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Sister Alice
"An epic tale of visionary futures and scientific speculation."--Library Journal
Millions of years from now, humanity will be on the brink of self-destruction. The world's great leaders have created an elite group who, by their superior wisdom and abilities, keep the peace, maintain progress, and otherwise safeguard humanity's future. Genetically enhanced, they are the carriers of Earth's greatest talents, a force unlike any in the history of mankind.
For ten million years, the Families dominated the galaxy. But then Alice, a brilliant scientist of the Chamberlain family, took part in an attempt to create a new galaxy. Her experiment unleashed vast forces that the family could not control, causing a catastrophe that killed untold billions of people on many worlds.
Before she was punished for her role in the debacle, Alice visited Ord, a younger Chamberlain. Only he, of all the people in the galaxy, knows what Alice tells him. Her words launch him upon a quest that will take him across the vast reaches of space. He must discover his own true nature, and somehow restore the family honor. Sister Alice is his epic story.
Millions of years from now, humanity will be on the brink of self-destruction. The world's great leaders have created an elite group who, by their superior wisdom and abilities, keep the peace, maintain progress, and otherwise safeguard humanity's future. Genetically enhanced, they are the carriers of Earth's greatest talents, a force unlike any in the history of mankind.
For ten million years, the Families dominated the galaxy. But then Alice, a brilliant scientist of the Chamberlain family, took part in an attempt to create a new galaxy. Her experiment unleashed vast forces that the family could not control, causing a catastrophe that killed untold billions of people on many worlds.
Before she was punished for her role in the debacle, Alice visited Ord, a younger Chamberlain. Only he, of all the people in the galaxy, knows what Alice tells him. Her words launch him upon a quest that will take him across the vast reaches of space. He must discover his own true nature, and somehow restore the family honor. Sister Alice is his epic story.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
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416 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
January 19, 2020
Fixup based on 5 stories published in Asimov's, 1993-2000. I have good memories of it from my first (and only) read in 2004. The novel was a finalist for the 2004 John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
2020 reread:
Sister Alice and some of her posthuman pals travel to the Core of our galaxy, tame it, and create new habitable places there. Then her group tries to create a daughter universe (using the central black hole), leaving a "neck" to connect to our galaxy. The experiment goes disastrously wrong: their attempt creates a ravening quasar, killing billions of people. Sister Alice comes back to Earth as the designated Fall Girl for the disaster. Then things get really weird. I'm trying to avoid serious spoilers here. As always, please read the publisher's preview first.
Alice's Brother Perfect, another ancient posthuman, leads Ord, their youngest brother, on a Cooke's Tour of our galaxy. After a rest stop at a terraformed Neptune, Alice's debut project, they move on to a mega Dyson structure, with support beams as wide as planets, and oceans that would cover 100,000 Earths. All made of Alice's custom Dark Matter blend, with a new version of the Periodic Table that can support rudimentary life! Whoa. Talk about Clarke's Law!
Back in the human galaxy, the Long Peace of the Thousand Families has broken down, and brushfire wars create millions of refugees. Innocent Family members are made into scapegoats. Ugly vigilante killings. Ord heads for the Core, chased by two of his childhood friends. He meets Alice and his ancient Dad, who are going to try a Do Over for the Core Disaster (they left a hidden wormhole time-machine). Lots of posturing, shouting and hurling of thunderbolts by godlike post-humans. The End.
So. Reed is a good writer, and the first half of the book is genuinely thrilling and strange. The second half: not so much. The godlike characters are (mostly) archetypes. Once things go wrong, they are (mostly) unsympathetic, and a good deal of the action appears arbitrary and capricious. The ending is saved from "I woke up & it was all a dream" by remaining ambiguous and confusing. By then I was ready to get it over with. I don't regret rereading the book (much), but it didn't hold up as well as I'd hoped. Dammit. Weak 3 stars, based on the strong first half.
Here's an enthusiastic review by my old Usenet pal Dave Kennedy, likely what prompted me to read it in 2004:
http://www.dkennedy.org/C2025243227/E...
2020 reread:
Sister Alice and some of her posthuman pals travel to the Core of our galaxy, tame it, and create new habitable places there. Then her group tries to create a daughter universe (using the central black hole), leaving a "neck" to connect to our galaxy. The experiment goes disastrously wrong: their attempt creates a ravening quasar, killing billions of people. Sister Alice comes back to Earth as the designated Fall Girl for the disaster. Then things get really weird. I'm trying to avoid serious spoilers here. As always, please read the publisher's preview first.
Alice's Brother Perfect, another ancient posthuman, leads Ord, their youngest brother, on a Cooke's Tour of our galaxy. After a rest stop at a terraformed Neptune, Alice's debut project, they move on to a mega Dyson structure, with support beams as wide as planets, and oceans that would cover 100,000 Earths. All made of Alice's custom Dark Matter blend, with a new version of the Periodic Table that can support rudimentary life! Whoa. Talk about Clarke's Law!
Back in the human galaxy, the Long Peace of the Thousand Families has broken down, and brushfire wars create millions of refugees. Innocent Family members are made into scapegoats. Ugly vigilante killings. Ord heads for the Core, chased by two of his childhood friends. He meets Alice and his ancient Dad, who are going to try a Do Over for the Core Disaster (they left a hidden wormhole time-machine). Lots of posturing, shouting and hurling of thunderbolts by godlike post-humans. The End.
So. Reed is a good writer, and the first half of the book is genuinely thrilling and strange. The second half: not so much. The godlike characters are (mostly) archetypes. Once things go wrong, they are (mostly) unsympathetic, and a good deal of the action appears arbitrary and capricious. The ending is saved from "I woke up & it was all a dream" by remaining ambiguous and confusing. By then I was ready to get it over with. I don't regret rereading the book (much), but it didn't hold up as well as I'd hoped. Dammit. Weak 3 stars, based on the strong first half.
Here's an enthusiastic review by my old Usenet pal Dave Kennedy, likely what prompted me to read it in 2004:
http://www.dkennedy.org/C2025243227/E...
September 27, 2010
Here is a novel that stimulates thought and conversation - I found myself discussing the ideas with people who hadn't even read it yet. It inspires one to pondering the Big Questions.
In many ways, this could have been written as fantasy rather than SF, but it would have lost a lot of its threat and realism, if you can call it that. This is a story about gods and about humanity, and what it means when a simple, though good-hearted, human child (well, a child in terms of immortals) is prematurely granted god-like powers in order to save the universe (no, really). These powers (called "talents") are never really explained, nor is the mechanism for just about anything in the book, which is why it feels like fantasy. But of course such millions-of-years advanced technology would appear as magic. How could we understand its workings? So I never felt cheated.
An important line is this: "We are nothing but talents, really. We are genius and power and focus and skills beyond number <...> In every consequential way, are nothing... nothing but clothes donned for the narrowest of occasions..." Is this not also true of us primitive humans? If you strip away the things we do and how we think and our innate talents, who are we? But is a creature who is almost entirely comprised of add-on talents still a human? A creature who can off-handedly destroy inhabited worlds and create universes - is that still human?
In many ways, this could have been written as fantasy rather than SF, but it would have lost a lot of its threat and realism, if you can call it that. This is a story about gods and about humanity, and what it means when a simple, though good-hearted, human child (well, a child in terms of immortals) is prematurely granted god-like powers in order to save the universe (no, really). These powers (called "talents") are never really explained, nor is the mechanism for just about anything in the book, which is why it feels like fantasy. But of course such millions-of-years advanced technology would appear as magic. How could we understand its workings? So I never felt cheated.
An important line is this: "We are nothing but talents, really. We are genius and power and focus and skills beyond number <...> In every consequential way, are nothing... nothing but clothes donned for the narrowest of occasions..." Is this not also true of us primitive humans? If you strip away the things we do and how we think and our innate talents, who are we? But is a creature who is almost entirely comprised of add-on talents still a human? A creature who can off-handedly destroy inhabited worlds and create universes - is that still human?
August 13, 2016
Sister Alice is a great book. The title is bad though. Not because the story doesn't revolve aroud Alice who is the sister of the protagonist (because it does), but because it's lame and says nothing about the book and it misleads. And the cover is lame too: it shows some kind of spaceship, while there is not one spaceship throughout the whole book. Actually Robert makes a point of his characters not travelling in spaceships.
The story I label: weird science fiction. As usual, characters in Robert's books grow older than planets. They watch the birth and fall of mountains. They terraform planets "with their bare hands". They launch new civilizations. These are once-humans with godly powers and they use them more or less wisely. It's very entertaining and I'm glad Reed managed to keep the book "not too long".
The story I label: weird science fiction. As usual, characters in Robert's books grow older than planets. They watch the birth and fall of mountains. They terraform planets "with their bare hands". They launch new civilizations. These are once-humans with godly powers and they use them more or less wisely. It's very entertaining and I'm glad Reed managed to keep the book "not too long".
March 7, 2011
This is a complex novel on so many levels. It will have you thinking about it for days after finishing it. I enjoyed the "Ender's Game" like quality the novel kicks off with. However I found it a bit difficult to picture and grasp the idea of godlike humans and how they actually function.
The ending has an impressive twist and will have you pondering over it for ages.
The ending has an impressive twist and will have you pondering over it for ages.
March 4, 2012
Brain-fryingly cosmic galactic-scale action with ascended trans-humans wielding near-godlike abilities, yet Reed still manages to make me care about the characters' eventual fates.
June 17, 2014
'Some 10 million years in the future, a thousand trustworthy humans and their cloned offspring have been granted an incredible power. With it they can build worlds wherever they wish and terraform any wasteland. With it they preserved a peace that lasted for eons.
But the arrival of a woman as old as The Great Peace itself generates uncertainty and fear. For she brings with her a dire warning: the tale of an ancient crime that may yet tear the universe asunder.'
Blurb from the 2003 Orbit paperback edition.
This novel is a fix-up adapted from five stories originally published in ASIMOV’S SF magazine:-
Sister Alice (November 1993)
Brother Perfect (September 1995)
Mother Death (January 1998)
Baby’s Fire (July 1999)
Father to The Man (September 2000)
Ord is apparently the youngest child of the Chamberlain family, one of a thousand families whose members – augmented by near-immortality and quantum cyborg talents – maintain a peace within the galaxy which has lasted millions of years.
We discover early on that the Chamberlains are not a family in the normal sense. Ord is merely the latest model in a series of clones that now number more than 22,000. Rank is assigned by what number the clone is in the chain, so when the Chamberlains receive news that Alice, their number twelve (and hence only the eleventh clone to be created) is to visit after an absence of millions of years, the family begin to speculate on her motives.
Alice, shunning the rest of the family, befriends Ord, and confesses that she was the architect of an experiment which has gone tragically wrong, creating an explosion which is already causing devastation and which could potentially engulf the entire galaxy.
The consequences for the Chamberlains are personally devastating. Alice is imprisoned, stripped of her godlike powers and the rest of the family become hunted as The Great Peace collapses into chaos while frantic rescue efforts are made in an attempt to evacuate worlds near the core before they are destroyed.
Ord illegally receives some of Alice’s talents and sets off on a mission, the nature of which he does not fully understand.
Once more, Reed has produced a novel on a grand scale, its timespan covering millennia.
In some senses it can be described as a ‘Romantic’ novel since it eschews – and this was also a criticism aimed at ‘Marrow’ – the current Classical fashion for tortuous explanations of quantum mechanics and string theory. The augments of the older members of the family are powered by masses of dark matter although the exact scientific principles are avoided, in this case a refreshingly welcome change.
Reed can, I think, be described as a modern van Vogt. the transformation to ‘superman’ is common in his work and he employs the same vast land and time-scapes that van Vogt once played with, paying attention to, but not controlled by, the basic laws of the Universe.
The plot (again a strange vanVogt-ian trait) ends up being far more complex than one might initially suspect.
The premise is also a Romantic one, since one cannot imagine – in however enlightened a society – civilisation handing over its reins to a thousand carefully chosen beneficiaries and their cloned descendants.
This novel could very easily have descended into a triumph of style over content were it not for Reed’s complex strands of character motives and actions.
From one viewpoint it could be argued that this is an examination of what determines personality.
At one point Alice remembers herself as a child, with her ‘father’, Ian, the original Chamberlain. they are standing in a stairwell of their estate house and Ian has given Alice some cloned feathers. All are identical, he tells her, and asks her to drop the feathers one by one over the balcony.
Although identical in every respect, the feathers are subject to the changing forces around them and so no two fall exactly the same way. It is a device by which Ian explains to Alice why her brothers and sisters, although genetically identical, are shaped into individuals by the Universe around them.
There are questions raised as to which is the real personality when an augmented human becomes 99% computer memories and 1% flesh.
Later there are ethical questions raised about the morality of creating a universe in which Life can be cultivated if the price to be paid is the destruction of entire Star Systems teeming with sentient life.
This whole debate, however, is itself subverted when the reader realises that the entire sequence of events may have been part of a plan set in motion aeons before.
There are seldom any easy endings or answers in Reed’s work. There are merely consequences which directly affect the protagonists.
It is to Reed’s credit though, that the questions raised tends to linger in the mind and niggle away at us in the wee small hours.
But the arrival of a woman as old as The Great Peace itself generates uncertainty and fear. For she brings with her a dire warning: the tale of an ancient crime that may yet tear the universe asunder.'
Blurb from the 2003 Orbit paperback edition.
This novel is a fix-up adapted from five stories originally published in ASIMOV’S SF magazine:-
Sister Alice (November 1993)
Brother Perfect (September 1995)
Mother Death (January 1998)
Baby’s Fire (July 1999)
Father to The Man (September 2000)
Ord is apparently the youngest child of the Chamberlain family, one of a thousand families whose members – augmented by near-immortality and quantum cyborg talents – maintain a peace within the galaxy which has lasted millions of years.
We discover early on that the Chamberlains are not a family in the normal sense. Ord is merely the latest model in a series of clones that now number more than 22,000. Rank is assigned by what number the clone is in the chain, so when the Chamberlains receive news that Alice, their number twelve (and hence only the eleventh clone to be created) is to visit after an absence of millions of years, the family begin to speculate on her motives.
Alice, shunning the rest of the family, befriends Ord, and confesses that she was the architect of an experiment which has gone tragically wrong, creating an explosion which is already causing devastation and which could potentially engulf the entire galaxy.
The consequences for the Chamberlains are personally devastating. Alice is imprisoned, stripped of her godlike powers and the rest of the family become hunted as The Great Peace collapses into chaos while frantic rescue efforts are made in an attempt to evacuate worlds near the core before they are destroyed.
Ord illegally receives some of Alice’s talents and sets off on a mission, the nature of which he does not fully understand.
Once more, Reed has produced a novel on a grand scale, its timespan covering millennia.
In some senses it can be described as a ‘Romantic’ novel since it eschews – and this was also a criticism aimed at ‘Marrow’ – the current Classical fashion for tortuous explanations of quantum mechanics and string theory. The augments of the older members of the family are powered by masses of dark matter although the exact scientific principles are avoided, in this case a refreshingly welcome change.
Reed can, I think, be described as a modern van Vogt. the transformation to ‘superman’ is common in his work and he employs the same vast land and time-scapes that van Vogt once played with, paying attention to, but not controlled by, the basic laws of the Universe.
The plot (again a strange vanVogt-ian trait) ends up being far more complex than one might initially suspect.
The premise is also a Romantic one, since one cannot imagine – in however enlightened a society – civilisation handing over its reins to a thousand carefully chosen beneficiaries and their cloned descendants.
This novel could very easily have descended into a triumph of style over content were it not for Reed’s complex strands of character motives and actions.
From one viewpoint it could be argued that this is an examination of what determines personality.
At one point Alice remembers herself as a child, with her ‘father’, Ian, the original Chamberlain. they are standing in a stairwell of their estate house and Ian has given Alice some cloned feathers. All are identical, he tells her, and asks her to drop the feathers one by one over the balcony.
Although identical in every respect, the feathers are subject to the changing forces around them and so no two fall exactly the same way. It is a device by which Ian explains to Alice why her brothers and sisters, although genetically identical, are shaped into individuals by the Universe around them.
There are questions raised as to which is the real personality when an augmented human becomes 99% computer memories and 1% flesh.
Later there are ethical questions raised about the morality of creating a universe in which Life can be cultivated if the price to be paid is the destruction of entire Star Systems teeming with sentient life.
This whole debate, however, is itself subverted when the reader realises that the entire sequence of events may have been part of a plan set in motion aeons before.
There are seldom any easy endings or answers in Reed’s work. There are merely consequences which directly affect the protagonists.
It is to Reed’s credit though, that the questions raised tends to linger in the mind and niggle away at us in the wee small hours.
April 30, 2016
This SF novel is really four novelettes stuck together, and if the third one hadn't been so irritating, the book would have got five stars.
In the future, certain families are privileged. Nothing new there, really, but they have physical and mental enhancements and are practically immortal. Young Ord, of the family Chamberlain, starts to have problems when an ancient member of his family - the Alice of the title - visits, selecting him to hear her cryptic warnings and become part of her plan.
The first section is nigh-on perfect, with the world-cohesion of the Dune novels and the narrative pull of Ender's Game (only this is more emotionally mature, thank goodness). The next section continues and develops, but the third is basically a high speed chase that goes on too long, with very little happening. The speed is supposed to be high but the pace is slow and the effect is dull. The fourth section sorts things out rather well, making good use of the characters in the earlier part of the book, and I was left rather pleased. If only that third section had been better...
Recommended, and I will read more by this author.
In the future, certain families are privileged. Nothing new there, really, but they have physical and mental enhancements and are practically immortal. Young Ord, of the family Chamberlain, starts to have problems when an ancient member of his family - the Alice of the title - visits, selecting him to hear her cryptic warnings and become part of her plan.
The first section is nigh-on perfect, with the world-cohesion of the Dune novels and the narrative pull of Ender's Game (only this is more emotionally mature, thank goodness). The next section continues and develops, but the third is basically a high speed chase that goes on too long, with very little happening. The speed is supposed to be high but the pace is slow and the effect is dull. The fourth section sorts things out rather well, making good use of the characters in the earlier part of the book, and I was left rather pleased. If only that third section had been better...
Recommended, and I will read more by this author.
March 23, 2016
Set in the future where many humans have obtained god like powers. This story follows the youngest son of a family that's high in power. He tries to right the wrongs his sister Alice created. This book was ok. Often I was confused by what was going on. I think that's because it wasn't engaging me enough to completely pay attention to the details. But it wasn't altogether bad. At times I did enjoy it.
April 18, 2018
Robert Reed's collection of short stories-turned-novel was ambitious and interesting, but towards the end he pushes so many ideas toward you that the story bogs down a bit. The ending was a bit unsatisfying, but I understand why he wrote it that way. Overall, it was a very good book, and I'd recommend it.
May 18, 2011
I loved this book, I think few authors can imagine such a rich, distant, future.
July 29, 2022
TL;DR: A tale of post-humanism, so post-human that it's rather hard to follow.
TL: I've read books with pretty epic timescales, but nothing comes close to the scope of the novellas that make up Sister Alice. Assuming that everything I read was interpreted correctly, this story does attempt to cover the (currently) expected lifespan of our universe. The only other book that I recall attempting this is The Three Body Problem, difference being that what ends up representing humanity at the end of Sister Alice is very much not something we would really recognise as human. Definitely in the physical realm anyway, I'm debating the actions and behaviours of the characters but, on reflection, the usual tawdry human emotions do drive the actions of the entities involved.
Sister Alice is the first novella, and sets the scene for the rest of the book. Even the scene setting is gargantuan in scope: humanity has reached the stars, and taken to squabbling there just as we do over our limited geography currently. However that's just the prologue, humanity has realised the foolishness, not to mention the existential threat, of continuing down this path and so came up with the concept of The Families. 1000 individuals were chosen from across the (human) population of the known human expansion and each of those individuals was given a mandate: become the head of a genetically distinct "family" by promulgating your exceptional (as tested) characteristics and genetic "goodness" magic by only having children through cloning and then make good decisions on behalf of humanity (it feels like a bit of a colonial setup actually). We don't get any real insight into that process because the story actually starts 10 MILLION years after the Families are set up! Million. The prologue for the story is already epic in scale.
We meet our protagonists, Xo (Nuyen), Ravleen (Sanchex) and Ord (Chamberlain) as children, learning War by running a snow-fort based battle. However what had appeared to be tween/teen-aged characters are quickly revealed to be 50 year-olds, and these characters appear to have a pretty ephemeral attachment to their corporeal forms. This is all covered at high-speed, actually it's not covered at all, I think my explanation is analogous to what the book explains, and therein lies my biggest problem with the book as a whole. Clarke's adage that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" must inevitably come into play on timescales of this nature, and so, I guess, Mr Reed elected to pare down the story to what he wanted to tell and just elide explanatory dialogue as superfluous to the plot. Whilst this may be true, I think that what it left behind was a series of events happening around, to and through our protagonists, but with little in the way of framework on which to hang an understanding of the story as a whole.
The second novella, Brother Perfect, is easily the most accessible, containing perhaps the one and only character who's ever really given time to explain themselves. This was the part I enjoyed the most and was really the last chunk of the book that attempted any kind of mollycoddling of the reader by attempting to wrap concepts in trappings of humanity, things get progressively more and more abstract from here.
I rated this two-stars because it's neither a story, nor a technical exposition, but something lost in between. To claim that I "liked" it might be a stretch, but I certainly don't regret reading it at all; I almost feel like this is something aspiring science-fiction writers to-be should read! It's constituted of the raw concepts from which many stories could be fashioned, and I think it's doing the job that I expect science fiction to do, of, if not communicating, at very least exposing readers to concepts rarely encountered in day to day life.
TL: I've read books with pretty epic timescales, but nothing comes close to the scope of the novellas that make up Sister Alice. Assuming that everything I read was interpreted correctly, this story does attempt to cover the (currently) expected lifespan of our universe. The only other book that I recall attempting this is The Three Body Problem, difference being that what ends up representing humanity at the end of Sister Alice is very much not something we would really recognise as human. Definitely in the physical realm anyway, I'm debating the actions and behaviours of the characters but, on reflection, the usual tawdry human emotions do drive the actions of the entities involved.
Sister Alice is the first novella, and sets the scene for the rest of the book. Even the scene setting is gargantuan in scope: humanity has reached the stars, and taken to squabbling there just as we do over our limited geography currently. However that's just the prologue, humanity has realised the foolishness, not to mention the existential threat, of continuing down this path and so came up with the concept of The Families. 1000 individuals were chosen from across the (human) population of the known human expansion and each of those individuals was given a mandate: become the head of a genetically distinct "family" by promulgating your exceptional (as tested) characteristics and genetic "goodness" magic by only having children through cloning and then make good decisions on behalf of humanity (it feels like a bit of a colonial setup actually). We don't get any real insight into that process because the story actually starts 10 MILLION years after the Families are set up! Million. The prologue for the story is already epic in scale.
We meet our protagonists, Xo (Nuyen), Ravleen (Sanchex) and Ord (Chamberlain) as children, learning War by running a snow-fort based battle. However what had appeared to be tween/teen-aged characters are quickly revealed to be 50 year-olds, and these characters appear to have a pretty ephemeral attachment to their corporeal forms. This is all covered at high-speed, actually it's not covered at all, I think my explanation is analogous to what the book explains, and therein lies my biggest problem with the book as a whole. Clarke's adage that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" must inevitably come into play on timescales of this nature, and so, I guess, Mr Reed elected to pare down the story to what he wanted to tell and just elide explanatory dialogue as superfluous to the plot. Whilst this may be true, I think that what it left behind was a series of events happening around, to and through our protagonists, but with little in the way of framework on which to hang an understanding of the story as a whole.
The second novella, Brother Perfect, is easily the most accessible, containing perhaps the one and only character who's ever really given time to explain themselves. This was the part I enjoyed the most and was really the last chunk of the book that attempted any kind of mollycoddling of the reader by attempting to wrap concepts in trappings of humanity, things get progressively more and more abstract from here.
I rated this two-stars because it's neither a story, nor a technical exposition, but something lost in between. To claim that I "liked" it might be a stretch, but I certainly don't regret reading it at all; I almost feel like this is something aspiring science-fiction writers to-be should read! It's constituted of the raw concepts from which many stories could be fashioned, and I think it's doing the job that I expect science fiction to do, of, if not communicating, at very least exposing readers to concepts rarely encountered in day to day life.
November 27, 2019
I love Reed's writing about characters with extraordinary lives, including those with extraordinary long lives. I look forward to exploring what it means when you have all the time in the universe to explore, to be, and to do. The Great Ship stories are some of my all time favorites.
This one didn't work as well for me. Some of the characters were monomaniacal in their pursuits, which fell flat with me. Xo and Ravleen seemed unfinished, and I couldn't follow how their character got from where they started to where they ended. I got lost in some sections of the book, where I couldn't quite parse what form of tech magic was being used, how and why, or just where the long chase scene was going, and why it was happening.
On the other hand, I loved the arrogance in the discussion of the creation of a personal universe. I could see these people making the same mistakes over and over again. I applaud the consequences that resulted from those attempts. This is the sweeping scale I look to Robert Reed to build and carry through a book.
So, a mixed review. Go read some of the Great Ship novels and stories instead of this one.
This one didn't work as well for me. Some of the characters were monomaniacal in their pursuits, which fell flat with me. Xo and Ravleen seemed unfinished, and I couldn't follow how their character got from where they started to where they ended. I got lost in some sections of the book, where I couldn't quite parse what form of tech magic was being used, how and why, or just where the long chase scene was going, and why it was happening.
On the other hand, I loved the arrogance in the discussion of the creation of a personal universe. I could see these people making the same mistakes over and over again. I applaud the consequences that resulted from those attempts. This is the sweeping scale I look to Robert Reed to build and carry through a book.
So, a mixed review. Go read some of the Great Ship novels and stories instead of this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2022
In the far-off posthuman future, led by powerful families of clones, our protagonist - the youngest clone-brother of the Chamberlain family - is shocked to hear his much-elder sister Alice is secretly returning to Earth for the first time in ages. It turns out she's volunteered to stand trial for the pocket-universe-creation project that exploded and is destroying a large part of the galaxy.
This could be a very fun book - sort of a cross between Greg Egan (whose books I really enjoy), John C. Wright's Count to the Eschaton (which I also enjoyed), and Walter Jon Williams' Aristoi (which I thought was okay), with beautiful extra moral drama. Unfortunately, it isn't. The trial is kept offstage and quickly turns into lynching, the Great Peace breaks down offstage, and what we get is more of a chase thriller through a galaxy that isn't vividly drawn. On top of that, our characters' posthuman powers are never clearly explained or set up, so we don't understand the rules of the universe and can't truly appreciate how our protagonist keeps evading his pursuer.
I say this a lot, but once again I find myself wishing for someone to do this premise better.
This could be a very fun book - sort of a cross between Greg Egan (whose books I really enjoy), John C. Wright's Count to the Eschaton (which I also enjoyed), and Walter Jon Williams' Aristoi (which I thought was okay), with beautiful extra moral drama. Unfortunately, it isn't. The trial is kept offstage and quickly turns into lynching, the Great Peace breaks down offstage, and what we get is more of a chase thriller through a galaxy that isn't vividly drawn. On top of that, our characters' posthuman powers are never clearly explained or set up, so we don't understand the rules of the universe and can't truly appreciate how our protagonist keeps evading his pursuer.
I say this a lot, but once again I find myself wishing for someone to do this premise better.
July 23, 2025
Pretty good ultra-tech SF
Millions of years. A galaxy full of humanity, at peace because the thousand Families have god-like powers (at least the elders do) and make sure things stay on track. Then things go terribly off-track, and one of the eldest of one of the most prominent Families contacts one of her very youngest brothers, and all sorts of things, including vast destruction and time-travel and perhaps the creation of new universes, ensue.
I found the action a little muddled at times, motivations and decisions and limitations confusing and perhaps driven by plot reasons. And the writing dragged slightly at times. But generally good! Interesting concepts, wild characters, vast-scale events.
Millions of years. A galaxy full of humanity, at peace because the thousand Families have god-like powers (at least the elders do) and make sure things stay on track. Then things go terribly off-track, and one of the eldest of one of the most prominent Families contacts one of her very youngest brothers, and all sorts of things, including vast destruction and time-travel and perhaps the creation of new universes, ensue.
I found the action a little muddled at times, motivations and decisions and limitations confusing and perhaps driven by plot reasons. And the writing dragged slightly at times. But generally good! Interesting concepts, wild characters, vast-scale events.
April 22, 2025
I read this book because I heard it is similar to House of suns, which i loved. While the similarities are obvious, this is a very different book which I struggled to get through.
I would not even say it is science fiction, at most I could describe it as magical SF. Even the word "magic" appears in the book several times. Also the cover is a lie, there are no space ships at all. It's strange, confusing and the use of the word "baby" is grating.
I would not even say it is science fiction, at most I could describe it as magical SF. Even the word "magic" appears in the book several times. Also the cover is a lie, there are no space ships at all. It's strange, confusing and the use of the word "baby" is grating.
January 21, 2022
The ending is confusing, and the unimaginably-far-future setting necessitates (?) that we get most action in terms of metaphors. This can grate on your nerves after a while. By the time things are wrapping up, you've lost your capacity to understand yet another surreal desription of yet another piece of cosmological magic. The rest, of course, is imaginative and splendid.
July 28, 2017
Robert Reed thinks big and pulls it off well
An enjoyable book by the creator of The Great Ship.
This definitely isn't the common serial space battle nonsense.
If you like great leaps in concept, you will enjoy this book.
An enjoyable book by the creator of The Great Ship.
This definitely isn't the common serial space battle nonsense.
If you like great leaps in concept, you will enjoy this book.
November 29, 2020
Napísané je to dobre. Ale nesadlo mi to. Nesadol mi ten prílišný metafyzický až paranolmálny prejav. Som rád, ak si viem dané popisy a veci predstaviť. Tu mi autor k tomu nedal príležitosť. Je to teda viacmenej scifi v rovine filozofických fabulácii...
June 19, 2017
Disappointing, specially after reading Marrow which was superb.
Wordy and messy and vague.
Wordy and messy and vague.
April 8, 2018
To a certain extent I enjoyed this book but I found much of it confusing. And I did not understand the ending at all. Would recommend it only for the hardcore SciFi readers.
May 3, 2018
I’m realizing how many of Reed’s stories have a young boy as the protagonist.
The ending was a frustratingly vague mystery. “... and everything.” ???
The ending was a frustratingly vague mystery. “... and everything.” ???
April 18, 2014
I'm hovering between three and four stars. This was more of a book about thoughts and ideas rather than a novel with a concrete narrative. That's not true. There's a story in there, but so much of tech and science in the novel is off the scale (we're talking in the realm of humans as star ships) that it's really difficult to comprehend what's going on. Let alone understand the process through which our characters are able to accomplish these god like feats.
There's less than 10 main characters in the story as well, and they're not fleshed out well. A few of them are just archetypes, as that's how the families of humanity have been separated in this far future.
Throw in an ending where the causual linearity of the story is thrown into question and you've got a book where you look at it with appreciation for what it achieves, but little understanding of what really was going on.
There's less than 10 main characters in the story as well, and they're not fleshed out well. A few of them are just archetypes, as that's how the families of humanity have been separated in this far future.
Throw in an ending where the causual linearity of the story is thrown into question and you've got a book where you look at it with appreciation for what it achieves, but little understanding of what really was going on.
March 11, 2012
my review, which took me an hour to write, disppeared into the GR black hole. :-(
Compelling writing and the confidence that it all would begin to hang together and become comprehnsible kept me reading this overblown and disconnected science fiction thriller. I could not get comfortable with the scale of the thing, although the hero was surprisingly endearing, never entirely losing his innocent concern for the well=being of others.
RR has a talent for being both succinct and descriptive. I have no doubt he "gets it" but I wish he paid more attention to continuity.
Still, the struggle to make sense of this book was worth it for the following elegant observation:
"...the universe was a tangle of simple suppositions and principles woven together in chaotic ways. p35"
Compelling writing and the confidence that it all would begin to hang together and become comprehnsible kept me reading this overblown and disconnected science fiction thriller. I could not get comfortable with the scale of the thing, although the hero was surprisingly endearing, never entirely losing his innocent concern for the well=being of others.
RR has a talent for being both succinct and descriptive. I have no doubt he "gets it" but I wish he paid more attention to continuity.
Still, the struggle to make sense of this book was worth it for the following elegant observation:
"...the universe was a tangle of simple suppositions and principles woven together in chaotic ways. p35"
August 4, 2025
Rereading this book, the writing was still quite good and a sense of strangeness was effectively invoked. The problem was that the book is shot through and through with capitalism and other elements that come off as weird anachronisms, given that the main characters are immortal semi-gods tens of millions of years in the future. Investments, accounts, attorneys, lawsuits - it's like someone overlaid the vibe of "The Social Network", and on rereading it comes off as jarring interruptions that simply make no sense.
September 14, 2015
In some ways, this reminded me of David Lindsay's "A Voyage to Arcturus" in it's far-reaching dreaminess. It is a vision the melds the hope of humanity, astrophysics, quantum potential and human frailty into a futuristic tale of loss and possible redemption. Descriptively, it is lush with fantastic images and sensations that propel the reader along on a cosmic, metaphysical ride through vistas and experiences some have yet to even dream of . . . and the endings not half bad either! I'll be reading more of Mr. Reed.
December 25, 2014
Would give 3.5 stars if I could. The last 75 pages seemed to lose some momentum, at least for my tastes. I really like the technology leaps that this author makes. I sometimes wonder if he is thinking deep down that this could be the human story here on earth. Some immortals who will live billions of years tinkering with our little solar system. Interesting to think that some 'being' who is only a million years old is considered a child.
February 13, 2025
Sister Alice presents a story with both fascinating sci-fi ideas and beautiful descriptive writing. However, all of this is ruined in the later half of the book, where a one-dimensional antagonist dominates the focus of the story with her hell-bent need for revenge and her love for one specific curse. I do not recommend it.
February 12, 2008
Hard to read book with many deep thoughts about the possibilities and ideas of the future of humans. The content is similar to that of the Ender's Game series but is much more tedious to read through. Very good book to read if you have the time for it...
January 10, 2011
Christopher McKitterick wrote:
"Here is a novel that stimulates thought and conversation - I found myself discussing the ideas with people who hadn't even read it yet. It inspires one to pondering the Big Questions. "
I couldn't have said it better. Great SF. I wanted more!
"Here is a novel that stimulates thought and conversation - I found myself discussing the ideas with people who hadn't even read it yet. It inspires one to pondering the Big Questions. "
I couldn't have said it better. Great SF. I wanted more!
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