Vast: Volume 3 (The Nanotech Succession) - Softcover

Nagata, Linda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1937197042 ISBN 13: 9781937197049

Publisher: Mythic Island Press LLC, 2011

Synopsis

Aboard Null Boundary, a giant starship thousands of years old, four survivors of an ancient alien war are making a desperate journey: Lot, son of a fiery prophet and carrier of an insidious virus that spreads a cult-like religious mania among those it infects; Urban, Lot’s boyhood friend from the city of Silk, and a man in search of challenge and adventure; Clemantine, cast adrift when her world was destroyed and yearning for revenge; and Nikko, sometimes a living man, but always, the ship’s disembodied mind.They are bound into unknown territory. Ahead of them loom vast, lightless clouds of dust and gas where stars are born, and where the alien Chenzeme are believed to live. The Chenzeme are an enigmatic race, whose automated warships have ravaged the living worlds of the galaxy’s Orion arm for millions of years... but why? Null Boundary’s crew is driven to find out—though in their quest to discover the source of the Chenzeme, they must also explore the terrible truth of their own past, the meaning of revenge, and the price each one of them is willing to pay for survival.The Nanotech Succession is a collection of stand-alone novels exploring the rise of nanotechnology. Vast is the culmination of the strange and fascinating future that follows.

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: Mythic Island Press LLC
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1937197042
• ISBN 13: 9781937197049
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 450