qu'on apprend au sujet de l'arène et de son fonctionnement au fil de la lecture et j'ai trouvé ça bien équilibré. Du coup évidemment je ne peux pas vous en parler, ça serait bien trop complexe car tout se tient au final et on n'en finirait pas.
On a un ensemble intéressant regorgeant d'éléments scientifiques, de développement de personnages, de worldbuilding fantastique et énorme, de politique, d'aventure, d'action et surtout d'un gros sense of wonder. Pas le temps de s'ennuyer, chaque instant étant important.
Finalement chaque personnage de l'équipe scientifique arrive à se démarquer dans un rôle qui lui est propre, essentiel à la survie de tous, malgré le fait qu'ils ne soient pas vraiment câblés pour ça au départ vu qu'ils sont tous plus ou moins des geeks.
L'ensemble est très complet, j'ai vraiment eu l'impression d'en avoir pour mon argent tellement les étapes sont nombreuses avant le final. Le rythme est assez rapide et en même temps assez lent dans l'ensemble car ils mettent vraiment du temps avant d'arriver à un point ou ils peuvent enfin trouver une solution pour s'en sortir.
Il y avait un peu une ambiance à la Men in Black avec plein de races qui semblent un peu farfelues et un ton un peu léger. J'ai lu quelque part que ce livre était un pulp moderne et dans un sens il l'est exactement, mais sans les défauts qu'on peu trouver maintenant aux texte les plus anciens.
Dernier point, il y a deux suites à ce livre, dont une a été traduite. Ce tome ci peut très bien se lire indépendamment même si il manque encore toutes les explications sur l'origine de l'arène (mais qui ne sont pas indispensable pour comprendre l'ensemble, vu que ça reste un mystère pour tout le monde).
J'ai passé un excellent moment et lirais la suite avec plaisir.
16.5/20
May 13, 2022
SF for gamers. Not for me.
Here's the review you want,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
Or see the low ones here.
Here's the review you want,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
Or see the low ones here.
March 3, 2014
I didn’t review this back during my first read-through, but it had been a while since I read this so I forgot a lot of the details. After this second read-through I find myself agreeing with my initial four-star impression.
The book takes place in a far future human civilization where the solar system is largely colonized, semi-sentient AIs are ubiquitous, and some humans are pushing the envelope and starting to play around with consciousness transfers. Enter the first experiment into FTL travel along with an associated crew. However, upon attempting the transition, they arrive at a universally gargantuan artificial construct that is apparently housing every other species in the universe and regulating their interaction through assigned living habitats and rules-governed challenges.
Mr. Spoor gets full compliments for a well thought-out and crafted universe. The Arena is all powerful but never really acts as a MacGuffin or a deux-ex interference point. The humans go in totally blind and dumb, so the readers are learning about things at the same time as the characters are. There are lots of infodumps, but most of them make sense in context and are not prohibitively dense in content. The various different challenges are interesting as well. There is a point early in the book where it looks like this is going to be a “speculative fiction bait-and-switch” where the story starts out with futuristic technology and then artificial restrictions mean that the medieval history enthusiasts take over and suddenly we’re in fantasy land, but that doesn’t happen, despite there being a few gladiatorial moments. There are wizards and gladiators and priests around, but the book never gives up it’s sci-fi integrity completely, preferring to cite Clarke’s third law when something shows up that the (pseudo)science can’t explain.
The loss of a star is because this book seemed to be missing something. Despite being well written and a good page-turner, in a lot of cases it seemed like there were ideas floating around that the author never quite pulled the trigger on, as if he had authorial ADD. For instance, there is much time and energy spent on describing humanity’s AI systems, the various laws and regulations, and the interactions between them only to have the AIs completely excised from the story less than a quarter of the way in. Similarly, many of the scientific infodumps seemed unnecessarily detailed. This is mostly just my opinion, but it felt like much of the scientific information was in there solely to prove that the author had actually researched the scientific concepts he was citing as the basis for his technologies. I imagine it was done to appeal to the “hard sci-fi” fans who want the “sci” in “sci-fi” to mean something, but it seemed like it would be too little for them and too much for the people who are fine reading about FTL drives and don’t necessarily care how they work.
That said, it’s possible some of the larger infodumps that didn’t seem to go anywhere might have been setups for later books, since this volume now has a sequel. The universe created here certainly has a lot of potential, and I hope he continues to explore it at least as well as he did this time around.
The book takes place in a far future human civilization where the solar system is largely colonized, semi-sentient AIs are ubiquitous, and some humans are pushing the envelope and starting to play around with consciousness transfers. Enter the first experiment into FTL travel along with an associated crew. However, upon attempting the transition, they arrive at a universally gargantuan artificial construct that is apparently housing every other species in the universe and regulating their interaction through assigned living habitats and rules-governed challenges.
Mr. Spoor gets full compliments for a well thought-out and crafted universe. The Arena is all powerful but never really acts as a MacGuffin or a deux-ex interference point. The humans go in totally blind and dumb, so the readers are learning about things at the same time as the characters are. There are lots of infodumps, but most of them make sense in context and are not prohibitively dense in content. The various different challenges are interesting as well. There is a point early in the book where it looks like this is going to be a “speculative fiction bait-and-switch” where the story starts out with futuristic technology and then artificial restrictions mean that the medieval history enthusiasts take over and suddenly we’re in fantasy land, but that doesn’t happen, despite there being a few gladiatorial moments. There are wizards and gladiators and priests around, but the book never gives up it’s sci-fi integrity completely, preferring to cite Clarke’s third law when something shows up that the (pseudo)science can’t explain.
The loss of a star is because this book seemed to be missing something. Despite being well written and a good page-turner, in a lot of cases it seemed like there were ideas floating around that the author never quite pulled the trigger on, as if he had authorial ADD. For instance, there is much time and energy spent on describing humanity’s AI systems, the various laws and regulations, and the interactions between them only to have the AIs completely excised from the story less than a quarter of the way in. Similarly, many of the scientific infodumps seemed unnecessarily detailed. This is mostly just my opinion, but it felt like much of the scientific information was in there solely to prove that the author had actually researched the scientific concepts he was citing as the basis for his technologies. I imagine it was done to appeal to the “hard sci-fi” fans who want the “sci” in “sci-fi” to mean something, but it seemed like it would be too little for them and too much for the people who are fine reading about FTL drives and don’t necessarily care how they work.
That said, it’s possible some of the larger infodumps that didn’t seem to go anywhere might have been setups for later books, since this volume now has a sequel. The universe created here certainly has a lot of potential, and I hope he continues to explore it at least as well as he did this time around.
November 17, 2010
Big silly fun space opera. Yes, this was reading for when I had absolutely no processing power to spare for something else, but it gave me exactly what I was looking for - did what it says on the tin. Lots of action, lots of aliens, "science" mysteries, new-world rules to learn, arena challenges, problems-solved-by-clever-application-of-speculative-technologies, characters in over their heads and emerging victorious anyway, and so on. Basically, a modern take on throwback pulp, but why would you even pick this up if you wanted anything else?
If I were nitpicking, I'd say it was really long and spent a whollle lot of time on exposition about the Arena; the characters, while not offensive or *too* flat, weren't exactly deep either; I'm not sure I actually followed the "science"*; the central mysteries aren't resolved or is any progress even really made on resolving them by the end (though it's almost certainly a series opener)... but I'm not nitpicking. Brain off, grin on, watching humans dropped into, coming out on top of, a sudden first-contact situation with not one alien species, but hundreds. I hope the book does well, because I'd probably pick up a sequel.
Note: There's a good Big Idea piece from Mr. Spoor about this title on John Scalzi's Whatever blog.
*(though this isn't saying Ryk Spoor didn't do his homework - I'm sure everything science-wise he has in here is theoretically/hypothetically plausible given the assumptions he's made for the sake of the fiction - there wasn't anything laughably *wrong* or uninformed that I picked up on either)
If I were nitpicking, I'd say it was really long and spent a whollle lot of time on exposition about the Arena; the characters, while not offensive or *too* flat, weren't exactly deep either; I'm not sure I actually followed the "science"*; the central mysteries aren't resolved or is any progress even really made on resolving them by the end (though it's almost certainly a series opener)... but I'm not nitpicking. Brain off, grin on, watching humans dropped into, coming out on top of, a sudden first-contact situation with not one alien species, but hundreds. I hope the book does well, because I'd probably pick up a sequel.
Note: There's a good Big Idea piece from Mr. Spoor about this title on John Scalzi's Whatever blog.
*(though this isn't saying Ryk Spoor didn't do his homework - I'm sure everything science-wise he has in here is theoretically/hypothetically plausible given the assumptions he's made for the sake of the fiction - there wasn't anything laughably *wrong* or uninformed that I picked up on either)
January 22, 2012
This is not Doc Smith fanfic. No, it's fanfic of every SF work published in the 70s and 80s. (The author happens to be a Doc Smith fan, but that's irrelevant, except for the character named Marc DuQuesne. There's an explanation. The explanation is that the author is a Doc Smith fan.)
So humanity invents FTL, and the first starship lands smack in the middle of _Eon_ crossed with the Well World crossed with any given RPG milieu handbook. Then follows 600 pages of discovering the environment, the aliens, the alien *politics*, the One Thing Humanity Is Better At, and the meticulously-worked-out *rules* -- interspersed with fight scenes and spaceship races. All great fun, of course. The action scenes are, to be clear, the frosting on the cake; the cake is a Big Dumb Object story. Character development is, well, it's not entirely absent, but it's the little silver beads scattered on the frosting. (In the tradition of all BDO stories of the 70s and 80s.)
The book is a fine example of what it is, and I'm glad I read it, but I'm also glad that most SF (even the relatively small slice of SF that I keep up with these days) has moved beyond this model.
If I have a serious complaint, it's that the book needed one more editing pass. Sentences, whole paragraphs, and the occasional entire scene are blatant "let me show you how much detail I've thought about" showboating -- understandable, but in need of the belt sander nonetheless.
So humanity invents FTL, and the first starship lands smack in the middle of _Eon_ crossed with the Well World crossed with any given RPG milieu handbook. Then follows 600 pages of discovering the environment, the aliens, the alien *politics*, the One Thing Humanity Is Better At, and the meticulously-worked-out *rules* -- interspersed with fight scenes and spaceship races. All great fun, of course. The action scenes are, to be clear, the frosting on the cake; the cake is a Big Dumb Object story. Character development is, well, it's not entirely absent, but it's the little silver beads scattered on the frosting. (In the tradition of all BDO stories of the 70s and 80s.)
The book is a fine example of what it is, and I'm glad I read it, but I'm also glad that most SF (even the relatively small slice of SF that I keep up with these days) has moved beyond this model.
If I have a serious complaint, it's that the book needed one more editing pass. Sentences, whole paragraphs, and the occasional entire scene are blatant "let me show you how much detail I've thought about" showboating -- understandable, but in need of the belt sander nonetheless.
July 3, 2017
Exciting action after a slow start, June 30, 2017
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Grand Central Arena (Kindle Edition)
Grand Central Arena is a fast paced, action novel which begins slowly as Mr. Spoor goes into some detail as to how the FTL drive works, the backgrounds of the characters and the building of the world into which the characters are inserted. That world is much like a fantasy game in which various species compete for advancement via challenges. There is speculation about the creators of the arena - are they gods, mystical beings or do they utilize science which is so advanced that it appears to be magic? I noted that if they are gods, they are not very moral by modern standards of Western civilization. The competition they have set up is bloody and violent with the spectre of death ever present. Advancement through combat and duplicity. The action is exciting, the characters interesting and the book well written.
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Grand Central Arena (Kindle Edition)
Grand Central Arena is a fast paced, action novel which begins slowly as Mr. Spoor goes into some detail as to how the FTL drive works, the backgrounds of the characters and the building of the world into which the characters are inserted. That world is much like a fantasy game in which various species compete for advancement via challenges. There is speculation about the creators of the arena - are they gods, mystical beings or do they utilize science which is so advanced that it appears to be magic? I noted that if they are gods, they are not very moral by modern standards of Western civilization. The competition they have set up is bloody and violent with the spectre of death ever present. Advancement through combat and duplicity. The action is exciting, the characters interesting and the book well written.
March 2, 2016
Experimental starship takes human crew to a sort of pocket universe that has been set up for inscrutable reasons to trap thousands of would-be starfaring races and have them socialize and, sometimes, fight duels. Part RINGWORLD, part STAR WARS, and the prose reminded me of early Frank Herbert---books like WHIPPING STAR and UNDER PRESSURE. Cast is stocked with characters who have alien forms but understandable motives and psychologies. Very good fight scenes, but a little too much interior mulling of romantic possibilities. So, solid B+ - A-
March 14, 2021
This was a pleasant surprise indeed. This is one of those books that left me with a WOW that was great feeling after the last page.
I had never really heard about this author nor about this book before. I stumbled on it because one of my favorite authors that I follow posted an image of a space ship on Facecrap with a suggestion that if you hadn’t read Grand Central Arena you should do so.
I’m really glad that I did.
This books is a mix of old grandiose science fiction from the 30’s and 40’s (and I mean that in a good way) where worlds, stars and galaxies collide, hard science fiction and a bit of fantasy. I would say it is really difficult to pull off such a mix but in this book it works.
As the blurb states humanity is about to undertake their first faster than light voyage. Already when the author describes the world of humanity it is a world quite far from present day. Then things go … weird. From there on the world building is nothing less than amazing, bordering on the insane.
Luckily Ariane Austin and the rest of the crew is up to the challenge. This book is a lot of exploration where the crew explores their new and strange environment and make a shitload of first contacts. There are a lot of mysteries to solve and they have to learn as they go. Friends are not always what they seem (heck, some of the humans are not what they seem) and this huge new world have strange rules both in terms of physics and in terms of how to interact with other races in it.
The biggest mystery is of course what is the arena really and who built it? The construct is so amazingly huge that some believe it is built by Gods, some do not seem to care and others… well read the book to find out.
I said that the story was a mix of several things like science as well as fantasy. That is how it felt while reading the book but it is not really clear cut. I could also argue that the fantasy elements falls in the realm of the famous “any sufficiently advanced technology will appear like magic” statement. I’m quite interested in seing where the author goes with all of this.
As the book cover implies there’s of course action in the story as well. It’s not called Grand Central Arena for nothing. Not to spoil things too much but let’s just say that the humans upstarts do pull some surprises out of their hats.
I really liked this book. It is very well written. The characters are very good, on both sides of the good versus bad divider although on which side of that divider someone resides is not at all obvious a lot of the time. The framing of the story and the world in which it takes place is nothing short of amazing.
It is a big book as well, weighing in a close to 700 pages. It is not the most fast paced book I have read but it never felt slow either.
Needless to say the second book in the series is already in my pipeline.
I had never really heard about this author nor about this book before. I stumbled on it because one of my favorite authors that I follow posted an image of a space ship on Facecrap with a suggestion that if you hadn’t read Grand Central Arena you should do so.
I’m really glad that I did.
This books is a mix of old grandiose science fiction from the 30’s and 40’s (and I mean that in a good way) where worlds, stars and galaxies collide, hard science fiction and a bit of fantasy. I would say it is really difficult to pull off such a mix but in this book it works.
As the blurb states humanity is about to undertake their first faster than light voyage. Already when the author describes the world of humanity it is a world quite far from present day. Then things go … weird. From there on the world building is nothing less than amazing, bordering on the insane.
Luckily Ariane Austin and the rest of the crew is up to the challenge. This book is a lot of exploration where the crew explores their new and strange environment and make a shitload of first contacts. There are a lot of mysteries to solve and they have to learn as they go. Friends are not always what they seem (heck, some of the humans are not what they seem) and this huge new world have strange rules both in terms of physics and in terms of how to interact with other races in it.
The biggest mystery is of course what is the arena really and who built it? The construct is so amazingly huge that some believe it is built by Gods, some do not seem to care and others… well read the book to find out.
I said that the story was a mix of several things like science as well as fantasy. That is how it felt while reading the book but it is not really clear cut. I could also argue that the fantasy elements falls in the realm of the famous “any sufficiently advanced technology will appear like magic” statement. I’m quite interested in seing where the author goes with all of this.
As the book cover implies there’s of course action in the story as well. It’s not called Grand Central Arena for nothing. Not to spoil things too much but let’s just say that the humans upstarts do pull some surprises out of their hats.
I really liked this book. It is very well written. The characters are very good, on both sides of the good versus bad divider although on which side of that divider someone resides is not at all obvious a lot of the time. The framing of the story and the world in which it takes place is nothing short of amazing.
It is a big book as well, weighing in a close to 700 pages. It is not the most fast paced book I have read but it never felt slow either.
Needless to say the second book in the series is already in my pipeline.
November 2, 2021
You know how sour gummy worms are said to be sour but compared to a warhead they are nothing?
Well this is the warhead of sci fi.
Very strong flavor going, but if you enjoy sci fi, I'd take a wild leap of faith and say you will love this story.
It's honestly perfect. I bought it based on the banging cover and the overall story isn't too hard to follow. It's the perfect 3 star book for me.
Well this is the warhead of sci fi.
Very strong flavor going, but if you enjoy sci fi, I'd take a wild leap of faith and say you will love this story.
It's honestly perfect. I bought it based on the banging cover and the overall story isn't too hard to follow. It's the perfect 3 star book for me.
June 24, 2014
A decent first-contact story, though not a patch on titles like "Footfall" or "The Mote in God's Eye". The characters are interesting, and the setting is fun (not least because it justified the suspension of normal physics, allowing all sorts of tricks to play out). My only real complaint would be the inclusion of a bio-engineered superhuman. It can hardly feel fully like a story about how great and surprising humans are when one of the primary representatives for mankind is, by his own admission, not really human. It's a cheat, and the story could have done without it. I like the character himself, I simply would have preferred the story without his inclusion. Otherwise, a fun read, hopefully the sequel will follow in its footsteps.
April 30, 2011
Not sure I'm going to bother finishing this. Not very far in but it doesn't seem like the kind of science fiction I like. I like the sort where the author has deep thoughts and insights about humanity and society and chooses science fiction as a template to showcase how they work. This seems to be the kind where the characters and plot exist mostly to showcase the wow-holycrap-cool technology the author thought up. Which has little pizzazz for me as I do not understand or care about any non-biological sciences and them only a little. Blah. Of course Heinlein could make me read about ballistics and like it.
July 29, 2014
An interesting concept with very vivid and imaginative world building. While the arena was fascinating, I had a hard time getting through the book in parts due to the limited amount of action. I found it a little slow going in parts and had to struggle to keep going. The characters were interesting but I had a hard time imagining them as real people. The two main male protagonists seemed older than their ages and their wooing of the main character seemed awkward. I did like the main character and had hoped for a little more excitement for her.
August 6, 2016
Pilot Ariane Austin joins the crew of the first manned ship to attempt to break the lightspeed barrier. The first "jump" takes them to a large enclosed space containing a model of the solar system.
The characters are bland and too quickly introduced. They are all great at their jobs except for the one who is blatantly foreshadowed to have a hidden agenda. The technobabble is grating.
I really tried but I couldn't finish this one.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1985
The characters are bland and too quickly introduced. They are all great at their jobs except for the one who is blatantly foreshadowed to have a hidden agenda. The technobabble is grating.
I really tried but I couldn't finish this one.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1985
June 20, 2021
A grand sci-fi adventure in the spirit of the 'golden age' of sci fi to which it pays homage. I especially encourage any fans of E.E. 'Doc' Smith to give it a try. A very fun read with plenty of thrills and spills. I'm a big fan of Ryk Spoor's novels, and this latest was no exception.
August 9, 2010
This alien megastructure / alien diplomacy space adventure feels like a minor classic of 60s SF (comparing favorably with Laumer, White, Schmitz, etc.), though it includes more current AI/nanotech motifs as well. It's short on depth and long on exposition, but that aside, it's a blast.
December 22, 2025
I've been reading Ryk Spoor since Digital Knight, and I thought GCA was his best book yet. As a big fan of the late "Doc" Smith, I loved the shout-out in DuQuesne, who was the character that really stole the show for me.
If you like old-school space opera give this one a shot. It's fun.
If you like old-school space opera give this one a shot. It's fun.
April 16, 2012
Surprisingly good, begs for a sequel. A bit too melodramatic in my mind, and the first part is a bit intimidatingly 'trans human gadgetry' focused. But that rapidly clears up and the adventure, fighting, and mystery works well.
May 27, 2012
Good ol' space opera, competent good guys overcoming overwhelming odds to emerge victorious. I'm usually ambivalent on the fight and battle scenes, but Spoor had my heart racing. Just what the doctor ordered!
August 7, 2019
I had my doubts going in, but this turned out to be a fun read. It hearkens back to an older style of SF...pulpy, fast-moving, and fun. Plus, I have to admit a certain bias...any book that includes even a version of Marc C. DuQuesne has already gone a ways toward winning me over.
December 3, 2010
A pulpy, fun read. Really wish more of the bigger questions were answered, though. Was also hoping that humanity had evolved to be 'lucky', like Teela Brown in the Ringworld series.
September 30, 2011
boring beginning, AWSOME follow up
June 22, 2014
A great read. Classic space opera style.
July 1, 2010
Good old-school sci-fi. I'd read another set in this universe.
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