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Astropolis #3
The Grand Conjunction
1st edition paperback, new
352 pages, Paperback
First published March 24, 2009
1 person is currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Sean Williams
276 books469 followers#1 New York Times bestselling Sean Williams lives with his family in Adelaide, South Australia. He’s written some books--forty-two at last count--including the Philip K. Dick-nominated Saturn Returns, several Star Wars novels and the Troubletwister series with Garth Nix. Twinmaker is a YA SF series that takes his love affair with the matter transmitter to a whole new level. You can find some related short stories over at Lightspeed Magazine and elsewhere. Thanks for reading.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 6, 2024
Overall I did enjoy the series but found it a bit confusing at times.
February 21, 2011
Adelaide author Sean Williams delivers, via The Grand Conjunction, the final piece of the Astropolis puzzle - a vast, many chambered volume that actually manages to surpass its predecessors Saturn Returns, Cenotaxis and Earth Ascendant.
With such a statement, I do not wish to inflict any spoilers here, for The Grand Conjunction falls into a category that is in and of itself. A continuation of those novels? Yes. The same philosophical and cordial prose we have come to love? Yes. But what lies at this novel heart is more layered in its transparency. Like a Russian Doll, the revelations slide away in a manner that the author himself probably found unexpected and even humorous.
Imre Bergamasc - now, I'm guessing, a somewhat classic protagonist in science fiction's pantheon, has come full circle. After taking up the mantle of ruler of the galaxy in Earth Ascendant, the end of that novel saw him shackle off the responsibility and head out into the abyss in search of his other murderous self - a being who may have converted into the galaxies most notorious intelligence: a Fort. The scene was set for an epic face-off, an accumulation of everything that's gone before , and Sean could have very well stuck to a tried and tested formula - had he not been utterly original.
The prologue in The Grand Conjunction is a gentle reminder of those previous advents you may have forgotten, things that ping on the edge of consciousness and make you smile. But it's the first part of the novel that will really blow you away; a dark, pulpy private-eye wonderland that will be keep you guessing and reading just to see where it all fits in.
It's disconcerting how lost our main guy (or girl) can be here: the cysts of memory; the amnesiac, schizophrenic quality of advents. And finally the gargantuan amount of years that transpire between them. It all adds up to mind-dislocating factors , which, I guess, is what science fiction is all about. Like previously, the poetic language is apparent. You read, sometimes with veiled comprehension, but reading nevertheless, knowing that understanding will dawn after careful deliberation.
The second half of the book is like a family reunion, and all the major players come back to play: Render, Emlee Copas and Al Freer. These guys have been busy continuing the merry fight - a campaign that sees the now- ruler and Imre's offspring Ra MacPhedron doing battle with them. The parasite known as the Veil has not gone away. Quite the contrary: most of humanity now lies swindled in its embrace. And there are other eye-openers this scrounger from Dussehra will teach them before all is said and done. But, most important of all, The Luminous have finally dealt their hand and revealed themselves to be creators of a sort - in a realm where humanity itself is like the artificial intelligence. They are the Gods of the future vying for who sits on top of the food chain, past and present ...
But the basic premise for Imre never really changed: Avenge the Forts. Find Himself.
And, in the final twenty pages: The War has begun ...
Sean Williams, over the years, has proven himself to be quite the master fabulist. A reputation that started off subtle but, with a series like Astropolis, has now demonstrated he is in a league of his own …
With such a statement, I do not wish to inflict any spoilers here, for The Grand Conjunction falls into a category that is in and of itself. A continuation of those novels? Yes. The same philosophical and cordial prose we have come to love? Yes. But what lies at this novel heart is more layered in its transparency. Like a Russian Doll, the revelations slide away in a manner that the author himself probably found unexpected and even humorous.
Imre Bergamasc - now, I'm guessing, a somewhat classic protagonist in science fiction's pantheon, has come full circle. After taking up the mantle of ruler of the galaxy in Earth Ascendant, the end of that novel saw him shackle off the responsibility and head out into the abyss in search of his other murderous self - a being who may have converted into the galaxies most notorious intelligence: a Fort. The scene was set for an epic face-off, an accumulation of everything that's gone before , and Sean could have very well stuck to a tried and tested formula - had he not been utterly original.
The prologue in The Grand Conjunction is a gentle reminder of those previous advents you may have forgotten, things that ping on the edge of consciousness and make you smile. But it's the first part of the novel that will really blow you away; a dark, pulpy private-eye wonderland that will be keep you guessing and reading just to see where it all fits in.
It's disconcerting how lost our main guy (or girl) can be here: the cysts of memory; the amnesiac, schizophrenic quality of advents. And finally the gargantuan amount of years that transpire between them. It all adds up to mind-dislocating factors , which, I guess, is what science fiction is all about. Like previously, the poetic language is apparent. You read, sometimes with veiled comprehension, but reading nevertheless, knowing that understanding will dawn after careful deliberation.
The second half of the book is like a family reunion, and all the major players come back to play: Render, Emlee Copas and Al Freer. These guys have been busy continuing the merry fight - a campaign that sees the now- ruler and Imre's offspring Ra MacPhedron doing battle with them. The parasite known as the Veil has not gone away. Quite the contrary: most of humanity now lies swindled in its embrace. And there are other eye-openers this scrounger from Dussehra will teach them before all is said and done. But, most important of all, The Luminous have finally dealt their hand and revealed themselves to be creators of a sort - in a realm where humanity itself is like the artificial intelligence. They are the Gods of the future vying for who sits on top of the food chain, past and present ...
But the basic premise for Imre never really changed: Avenge the Forts. Find Himself.
And, in the final twenty pages: The War has begun ...
Sean Williams, over the years, has proven himself to be quite the master fabulist. A reputation that started off subtle but, with a series like Astropolis, has now demonstrated he is in a league of his own …
May 23, 2011
My final review on the series...first thing I noticed was that I gave all 3 stars. Enjoyable but not especially great.
Ok. This series is interesting, but never really grabbed me. The first book seemed to have a lot of ideas and moved fast and I was enjoying it's pushing forward. Otherwise though, I'm sad to say that as a whole the series felt very very flat to me.
The series seemed to be pushing scale for scales sake. We were pushed via light not being breeched into all sorts of period where people go away for 100,000 years and then they get back aaaanndd.....nothing has changed. Maybe the guy in charge is different, but other than that absolutely nothing. No sudden revolutions(and in galactic timescale constant), not major changes at the top. No back and forths that would actually appear in any hundred year timescale. I felt that the entire plot could have worked just as well if carried out over 100 years with FTL and the line is simply on account of FTL communcations needing boosters. This would have lent the story some level of immediacy and lost none of the tension or feel of scale.
Anyway, yeah render is a total nutcase. I thought he was talking in poetry until I met sean williams and he explained the song thing. It's altogether rather odd, and feel like sean was just bored at his job and wanted to add a joke in a little bit. Render himself seemed like a nothing character, a talking mcguffin that did little in the story that couldn't have been said or done by someone else. He's the readers Mary sue, and I'm sad to say his portrayal of the best of the 20th century to survive seems rather likely to me.
What the hell is with the ending of this series? I know Sean has to keep up a huge output of salable books, but it's like he said "ok, I need to make each one 300 pages in order to sell them, so I'll end each book at 300-330. Oh my, book 3 I'm at page 280. Better summ up enough plot for 3 more books in the last few pages" I know you can do long sweep endings, but this one just made me feel cheated. I kept wanting to see those books.
The gender bender reveal was interesting, but I didn't really see it's relevance to the plot.
All up, a decent attempt at vastness in a space oepra series that didn't work. Sorry Sean
Ok. This series is interesting, but never really grabbed me. The first book seemed to have a lot of ideas and moved fast and I was enjoying it's pushing forward. Otherwise though, I'm sad to say that as a whole the series felt very very flat to me.
The series seemed to be pushing scale for scales sake. We were pushed via light not being breeched into all sorts of period where people go away for 100,000 years and then they get back aaaanndd.....nothing has changed. Maybe the guy in charge is different, but other than that absolutely nothing. No sudden revolutions(and in galactic timescale constant), not major changes at the top. No back and forths that would actually appear in any hundred year timescale. I felt that the entire plot could have worked just as well if carried out over 100 years with FTL and the line is simply on account of FTL communcations needing boosters. This would have lent the story some level of immediacy and lost none of the tension or feel of scale.
Anyway, yeah render is a total nutcase. I thought he was talking in poetry until I met sean williams and he explained the song thing. It's altogether rather odd, and feel like sean was just bored at his job and wanted to add a joke in a little bit. Render himself seemed like a nothing character, a talking mcguffin that did little in the story that couldn't have been said or done by someone else. He's the readers Mary sue, and I'm sad to say his portrayal of the best of the 20th century to survive seems rather likely to me.
What the hell is with the ending of this series? I know Sean has to keep up a huge output of salable books, but it's like he said "ok, I need to make each one 300 pages in order to sell them, so I'll end each book at 300-330. Oh my, book 3 I'm at page 280. Better summ up enough plot for 3 more books in the last few pages" I know you can do long sweep endings, but this one just made me feel cheated. I kept wanting to see those books.
The gender bender reveal was interesting, but I didn't really see it's relevance to the plot.
All up, a decent attempt at vastness in a space oepra series that didn't work. Sorry Sean
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2014
Sean Williams: The Grand Conjunction. Book 3 of the Astropolis series. I read this book like I was The Slow Wave and I am left singing, “Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function.” Over the course of months, while reading other novels to their completion, I took my time to digest this closing volume to the Astropolis series by Sean Williams. I felt as if I were a Fort like the one's populating the series; being cumulative entities gathering a sense of history through the use of the future over large expanses of space and time, we had the luxury of patience. And so my reading style reflects that entity.
Another fascinating literary mind gracing the island continent he calls home, Williams is an exciting author to read. Astropolis is high concept space opera pitting “royals” in a political arena that stretched over millennia, integrating such debates as evolution, creationism, and free will in a seamless fashion as to not distract the reader with established taboos. Instead, the reader is immersed in a universe assuming that they can keep up with the author as a peer and not as a student. There are pages full of wonderful metaphor and hyperbole to convey infinite wonders. I often wonder how Williams can envision such diverse space landscape and invoke feelings of stellar beauty as he frequently does in The Grand Conjunction. For this, I want to award a full 5 stars to the book. But I am still left feeling a bit overwhelmed, with the often eloquent tech language not a substitute for identifying with the characters. I really enjoyed the prior Astropolis book's resolution better as an exploration of the unknown rather than a means to an end, as I feel this story was intended to provide closure at the expense of endless wonder. But in that manner, he does succeed in concluding Astropolis while leaving me to wonder if I will ever be evolved enough to join my peers in THE GRAND CONJUNCTION.
Page 297 “The only way to be sure about anything is to stop
asking questions entirely. If you do that, you're as good as dead.”
Another fascinating literary mind gracing the island continent he calls home, Williams is an exciting author to read. Astropolis is high concept space opera pitting “royals” in a political arena that stretched over millennia, integrating such debates as evolution, creationism, and free will in a seamless fashion as to not distract the reader with established taboos. Instead, the reader is immersed in a universe assuming that they can keep up with the author as a peer and not as a student. There are pages full of wonderful metaphor and hyperbole to convey infinite wonders. I often wonder how Williams can envision such diverse space landscape and invoke feelings of stellar beauty as he frequently does in The Grand Conjunction. For this, I want to award a full 5 stars to the book. But I am still left feeling a bit overwhelmed, with the often eloquent tech language not a substitute for identifying with the characters. I really enjoyed the prior Astropolis book's resolution better as an exploration of the unknown rather than a means to an end, as I feel this story was intended to provide closure at the expense of endless wonder. But in that manner, he does succeed in concluding Astropolis while leaving me to wonder if I will ever be evolved enough to join my peers in THE GRAND CONJUNCTION.
Page 297 “The only way to be sure about anything is to stop
asking questions entirely. If you do that, you're as good as dead.”
September 20, 2009
I found this book difficult to rate. If you like high concept or a grand stage, this book probably deserves 5 stars. If you dig characters and privilege that over everything else, 3 stars might seem generous. Being somewhere in the middle, I opted for 3 stars.
Some people have lauded the opening 70 pages of noir crime fiction as being innovative and daring in an SF novel. They certainly are that, but for me, they were also a distraction. Without wanting to give too much away, this sub-plot felt like a diversion from the main plot arc. Admittedly the importance of those 70 pages becomes clear later on, but I still found myself wanting to skip forward to Imre returning to himself and getting on with answering the big questions first posed in Saturn Returns; what are the Barons up to, where do the Luminous fit in and what is Imre-Fort going to do with Imre-Prime. These questions eventually get answered, but only very, very late in the story.
Some people have lauded the opening 70 pages of noir crime fiction as being innovative and daring in an SF novel. They certainly are that, but for me, they were also a distraction. Without wanting to give too much away, this sub-plot felt like a diversion from the main plot arc. Admittedly the importance of those 70 pages becomes clear later on, but I still found myself wanting to skip forward to Imre returning to himself and getting on with answering the big questions first posed in Saturn Returns; what are the Barons up to, where do the Luminous fit in and what is Imre-Fort going to do with Imre-Prime. These questions eventually get answered, but only very, very late in the story.
July 31, 2011
Book 3 of the Astropolis series. Imre Bergamasc is still trying to find his former self who seems to have defected from humanity and is working towards some plan of his own, which may or may not benefit the various types of humanity who now inhabit the galaxy. He is rescued from a trap on a world which seems like all the worst elements of pulp crime fiction of the 45's and 50's in America
February 24, 2011
I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous two books in the series.
The opening chapters would have been interesting in their own right, but they didn't seem to fit into the rest of the novel.
But still, the book is packed with interesting ideas.
The opening chapters would have been interesting in their own right, but they didn't seem to fit into the rest of the novel.
But still, the book is packed with interesting ideas.
July 23, 2014
couldn't finish the book - I didn't like it one bit The story was all fragmented. I was jumping a line or two at first which soon became paragraphs, the paragraphs soon became a page & eventually several pages till after two hours I had to put it down ~ bored to tears! :'(
July 23, 2014
Great ending to the series; all is explained here and starts with a very unusual chapter for its context, but one that pays off later
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews