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Noumenon #2
Noumenon Infinity
Travel to the remotest reaches of deep space in this wondrous follow-up to the acclaimed Noumenon—a tale of exploration, adventure, science, and humanity with the sweep and intelligence of the works of Arthur C. Clarke, Neal Stephenson, and Octavia Butler.
Generations ago, Convoy Seven and I.C.C. left Earth on a mission that would take them far beyond the solar system. Launched by the Planet United Consortium, a global group formed to pursue cooperative Earth-wide interests in deep space, nine ships headed into the unknown to explore a distant star called LQ Pyx.
Eons later, the convoy has returned to LQ Pyx to begin work on the Web, the alien megastructure that covers the star. Is it a Dyson Sphere, designed to power a civilization as everyone believes—or something far more sinister?
Meanwhile, Planet United’s littlest convoy, long thought to be lost, reemerges in a different sector of deep space. What they discover holds the answers to unlocking the Web’s greater purpose.
Each convoy possesses a piece of the Web’s puzzle . . . but they may not be able to bring those pieces together and uncover the structure’s true nature before it’s too late.
Generations ago, Convoy Seven and I.C.C. left Earth on a mission that would take them far beyond the solar system. Launched by the Planet United Consortium, a global group formed to pursue cooperative Earth-wide interests in deep space, nine ships headed into the unknown to explore a distant star called LQ Pyx.
Eons later, the convoy has returned to LQ Pyx to begin work on the Web, the alien megastructure that covers the star. Is it a Dyson Sphere, designed to power a civilization as everyone believes—or something far more sinister?
Meanwhile, Planet United’s littlest convoy, long thought to be lost, reemerges in a different sector of deep space. What they discover holds the answers to unlocking the Web’s greater purpose.
Each convoy possesses a piece of the Web’s puzzle . . . but they may not be able to bring those pieces together and uncover the structure’s true nature before it’s too late.
572 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 14, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews
November 17, 2018
Originally posted at: https://1000yearplan.com/2018/08/14/n...
[Warning: if you have not read Noumenon, which this novel is a sequel to, there will be spoilers here]
At the end of Marina J. Lostetter’s brilliant debut novel Noumenon, Convoy Seven returned to an earth several millennia removed from the society and culture that founded its original mission – to investigate the seemingly unnatural behavior of the variable star designated LQ Pyx – and were dismayed to learn that the people of Earth no longer considered exploring the stars a worthy pursuit. Consequently, the members of the convoy decided to be true to their purpose and, no longer under obligation to the descendants of their forebears, set out to discover who created the unfinished structure around LQ Pyx, and if possible, to complete it themselves. Noumenon was a spirited and ambitious work of golden-to-silver age sci-fi redux, repurposing and combining popular science fictional elements like the Generation Ship (Orphans of the Sky, The Enemy Stars), the psychological effects of time dilation (The Forever War, Tau Zero), and the Big Dumb Object (Rendezvous with Rama, Ringworld). It was also a perfect balance of hard sci-fi’s emphasis on scientific detail and heroic problem solving, and social sci-fi’s speculations about human behavior.
While Noumenon left us in the dark regarding the nature of the megastructure at LQ Pyx, the promise of convoy seven’s return trip made the prospect of a sequel enticing. Fully aware of the state of anticipation she left us in, Lostetter opts for delayed gratification – Noumenon Infinity doesn’t kick off with convoy seven’s journey back to LQ Pyx, instead taking us back in time to the early years of the Planet United Consortium to follow the story of Convoy Twelve. Convoy Twelve vanishes while experimenting with subdimensional travel and is assumed lost or destroyed. In fact, they are jettisoned to a place and time so far away from the 22nd century Earth they departed it’s a wonder they don’t lose all hope. They are discovered and pursued by an alien craft, and eventually are given no choice but to make first contact. The aliens are terrifying and far more advanced than their human counterparts, but at times seem well meaning, if also somewhat aloof. And they know something about the convoy but won’t let on what it is.
From there the novel’s chapters alternate between the narratives of convoys twelve and seven. While the linear progress of convoy twelve’s plight remains immediate, the trajectory of convoy seven’s narrative follows the pattern established in Noumenon, with huge leaps forward in time picking up the story generations removed from the previous chapter. Differing interpretations of seven’s mission leads to a schism among the convoy, between those who want to follow the map retrieved from the Nest – which they believe will lead them to the builders of the LQ Pyx megastructure – and those who believe their sole purpose is to return to LQ Pyx and complete the project their mission was created for. After some conflict and deliberation, the convoy separates into two groups, with the hope that the splinter group of map followers will one day, many generations down the line, rejoin their sister ships at LQ Pyx.
To reveal much more of what happens in Noumenon Infinity would be a betrayal; at this point, Lostetter’s ability to innovate and astonish appears inexhaustible, and I hate ruining surprises. The above plot descriptions, busy as they might seem, are a woefully inadequate representation of what actually happens in the novel, which outpaces Noumenon in scope and scale by several degrees.
One of the common, and most cynical, tropes of generation ship stories is how the passage of time obscures the origins of its society, often to the point of delusion and ignorance. Taken together, Noumenon and Noumenon Infinity acknowledge how the practical concerns that give birth to social groups can become mythologized over time, but that those societies develop, organize, and evolve in accordance with their necessities, which can change frequently. Myths of origin, however idealistic or arcane they may seem, are just as likely to have material value to an ever-changing culture, to be a unifying and energizing presence, and not necessarily reducible to fundamentalist zeal.
Noumenon was my favorite science fiction novel of 2017 and the encore is even more thrilling and satisfying. Noumenon Infinity weaves in and out of the lives of these disparate human civilizations, discovering the shocking but strangely understandable ways in which they emerge from strife and conflict and imperative to adjust to their conditions in ingenious ways; it’s a relentlessly exciting, wondrous, unnerving, and ultimately sublime work of science fiction.
Many thanks to Edelweiss and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read this ARC.
[Warning: if you have not read Noumenon, which this novel is a sequel to, there will be spoilers here]
At the end of Marina J. Lostetter’s brilliant debut novel Noumenon, Convoy Seven returned to an earth several millennia removed from the society and culture that founded its original mission – to investigate the seemingly unnatural behavior of the variable star designated LQ Pyx – and were dismayed to learn that the people of Earth no longer considered exploring the stars a worthy pursuit. Consequently, the members of the convoy decided to be true to their purpose and, no longer under obligation to the descendants of their forebears, set out to discover who created the unfinished structure around LQ Pyx, and if possible, to complete it themselves. Noumenon was a spirited and ambitious work of golden-to-silver age sci-fi redux, repurposing and combining popular science fictional elements like the Generation Ship (Orphans of the Sky, The Enemy Stars), the psychological effects of time dilation (The Forever War, Tau Zero), and the Big Dumb Object (Rendezvous with Rama, Ringworld). It was also a perfect balance of hard sci-fi’s emphasis on scientific detail and heroic problem solving, and social sci-fi’s speculations about human behavior.
While Noumenon left us in the dark regarding the nature of the megastructure at LQ Pyx, the promise of convoy seven’s return trip made the prospect of a sequel enticing. Fully aware of the state of anticipation she left us in, Lostetter opts for delayed gratification – Noumenon Infinity doesn’t kick off with convoy seven’s journey back to LQ Pyx, instead taking us back in time to the early years of the Planet United Consortium to follow the story of Convoy Twelve. Convoy Twelve vanishes while experimenting with subdimensional travel and is assumed lost or destroyed. In fact, they are jettisoned to a place and time so far away from the 22nd century Earth they departed it’s a wonder they don’t lose all hope. They are discovered and pursued by an alien craft, and eventually are given no choice but to make first contact. The aliens are terrifying and far more advanced than their human counterparts, but at times seem well meaning, if also somewhat aloof. And they know something about the convoy but won’t let on what it is.
From there the novel’s chapters alternate between the narratives of convoys twelve and seven. While the linear progress of convoy twelve’s plight remains immediate, the trajectory of convoy seven’s narrative follows the pattern established in Noumenon, with huge leaps forward in time picking up the story generations removed from the previous chapter. Differing interpretations of seven’s mission leads to a schism among the convoy, between those who want to follow the map retrieved from the Nest – which they believe will lead them to the builders of the LQ Pyx megastructure – and those who believe their sole purpose is to return to LQ Pyx and complete the project their mission was created for. After some conflict and deliberation, the convoy separates into two groups, with the hope that the splinter group of map followers will one day, many generations down the line, rejoin their sister ships at LQ Pyx.
To reveal much more of what happens in Noumenon Infinity would be a betrayal; at this point, Lostetter’s ability to innovate and astonish appears inexhaustible, and I hate ruining surprises. The above plot descriptions, busy as they might seem, are a woefully inadequate representation of what actually happens in the novel, which outpaces Noumenon in scope and scale by several degrees.
One of the common, and most cynical, tropes of generation ship stories is how the passage of time obscures the origins of its society, often to the point of delusion and ignorance. Taken together, Noumenon and Noumenon Infinity acknowledge how the practical concerns that give birth to social groups can become mythologized over time, but that those societies develop, organize, and evolve in accordance with their necessities, which can change frequently. Myths of origin, however idealistic or arcane they may seem, are just as likely to have material value to an ever-changing culture, to be a unifying and energizing presence, and not necessarily reducible to fundamentalist zeal.
Noumenon was my favorite science fiction novel of 2017 and the encore is even more thrilling and satisfying. Noumenon Infinity weaves in and out of the lives of these disparate human civilizations, discovering the shocking but strangely understandable ways in which they emerge from strife and conflict and imperative to adjust to their conditions in ingenious ways; it’s a relentlessly exciting, wondrous, unnerving, and ultimately sublime work of science fiction.
Many thanks to Edelweiss and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read this ARC.
November 30, 2018
This is one hell of a great sequel.
It goes well beyond the fandom who like generational starship stories, delving into high physics, Big Dumb Objects, and very strange aliens.
But more importantly, the stranger aliens are ourselves. Generations of clones growing up and educated in a closed society, fixing the original generational starship problem by going as a fleet of semi-specialized components in one big social whole. That's not so strange, of course, but the emergent AI and the "retirees" of every clone over 65 to become a part of a massive biological computer system as dreamers *is*. :)
But the core story is no slouch, either. The fleet splits in two. One to finish a truly glorious Dyson-sphere-like project and the other devoted to exploration and learning about the aliens who made it. Of course, from there, everything goes to hell. But differently. :) This is not the same kind of novel as the first, but it IS a genuine continuation in both spirit and characters. :)
I especially loved the aliens. I may have a few spoilerly quibbles about the end. One particularly big plot thread that wasn't concluded. But other than these, which could EASILY be addressed in future books, I absolutely adore this book. Or rather, books.
Few modern SF novels are this devoted to ideas anymore. That is: pure ideas drilled down to consequences and snags and complications.
The writing is more than fine, the characters are fascinating, but it's the ideas make this a true inheritor of old-school SF. Everything from psychology to sociology to genetics to high physics is explored here, and that's just the foundation. :)
I'm a fanboy now. :)
It goes well beyond the fandom who like generational starship stories, delving into high physics, Big Dumb Objects, and very strange aliens.
But more importantly, the stranger aliens are ourselves. Generations of clones growing up and educated in a closed society, fixing the original generational starship problem by going as a fleet of semi-specialized components in one big social whole. That's not so strange, of course, but the emergent AI and the "retirees" of every clone over 65 to become a part of a massive biological computer system as dreamers *is*. :)
But the core story is no slouch, either. The fleet splits in two. One to finish a truly glorious Dyson-sphere-like project and the other devoted to exploration and learning about the aliens who made it. Of course, from there, everything goes to hell. But differently. :) This is not the same kind of novel as the first, but it IS a genuine continuation in both spirit and characters. :)
I especially loved the aliens. I may have a few spoilerly quibbles about the end. One particularly big plot thread that wasn't concluded. But other than these, which could EASILY be addressed in future books, I absolutely adore this book. Or rather, books.
Few modern SF novels are this devoted to ideas anymore. That is: pure ideas drilled down to consequences and snags and complications.
The writing is more than fine, the characters are fascinating, but it's the ideas make this a true inheritor of old-school SF. Everything from psychology to sociology to genetics to high physics is explored here, and that's just the foundation. :)
I'm a fanboy now. :)
November 9, 2018
Like the first novel, Noumenon, this is structured as a series of linked stories following the cloned crew of the Planet United Convoy 7 separated by large chunks of time, often meaning that the point-of-view character for each story is a completely new one, or clone of a previous one. To help things along we get an alternate viewpoint in this one, that of Convoy 12, with a very different mission from that of Convoy 7.
As you'd expect, we get lots more about LQ-Pix and the alien mega-structure. We also get far further down the timeline (by a couple of orders of magnitude) than the first book and it's fascinating to see how the author's wild imagination plays out with it. We've gone from interesting tweeks on social structures as in the first book to drastic changes in humanity itself.
I don't think it's all quite as coherent or logical as the first book. There's some science-fictional developments that are substantial leaps beyond what we're expected to swallow from the first book. However, it's always entertaining, interesting and ambitious.
Now I want to know what happened to all the other convoys?
As you'd expect, we get lots more about LQ-Pix and the alien mega-structure. We also get far further down the timeline (by a couple of orders of magnitude) than the first book and it's fascinating to see how the author's wild imagination plays out with it. We've gone from interesting tweeks on social structures as in the first book to drastic changes in humanity itself.
I don't think it's all quite as coherent or logical as the first book. There's some science-fictional developments that are substantial leaps beyond what we're expected to swallow from the first book. However, it's always entertaining, interesting and ambitious.
Now I want to know what happened to all the other convoys?
November 21, 2018
3.5 stars. Though I enjoyed this continuation of the Noumenon story, I found myself grinding through this book. Marina J. Lostetter uses the same approach of several novellas following different characters over big time jumps in this book. And the book is stuffed with all sorts of interesting ideas again (clones used for space travel, genetic modification, generation ships, etc.) and much as I enjoyed returning to the stories of the characters investigating the big, weird, space object, and the different aims of the convoy, I found myself struggling to stay focused on the narrative this time around.
November 19, 2018
This is a continuation of and an addition to the events of Noumenon, and written in a similar style of linked chapters focusing on the perspective of different crew members during events as they unfold. If you liked the first book, you will certainly enjoy the second.
What I liked is the overall positive outlook of a group dedicated to discovery and exploration. Even through times of trial, that ultimate pursuit always seems to focus and pull them through.
Will there be another book? I hope so. There's always more to tell in a story like this.
What I liked is the overall positive outlook of a group dedicated to discovery and exploration. Even through times of trial, that ultimate pursuit always seems to focus and pull them through.
Will there be another book? I hope so. There's always more to tell in a story like this.
April 29, 2022
Decent sequel that follows the same literary motifs as the first. Noumenon concluded with convoy seven returning to Earth some 1000 years objectively from when it set out to investigate the stellar anomaly and was greeted with indifference. Humanity had evolved dramatically since the convoy's departure, most notably, humans no longer communicate via speaking, but via some brain implant. Worse, they do not even really care about the rest of the universe anymore, but seem content to just sit around and play with their implants. I thought this was really a bland critique of people being hooked on their smartphones, but whatever.
After some haggling and crew changes, convoy seven heads back to the 'Dyson sphere' or whatever it is around the stellar anomaly, this time to finish building it. Like the first installment, each chapter is something of a novella, telling us a story about something that happened along the journey. Lostetter also introduces convoy 12, the smallest of the convoys, which only went out to the Oort cloud to conduct experiments with SD space. The SD FTL drive is what prompted the space exploration in the first place; that and as a means to channel human energy into something besides war.
Lostetter therefore oscillates between the two convoy's adventures. A strange accident with an experimental SD drive plunges convoy seven halfway across the galaxy and some 100,000 years into the future. They arrived in a space full of massive space constructs and a fleet of aliens. Meanwhile, convoy seven split into two-- one to continue on to the stellar anomaly and one to continue investigating the alien ruins left behind by the species that built the 'nest'; a strange spaceship the original convoy seven found at the stellar anomaly...
I like big idea science fiction and Noumenon Infinity definitely has that going for it. Strange BDOs, aliens and post-humans-- all kinds of good stuff here. Unfortunately, the science is rather weak and we are 'treated' to some rather large hand waves along the way. I will not go into details to avoid spoilers, but I definitely did some head scratching along the way here. While the first installment in the series was wonderfully new, the fractured story lines had more of an old hat feel in this sequel. If you loved the first book, you will probably like this one also. I thought it dragged at times and even the 'big reveals' were not that exciting. YMMV. 3 stars.
After some haggling and crew changes, convoy seven heads back to the 'Dyson sphere' or whatever it is around the stellar anomaly, this time to finish building it. Like the first installment, each chapter is something of a novella, telling us a story about something that happened along the journey. Lostetter also introduces convoy 12, the smallest of the convoys, which only went out to the Oort cloud to conduct experiments with SD space. The SD FTL drive is what prompted the space exploration in the first place; that and as a means to channel human energy into something besides war.
Lostetter therefore oscillates between the two convoy's adventures. A strange accident with an experimental SD drive plunges convoy seven halfway across the galaxy and some 100,000 years into the future. They arrived in a space full of massive space constructs and a fleet of aliens. Meanwhile, convoy seven split into two-- one to continue on to the stellar anomaly and one to continue investigating the alien ruins left behind by the species that built the 'nest'; a strange spaceship the original convoy seven found at the stellar anomaly...
I like big idea science fiction and Noumenon Infinity definitely has that going for it. Strange BDOs, aliens and post-humans-- all kinds of good stuff here. Unfortunately, the science is rather weak and we are 'treated' to some rather large hand waves along the way. I will not go into details to avoid spoilers, but I definitely did some head scratching along the way here. While the first installment in the series was wonderfully new, the fractured story lines had more of an old hat feel in this sequel. If you loved the first book, you will probably like this one also. I thought it dragged at times and even the 'big reveals' were not that exciting. YMMV. 3 stars.
September 16, 2018
A complex story following the events first book but far into the future. Well done but I felt a bit confused going back and forth between convoys. I’d love to have had a list of the original crew with some of their history and a timeline to follow.
December 17, 2018
I only give this three because I finished it to find out where it would go. In the end, I was disappointed. But I admire the reach even it it was a tad too far, and I liked that it was a BDO story that wasn't really about the BDO (Big Dumb Object). It could have been a very fine story, but fell short IMHO.
I somehow failed to notice that this was #2 in a series, but having read the reviews of #1 I don't think I missed much, and this book did a fine job of easing me into things.
Having not read #1, I'm going to be generous and assume that in it Lostetter somehow addressed the idea that a clone is not going to grow up with the same personality and knowledge as its original unless you can make a copy of the source brain, and perhaps not even then.
Now, some of my issues with this book.
Let's ease in gently with the network nodes and lathes. Maybe my math degree is a tad outdated, so I looked to see what role lathes play in a network. None, apparently, unless you want to use your phone to make round objects out of wood or metal. With the alarming number of typos in this Harper Voyager trade paperback, I wondered if Lostetter meant "laths." Could they possibly have allowed "lathes" when they mean "paths"? Ugh.
Ah, the typos. Dozens of them. Usually the kind where the only spellchecking done on the manuscript was one press of a function key. Harper Voyager, go hire some copy editors! And don't use a descriptive dictionary that allows "forebearer" for the perfectly cromulent "forebear."
At one point a problem occurs, and the experts look into the cause. Ah, here it is. A line of code. In a program that has run successfully 32 times, but has now misinterpreted the code on the 33rd run. Computers. Don't. Work. That. Way. At the very least you have to claim some damage to the physical medium containing the program. And besides, you can't do this in an AI-managed system that can control subdimensional jumps and manage life support for tens of thousands of people. It has GOT to have redundant systems and intersystem quality checks and all that stuff.
Anyway, here we are, many generations of clones down the road, and almost all of
humanity's knowledge and language have been preserved. Except, apparently, the word "Progenitor", with an I. A word that means exactly what it needs to mean to describe the character. And "progentor" is not a word (except for an, ahem, Natural Male Product). Perhaps the person so named isn't good with words, but there's a rather clever AI on board that ought to have a decent dictionary in it, and clearly has the kind of personality that would have pointed it out.
OK, well into the plot and Spoiler Alert ...
Here's a convoy toodling along, and then "DIVE!" and "WTF??" and "gollygosh, we've jumped ahead 100,000 years of time and almost out of the galaxy!" (where have I seen THAT idea before?) and, having no choice, they toodle on until "Ding! Hey, what's that? Oh, cool, lookit, it's the other guys! They tracked us." They saw a bent dust cloud here and there, and deduced that a simple jump of 100,000 years would bring them to the same minute and the same place in space. Accurate or what?
Then the Other Guys phone Earth for us -- across the galaxy and 100,000 years away -- and apparently got "oh, hi, we were wondering where you'd got to." But I admit I got badly lost in the timeline of this book, so maybe there's a way.
Conclusion: this reasonably interesting story only just qualifies to use the word "science" in front of "fiction."
I somehow failed to notice that this was #2 in a series, but having read the reviews of #1 I don't think I missed much, and this book did a fine job of easing me into things.
Having not read #1, I'm going to be generous and assume that in it Lostetter somehow addressed the idea that a clone is not going to grow up with the same personality and knowledge as its original unless you can make a copy of the source brain, and perhaps not even then.
Now, some of my issues with this book.
Let's ease in gently with the network nodes and lathes. Maybe my math degree is a tad outdated, so I looked to see what role lathes play in a network. None, apparently, unless you want to use your phone to make round objects out of wood or metal. With the alarming number of typos in this Harper Voyager trade paperback, I wondered if Lostetter meant "laths." Could they possibly have allowed "lathes" when they mean "paths"? Ugh.
Ah, the typos. Dozens of them. Usually the kind where the only spellchecking done on the manuscript was one press of a function key. Harper Voyager, go hire some copy editors! And don't use a descriptive dictionary that allows "forebearer" for the perfectly cromulent "forebear."
At one point a problem occurs, and the experts look into the cause. Ah, here it is. A line of code. In a program that has run successfully 32 times, but has now misinterpreted the code on the 33rd run. Computers. Don't. Work. That. Way. At the very least you have to claim some damage to the physical medium containing the program. And besides, you can't do this in an AI-managed system that can control subdimensional jumps and manage life support for tens of thousands of people. It has GOT to have redundant systems and intersystem quality checks and all that stuff.
Anyway, here we are, many generations of clones down the road, and almost all of
humanity's knowledge and language have been preserved. Except, apparently, the word "Progenitor", with an I. A word that means exactly what it needs to mean to describe the character. And "progentor" is not a word (except for an, ahem, Natural Male Product). Perhaps the person so named isn't good with words, but there's a rather clever AI on board that ought to have a decent dictionary in it, and clearly has the kind of personality that would have pointed it out.
OK, well into the plot and Spoiler Alert ...
Here's a convoy toodling along, and then "DIVE!" and "WTF??" and "gollygosh, we've jumped ahead 100,000 years of time and almost out of the galaxy!" (where have I seen THAT idea before?) and, having no choice, they toodle on until "Ding! Hey, what's that? Oh, cool, lookit, it's the other guys! They tracked us." They saw a bent dust cloud here and there, and deduced that a simple jump of 100,000 years would bring them to the same minute and the same place in space. Accurate or what?
Then the Other Guys phone Earth for us -- across the galaxy and 100,000 years away -- and apparently got "oh, hi, we were wondering where you'd got to." But I admit I got badly lost in the timeline of this book, so maybe there's a way.
Conclusion: this reasonably interesting story only just qualifies to use the word "science" in front of "fiction."
October 30, 2018
"All life is a continuum—evolution is a continuum—and evolution guarantees change."
We return in this novel to the 12 expedition missions initially introduced in the first novel in this series, Noumenon. While the story was slow to start, and we have a huge host of new characters to learn about, the first 75% of the book felt like two completely different books, interwoven with the common thread of their origin and use of AI (ICC from the first novel, or C, the precursor from which ICC was based). The two stories did end up intersecting in an interesting way, and that last 25% made the less interesting bits easier to swallow in retrospect.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys "Mysterious Space Object" or "First Contact" style SFF stories and I particularly enjoyed how the story played on the concept of time when using SD. You never know if encounters are with older or newer technology than what you process.
The author did set this up for another book in the series, but I'm not sure I'll be as eager as I was for this book's release.
November 30, 2018
While I like the idea of the plot and I like the ideas contained in and espoused by some of the characters, I was very disappointed throughout the entire book by the editing issues, the verbosity, the cliches, and simply the changes of voice constantly happening that should have been edited out.
January 23, 2019
Now, I haven't read the first book so I don't know if I'm missing key info... But it certainly didn't feel like it. This one ended up being a pretty deep ride, but still felt like a page turner (yes, it did take me forever to finish it... but that has way more to do with losing it in a giant pile of library books... oops).
The thing I loved the most is that as the novel jumps from one person and time to another and another and another all kinds of completely crazy things happened. Each and every one of these twists could have been just too much... And yet, something about Lostetter's writing always had me convinced that the twist would resolve satisfactorily and that it was all somehow going to come together. I did anticipate a little of the end game, but not much.
At any rate, it was so satisfying that as soon as I finish my other reading obligations I'm going to have to snag the first book. And hopefully when I'm done with that, a third one will be out.
The thing I loved the most is that as the novel jumps from one person and time to another and another and another all kinds of completely crazy things happened. Each and every one of these twists could have been just too much... And yet, something about Lostetter's writing always had me convinced that the twist would resolve satisfactorily and that it was all somehow going to come together. I did anticipate a little of the end game, but not much.
At any rate, it was so satisfying that as soon as I finish my other reading obligations I'm going to have to snag the first book. And hopefully when I'm done with that, a third one will be out.
August 21, 2019
I don't think this was the book for me. I can appreciate the ridiculously huge scope of the story but not being able to connect personally to the characters kind of ruined it for me. How can you get behind someone when you know the story is going to jump ahead 50, 100, 2000 years in the next chapter? (I also never read/remember dates when they're written at the start of chapters so I got mixed up on the timeline real fast).
Something that kept bugging me about the story was the way the characters would jump to a conclusion.
Ultimately this was a good book, just not a good book for me.
Something that kept bugging me about the story was the way the characters would jump to a conclusion.
Ultimately this was a good book, just not a good book for me.
August 16, 2020
Noumenon Infinity continues with Convoy 7’s story to learn more about the alien structure that looks like it could be a Dyson Sphere. The author continues with the storytelling by focusing on a certain clone and then later in a different chapter, we may get a big time jump and a different clone (either the same clone or an entirely different person) but generations later.
In addition, she intersperses stories of Convoy 7 with Convoy 12, although she starts at the beginning of Convoy 12’s story.
Where 7 is on a generational journey of thousands of years, 12’s convoy stays in earth’s star system playing with SD bubbles. During one of the tests, an accident happens, and 2 of the 3 ships find themselves far far away and surrounded by alien ships. In fact, when they finally figure out where they are, they also realize that 100,000 years have passed.
This second book in this series was just as mind boggling as the first. Once again, the science hurt my brain, but this is what I expect from well done epic sci-fi!
I have an advance copy of Noumenon Ultra and can’t wait to jump in to see what the author does next!!
In addition, she intersperses stories of Convoy 7 with Convoy 12, although she starts at the beginning of Convoy 12’s story.
Where 7 is on a generational journey of thousands of years, 12’s convoy stays in earth’s star system playing with SD bubbles. During one of the tests, an accident happens, and 2 of the 3 ships find themselves far far away and surrounded by alien ships. In fact, when they finally figure out where they are, they also realize that 100,000 years have passed.
This second book in this series was just as mind boggling as the first. Once again, the science hurt my brain, but this is what I expect from well done epic sci-fi!
I have an advance copy of Noumenon Ultra and can’t wait to jump in to see what the author does next!!
August 26, 2018
Noumenon Infinity (Kindle Edition) by Marina J. Lostetter
Definitely a Five Star rating! The first book, Noumenon, was anther great read, and this sequel is even better! You don't have to read the first book as this does a very good job of standing alone, but it would be slightly helpful. (Plus it's a good read)
The author's idea of continuing a character thru different lifetimes as a clone is rather ingenious. Not that the individual's memories get passed along, but rather the essence of who the person is would be the asme from one iteration to the next. Also, the scope of this epic expands way past the original, in both geography and time.
So this is a very worthy read, and yes it does get personal, and in a variety of clever ways.
Definitely a Five Star rating! The first book, Noumenon, was anther great read, and this sequel is even better! You don't have to read the first book as this does a very good job of standing alone, but it would be slightly helpful. (Plus it's a good read)
The author's idea of continuing a character thru different lifetimes as a clone is rather ingenious. Not that the individual's memories get passed along, but rather the essence of who the person is would be the asme from one iteration to the next. Also, the scope of this epic expands way past the original, in both geography and time.
So this is a very worthy read, and yes it does get personal, and in a variety of clever ways.
August 19, 2018
Wow that was good. Continues where Noumenon left off with the 7th convoy, but also goes back to the beginning with a look at what happened to the last (12th) convoy. I can't imagine there being a sequel to this but I would happily read one.
September 19, 2018
Now a week removed from the end of this I think I can deliver some thoughts!
Noumenon Infinity was one of my most highly anticipated sequels of the year and a few chapters into it I remembered why with stunning clarity.
To avoid spoilers I will keep the plot section here vague. Noumenon Infinity takes place from two perspectives. We follow the continued adventures of 'Convoy Seven', a fleet of scientific spacecraft that have been on a centuries long quest to discover the secrets behind an alien construct surrounding a star lightyears removed from Earth and we are also introduced to 'Convoy Twelve' another mission from the same time as 'Convoy Seven' that has encountered a world shattering accident leaving them stranded in space far, far, far from home. Whilst these two stories begin disconnected they both stand brilliantly on their own and compliment eachother perfectly. Convoy Seven's tale is told through the eyes of the crew as they explore and discover over the centuries which naturally leads to a lot of jumping forward in time. This is counteracted by Convoy Twelve which is a much more static story that unfolds in one location over the space of about a year. Convoy Twelve acts as a natural anchor point for the reader, a bit of normalcy to return to after time spent with the increasingly detached Convoy Seven.
Please don't take my use of the word 'detachment' to be a detriment to the strength of the Convoy Seven portions of this tale. Convoy Seven's development as an independent society from what we know as modern Earth is a fascinating journey. In Noumenon we saw this society develop, and in Infinity it's taken to new places as the crew becomes more and more removed from Earth. The way that Lostetter explores these ideas is one of the biggest strengths of the series and Convoy Seven's evolution is steeped in a history that it's a joy to bare witness to.
Convoy Twelve does offer the stronger connection to the characters. Because we don't jump around in time with them there is a lot more time to flesh out the characters and explore them as individuals rather than as a part of the Convoy society. That leads into probably the greatest achievement of the series, the diversity!
Noumenon Infinity offers a stellar (HA!) example of how to use a diverse cast effectively, without making the story all about their diversity. The diverse cast of characters hail from all different genders, races and sexualities and these differences actually have influence on the way the characters think and act in the story. There's a fantastic example of how different interpretations of the same word in Chinese and Western culture lead to a conflict because it affects the perpective of events by the various crew (I can't say specifically what because SPOILERS!). This was in fact so good I'm going to be doing a full article about it for the blog soon!
I was so thrilled with this sequel and I am eagerly anticipating whatever Lostetter decides to throw our way next. It's fun, it's smart and it's got some brilliantly fresh takes on classic ideas. Loved it. Loved everything about it.
Noumenon Infinity was one of my most highly anticipated sequels of the year and a few chapters into it I remembered why with stunning clarity.
To avoid spoilers I will keep the plot section here vague. Noumenon Infinity takes place from two perspectives. We follow the continued adventures of 'Convoy Seven', a fleet of scientific spacecraft that have been on a centuries long quest to discover the secrets behind an alien construct surrounding a star lightyears removed from Earth and we are also introduced to 'Convoy Twelve' another mission from the same time as 'Convoy Seven' that has encountered a world shattering accident leaving them stranded in space far, far, far from home. Whilst these two stories begin disconnected they both stand brilliantly on their own and compliment eachother perfectly. Convoy Seven's tale is told through the eyes of the crew as they explore and discover over the centuries which naturally leads to a lot of jumping forward in time. This is counteracted by Convoy Twelve which is a much more static story that unfolds in one location over the space of about a year. Convoy Twelve acts as a natural anchor point for the reader, a bit of normalcy to return to after time spent with the increasingly detached Convoy Seven.
Please don't take my use of the word 'detachment' to be a detriment to the strength of the Convoy Seven portions of this tale. Convoy Seven's development as an independent society from what we know as modern Earth is a fascinating journey. In Noumenon we saw this society develop, and in Infinity it's taken to new places as the crew becomes more and more removed from Earth. The way that Lostetter explores these ideas is one of the biggest strengths of the series and Convoy Seven's evolution is steeped in a history that it's a joy to bare witness to.
Convoy Twelve does offer the stronger connection to the characters. Because we don't jump around in time with them there is a lot more time to flesh out the characters and explore them as individuals rather than as a part of the Convoy society. That leads into probably the greatest achievement of the series, the diversity!
Noumenon Infinity offers a stellar (HA!) example of how to use a diverse cast effectively, without making the story all about their diversity. The diverse cast of characters hail from all different genders, races and sexualities and these differences actually have influence on the way the characters think and act in the story. There's a fantastic example of how different interpretations of the same word in Chinese and Western culture lead to a conflict because it affects the perpective of events by the various crew (I can't say specifically what because SPOILERS!). This was in fact so good I'm going to be doing a full article about it for the blog soon!
I was so thrilled with this sequel and I am eagerly anticipating whatever Lostetter decides to throw our way next. It's fun, it's smart and it's got some brilliantly fresh takes on classic ideas. Loved it. Loved everything about it.
November 11, 2018
4.5 stars. I loved this sequel to Noumenon. Thoroughly entertaining!
November 8, 2018
[4.5]
Ooh! I liked this one so much better than the first one. Really great story. Still a little bewildered, which is the best feeling!
Ooh! I liked this one so much better than the first one. Really great story. Still a little bewildered, which is the best feeling!
August 23, 2018
Nuomenon Infinity is more good stuff from the author of Nuomenon. Both books are mosaic novels, containing shorter stories that all take place in the same world.
In this case, it's about two space convoys, one launched by a space consortium and another a ragtag fleet thought lost, both of which address the story from different directions.
And now that 70s song "Convoy" is stuck in my head.
Both stories are thrilling and crammed with action, with echoes of "Firefly" and "Battlestar Galactica." Like those shows, these books are surprisingly, effectively human. The story really sticks it to your emotions. I cried a time or two. Then I read in the author's afterword that she named one character after the Orlando nightclub shooting victims, and cried again.
I can't wait for more from Marina Lostetter.
In this case, it's about two space convoys, one launched by a space consortium and another a ragtag fleet thought lost, both of which address the story from different directions.
And now that 70s song "Convoy" is stuck in my head.
Both stories are thrilling and crammed with action, with echoes of "Firefly" and "Battlestar Galactica." Like those shows, these books are surprisingly, effectively human. The story really sticks it to your emotions. I cried a time or two. Then I read in the author's afterword that she named one character after the Orlando nightclub shooting victims, and cried again.
I can't wait for more from Marina Lostetter.
July 10, 2019
Wow. This book is one hell of a level up from the first book in the series; every problem I had with the first one is fixed (including some I didn’t mention in my review, like the intense eugenics overtones and the lack of any disabled people). The vignette structure works here, the science fiction element is here, the actual breadth of the human future is here.
My only real complaint about this is that you do have to read the first one to understand this one. But wow, this one is pretty great.
My only real complaint about this is that you do have to read the first one to understand this one. But wow, this one is pretty great.
September 23, 2021
Gah! Alien abductions while exploring space? Yes, please!
September 1, 2025
This book honestly beat me up!!! Every new discovery or plot twist absolutely floored me. I couldn't see anything coming, and I'm usually pretty good at predicting! But I never once had any idea where things were going and it blew my mind every single time. I initially thought that the writing didn't flow quite as well as the first book in the series, and the "lessons" or deep realizations by some of the characters felt forced... even a little primitive or underdeveloped. But after sitting with it a while, I actually think that's ok! The reader sees so much time pass and so many generations of people throughout these books, and we're frequently cut off suddenly from a character by another 1,000 year time skip. We can't get too attached to any character, because they'll be long dead in a few pages. Interestingly, the character I feel I know best is the ship's AI, ICC (or C.). ICC is the only constant and, like the reader, watches generations fly by, learning more each time... It makes sense that a single human getting an idea about the purpose of life wouldn't feel all that interesting or novel to us. ICC and the reader have lived the equivalent of hundreds of lives and have had much more time to learn than a human only halfway through their 80 years. The lessons read to me sort of like a 5 year old telling an adult very seriously and in great detail that "cats meow and dogs bark" (yes, they do, very good job! and what do birds do?)
Anyway, I had a great time, and am really looking forward to reading Ultra as soon as it's my turn at the library! 🤩
Anyway, I had a great time, and am really looking forward to reading Ultra as soon as it's my turn at the library! 🤩
October 12, 2024
Odd case: I'm somewhat positive about the book overall because it took some big swings, yet filled with mostly complaints (more than average for this sort of science fiction). I'm also curiously unsure how to classify what this book is supposed to be.
Plot-based? No, there's little driving plot between the different novellas. Character-based? While the people involved generally have a fair bit of characterization, no one undergoes much of an arc and most appear too little to be the hook. Idea-based? I see some reviewers putting it in that category, but I would have said definitely not: so many of the ideas are treated as incidental instead of fully explored that I would have said the author wasn't interested in that aspect.
In other words, I'm not sure what the heart of this book is, so I keep coming back to the feeling that it was unfocused. The arc with the BDO was interesting, but it emphasized just how much of the novel is the characters having no idea what's going on, with no real agency and not accomplishing much with the agency they do have. It's like a theme park ride, except where some books do this as the author eagerly shows you all their ideas, this one doesn't seem interested in doing that.
That might seem a little harsh, but I felt a lot of the science was pretty iffy. The idea of "clone memories" is dubious - I'm happy to accept strange premises for the sake of exploring interesting ideas, but as I said above, I felt like this wasn't explored.
Plot-based? No, there's little driving plot between the different novellas. Character-based? While the people involved generally have a fair bit of characterization, no one undergoes much of an arc and most appear too little to be the hook. Idea-based? I see some reviewers putting it in that category, but I would have said definitely not: so many of the ideas are treated as incidental instead of fully explored that I would have said the author wasn't interested in that aspect.
In other words, I'm not sure what the heart of this book is, so I keep coming back to the feeling that it was unfocused. The arc with the BDO was interesting, but it emphasized just how much of the novel is the characters having no idea what's going on, with no real agency and not accomplishing much with the agency they do have. It's like a theme park ride, except where some books do this as the author eagerly shows you all their ideas, this one doesn't seem interested in doing that.
That might seem a little harsh, but I felt a lot of the science was pretty iffy. The idea of "clone memories" is dubious - I'm happy to accept strange premises for the sake of exploring interesting ideas, but as I said above, I felt like this wasn't explored.
July 19, 2019
I don't think I'm capable of writing a proper review of this yet, so I'll just say that this series is incredibly exciting. For anyone who wishes to explore the universe, to witness human evolution on a grand scale, to ponder what AI will be like in the future, to reflect upon ethical quandaries that arise from scientific development, this is a must read. And to ground it all we get to see how both the thought of discoveries and the actual discoveries affect the diverse set of characters in both novels. I cannot wait for the third installment in this series!
July 30, 2025
This was a bit different than book 1, which focused on Convoy 7 and it's trials to a distant star and back, and introduced Convoy 12, which was kept in the Sol System to further develop sub-space drive technology.
This ran several time-lines, switching between the 2 convoys and the pacing suffered a bit because of it.
I adore Lostetter's prose and her relaxed style of storytelling, but parts of this dragged on too long.
I still thoroughly enjoyed this and look forward to reading book 3.
This ran several time-lines, switching between the 2 convoys and the pacing suffered a bit because of it.
I adore Lostetter's prose and her relaxed style of storytelling, but parts of this dragged on too long.
I still thoroughly enjoyed this and look forward to reading book 3.
May 15, 2019
I loved this sequel to the science fiction novel “Noumenon”. In the first novel, humanity decided to send out generation spaceships in pursuit of answers to the most compelling scientific questions of the day. This sequel continues humanity’s quest for knowledge. It invokes a sense of wonder that, at the end, brought tears to my eyes.
November 5, 2022
The best compliment I can give this book is it kept my attention for +500 pages. I'm usually a short novel sort of person lately. The second best compliment is that I'm looking forward to reading the third book in this trilogy 😍.
September 3, 2021
Return of the Big Dumb Objects! After the first book, I was really excited to see what else Lostetter had in store for this series. In some ways, my expectations were fulfilled: Convoy 7 (relaunch) has returned to the Web, and now we get to find out what happened to the 'lost' Convoy 12, as well. It should have been amazing.
Instead, I'm unsettled. Or maybe just unfulfilled.
Credit to the author, we don't waste time retreading the long journey to The Web. This is more about what happens as a result of the explorations, now that society's been established. And on that level, Convoy 7's story works very well. There are some truly beautiful scenes in here. And yet, socially speaking, there's also a lot of "humans are the real aliens" going on, without a lot of bridge explaining how they got there. Coupled with a LOT of "sufficiently advanced technology," the story takes some very odd twists away from familiar ground, and doesn't generate enough narrative tension to compensate. The two 'big reveals' of this book... weren't, for me.
Also, Vanhi & Stone's entire plotline is eyeroll-worthy.
This book isn't bad. It's more that I built up a series of expectations based on the first book, and things didn't come together as I expected. It's still interesting, but it's lost some quality of enchantment. We'll see how book three goes. 3/5.
Instead, I'm unsettled. Or maybe just unfulfilled.
Credit to the author, we don't waste time retreading the long journey to The Web. This is more about what happens as a result of the explorations, now that society's been established. And on that level, Convoy 7's story works very well. There are some truly beautiful scenes in here. And yet, socially speaking, there's also a lot of "humans are the real aliens" going on, without a lot of bridge explaining how they got there. Coupled with a LOT of "sufficiently advanced technology," the story takes some very odd twists away from familiar ground, and doesn't generate enough narrative tension to compensate. The two 'big reveals' of this book... weren't, for me.
Also, Vanhi & Stone's entire plotline is eyeroll-worthy.
This book isn't bad. It's more that I built up a series of expectations based on the first book, and things didn't come together as I expected. It's still interesting, but it's lost some quality of enchantment. We'll see how book three goes. 3/5.
September 16, 2021
Excellent twists and turns, sympathetic characters, shocker moments.
November 16, 2021
Another great story. Some disjointed presentation of the story arc but none the less an enjoyable read.
An alien fleet traps the convoy and some surprises arise.
An alien fleet traps the convoy and some surprises arise.
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