Superluminal

by Vonda N. McIntyre

A novel of star-crossed love from the New York Times–bestselling author of Nebula and Hugo Award–winning novel Dreamsnake.   In a future where space travel moves at faster-than-light speed, starship crews can only survive transit if drugged nearly to death. Then there are those like Laenea Trevelyan, who want to become pilots so badly they will go through years of training and major surgery to free themselves of biological rhythms. But though they become literally heartless, their emotions are just as human as before.   Laenea discovers this herself when she immediately falls for crewman Radu Dracul upon her early release—some might say escape—from the hospital after her procedure. She is not unknown to Radu; Laenea was the first offworlder he ever saw when she and her crew delivered a vaccine for the cryptovirus that decimated his family and his planet.   However, their intense attraction cannot last. Laenea’s modifications will not survive in close proximity to Radu’s biorhythms, which are too strong to allow him to become a pilot.   But even in the vastness of space, where ships and hearts can be lost, fate—and danger—can have a hand in bringing two people together again . . .   “Smoothly told . . . with the sturdy character conflicts snugly worked into the hyperspace-navigation backdrop.” —Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Feminism, Fantasy, Animals, Novels, Science Fiction Fantasy

339 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Vonda Neel McIntyre was a U.S. science fiction author. She was one of the first successful graduates of the Clarion Science fiction writers workshop. She attended the workshop in 1970. By 1973 she had won her first Nebula Award, for the novelette "Of Mist, and Grass and Sand." This later became part of the novel Dreamsnake, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. The novelette and novel both concern a female healer in a desolate primitivized venue. McIntyre's debut novel was The Exile Waiting which was published in 1975. Her novel Dreamsnake won the Nebula Award and Hugo Award for best novel in 1978 and her novel The Moon and the Sun won the Nebula in 1997. She has also written a number of Star Trek and Star Wars novels, including Enterprise: The First Adventure and The Entropy Effect. She wrote the novelizations of the films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Reviews

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm honestly so touched? This book is all about the beauty and wonder of space. Radu Dracul having that almost spiritual experience in the ocean resonated with me so hard. I wanna go live with the cousins too. ♥

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a big sci-fi nut in my early teens, returning to the science fiction shelves of my local library regularly until I'd read a large percentage of the books thereon. This was in the 1960s, so I became a fan of many of the popular authors of that period [Asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Zelazny, Brunner et. al.]

Vonda N. McIntyre fits into that sci-fi niche, but as her books were published in the 70s and 80s, my interests had moved on so I missed reading her at the time.

A friend loaned me his copy of Superluminal so I am now catching up.

This book manages to scratch two of my itches at once -- [1] it's sci-fi; and [2] it's earthly locations are set in the pacific northwest, which I have called home for many years.

The action moves along nicely and the presence of many female characters is a nice counterpoint to the preponderance of male heroes in mainstream SF at that time.

It's not too difficult to predict portions of the plot, but I'm not sure McIntyre particularly cared. Many of her technology predictions were prescient. Her characters are emotional and ambitious. They are a little one-dimensional [contrast that with the multi-dimensionality of interstellar transit] and some of the cool stuff [divers] veers a little close to new-age territory.

But overall I enjoyed this novel and ended up finishing it. I expect I will eventually read more of McIntyre's works.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Entre tiempos y tendencias en el género que estaban cambiando, un híbrido particular.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. Laenea Trevelyan acaba de completar la operación que ha sustituido su corazón y parte de su sistema circulatorio por equipos artificiales que le permitan su control voluntario y ser un Piloto que maneje astronaves a velocidades más rápidas que la luz por las seis dimensiones del espacio, Orca es una joven Buzo, persona adaptada a ambientes subacuáticos, y Radu Dracul es un Tripulante originario del tristemente famoso planeta Crepúsculo que a pesar de las costumbres sociales y la separación de castas tiene una estrecha relación con Laena.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Dave Snowdon · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy science fiction and fantasy, there are many thought-provoking essays on [tor.com](https://www.tor.com). I recently read ["The 1983 Book Ian McEwan (and Everyone Else Who Craves Thoughtful SciFi) Should Be Reading"](https://www.tor.com/2019/06/10/the-19...). I was convinced! I had to read "Superluminal" by Vonda McIntyre.



After a few pages, I was sure I'd read this before. It felt familiar but I have no memory of it. It's possible I read it in the 1980s it's the sort of book that I would look for.

I struggled a bit with this book I have to admit. After reading the TOR article I was expecting to get swept away by story populated by fascinating characters but I did not. I can see why another review called it "bland" - I think that's unfair by the way, but I can understand it.

Let's start with the three main characters. Laenea is a pilot, she has willingly become a cyborg in order to gain the ability to pilot interstellar vessels through a higher-dimensional space - an experience fatal to normal humans unless they are sedated. All we really understand about Laenea is her drive to become a pilot, to me, she appears a fairly self-interested and unsympathetic character.

Then there is Rada Dracul, from the colony world Twilight. It was never clear to me whether his name and that of the planet was deliberately meant to invoke thoughts of vampires. I'm, obviously, not referring to the sparkly vampires of the Twilight saga here I just mean vampires and the association with darkness. Rada Dracul is the only survivor of a plague that decimated his planet and has deep feelings of survivor's guilt.

Finally, there is Orca, a third-generation "diver", genetically engineered to survive in the ocean and member of a society that is drifting away from mainstream humanity. Orca is torn between her need to remain close to her family of divers but also to travel between planets and, perhaps, become a pilot herself. Of all the main characters she comes across as the most sympathetic: she is kind, brave and cares for others and her struggle to bridge two-worlds evokes sympathy.

Sadly, with the exception of Orca, the characters all feel somewhat two dimensional and I felt like I was reading one of the so-called "golden age" books of science fiction (BTW "golden age" is really a misnomer, I might have enjoyed some of those books when I was 10 but compared to modern science fiction they really haven't aged well).

I also had issues with the world building. It was never made clear why simply replacing the heart with a mechanical one was sufficient for making one a pilot. It was hinted at that there were other concerns but why was this the sole physical change required? Why did this change make pilots physically uncomfortable around normal humans? There are hints that spending time in "transit" space changes people but still, I found the whole description of pilots very unconvincing.

The description of Orca's experience as a diver was handled better. We don't really get any insight into diver society, but we do hear that it's tightly related to the whales and that the divers have learned "true speech" which makes it possible to communicate concepts that are impossible to do in human speech. Orca's intuition that "true speech" would allow her to communicate the experience of transit (which pilots have failed to do) is one of the reasons she feels drawn to becoming a pilot.

The second half of the book reads better than the first half and I did end up enjoying it. I think there are some interesting ideas here that are worth further exploration. I'm reminded of books I've read where cetaceans acted as pilots that could fit in with this world. That said, books such as "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet" by Becky Chambers, "Ancillary Justice" by Ann Leckie and "House of Suns" by Alastair Reynolds do a far better job of characterisation, world-building and storytelling and I would not hesitate to recommend those three for your consideration.

[La Nave Invisible]

Hace cinco años escribí una reseña sobre una multipremiada novela que apenas se podía encontrar ya en saldos de librerías. Cinco años después, puedo volver con otra de la misma autora, reeditada tras cuarenta años, y que podéis pedir sin problema en cualquier librería. Tratándose de mí, no podía ser otra que Vonda McIntyre, y la obra de la que os hablaré a continuación, Superluminal, con una nueva traducción a cargo de Rosa María García y prologada por Lola Robles, ahí es nada.

Robles da en su texto, de hecho, todas las claves para descifrar esta obra. La describe como extraña, oscura y fascinante. Habla del sentido de la maravilla y el transhumanismo, del feminismo y la reflexión colonial, del desdoble espacio-océano. Y, sin duda, todo eso es cierto. Ahondemos un poquito en cada uno de estos aspectos.

Superluminal empieza tras la operación de Laenea. Una operación en la que han cambiado su corazón por otro artificial, uno que le permitirá ser piloto y mantenerse despierta durante el tránsito, el momento del viaje espacial en el que viajan a una velocidad superior a la de la luz. En ese momento, la vida de Laenea cambia por completo: las pilotos se mueven en una jerarquía superior y sus amistades quedan atrás. Y en su proceso de adaptación a sus nuevas condiciones conoce a Radu Dracul.

Radu Dracul es un mero tripulante y procede de un planeta colonizado en el que una plaga arrasó la población hace unos años. Radu Dracul es el único que enfermó y sobrevivió. Y allí estuvo Laenea, en el equipo de salvamento, junto a los médicos que aislaron los criptovirus y sintetizaron la vacuna. Y Radu no se ha olvidado de ella.

Continúa en... https://lanaveinvisible.com/2022/10/1...

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me reading "Can I have the ashes of my heart?" in a normal novel: meh, kind of overwrought.

Me reading "Can I have the ashes of my heart?" in a science fiction novel: wow so cool, does that mean that she now has some kind of mechanical cardio-pump? I want to see where this goes.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for literalized metaphors in science fiction. Here's another example, also involving hearts.

(Now after having finished the book... spoilers!)

This novel shares its overall premise with Cordwainer Smith's short story "Scanners live in vain": an elite society of space pilots who have undergone a traumatic surgical transformation in order to whistand the rigors of space travel see their privileged position threatened by a discovery which makes space travel easier. But the treatment is different: in Smith's story, space travel is pure terror and danger, while in McIntyre's novel it also has a numinous, geometrical beauty which only the pilots can perceive, and which they strongly crave. The novel came out in 1983; the year after, Gibson's Neuromancer appeared along with the idea of the "Matrix". I guess people in the early 80s yearned for some kind of abstract empyrean.

McIntyre's novel is both restrained and prescient with regards to information technology. It has a good description of email "spam" and of spam filters, for example! Did spam already exist in 1983? I'm reminded of the dictum that predicting traffic jams has more merit than simply predicting cars.

Besides the pilots, the book features "divers", genetically engineered amphibious humans who are friendly with whales and orcas, and fought a war against the US to stop their slaughter. Again, the preoccupation with marine mammals is much of the 80s, but McIntyre's portrayal of it as an anti-colonial struggle makes it interesting (I wonder if James Cameron has read this book...)

There's a deft bit of exposition involving the divers: McIntyre's slyly communicates some of their historical background by describing a modern-day diver's amusement when watching an old, corny fictional TV-series about a merman.

One of the protagonists is a man with two notable characteristics: he has a "heavy"/"shaggy"/"drooping"/"bristly" mustache (a far echo of the late 70s?) and he is quite sensitive and nurturing. For example, he often cooks nourishing meals for his companions, guards them when they're sick, and so on. Can you imagine Case from Neuromancer cooking a delicious breakfast for Molly? No you can't.

Lots of good stuff in this book. So, why only three stars? The space pilots aspect of the book didn't quite gel with the divers one. I would have liked to read a novel wholly focused on the divers. Also, the last third or so of the novel suffers from a lack of menace and urgency... characters come and go and talk a lot, but you don't quite feel the stakes, and the ending just sort of happens.

[Lucille · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5/5
Ce roman des années 80 était vraiment une bonne lecture. Original dans sa structure, son rythme plutôt lent, sa façon de suivre 3 personnages de façon inégales (chacun ayant son importance mais pas forcément le même poids dans le nombre de pages avec leur point de vu)
J'ai aimé les idées originales comme les modifications des corps, que ce soit pour vivre sous l'eau ou voyager dans l'espace, et les changements de la société qui en découlent. Les relations entre les personnages sont aussi très douces. Ce n'est pas un roman plein d'action ou d'idées folles, mais c'est une bonne lecture surtout pour ceux qui aiment découvrir des classiques de la sf, surtout écrit par une femme.
J'étais déjà quasiment sûre d'aimer ce roman vu que l'autrice a écrit plusieurs romans dans l'univers de Star Trek que j'affectionne beaucoup.


(Service de presse offert par les éditions Mnemos)

[Kiwi Carlisle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never read another SF novel quite like Superluminal. It’s complex to a point just short of confusion, sexy, fascinating, but a little unsatisfying. Characters who seem to love one another are also repelled by one another. Strange breakthroughs in perception are complete for one character but incomplete for another. An obsessive literary analyst could get an entire master’s thesis from this book alone. To read this book, prepare to dive deep and travel far.

[Eli Entrenebras · Rating 2 out of 5]

También es que a quién se le ocurre hacer un libro de ciencia ficción heteronormativo

[Lucy Batson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Superliminal is sort-of space opera, sort-of a story of a doomed love triangle, very heavy on the characterization and more introspective than a lot of it's genre peers, though I think this has aged well and is worth checking out.

[Salvatore V · Rating 4 out of 5]

De momento diré que el libro es una exploración al espacio (no sólo exterior sino interior), su trama es algo caótica pero desafiante, tiene unos momentazos que hace que nos sumerjamos en el abismo de lo que entendemos por amor, el universo y la humanidad.

[Rob Hopwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superluminal by Vonda N. McIntyre

"She gave up her heart quite willingly" is the arresting first line of Superluminal.
Figuratively? Literally? Or both?

This novel has three protagonists who seem equally important to the story. Laenea Trevelyan has submitted to physical alterations in order to pilot starships at superluminal speeds safely. Ordinary crew members must remain in a drug-induced sleep during transit in order to survive, and waking up prematurely means certain death. Laenea is anxious to embark on her first training flight so that she can experience for herself what no pilot has ever been able or willing to explain to any outsiders.

Radu Dracul is a crew member who accidentally regains consciousness during faster-than-light travel, but who suffers no ill effects. He eventually discovers he can even perceive dimensions which are closed to most pilots, and this deepens his special relationship with Laenea.

Another crew member, Orca, is a "diver", a genetically modified human who is most at home in the ocean with her killer-whale "cousins".

As the plot unfolds, the adventures of these well-drawn characters take them to the end of the universe and among the wise denizens of the oceans, and they begin to discern that these seemingly largely dissimilar realms may in fact be closely connected with each other.

The story is not as tightly plotted as McIntyre's The Exile Waiting, which packed a huge amount of detail into just over two hundred pages. Superluminal moves at a relatively slow place in parts, but this may be in keeping with the more transcendent subject matter.

An overall theme would seem to be the limitations of language to express the unique experiences of individuals, although by the end of the book at least partial solutions to this difficulty are entering within the range of possibility.

The narrative ends quite abruptly, and the fact that many of the fascinating ideas introduced are never fully explored may disappoint some readers. The author could certainly have extended this novel or written a sequel, but she did not do so. In some ways, it might be more poignant to leave to our imaginations the eventual fates of the characters.

[Andrés Zelada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laenea acaba de transformarse en ciborg: con un corazón artificial, que garantiza un bombeo constante, está en condiciones de pilotar las naves espaciales que se mueven a velocidad superior a la de la luz. En ese momento, se encuentra con a Radu, un simple tripulante, que viene de un planeta lejano en el que Laenea estuvo ayudando un tiempo atrás. Radu y Laenea se enamoran, y descubren enseguida que la separación entre pilotos y el resto de la humanidad no obedece a un capricho.

La edición española de esta novela me fastidia bastante. No me gusta que las novelas no tengan sinopsis visibles. Esta tiene un fragmento del prólogo de Lola Robles y otro del Manifiesto Ciborg en los que hablan de sus temas, pero nada que me indique de qué va, que es lo que me interesa cuando estoy eligiendo libros. Si la saqué de la biblioteca fue exclusivamente porque conozco a la autora y había oído hablar bien del libro.

Y entonces lo abro y me encuentro con una traducción que podría mejorarse mucho y con una maquetación fea como pocas. Cada vez que se pasa de narración a diálogo hay un interlineado doble, y cuando se vuelve a narración el siguiente párrafo empieza sin sangría. Esto dificulta bastante entender cuándo hay cambios de escena, y dificulta la lectura de escenas con mucho diálogo, hasta el punto de hacerse incómodo.

Me costó empezar con este libro, la verdad: la primera parte es muy lenta, pero luego coge carrerilla y plantea una trama muy interesante, que, para mi desgracia, al final se deshilacha un poco. El saldo es positivo, y la parte central me ha parecido muy buena, pero ni el principio ni el final me han fascinado. Y, desde luego, si tenéis oportunidad, leedlo en inglés.

[Desiree · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the third of four books by Vonda McIntyre gifted to me by someone who had known her.

I had looked forward to reading this expansion of McIntyre's novella, "Aztecs," but it turned out to be disappointing. The original novella was very physically and emotionally connected to the characters, and the pilot Laenea in particular. It served as the first few chapters of the novel almost unchanged, so I was shocked to find that the majority of the book afterward focused on Radu's point of view, instead. Laenea got pushed into the background, and never wholly returned to the level of focus that the early chapters gave her. Orca and the entire concept of the Divers felt shoved in at the beginning (her section wasn't in the original novella), despite their importance by the end. I think the themes and premises of the Pilots and the Divers would have benefited from a lengthier book or even two separate books.

So much of the book felt detached from the characters compared to its beginning, which is a shame since many felt promising, if only we could have spent more time with them. Some of the interactions between characters were baffling, anger flaring at the drop of a hat because the characters were suddenly too stubborn or obtuse to handle a situation well. Then at other times, they'd suddenly have a brilliant insight into what another person would do or was doing. None of that felt like it fit together well, so I've rated it 2.5 stars.

[Elaine Burnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the best openings of anything I’ve read: “She gave up her heart quite willingly.” McIntyre is a master of world building. The description of this spaceport out in the ocean with the stabilizers and the people who live and work below the platform. The fog collectors. The prescient Zipcar idea. Those little details help get you into the story. Entering an alien world is hard and she makes it look easy.

Unfortunately, the original point of view character changes to another character after a short beginning and then for most of the book. I found that jarring. I still like the writing, but I’m less enthused about the tone/atmosphere (slow and depressing) and pacing (very subluminal). Kind of ends with a whimper. Everyone goes their separate ways. It wasn’t quite what I thought it would be, but it was good.

[Sicostorius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenido, pero me esperaba otra cosa. Echo de menos haber explotado más las posibilidades del "tránsito", no he empatizado con los personajes y el final parece el inicio de una saga que no fue. Sin embargo, también ha habido puntos positivos:

-Se atisban mundos y razas que podrían haber dado mucho juego.

-El prólogo y el detalle de utilizar la tercera persona plural en femenino suman puntos por sí mismos.

-El concepto de "Tránsito" está llamando a una obra de cifi hard a gritos.

Para gustos los colores!

[Marecognitum · Rating 2 out of 5]

The inside front cover promised me a story about a woman driven enough to replace her heart with a bionic one to fulfill her dream of becoming a spaceship pilot. That's a tiny portion of the book. The rest is a story about a man who discovers he has super-special powers that will revolutionize the industry, and saves the previously-mentioned woman who has become a damsel in distress.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/10 en 2009.

4 libros he leído de esta autora y solo uno me gustó realmente, La luna y el sol.

Este aprobó por los pelos, y eso que la sinopsis no pintaba mal, pero el desarrollo me dejó frío. Ya digo que esas divisiones de humanos entre Pilotos, Buzos y tal tenían buena pinta pero ahí se quedó.

me recuerda a Pórtico.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad little sci-fi tale, a little slow in parts. I must say, though, the paperback edition I have, from 1984, has the absolute worst cover art ever.

[Jason Bleckly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I’ve read by Vonda, but it definitely won’t be my last. It’s not a high action book, a waltz rather than a tango.

It starts with Laenea Trevelyan waking up in hospital after major surgery to remove her heart so she can become a superluminal pilot. We then meet Orca (pictured on the cover) she is crew on the ship and somewhat estranged from her family due to working with landers. right at the end of chapter 1 we meet Radu Dracul the 3rd principle character. This is all that happens in chapter 1, and the first 10% of the book.

Some people might find that a bit slow, but the writing is beautiful to the point I stopped noticing how many pages I turned. I started the book on Sunday, and finished it on Monday. With the introduction of the characters we also get a rich background and world building. Only surgically modified humans can survive superluminal transit in a waking state, the pilots, everyone else is in a drug induced near death sleep. If they were awake they’d die. Orca and her kin are modified humans adapted to an aquatic existence. Her family a studying and learning from their ‘cousins’ (ie whales). And Radu, a neophyte crewmember, is from Twilight a new colony world of perpetual gloom due to extreme cloud cover.

So nothing happens but much is developed, and it is a joy to read.

Chapter 2 is sex.

Chapter 3 is more sex, with the story starting halfway through (the chapter, not the sex).

That’s as far as I got with my first sitting of the book, life got in the way, and I wrote the above notes. Having dealt with annoying life I finished reading the book before writing the rest of this review. Don’t be put off by my description of chapters 2 and 3. The sex isn’t bad (the characters think it’s fantastic). It also does serve a story purpose by consolidating the connection between Laenea and Radu, which is critical to the story. It's just a little excessive for the point it serves.

The book has an odd structure. It’s hard to say whose story it really is. We start with Laenea so my expectation is it’s going to be her story. But then we get Orca introduced, and initially there’s no connection to Laenea other than them both being on the same planet and working as pilot and crew on superluminal ships. And then we get Radu introduce at the end of chapter 3. The book then begins to follow him for the bulk of the middle of the book. We see almost nothing of Laenea and Orca, but then in the last third they reappear for the climax, and the story couldn’t happen without them. The book seems to meander form thing to thing without direction, it’s not until the end that you can see the definitive pathway the book has been following with complete inevitability.

So what is the story? It’s the rescue of lost ship, something that was thought to be impossible. <- This is not a spoiler. How and why this happens is the story, and for that you’ll have to read the book.

The tech of the FTL is brilliantly conceived and also highly misleading. The ships don’t actually travel superluminal, but cross space at a speed faster than light via higher dimensional transference. But it’s not hyperspace. There is no applied physics. The mechanics of how the ships do what they do isn’t explained, only concept of how they get from A to B is given. I wouldn’t define this as hard SF, but it is great SF.

Whales are red herrings. They could be removed from the book and it wouldn’t affect the story. But the 80s when this book was written was save the whales. While reading it I was thinking the whale politics is as heavy handed here as in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. And then when looking at Vonda’s bibliography before writing this review it turns out she also wrote the novelisation of Voyage Home, as well as Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock. The whale politics isn’t large enough, or relevant enough, to seriously impact my enjoyment of the story. There’s also a secondary red herring. Tree Warts. That’s all I’m saying.

Does the book end? Yes and no. There is a good and satisfying conclusion to this story, but there I wanted more. The conclusion sets up ramifications that are elucidated, but not explored. It’s a testament to the quality of the story and the world-building that at the end of the book I want an Expanded Universe to explore more thoroughly with additional stories.

I can highly recommend reading this and I look forward to reading more of her books.

[VexenReplica · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5, rounded up.

While this was not initially read for /r/fantasy's book bingo, it does happen to have an ocean setting for parts of the book, so hey, random addition to the pile!

This is not really science fiction. Nor is it fantasy. While at one moment it can totally be about FTL travel (which the book terms superluminal, hence the title), it can also have awesome telepathy stuff. There's a lot of juggling in the book in this regard.

It is difficult to summarize the book; the essence of it is that there are cyborg pilots that can navigate spaceships, and those pilots do not get along well with normal people. One of the PoVs, Laenea, is that of a pilot; the remaining two PoVs are of crew members who are, for the most part, human. Orca is a genetically modified human called a 'diver,' and she and her family live off the coast of Vancouver. The other human PoV, who I'll talk a bit about below, is Radu.

Radu Dracul. Oh, Radu. He is your typical "farmboy comes to town," besides the fact that he's from a disease-striken planet and needs to make cash to pay back the planet's loan to purchase the antibodies to save everyone from said disease. He is very naive and he is the main viewpoint character for most of the novel. The other two PoVs have far more interesting stories but we don't get to hear much from them, except at the beginning and end of the novel.

While this book has ideas, it is centered on its characters, which is always a plus for me. Plot and pacing is exceptional. The book feels a bit dated (whee voice recorders! Dictation machines!) and sometimes the prose can be a bit dense, a bit like you're reading a Le Guin novel. But those do pale in comparison to the world and story that McIntyre has created. I would have loved for there to have been a sequel, but alas, it was never meant to be. /scoots off to fanfic areas

ALSO ROMANCE AHHHHH <3

Please consider picking this up if you like old-ish sff.

[Peter Tillman]

"As soon as the budding space pilot Laenea wakes up in the hospital after an operation that has cost her her heart, she no longer has the care of the doctors. She has to process the step that made her the pilot of light-fast spaceships, namely the exchange of her human heart for a machine pump. Only through this radical intervention pilots are able to survive the light flights to distant planets. The rest of her crew, on the other hand, must spend the flight in deep sleep to avoid the accelerated and thus deadly aging processes.

The chosen pilots pay a heavy price for mankind to colonize distant galaxies. No wonder they see themselves as the absolute elite and consciously cultivate this image. They are different from everyone else, even from their crew. Only in this way can the burdens of this profession be processed, both the "heartless" existence and the non-dangerous flights themselves.

This is what Laenea has in mind when she meets crewmember Radu. She can not guess what significance the man will have for her personally as well as for the entire caste of pilots. Because without it, Radu becomes a threat to the status of the pilots. And the astronauts would do anything to uphold the myth of their class."

Google translation of the German blurb, lightly edited. I've read it, but don't remember enough to rate it. This was all I could persuade GR to yield until I realized I'd read the book.... 🙃

[Astra Astrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some strange reason, if you simply enter this title in the search bar, you end up with a German edition entry. I've never had to search out a different edition before. Interesting exercise.

I don't have much to say about this book, beyond the fact that I loved it. It's kind of sad, I think, that it's so much easier to find negative things to say about something, than it is to find positive things. Perhaps because there are a set number of things that make a book good, whereas the number of fails is...endless.

So, if the premise intrigues you, and you enjoy quality writing, I can pretty much guarantee that you'll enjoy this book.

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This probably isn't a bad book, but it definitely isn't written for me or my demographic. Some of the ideas are kinda cool. I've always like the idea of diverging species of humans and it gets into that a little. But mostly I just felt like all the characters were boring and emotional.

I suppose that women often have the experience of reading a book or watching a movie and thinking: "this was made by men for men." I've rarely had that experience in reverse but this book gave it to me. Superluminal is written particularly for an audience of women. That's why I say it's probably not that bad. It wasn't written for me and I didn't enjoy it 🤷‍♂️

[Angela Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Normally I wouldn’t write a review until I had finished the book, but I do have a few things to say about this one.

The book starts with a romance. I’m not fond of romances. I started to put the book down when I reached the 25% point, but decided I’d just skim ahead a few pages. I’m very glad I did. I’m now at the 75% point, and the book has swept me into concepts I hadn’t thought about much. I still don’t understand why having one’s heart replaced with a mechanical pump makes survival during faster-than-light possible, but I don’t need to. As long as the story is faithful to the world the author creates, I'll just accept it. So far this one is and I’m enjoying the characters and the concepts.

I’ll add to the review when I finish the book. In the meantime, I have to go with four stars instead of five because of the slow beginning, but please don’t let it keep you from reading this book. McIntyre’s ideas are fascinating.

[Serge]

I was very moved by the first part of the novel: Laenea's early experiences. As soon as the focus turned to Radu's search for her, McIntyre gave up psychological depth for space opera, fine as it is. But the other characters are interesting enough, their adventures exciting, and the universe very convincingly described. The finale, while satisfactory in tying up loose ends, does not quite ring true emotionally when related to the beginning.

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I had not finished this I probably would’ve given it 2 stars, but I held out, hoping for some redeeming quality. To be fair I went in blind, and I think the author accomplished what they were trying for. But not in a way that was interesting to me.

There was an awful lot of things that cannot be explained/described. When something can be explained, sort of, it can only be explained in an underwater language. So maybe read this with a snorkel in the bathtub.

[Isabel Jazmín · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gustó mucho el personaje de Radu porque al ser nuevo en el entorno de los pilotos y los viajes, es a través de sus ojos que vamos conociendo todo ese ambiente. Es transparente y hasta cierto punto inocente y por eso me conmovió su historia.

Recomendable para quienes ya han tenido un acercamiento a la ciencia ficción.

[Andrew Post · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read "Aztecs," and then this novel, which built upon the original short story. (Vonda McIntyre herself saw a review I did of her short story online and sent me a free autographed copy of the novel.) I like both versions, but I believe I prefer the short story over the novel.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Telepathy, talking and communing with whales... I feel like this book is of an era, but at the same time, it still felt relevant and futuristic.

Well, futuristic anyway. The government and world was a bit too simplistic to feel very real.

Still, I enjoyed it.