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Superluminary #1-3
Superluminary
Being assassinated once may be an accident. Being assassinated twice is enemy action.
Aeneas Tell of the House of Tell is one of the youngest Lords of Creation. His family rules the Nine Worlds through its control of the ultra-advanced technology that has permitted the colonization of the entire solar System. More gods than men, the Lords of Creation have cheated Death itself. But even a quasi-immortal god will take exception to being assassinated. Twice. Especially when the assassin turns out to be a someone he thought was a friend.
And when his assassinations turn out to be a prelude to interstellar war on the grandest possible scale with an evil so cosmic that its limits can scarcely be imagined, Aeneas has no choice but to declare himself the Emperor of Man.
SUPERLUMINARY is the latest and most brilliant creation of science fiction grandmaster John C. Wright, the Dragon-award winning author of THE UNWITHERING REALM, THE GOLDEN AGE, MOTH & COBWEB, and AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND.
Aeneas Tell of the House of Tell is one of the youngest Lords of Creation. His family rules the Nine Worlds through its control of the ultra-advanced technology that has permitted the colonization of the entire solar System. More gods than men, the Lords of Creation have cheated Death itself. But even a quasi-immortal god will take exception to being assassinated. Twice. Especially when the assassin turns out to be a someone he thought was a friend.
And when his assassinations turn out to be a prelude to interstellar war on the grandest possible scale with an evil so cosmic that its limits can scarcely be imagined, Aeneas has no choice but to declare himself the Emperor of Man.
SUPERLUMINARY is the latest and most brilliant creation of science fiction grandmaster John C. Wright, the Dragon-award winning author of THE UNWITHERING REALM, THE GOLDEN AGE, MOTH & COBWEB, and AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND.
482 pages, Paperback
First published July 5, 2018
About the author
John C. Wright
147 books459 followersJohn C. Wright (John Charles Justin Wright, born 1961) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy novels. A Nebula award finalist (for the fantasy novel Orphans of Chaos), he was called "this fledgling century's most important new SF talent" by Publishers Weekly (after publication of his debut novel, The Golden Age).
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 10, 2024
Absolutely Amazing!
A full review too come after a more recent reread. One my my best books from the esteemed John C. Wright and definitely part of my favorites of all time shelf.
Read II: 2021
A full review too come after a more recent reread. One my my best books from the esteemed John C. Wright and definitely part of my favorites of all time shelf.
Read II: 2021
August 10, 2018
I read these separately, but they felt more like a single work. It was a wild, technobabbly ride, like a pulpier version of the author's Count to Infinity series. I wouldn't say either series is my favorite; I feel like Wright's fantasy characters tend to feel more fleshed out than his post-human superdudes like Aeneas, the hero of the story and at first, just another grandchild of the late emperor of the human race.
Aeneas is a little more human than his feuding aunts and uncles; he believes in restoring democracy to the solar system, where the vast powers discovered by his imperial grandfather and distributed among his sons and daughters have hopelessly perverted the politics of Man. This seems but little grounds for the assassination attempt on Aeneas, and it turns out Bigger Matters are at stake. Outside the solar system, the galaxy is under the control of a sort of vampire Borg collective that Grandfather apparently knew about but kept a secret. It will take the latter two thirds of the story (and a whole lot of technobabble) to save mankind from this existential threat.
If you like your technobabble fast and furious with exploding stars and vast interstellar tragic histories, or even if you just want to see more Dyson spheres in one book than anywhere else in science fiction, this is the story for you.
Aeneas is a little more human than his feuding aunts and uncles; he believes in restoring democracy to the solar system, where the vast powers discovered by his imperial grandfather and distributed among his sons and daughters have hopelessly perverted the politics of Man. This seems but little grounds for the assassination attempt on Aeneas, and it turns out Bigger Matters are at stake. Outside the solar system, the galaxy is under the control of a sort of vampire Borg collective that Grandfather apparently knew about but kept a secret. It will take the latter two thirds of the story (and a whole lot of technobabble) to save mankind from this existential threat.
If you like your technobabble fast and furious with exploding stars and vast interstellar tragic histories, or even if you just want to see more Dyson spheres in one book than anywhere else in science fiction, this is the story for you.
March 11, 2022
-- Teleport the Andromeda Galaxy to defeat the Space Vampires
John C. Wright is a big ideas scifi author, but has a tendency to get silly. Superluminary has a bit of both. The discoverer of an alien artifact gets access to (technology that is indistinguishable from) magic, and sets himself up as emperor of the solar system, with his children ruling over the planets, moons, and asteroids. Then, space vampires. I was disappointed when we never dug into the democratization of magic, and while there was some interesting zero-sum game theory going on with the vampires, again it was under-developed. But the plot moved along and one episode hooked into the next. Unlike the unimaginably ancient and malevolent un-life infesting the galactic core, I was satisfied.
John C. Wright is a big ideas scifi author, but has a tendency to get silly. Superluminary has a bit of both. The discoverer of an alien artifact gets access to (technology that is indistinguishable from) magic, and sets himself up as emperor of the solar system, with his children ruling over the planets, moons, and asteroids. Then, space vampires. I was disappointed when we never dug into the democratization of magic, and while there was some interesting zero-sum game theory going on with the vampires, again it was under-developed. But the plot moved along and one episode hooked into the next. Unlike the unimaginably ancient and malevolent un-life infesting the galactic core, I was satisfied.
April 4, 2022
A great but flawed exploration of ideas
I found this to be a fascinating exploration of some weird ideas about power, the nature of the universe, anti-life, fucked up families, violence,...
To be clear, there is a painful heteronormativity in this author's works, as there exists no exploration or questioning of the stereotypical male/female rigid western images, but everything else is poked at, explored, played with. I also do not agree on a lot of aspects with the vision of humans that stems from this book, but I also highly enjoyed the tensions and ideas proposed.
I think this is the main strength of science-fiction: open up doors to explore ideas. We don't have to agree with all, but boy do I enjoy this author's wild, crazy thoughts.
A lot of fun, a lot of action. The further you go, the crazier it gets.
I found this to be a fascinating exploration of some weird ideas about power, the nature of the universe, anti-life, fucked up families, violence,...
To be clear, there is a painful heteronormativity in this author's works, as there exists no exploration or questioning of the stereotypical male/female rigid western images, but everything else is poked at, explored, played with. I also do not agree on a lot of aspects with the vision of humans that stems from this book, but I also highly enjoyed the tensions and ideas proposed.
I think this is the main strength of science-fiction: open up doors to explore ideas. We don't have to agree with all, but boy do I enjoy this author's wild, crazy thoughts.
A lot of fun, a lot of action. The further you go, the crazier it gets.
November 1, 2023
I have never got into anything Wright has written except for Golden Age and this follows that trend. It is a 90% fantasy book in the guise of SF, but blurting out some pulpy pseudo science every time to justify some new magical ability with no foreshadowing that magically saves the day, does not a good book make.
Some good foundational ideas like, a family becoming Gods to due to access to advanced technology, recreating humanity in each of the families individual visions. The conflict with Aliens. But the execution is just dreadful. Yes I can understand advanced science can come off as magic but then he proceed to explain it in insanely silly sort of makes sense way so it can fit into a SF category.
Golden age was amazing. I dont know what happened but I don't think the author has the ability to craft a decent SF that can deliver his ambitions for the plot.
Some good foundational ideas like, a family becoming Gods to due to access to advanced technology, recreating humanity in each of the families individual visions. The conflict with Aliens. But the execution is just dreadful. Yes I can understand advanced science can come off as magic but then he proceed to explain it in insanely silly sort of makes sense way so it can fit into a SF category.
Golden age was amazing. I dont know what happened but I don't think the author has the ability to craft a decent SF that can deliver his ambitions for the plot.
November 19, 2023
Potential, but wasted. He needed to spend more time on the intrigue and politics of the admittedly interesting characters and scenario he set up. Rather it just seemed like page after page of repetitive Star Trek technobabble. The author is clearly capable of much more, not giving up on him after this first read.
July 18, 2020
This series was great. Sometimes a little on the nose but it flowed quicker than count to infinity. I loved the implications regarding dangerous knowledge, militias, freedom of information, and entrusting free people with dangerous weapons for the greater good.
August 21, 2025
Very interesting science fiction. Fast paced, a lot of deus ex machina in it. It starts out with the human race ruled by a family of basically demi-gods. Powers beyond comprehension which come from technology their father found from an alien civilization. He gave them each a part of it and the claimed and terraformed the worlds and moons of the solar system. Some nods to mythology here. Lord Jupiter has powers of electromagnetism and throws lightning as a weapon. Lord Mercury is super fast. Lady Venus is lovely and had mind controlling technology everyone fears.
Like any good myth - they rebelled against their overlord father and threw him down so they could rule. But they all know he had more knowledge and power he never shared. Power that would let them travel faster than light and leave the solar system.
That power gets found - and they discover the reason no alien signals have ever reached them from outside the solar system...
In a lot of ways this reminded me of Simon Green's Nightside books. That type of fiction of people, creatures and powers but instead of a fantasy / religious setting it's a science fiction / galaxy setting.
Like any good myth - they rebelled against their overlord father and threw him down so they could rule. But they all know he had more knowledge and power he never shared. Power that would let them travel faster than light and leave the solar system.
That power gets found - and they discover the reason no alien signals have ever reached them from outside the solar system...
In a lot of ways this reminded me of Simon Green's Nightside books. That type of fiction of people, creatures and powers but instead of a fantasy / religious setting it's a science fiction / galaxy setting.
December 19, 2023
Large and expressive ideas, but felt like weak execution. At this scale, it was hard for me to really understand what was being described a lot of the time, and I just have to take his word for it that macroscale engineering on a galactic scale and far-future manipulation of the fundamental laws of physics really can work like this. I am okay with this, generally speaking, but it did make it all seem a lot more remote and hard to comprehend compared to others of his writings that were more down-to-earth. The characters in his stories also felt a lot less real and more like caricatures: I didn't feel like any of them were as real or as memorable as Phaethon or Atkins from "the Golden Age" trilogy, or as Meneleus Montrose or Ximen del Azarchel from the "Count to Infinity" sequence. The ending was cool, but overall I found this book only okay, not fascinating like John C. Wright's other series' that I've loved so much.
May 7, 2022
I managed to "read" 40 something % of this before I put it down. Repetitious and boring.
Its just a lot of damage, then magic, then repeating it again.
I can see others liking it .. but not me.
Its just a lot of damage, then magic, then repeating it again.
I can see others liking it .. but not me.
October 11, 2019
Outstanding mind blowing epic and more could not put it down
September 7, 2024
pretty fun. engaging story that doesn't take itself too seriously, cool scifi concepts. not deep or memorable, but solid book throughout
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews