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Terraform Triptych
It is 2425AD and media personality Winston Starlight needs another big hit to revive his centuries long career. Sol Senators have been notoriously difficult to interview, so when Mars Senator Spenser agrees to a three-part broadcast retrospective on his Luna, Mars and Titania projects, Winston can barely contain his pixels. Sol Senators are big news. Winston has big plans for this broadcast. Science has very little to do with all the things Winston wants to grill Senator Spenser on, the news-hungry public demand a spectacle... specifically with one of the most eligible and certainly wealthiest men in the Solar System. Let the Production begin!
71 pages, Paperback
Published March 6, 2019
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 18, 2019
A wonderfully satisfying read.
Like a fine dessert at the end of an already exceptional meal Terraform Triptych beautifully rounds out what has come before in the Sol Senate Cycle. Part well constructed documentary, part live newscast the Tryptych is a wonderful depiction of both literal and metaphorical world building
Watching the two main characters verbally fence their way through the interviews adds an exciting undercurrent to already thought-provoking conversations. You begin to wonder who is playing whom. Can an AI actually play anyone?
The transcript format makes these long conversations between the same two characters much easier to read and makes the "code-speak" of the AI to AI conversations feel all the more natural.
Woven subtly and beautifully into these conversations is the journey of Winston Starlight, the AI, trying to find purpose and relevancy in a world he doesn't really recognise any more. Rather like soldier coming back from war to a country different from, yet the same as, the one he left.
Like all Caldon Mull works Terraform Triptych is multilayered and the intricately woven. Though this story feels like an ending it feels more like a plateau than a summit and while I wait in hope for part 2 I'll happily go back through the cycle and trace the threads that lead to this point.
Like a fine dessert at the end of an already exceptional meal Terraform Triptych beautifully rounds out what has come before in the Sol Senate Cycle. Part well constructed documentary, part live newscast the Tryptych is a wonderful depiction of both literal and metaphorical world building
Watching the two main characters verbally fence their way through the interviews adds an exciting undercurrent to already thought-provoking conversations. You begin to wonder who is playing whom. Can an AI actually play anyone?
The transcript format makes these long conversations between the same two characters much easier to read and makes the "code-speak" of the AI to AI conversations feel all the more natural.
Woven subtly and beautifully into these conversations is the journey of Winston Starlight, the AI, trying to find purpose and relevancy in a world he doesn't really recognise any more. Rather like soldier coming back from war to a country different from, yet the same as, the one he left.
Like all Caldon Mull works Terraform Triptych is multilayered and the intricately woven. Though this story feels like an ending it feels more like a plateau than a summit and while I wait in hope for part 2 I'll happily go back through the cycle and trace the threads that lead to this point.
October 24, 2019
Terraform Triptych (TT) followed a brain-worm that I had for awhile; how would an AI and a human meet up and discuss things over lunch. This idea expanded over the decades, enriched by the ever growing world-building that the Sol Senate Cycle: Part 1 - Future History had become. It missed out on being a chapter in 'The Sphinx' and did not really have a place in 'The Estuary Tales' but at least it finally has a home by itself.
TT presents layers and shells of meaning and dialogue in a transcript format, a Q&A between the digital media phenomenon Winston Starlight and the human Mars-Senator Spenser. There are three planned episodes, Spenser wants to present a retrospective Terraforming series of the work on Mars, Titania and Luna. These physical layers in the Terraformed worlds present themselves as Domes on Luna, or electromagnetic barriers on Titania; but also in the superficial dialogue of the protagonists.
Shells also present themselves in the contacts and self-exploration that Winston Starlight undergoes in creating these episodes and presenting them. Shells are presented as software layers and security and communication layers. As Winston Starlight continues through the series, the tension builds subtly in the dialogue transcripts that there is more at play with the Terraform Triptych episodes than meet the eye. Is the human playing the AI, or vice versa... or are both being played by others, off-screen?
TT relies heavily on an active readers imagination; the somewhat stark dialogue is padded by other experimental forms of narrative and the introduction of hard SF concepts (like any being in the Solar system having a unique URL at any time) roll past on a roller-coaster of reworked media tropes. One can almost imagine watching these Episodes, digging around in juicy character back histories, dragging out embarrassing personal details live on-screen as Winston and Spenser establish their rapport. Both the characters are engaging and well-rounded individuals.
Without listing spoilers; there are other layers of past and present shelled into the Novella. Foreshadowing smuggled under cover of the stark dialogue that ends, like any good production would... with figurative car chases, big booms of explosion and a hopeful ending. TT was written with the intent of dragging readers by the nose through a media spectacle, and I believe that is exactly what TT is.
TT presents layers and shells of meaning and dialogue in a transcript format, a Q&A between the digital media phenomenon Winston Starlight and the human Mars-Senator Spenser. There are three planned episodes, Spenser wants to present a retrospective Terraforming series of the work on Mars, Titania and Luna. These physical layers in the Terraformed worlds present themselves as Domes on Luna, or electromagnetic barriers on Titania; but also in the superficial dialogue of the protagonists.
Shells also present themselves in the contacts and self-exploration that Winston Starlight undergoes in creating these episodes and presenting them. Shells are presented as software layers and security and communication layers. As Winston Starlight continues through the series, the tension builds subtly in the dialogue transcripts that there is more at play with the Terraform Triptych episodes than meet the eye. Is the human playing the AI, or vice versa... or are both being played by others, off-screen?
TT relies heavily on an active readers imagination; the somewhat stark dialogue is padded by other experimental forms of narrative and the introduction of hard SF concepts (like any being in the Solar system having a unique URL at any time) roll past on a roller-coaster of reworked media tropes. One can almost imagine watching these Episodes, digging around in juicy character back histories, dragging out embarrassing personal details live on-screen as Winston and Spenser establish their rapport. Both the characters are engaging and well-rounded individuals.
Without listing spoilers; there are other layers of past and present shelled into the Novella. Foreshadowing smuggled under cover of the stark dialogue that ends, like any good production would... with figurative car chases, big booms of explosion and a hopeful ending. TT was written with the intent of dragging readers by the nose through a media spectacle, and I believe that is exactly what TT is.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews