Queen of Candesce

Virga #2

by Karl Schroeder

Venera Fanning was last seen falling into nothingness at the end of Sun of Suns. Now, in Queen of Candesce, Venera finds herself plunging through the air among the artificial worlds of Virga, far from home and her husband, who may or may not be alive. Landing in the ancient nation of Spyre, Venera encounters new enemies and new friends (or at least convenient allies). She must quickly learn who she can trust, and who she can manipulate in order to survive.
 
Survival isn't her only goal; with the powerful Key of Candesce in her hands, she can control the fate of the entire world of Virga, yet something even more pressing is driving her--the all consuming need for revenge.

Genres: Science Fiction, Steampunk, Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy, Audiobook, Adventure

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Karl Schroeder is an award-winning Canadian science fiction author. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as nanotechnology, terraforming, augmented reality and interstellar travel, and have a deeply philosophical streak. One of his concepts, known as thalience, has gained some currency in the artificial intelligence and computer networking communities.

Reviews

[Infosifter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was serialized in Analog, which is where I read it. I didn't realize it was part of a series, and I don't know if the first book was serialized earlier but in any case I don't have access to older issues of the magazine. This started out well in terms of world-building and depicts quite a bizarre social structure. Throughout the book I had trouble connecting with the main character; I don't necessarily have to like a character, but I do have to understand them and I couldn't figure this woman out until the last part of the book. I might read other books in the series, but I'm not in a tearing hurry to do it

[Peter Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Queen of Candesce (Virga Book 2) by Karl Schroeder

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

This is a call-back to classic science fiction with big ideas and swashbuckling. Virga is a planet-sized, gas-filled bag in space. It lacks gravity. It is inhabited by humans who have created low-tech versions of artificial gravity through centrifugal force. Lumps of soil provide farm lands. Water may exist in vast bubbles. Animals have evolved to move by flying. We know nothing of the universe outside of Virga, except that there are hostile artificial intelligences who are prepared to take over Virga if the field surrounding Virga that suppresses electronics is turned off.

The center region of Virga is home to Candesce, the Sun of Suns, which illuminates the central region of space. Candesce is an artificial sun. Other artificial suns in outlying regions allow humans to live outside the central regions in nations that stay together and float in the air current around Virga.

The first book followed the adventures of Hayden Griffin. Griffin belongs to the nation of Aerie which was conquered by the nomadic nation of Slipstream. His parents were part of the Aerie resistance with plans to light up a new sun and declare independence. Things go wrong and Hayden is left with a mission of vengeance that took him to Candesce with Slipstream admiral Chaison Fanning and his connivingly competent wife Venera Fanning. This group gets the “key to Candesce,” which almost leads to disaster as an agent of the outside entities almost get the key to Virga. The story ends with Hayden jetting away to complete his mission, Chaison’s ship destroyed, and Venera dropping away from Hayden into the open air of Virga in the hope of finding some place to land.

The second book opens with Venera arriving at the strange “world” of Spyre which is a large spinning tube with a smaller tube inside. The tubes spin to provide artificial gravity. Spyre is old and is falling apart. Its society has devolved into micro-nations, composed of a few buildings or a few acres. Venera uses her skills at conniving to elevate herself in this crazy culture. She has the Key to Candesce, which is of particular interest to the nation of Sacrus. Sacrus appears to have tentacles throughout Virga. The key will allow it to expand out of the restricted area it controls on Spyre.

During the course of this story, Venera becomes humanized. She started in the first book as a kind of villain. In this book, she becomes concerned with other people and acts heroically. Her mission remains to escape Spyre and to return to Slipstream for vengeance.

This is a fun and easy read. The format of this series seems to be to follow the original characters separately, which was surprising to me since I thought we would be following Griffin to the next stage of his mission. The next book appears to involve Chaison Fanning.

[Florin Pitea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've got a suspicion the author had an eye on the YA market when he wrote this novel. :)

[Jesse Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karl Schroeder is probably the best science fiction writer still writing today. He also happens to be one of those sadly under-appreciated writers. I think his low number of fans is probably due to the fact that his books are hard to quantify. His ideas are so big that they can't be described in a few phrases or often even in a few pages. In fact many of the ideas that Karl Schroeder writes about would easily fill an entire series for most authors. Karl Schroeder just throws in three or four (or more) for each book.

The great thing about this is that he doesn't turn them into epic tomes of encyclopedic volume. His books are relatively short, about three hundred pages, and he casually liters them with ideas that continually give me the creeps at their sheer imaginativeness. He creates completely new forms of government – not slightly modified versions of earth governments but completely new – and has a character casually mention reading about it in a book once. He imagines a new kind of technology, one that is realistic but completely outside of any of the ways scientists currently think, and then places the story in a world where that technology doesn't work.

In Sun of Suns Karl Schroeder introduced readers to the world of Virga. Virga is a giant metal balloon of breathable gas free-floating in space. At it's center is Candesce, the Sun of Suns, a man-made fusion sun that lights up the center of Virga for hundreds of miles. There were great naval battles fought in zero-gee and pirates and smugglers and hidden countries. The group of heros travelled to the skin of the world and then into it's center to the Principalities of Candesce all in an effort to forestall the imminent attack of Falcon Formation on their homeland.

Queen of Candesce is a more insular novel, focusing on only one of the characters from the previous book. Vanera Fanning is the conniving, brutal, vindictive, emotionally traumatized, foreign wife of Admiral Chaison Fanning. At the end of Sun of Suns Vanera found herself free floating near Candesce, alone and with only a few possessions – the key to Candesce and a pocketful of treasure.

Queen of Candesce begins with Garth Diamandis rescuing the unconscious Vanera from hitting the spinning wheel of Spyre. Spyre is the only wheel left that was originally built by the makers of Virga and is the only one large enough to host such wonders as cherry trees and horses. Because of it's monopoly on such Earthly treasures Spyre has become a checkerboard of single acre nations all trying to trade with the outside (of Spyre) world without letting anybody know what it is they trade in.

Vanera, finding that the skies around Spyre are booby trapped and she can't get off, and hearing news that her husband was killed in his attempts to stop Falcon Formation, sets herself up as the long lost heir to one of the forgotten countries of Spyre. In so doing she acts as the spark that ignites a revolution in the political tinder box of Spyre and everything erupts into chaos.

Vanera meets revolutionaries intent on creating an “Emergent Democracy” an idea so different from any other kind of government that it seems impossible to describe.

Karl Schroeder writes very good conflicted characters. Vanera is trying to be considerate and kind to people but she was raised in a house where that was not acceptable. She was taught to always hold grudges, get back at every insult, and most of all, always watch your back and look out for yourself. As a result she has issues with trusting people. She doesn't like anyone to get the drop on her. She has a temper and she's not afraid to kill people if it's in her best interests. In her defense she tries to always make sure it's also in other people's best interests as well and is usually smart enough to arrange it so that that is the case. She also has a neurotic obsession with a stray bullet that struck her jaw when she was a teenager. She carries the bullet around, intent on finding the source of that bullet, somewhere in the skies of Virga and destroying whoever fired it.

Vanera Fanning, for all her flaws, tries to be a good person. She married Chaison Fanning so that she could escape the murderous, vindictiveness of her own family and she wants to change her life, to be more normal. All of that paranoia and abuse don't go away over night, however.

Schroeder's books are often described as hard science fiction. I think the reason for this is because the science is all very realistic. His website documents much of his research and the physics and calculations involved and points out that his design for Virga is actually conservative when it comes to how big such a balloon could possibly be.

The reason that I don't call it hard science fiction is that none of this is in the novels. The place exists and if you care to check on it's scientific accuracy you can do so, but for most of us who just want a fun, believable story, that's all we get.

Queen of Candesce has a very fast pace. Things happen nonstop and Vanera grows as a person, slowly working her way through her own emotional traumas. Along the way she even helps Garth Diamandis recognize some of his own flaws. Much of the action is political, but there is a fair amount of physical action as well. Vanera is devious and tricksy and it's always exciting to see what new trick she's going to think up, what new plot she will devise.

Karl Schroeder isn't going to win any awards for his beautiful prose but neither will he be worthy of any real complaints either. The word that comes to mind when describing his writing style is transparent. Which, I believe, is a good thing. I read the entire book without once even noticing a particular turn of phrase or poetic line of description. The book flowed from beginning to end with no repetition and no poignant bits of 'look at how good I am' from the author.

I have two complaints about Queen of Candesce. One is that action scenes towards the end of the book got confusing. There were several times that I felt completely lost and couldn't figure out what was going on. While this is fairly realistic for a battle, I'm guessing, it's not very good writing. (Or movie making if the makers of the most recent Transformers movie want my opinion.) These scenes are short and quickly become more clear so it's not enough to detract from the entire story but they are annoying. The other part that upset me was also near the end. Karl Schroeder felt, for some reason, that he needed to add a gratuitous sex scene. The scene had no bearing on the outcome of the story or the characters. This kind of thing infuriates me because it was completely unnecessary. The scene could have been removed from the book without anything other than the page count being altered.

I really enjoy Karl Schoeder's work. He is one of the brilliant writers of today and his imagination is simply astonishing. I hope that my complaints about this book were a fluke so that I can continue to read his books.

(8/10)

[Kara Babcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Karl Schroeder's Sun of Suns almost a year ago and liked it but didn't love it. Queen of Candesce, in addition to standing by itself, has made me wonder if I was uncharitable to the first book. I honestly enjoyed Queen of Candesce every step of the way.

There is no question that Schroeder's Virga is a fabulous example of world-building. But it was so obvious in the first book, so overt, that at times it overwhelmed the story. That isn't the case here. Virga still plays an important role, but it's one that is integrated better into the story itself, which is really a political one.

Schroeder shows us that he can do more than describe a different type of world and drop people with steampunkesque technology and politics into that setting. Spyre is an example of how human politics has adjusted to the unique attributes of living on a wheel inside of fullerene sphere. There's an entire faction of conservation engineers devoted only to keeping Spyre intact, never mind politics. There are rebels who want "emergent government," something that Venera thinks won't work by dint of how Virga itself was designed. And hovering behind everything, there's the sinister but poorly-understood threat of "Artificial Nature." (I'm just now realizing what an oxymoron the phrase itself is, never mind what it denotes.)

Venera Fanning, who was more of antagonist in the first book, is a delectable protagonist. She lands in the nation of Spyre, which is more of a collection of micro-nations on two massive wheels near Candesce. With no previous knowledge of Spyre's politics or culture, she manages to inveigle her way into society, pull a con, and begin building her resource base. Her goal is to have the resources to return to Slipstream with a fleet and take revenge for her husband's death. But as Venera builds power in Spyre, she starts to make allies, even friends, and much to her dismay, develops a conscience.

I described Venera in my review of Sun of Suns as "a fun but ruthless antagonist." She's fun but ruthless here as well. She's fun because she gives every gambit everything she has; Venera is not just an action hero but an intelligent action hero who, once she has decided upon a course of action, commits to it whole-heartedly. She's ruthless because, at least at first, she doesn't care about how much of Spyre she has to destabilize (physically or politically) to get back home. Even when she displays loyalty to her new companions, like Garth, she never develops the same loyalty for Spyre or its people. Venera is always the outsider, driven by the goals that define her.

That's the deeper part of the story. We learn early on that Venera cares about only two possessions: the key to Candesce and the mysterious bullet that broke her jaw. Both are important to the plot, but they are more important to Venera as a character. Venera's accident with the bullet has formed the core of her personality, especially now that she believes her husband is dead: one of her reasons for staying alive is to find the origin of that bullet. But if she solves that mystery, who then does she become?

It's this question of identity that is central to Queen of Candesce. Venera has the opportunity to become the "botanist" of a small cherry-growing nation called Liris, but she doesn't. She instead cedes the position to someone more qualified, then returns to Greater Spyre in order to start anew and try to find a way to escape Spyre itself. Later, she assumes the identity of Amandera Thrace-Guilles, last heir of the sequestered nation of Buridan. Like any good con artist, she must become Amandera in order to dupe her marks (the entire council of Spyre, in this case). It's interesting to watch Venera try to juggle her two identities and watch the reactions of people based on who they think Venera is.

Maybe I just have a weakness for stories wrapped around con games, but Venera's deception makes Queen of Candesce just plain fun. Often she miscalculates, makes a mistake, and has to think on her feet, compromise, and come up with a new plan. But once in a while, one of Venera's plans works out, and every time that happened I just squealed in delight. I'm not sure if Sun of Suns deserves more credit than I originally gave it, but reading it was worth it just to get to this book. Here, Schroeder melds the massive scope of Virga with the minute scope of human lives. And now I know that if Venera Fanning is ever around, I want to be on her side.

My Reviews of the Virga series:
← Sun of Suns | Pirate Sun →

[Russ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part II of a double edition with Sun of Suns, the first book in the series.

Sun of Suns was a great book. It focuses on the world of Virga, which is a giant hollow sphere, 5,000 miles in diameter, filled with air and rocks, people and cities, fish and birds. At the center is a giant artificial sun, called Candesce.

Queen of Candesce loses some of the vitality of Sun of Suns. It's set in the claustrophobic, insular world of Spyre, one of the oldest habitats in Virga. Venera Fanning, survivor of a journey into the heart of the sun in the previous book, washes ashore in Spyre. She infiltrates the various societies within the habitat (and there are a lot of them) and manages to start at least one major war. And she realizes what it means to have the key to Candesce.

What I liked about the book is the realistic, gritty feel of the habitat, Spyre. It's very well-drawn as a place that has seen better days, but its residents don't quite realize how badly things have decayed. They're too inward-looking to care about the outside world, i.e., the rest of Virga. They spend all their time scheming, worrying about manners and protocol, while their home slowly collapses around them.

What I didn't like about the book is there's not enough of Virga. In Sun of Suns, the characters zoom through the air on jet bikes. They have swordfights in zero-gravity. The entire world as they know it is at stake. In this book, the world is much smaller and more constrained, and I think the book suffers as a result.

Maybe I don't like it because it's not "more of the same" compared to the previous book in the series. I don't think that's it, but it's definitely part of it. That said, I still give it four stars. Very fun to read, well-drawn characters, tense plot. Needs more action.

[Francesco Caria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dopo Il sole dei soli lo scenario si restringe, diventa claustrofobico e Venera deve fare i conti con sè stessa e, nell'affrontare esperienze che la metteranno a dura prova, rafforzerà il proprio carattere, crescendo pagina dopo pagina e capendo che il prossimo non è sempre e solo un avversario da sbaragliare con uno dei suoi intrighi, ma può diventare un alleato sincero e senza secondi fini. Nel finale del libro lo scenario cambia di nuovo e metaforicamente Spyre, un luogo chiuso verso gli stimoli esterni e con rare interazioni con i principati di Candesce, rappresenta la Vera precedente alle avventure narrate in questo libro, che le permetteranno invece di aprire la mente ed aprirsi agli altri.

[Michael Martineck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. It's just so much fun. Unpredictable, but never silly. I found it very difficult to stop reading. Usually my eyes gave out before my desire to set it aside for the night. Schroeder gets a lot of credit for his highly imaginative world, but deserves more for getting me rooting for a character that's not all that sympathetic. At least not at first.

[Gregg Kellogg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A change in viewpoint characters, and more exploration of the interesting air bubble with steam-punk overtones. The mystery of why it exists and who created it starts to reveal itself. But, it’s largely an exercise in further exploring this place and the people who inhabit it.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

The ingenuity and inventiveness of Karl Schroeder's miniuniverse has ushered the acclaimed author into the ranks of leading world-builders. In this second chapter of the Virga saga, Schroeder takes a different approach, with mixed reactions from the critics. He largely abandons the worlds and characters introduced in Sun of Suns and focuses on one character, the Machiavellian Venera Fanning, and one place, the world of Spyre. Most critics agreed that Venera was one of the most interesting protagonists in the earlier book, and she shines here, but it is Virga itself that steals the show. Frequent flashbacks and explanations allow the novel to stand alone, but the brisk plot and vivid settings will leave readers anxiously awaiting the next installment.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

No spoilers here.
Schroeder continues the story of the Sun of Suns as one of the characters, Venera Fanning, last seen was falling into the vast skies of Virga. Adrift she is pulled from the sky by an exile Garth Diamandis living on Spyre, a group of small nations, that exist in a closed society of the truly dysfunctional and, anitsocial.
The problem, part of Spyre is falling apart, and one of the nations is blocking the repairs. So Venera sets out to impersonate an heir of a nation in order to get on Spyre's council to remedy the situation, however, more develops from their.
Here we go from the marco in Book 1 to the micor in book two as, Schroeder in this volume gives us a much more up close view of a section of Virga, and develops Venera's character substantially.

[Bookbrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compelling story, Venera fanning is decent interesting character, wild world building i enjoyed the fact that I didn't know where the story was going. Schroeder has created a nice palate with the world he has created here. This series is a nod to Larry Niven's amazing The integral trees/ smoke ring duo. I am looking forward to the next book in this series.

[Rachel (Kalanadi)]

DNF'd because I wasn't interested and I really hate Venera. Took me over 2 weeks to read 4 chapters, so this just isn't going to happen.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Venera Fanning, having barely escaped the sun that lights the strange airborne worlds of Virga, enters a weird, creaking old structure known as Spyre, where she is rescued by an exiled former gigolo. Together, they use their wiles to try to survive Spyre's secretive ancient nations.

Review
I’ve been burned a few times buying a pile of books from one author or series (looking at you, Jonathan Carroll and L.E. Modesitt, Jr.). But I keep doing it, because I’m an optimist and sometimes it works out. Fingers crossed, but so far, the Virga series is working out well.

I read the first book a long time ago and loved it, but somehow didn’t follow up for a decade or more. Now, I’m finally digging into it, and this second book doesn’t disappoint. It follows Venera Fanning, a character from Sun of Suns that I didn’t particularly like, but does a fair amount to round her out (and make her more likeable as well).

The scale of the action is much smaller here – just one world in the huge Virga agglomeration – but just as epic in intensity. There’s a certain piratey, steampunky feel to it all, though there are few ships involved. Schroeder relies a little too heavily on coincidence, but it’s largely forgivable. He does miss a trick or two, though – for example, he explains the origin of a certain mysterious bullet, but does so so quickly, almost in passing, that I found it a substantial disappointment after all the build in in this book and the previous one.

All in all, a fun book, and a strong entry in a promising series.

[Juan Navarro · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Review: *Queen of Candesce* by Karl Schroeder**

Karl Schroeder’s *Queen of Candesce*, the second installment in the *Virga* series, takes readers deeper into one of science fiction’s most inventive settings. Within Virga—a vast artificial universe where gravity does not exist and life is contained in floating, rotating habitats—Schroeder crafts a world that is both confining and boundless. The absence of gravity shapes every aspect of life, from the physics of movement to the complex social structures within the clusters of floating towns. This strange, ethereal environment is brought to life with prose that paints vivid, unforgettable imagery.

The story follows Venera Fanning, a brilliant, cunning protagonist navigating the treacherous political landscape of Spyre, a fractured and chaotic habitat within Virga. Venera’s ruthless resourcefulness drives the plot as she contends with competing factions, shifting alliances, and her own survival. The novel demands careful attention, as the sheer number of characters, factions, and interwoven agendas can feel overwhelming at times. Spyre alone is divided into a multitude of "nations," each with its own culture and motivations, which can make the narrative feel like a complex puzzle. However, this intricacy adds depth to the world and rewards readers who embrace the challenge.

What makes *Queen of Candesce* stand out is how it balances its intricate world-building with a sharp sense of humor and keen observations about power and humanity. Schroeder’s wry tone often offsets the tension, providing moments of levity amidst the chaos.

For those willing to immerse themselves in its complexities, *Queen of Candesce* offers a one-of-a-kind adventure. Its richly imagined zero-gravity world and the intrigue of Spyre’s political schemes come together to create a story that is as thought-provoking as it is visually stunning. This is science fiction at its most creative and ambitious.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Venera is Schroeder’s best character: she has an actual emotional history that informs her actions. And her actions are swashbuckling. This is very profoundly satisfying. All in all, the book is not as great as I remembered it, but still has some very cool elements.

Spyre is a fascinating place, although in my memory its insular strangeness was described in much more detail. It inspired me to finally read Gormenghast. I wanted to have lots more detail about the world, even if it was pretty creepy.

The plot was also not as consistent as I remembered, being divided into several discrete episodes. Most of them were cool, but it felt like they were all given short shrift- we never got to dig in anywhere. I was told I cared about characters I had seen in 3-4 scenes. And... I just didn’t really??

Lastly, there were two characters who were meant to be bantering, seductive men. And, really, they were just harassing creeps. One of them implies that if he wanted her he would just take her. Another kidnaps her, ties her up and stares at her breasts embarassing her, purposely opens the door when she’s in the shower, etc. So the relationship she ends up having with one of them just squicked me right out. The tone of all those incidents was way off. The author’s idea of sexy is not mine.

Points for the concepts, but I was looking for something a little emotionally and thematically deeper. Like all his books. So close, but the things I don’t like end up being dealbreakers. Doubt I’ll re-read.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a continuation from book 1, so while it is a story of its own, it is much better to read book 1 first.
Virga is an artificial world built hundreds (or more) years ago and then forgotten? lost? abandoned? by Earth... or maybe Earth no longer exists? If this was ever addressed in the 1st book I do not remember it. Virga is a balloon world; a giant ball where people live on the interior. Due to lack of natural resources, the floating cities inside the world have become less technologically advanced than the original space-faring settlers/creators, and rust and decay is slowly killing the world. This is very much a 1700's space pirates story; although, not everything is lost. The inhabitants do have some understanding of tech and history. (It gives the book a bit of a steampunk feel without actually trying to be steampunk).
This book takes place immediately after the 1st book. Our heroine, Venera, finds herself on Spyre, a structure unlike the floating cities she grew up in.
I had a bit of a difficult time picturing Spyre, and would love to see some type of layout for the place.
Spyre is made up of dozens of small, independent fiefdoms, many consisting of just a few acres around a large family house, and a few larger kingdoms of several square miles.
Politics is a big part of this book, and since the world and its people are so different, it made the politics less normal, and more interesting.

[Nosfeat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il primo libro della trilogia (Il Sole dei Soli) era piuttosto interessante, soprattutto per il concept del sistema solare all'interno di un guscio cavo. Questo secondo libro parte bene, ambientato in una nuova nazione particolare, poi però un po' troppi "intrighi di corte" la fanno da padrone, quasi a calcare la mano su quel sentore di storia a cappa e spada già presente dal primo libro. Ci sono vari alti e bassi. Sembra quasi una grande parentesi per riempire il vuoto fra il primo e l'ultimo libro della trilogia; certo probabilmente questa storia è necessaria per preparare il terreno per il libro successivo: una sorta di grande prologo. Non mi sono mai piaciute le opere di transizione... Insomma, rispetto al primo libro, questo secondo è stato una delusione e un deterrente a portare a termine la lettura dell'intera trilogia, se non fosse stato per le ultime pagine che suscitano un po' di curiosità su quello che potrebbe accadere nel terzo libro.

[Bory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Queen of Candescence is, in many aspects, a much better book than its predecessor. The much narrower focus on single character makes for a more engaging read than the constant jumping around between multiple POVs. And Venera is a much more compelling and layered character than Hayden could ever be. Her strength and intelligence make her a heroine one can invest in.

That the story takes place on a single world allows for a much more detailed exploration of how Virga functions, though it diminishes the sense of wonder that accompanied the expedition in Suns.

The pacing is somewhat uneven. There were a few chapters in the middle when the whole story came to a screeching halt. Queen lacks the exciting space battles of Suns, though it somewhat makes up for it with deep political intrigue. Personally, I prefer the space battles.

Overall, an enjoyable read. I will be continuing with the series as soon as my copy of book 3 arrives.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is much more story-driven than world-driven, even though the world-building is absolutely critical for the nature of the story. It's an interesting mix. This whole series reminds me of the whole genre of subsistence/resource-constrained sci-fi that you see in things like Larry Niven's The Integral Trees (and many other Niven works like The Mote in God's Eye) or to some extent the Riverworld series. I think there may be other good examples of this genre that I'm missing at the moment.

I don't think this entry was quite as interesting or exciting as the first novel, but I'm still intrigued enough to keep going with the series.

3.5 of 5 stars

[BobA707 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Surely Steam SF doesn't get better than this? The premise is incredible. It wouldn't work in reality, but as a concept to explore and set stories in motion ... well wow. Against this premise is a set of very interesting characters and an intricate plot ... a little bit far fetched, but hey it works.

Plotline: Plenty of intrigue and complications set in a huge scope. Plenty to keep the reader interested. Huge plot that keeps going and going

Premise: Incredible. It really wouldn’t work.

Writing: Pretty good, a bit simple in places

Ending: Oh yes. And more to come

Pace: Never a dull moment!

[Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A switch of main character was a really neat decision even though I didn't much identify with her as much as I wanted to. Karl continues to explore the outer reaches of Virga and goes to some very interesting places. I really enjoy the imagination involved in this series and the concepts of AI gone rogue taken to a reality-bending place that goes far, far beyond 'evil AI destroys the human race on Earth' or whatever. Heady stuff.

[Marco Landi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro molto divertente da leggere.. Rispetto al primo è un po più lento e di sicuro meno effervescente.. Ci sono un po meno invenzioni fantasiose, ma comunque il Regno di Spyre è ben congegnato e vario da scoprire.. Finale forse un po frettoloso, ma comunque viene voglia di leggere subito il terzo

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite the scifi romp. I love the world building.

[Samih · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world, characters and politics are top notch.

[Brian Gaston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the entire series deserves a 4 and this one, in particular, has strong characters.

[Melyn McHenry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Venera Fanning = *chef's kiss* of a narrator / anti-hero protagonist
She's the moment

[Paul Calhoun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was baroque as hell and I loved it.

[Cy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Queen of Candesce picks up where Sun of Suns left off, but from the very beginning it is clear that this book is an entirely different beast from its predecessor. Gone are all the major characters from the first book save one: Venera Fanning, the admiral's wife. The book focuses exclusively on her after the events in Candesce.

For the most part, I enjoyed this book because Schroeder's obvious skill with worldbuilding is on display again here, though it seems a bit less concrete than in his previous outing. The action in this book is solely focused on Fanning's actions while in the principality of Spyre, and Schroeder has shaped an intriguing Byzantine world. Spyre is an ancient nation, largely forgotten by the world at large and left to wallow in its own decay. The nation is literally falling apart (remember, nations in this series are platforms connected to other platforms floating in the air surrounding the central sun of Candesce) and it was ravaged by a war between the people struggling to keep Spyre "afloat" and the various ruined, decayed, twisted, and reclusive mini-kingdoms that the nobility of Spyre rule over, some of which are no bigger than a manor house and have citizens that can be tallied on one hand. The issue with this is the somewhat...schizophrenic nature of how Schroeder treats Spyre. Sometimes it's a Byzantine slapdash of insane barons and dukes (think the House of Usher multiplied manifold) who fight petty squabbles over a few meters of territory and sometimes it's portrayed as a functioning (if archaic and moribund) society.

Schroeder seems to have decided to rectify one of the major complaints regarding the first book in that all of the characters were rather one-dimensional. They were little more than sci-fi/fantasy archetypes. With a book that focuses on a single major character rather than the entire case, it's to be expected that Venera would be fleshed out to be more than the determined, cunning More Deadly Than the Male trope that she is in the first book. We see glimpses of her past. We see what turned her into the ice queen she is. And like any good book, we see her change from that and grow.

Three things, however, prevented me from being comfortable giving this book a full five stars. First and foremost, this is a very different book from Sun of Suns. Gone are the naval battles and pirate treasure hunts that thrilled me in the previous story. Replacing them is a plot filled with deep political chicanery. While I eventually settled in and began to enjoy it, I was thrown off at first coming immediately from the high-adventure of Sun of Suns into this book expecting more of the same.

Secondly, I found that many things happened too conveniently for the plot. Venera conveniently is rescued by the person that would become her advisor. She conveniently, at the end of the story, meets up with a person from her home nation to discover the truth about a question she worries over throughout the book. She conveniently ends up converting the people to her cause that then conveniently aid her. Her interactions with certain characters left me mystified (one in particular), but they were conveniently there to advance the plot. Venera bounces from hardship to problem with an answer that most often materializes out of thin air for her to take advantage of.

Finally, Schroeder has a habit of repeating the same literary tropes throughout the book. At least once a chapter, when facing down a situation, the scene ends with Venera saying something along the lines of, "I have a plan." and then the narration picks up again while she or the other characters are in the middle of the action, and then back-peddles to fill in the gap. It's a useful literary tool to write out scenes like that. It adds to the tension and creates variety. But it happens at least once a chapter and becomes grating.

Queen of Candesce is not the same kind of novel as Sun of Suns. If the only thing you liked from that book was the high-flying adventure, you might want to just not continue the series and consider Sun of Suns the end of Virga for you. It's a fine, if a little vague, ending. If you're truly interested in the world (the creation of which had more tantalizing hints drawn out in this story), then continue on, but don't expect the same story.

[Michele (Mikecas) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Da:

http://www.webalice.it/michele.castel...

Secondo episodio della Saga di Virga del canadese Karl Schroeder dopo il successo de Il Sole dei Soli. Nell'introduzione scritta per questa edizione, Schroeder spiega che ha disegnato il mondo di Virga, un'enorme bolla gassosa in mezzo al nulla riscaldata dall'interno da "soli" a fusione, di cui Candesce è il principale, ma senza un campo gravitazionale centrale e dominato sostanzialmente dalle correnti convettive, per attrarre altri possibili autori ad usare lo stesso scenario. Mentre Il Sole dei Soli era un "percorso di presentazione", questo Regina del Sole è invece un esercizio per dimostrare la duttilità dello scenario complessivo, che può rappresentare il palcoscenico di diversi tipi di rappresentazioni.
La vicenda si svolge in un panorama che è unico anche per Virga, e coè su Spyre, un cilindro ruotante che ospita sulla sua superfice interna una società divisa in micro-nazioni estremamente conservative, e al suo centro alcune ruote abitate che permettono l'esistenza di una specie di governo consigliare e la possibilità di commercio tra le "nazioni" e il resto del mondo.
In questa strana struttura sociale piomba, letteralmente, Venera Fanning, bruciata da Candesce ma ancora viva e in possesso della chiave per il controllo del Sole dei Soli, e per gli abitanti di Spyre inizia a cambiare tutto.
Devo ammettere che questo romanzo mi è piaciuto, ma un poco meno del suo precedente. In parte è dovuto al solito effetto dei seguiti di romanzi che introducono scenari innovativi, in cui la sorpresa dell'ambientazione non c'è più o è comunque molto diminuita, ma in parte è dovuto anche all'ambientazione stessa, che se anche mantiene molti aspetti decisamente affascinanti, con la presentazione di un abitat basato su piccoli spazi utilizzabili, con coltivazioni di nicchia che da sole rappresentano un'immensa ricchezza, non permette però azioni ampie e con molti partecipanti.
Devo però riconoscere che anche gli spazi ridotti e soffocanti di Spyre permettono una storia di adeguata complessità, in cui Venera Fanning viene ad essere un elemento di totale rottura del precario, e sostanzialmente falso, equilibrio socio-politico precedente.
Come Schroeder stesso ha ammesso, questo era un romanzo a tema: dimostrare che Virga è un'ambientazione che permette di accogliere un'ampia quantità di storie diverse, e questa era solo una delle possibili, utilizzando personaggi già presenti nella storia passata e permettendo un possibile ricco seguito.
Direi che Schroeder ha pienamente raggiunti il suo obiettivo. La Regina del Sole è un romanzo che si legge con piacere, ben strutturato e ben scritto, con una trama tutto sommato leggera, ma con un'ambientazione che è l'elemento decisamente dominante, come era d'altra parte per il romanzo precedente.
Questa volta però siamo sicuri che ci sarà ancora un futuro per Venera Fanning, e rimaniamo in attesa di conoscerlo...