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Great Ship
Katabasis
Rich tourists pay a fortune for the honor and misery of walking across an alien habitat, and a few powerful porters make their livings helping the tourists endure the impossible gravity. Katabasis is like nobody else. A species with a population of one, she came to the Great Ship by the most unusual means, and in the course of her duties as a porter, she will meet the most singular human.
"The girl always woke early, long before the sun set. Bad dreams woke her, and good ones too. The heat woke her. Breathing the thick, toxic, and very dusty air hurt her lungs, and she would roll to her side and cough hard and ache all the worse, unable to fall back to sleep. Sometimes her lover woke her with his coughing and his dreams, and then they would lie in the hot shadow beneath the mirrored tent, talking about critical matters -- water rations and food stocks and the distance to be covered tonight and the little hints of terrain visible in the fiery glare of the plains. It was important to plan your night’s walk and then grab an early start. The People were moving in a wide line, shoulder to shoulder as they pushed across the wilderness, and it was best to get ahead of the dust kicked up by all of those feet and wheels. And if there was time after their planning, or if one of them was especially sad, the other would mention the humans and their Great Ship. These were the ambitions, and everyone needed ambitions. Not like they needed water, no, but the Great Ship was everything that water and food couldn’t supply. It didn’t represent hope; it was the only hope. Its hallways and giant wedge-rooms offered rest to the weary, and the body and mind would be rejuvenated and then enlarged -- relentless long life and profound brains ready to be filled with experience and joy that would endure for thousands and millions of years."
Robert Reed has been writing Great Ship stories for more than two decades. "Katabasis" was nominated for the Nebula Award.
"The girl always woke early, long before the sun set. Bad dreams woke her, and good ones too. The heat woke her. Breathing the thick, toxic, and very dusty air hurt her lungs, and she would roll to her side and cough hard and ache all the worse, unable to fall back to sleep. Sometimes her lover woke her with his coughing and his dreams, and then they would lie in the hot shadow beneath the mirrored tent, talking about critical matters -- water rations and food stocks and the distance to be covered tonight and the little hints of terrain visible in the fiery glare of the plains. It was important to plan your night’s walk and then grab an early start. The People were moving in a wide line, shoulder to shoulder as they pushed across the wilderness, and it was best to get ahead of the dust kicked up by all of those feet and wheels. And if there was time after their planning, or if one of them was especially sad, the other would mention the humans and their Great Ship. These were the ambitions, and everyone needed ambitions. Not like they needed water, no, but the Great Ship was everything that water and food couldn’t supply. It didn’t represent hope; it was the only hope. Its hallways and giant wedge-rooms offered rest to the weary, and the body and mind would be rejuvenated and then enlarged -- relentless long life and profound brains ready to be filled with experience and joy that would endure for thousands and millions of years."
Robert Reed has been writing Great Ship stories for more than two decades. "Katabasis" was nominated for the Nebula Award.
63 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 12, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 7, 2014
Meta: ISFDB. I've read it in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection
This novella is set in the Great Ship Series which is some handful of stories and novels published since 1994. The eponymous Great Ship is a hollow planet travelling through the galaxy, inhabited by different races of biologically immortals. This BigDumbObject remembers me of Clarke's Hard SF Rendezvous with Rama or even more of John Varley's Science Fantasy Titan.
Known from previous stories are Quee Lee and Perri, but the main protagonists and better developed characters are the non-human guide Katabasis, and one human Varid. They are taking on a journeyin a high-gravity region of the Great Ship, causing daily broken bones which heal nearly instantenous. But the mental hardships are worse which leads to reflections on the perils of immortality. The story is told with flashbacks of Katabasis' history which reveals some very human traits in this alien creature. She develops a relationship to Varid who shows opposite traits making him more inhuman.
Excellent characteristic, a touching narration but a somewhat boring, lengthy story.
More like ★★★1/2
This novella is set in the Great Ship Series which is some handful of stories and novels published since 1994. The eponymous Great Ship is a hollow planet travelling through the galaxy, inhabited by different races of biologically immortals. This BigDumbObject remembers me of Clarke's Hard SF Rendezvous with Rama or even more of John Varley's Science Fantasy Titan.
Known from previous stories are Quee Lee and Perri, but the main protagonists and better developed characters are the non-human guide Katabasis, and one human Varid. They are taking on a journeyin a high-gravity region of the Great Ship, causing daily broken bones which heal nearly instantenous. But the mental hardships are worse which leads to reflections on the perils of immortality. The story is told with flashbacks of Katabasis' history which reveals some very human traits in this alien creature. She develops a relationship to Varid who shows opposite traits making him more inhuman.
Excellent characteristic, a touching narration but a somewhat boring, lengthy story.
More like ★★★1/2
January 8, 2014
Contrasts an alien woman's current job as a porter for a future fad for extreme trekking (people are immortal, thanks to technology, so they can take a lot of abuse in alien landscapes), with her past experience making nearly the same trek as part of her tribe's last, desperate act (a trek that makes the Trail of Tears look like an afternoon stroll). Some good stuff here, but it dragged a bit (something that often happens when characters are going through boring and agonizing experiences.)
September 1, 2023
A Novella (a long story but too short to be labelled as a novel) set in the "Great Ship" series.
I recommend reading this after having run a marathon. You won't feel so tired. :)
I've read this before in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I've found that as I've aged I am better able to read Reed's stories because my brain can sit still without skimming for a good action sequence or maybe some interesting dialogue. Reed's stuff can be very cerebral at times, often with hidden depths that I can catch on now that I'm older and appreciate. Not every science fiction story has to be Star Wars zoom-excitement!-zap zap-etc. Reed's novel "Marrow", which I think was the first instance of the "Great Ship", is one of my all-time favorite novels. One of those I would definitely want with me if I was stuck on a deserted island and could only have 5 books. The sheer awe and wonder of this ginormous alien ship that's bigger than a planet, that no one has even fully explored centuries after it's discovery, full of weird alien passengers and their unusual habitats makes my brain explode. Add in self-healing humans who can live for millions of years and my mind just hit the stratosphere. So, not terribly exciting but very interesting.
I recommend reading this after having run a marathon. You won't feel so tired. :)
I've read this before in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I've found that as I've aged I am better able to read Reed's stories because my brain can sit still without skimming for a good action sequence or maybe some interesting dialogue. Reed's stuff can be very cerebral at times, often with hidden depths that I can catch on now that I'm older and appreciate. Not every science fiction story has to be Star Wars zoom-excitement!-zap zap-etc. Reed's novel "Marrow", which I think was the first instance of the "Great Ship", is one of my all-time favorite novels. One of those I would definitely want with me if I was stuck on a deserted island and could only have 5 books. The sheer awe and wonder of this ginormous alien ship that's bigger than a planet, that no one has even fully explored centuries after it's discovery, full of weird alien passengers and their unusual habitats makes my brain explode. Add in self-healing humans who can live for millions of years and my mind just hit the stratosphere. So, not terribly exciting but very interesting.
December 26, 2023
I enjoyed this Greatship novella. There's something pretty great about long treks on inhospitable terrain, especially when the people can withstand quite THAT much damage and are effectively immortal.
Of course, I've read some with a lot more pain tolerance, but this kind of Hard-SF is always pretty fascinating.
Of course, I've read some with a lot more pain tolerance, but this kind of Hard-SF is always pretty fascinating.
March 4, 2020
Very solid science fiction, I liked it the most from “The year’s best science fiction” by Gardner Dozois.
I am absolutely happy about the fact this book was translated to Russian in 2018, five years after original publication.
I am absolutely happy about the fact this book was translated to Russian in 2018, five years after original publication.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews