Vast - Softcover

Nagata, Linda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553576305 ISBN 13: 9780553576306

Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1998

Synopsis

The Locus and Nebula Award-winning author of The Bohr Maker and Deception Well follows cult leader Lot Apollinario and his cohort on a mission to find a mysterious race of ancient techno-killers. Original.

About this title

Review:

Linda Nagata's debut novel The Bohr Maker (1995) was an impressive SF exploration of nanotechnology. In Deception Well (1997) and its sequel Vast (1998) she pushes this to extremes, with molecule-sized machinery and gene-modified human cells no longer distinct. There are cult-carrying viruses, infectious peace memes, adapted humans whose scaly armour is a permanent spacesuit, and possibilities of swapping biological material with alien species.

Particularly alien are the Chenzeme, who may have been extinct for 30 million years but whose organic spacecraft still prowl the galaxy, burning inhabited planets to bedrock with invincible gamma-ray lasers. (Reasons for this antisocial behaviour emerge in Vast.) Now four very odd humans hunting alien secrets are fleeing a Chenzeme vessel that year by year is overhauling their slower ship Null Boundary. Desperately they pretend to be Chenzeme, cultivating a hull covering of the glowing, semi-intelligent "philosopher cells" that form part of the alien ship-symbiosis. Perhaps by understanding these cells they can think in Chenzeme, learn to communicate, even make peace. A subtly dangerous tactic:

"We came this way to find the Chenzeme, not to become them."

Strange encounters follow, with nifty manoeuvres like Null Boundary dealing with surface infestation by plunging through the fiery halo of a star. There are discoveries and revelations; human and non-human life both go on; Nagata leaves room for a sequel. Quite impressive, although newcomers to SF may be intimidated by the complexity, far-out concepts, and back-references to Deception Well. --David Langford

Book Description:

In the far future mankind¿s last ship is pursued for decades by an alien craft. A visionary hard SF novel from a hotly tipped author in the US.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0553576305
• ISBN 13: 9780553576306
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 403